• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer, October 4, 2013

According to a new Email Marketing survey from Kentico, only 32% of the general public believes email marketers have gotten better over the past five years at emailing them with products, services, or various content that appeals to their interests. 31% of those surveyed believe email marketing has gotten worse, and 36% feel it's remained about the same.

An overwhelming 77% of respondents are unlikely to welcome an unsolicited email even if it caters to their particular interests. And of the email lists to which recipients willfully subscribe:

• 36% of respondents said they read about a quarter of the emails they receive
• 26% read half of it
• 16% read 75% of it
• 10% say they read all of it
• 12% read none of it

37% of respondents willfully subscribe to 1-5 email lists. 31% subscribe to 6-10 lists, 14% subscribe to 11-15 lists, 7% subscribe to 16-20 lists, and 5% subscribe to more than 20 lists.

• Of those who subscribe to 6-10 lists, 48% typically read 75% of their solicited marketing messages
• Of those who willfully subscribe to email lists, 57% stay on a list for a period of 1-3 years. 22% stay on a list for 4-6 years, 5% for 7-9 years, and 16% for 10 or more years

Survey participants mark email from legitimate companies as spam because:

• 38% said companies email them too much
• 34% said emails are unsolicited
• 26% said when emails don't contain anything of interest
• 2% said when emails seem shoddy with poor design and typos

The study found that 45% of those surveyed will perform the action requested in marketing emails about 1-2 times per month. Such actions may include learning more about a product or taking part in a sale. 21% will perform requested actions 3-4 times per month, 8% will perform 5-6 actions per month, and less than 1% will perform 7-8 actions per month. 5% will perform more than 10 actions per month, and 18% will never respond to a call to action.

Kentico CEO and Founder Petr Palas says "… even as marketers become better at catering to the interests of email recipients… still face an uphill battle in reaching customers in ways that resonate… new customers must be discovered via other channels… social media, search, and more… as willful subscribers… tend to ignore much of these messages in their inbox… need to keep customers engaged on a variety of fronts… “

For additional information from Kentico, please visit here.