Commentary
Keeping Up With Email Addresses
- by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, October 17, 2002
According to a report from Return Path and NFO WorldGroup, 49% of US adults changed at least one of their e-mail addresses. In fact, the companies report that the annual churn rate for e-mail addresses is 39%. The two main reasons that people say they change their personal e-mail address are to get away from SPAM (16%) and because they have changed internet service providers (48%). Most people who change their work e-mail address do so because of a job change.
Why US Adults Change Email Addresses (% of Respondents)
| EMail At: | Work | Net-Personal |
| Job Change Voluntary | 41% | 2% |
| Job Change Involuntary | 10 | 1 |
| New ISP Voluntary | 7 | 48 |
| New ISP InVol | 11 | 8 |
| Moved | 8 | 12 |
| Marriage Change Status | 6 | 2 |
| Get away from Spam | 4 | 16 |
NFO determined that nearly all respondents say they notify friends (88%) and family (87%) when they change e-mail addresses. Less than one-half notify business contacts, whereas over one-half notify service websites or e-newsletters with an e-mail address change.
Places Notified of Change (% of Respondents)
Source: NFO WorldGroup 2002
The study also found that 76% of adults register at websites with their primary personal e-mail address, whereas just 8% register with their work e-mail address.
An eMarketer E-Mail Marketing Report indicates that Opt-in news estimated in May 2002 that 37% had three e-mail addresses, whereas a Valentine Radford survey of 18,000 people pegged the number of people with three e-mail addresses at 22%. An IMT Strategies 2001 survey determined that only 11% had three e-mail addresses. The 2002 NFO survey, however, finds that just 10% of respondents have three personal e-mail addresses and a mere 1% have three work e-mail addresses. Discrepancies in the findings are likely due to the varying survey methodologies used by the research firms.
Number of Email Address Held by US
Internet Users (% of Respondents)
Source: Valentine Radford, April 2002
While consumers, on average, registered their e-mail address with more than twelve Web sites, according to the study, e-mail address changers only notified about six Web sites of the change. And, twenty-two percent of those who changed an e-mail address did not notify any Web site about the change. According to Matt Blumberg, chief executive officer of Return Path, "there is a real and significant subsequent financial impact on reputable businesses that rely on e-mail to communicate with their customers."
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Jack Loechner is the Editor of The Center for Media Research's daily Research Brief. You can reach him at jack@mediapost.com.