• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, April 25, 2005

Almost three out of four e-mail marketers--73 percent--say a chief concern is whether their messages are being delivered, according to a survey scheduled to be released today by e-mail marketing services company Skylist.

Additionally, 44 percent said analyzing campaign results was their greatest concern, while 40 percent said they were most anxious about declining response rates. The numbers add up to more than 100 percent because respondents could choose more than one answer. For the survey, Skylist sent questionnaires in early April to 100 clients; results are based on 26 anonymous responses. The research also revealed that 32 percent of respondents currently send messages triggered by either an event or the consumer's behavior, while 16 percent plan to do so within the next month.

A recent Jupiter Research study of e-mail marketers also showed that deliverability was a key concern--although not to the same extent that Skylist found. A March survey by Jupiter Research of 250 e-mail marketers revealed that 40 percent consider deliverability as one of their greatest challenges when conducting e-mail marketing, according to Jupiter analyst David Daniels. Thirty-four percent of respondents were especially concerned with declining response rates, and 30 percent cited analyzing campaign results as among their greatest challenges.

Skylist also plans to announce today upgrades to its e-mail management service, StormPost. The new service, available to a handful of customers in beta since March 29, can notify marketers about campaign performance and other analytics within hours of the campaign being sent.