Customers Aren’t Ghosting You, They Just Didn’t Get Your Email

Email plays a critical role in customer communications and modern marketing, but hitting send doesn’t always mean your emails are landing in the inbox. In fact, only 8% of all email traffic actually makes it to the main folder of the mailbox. So it is no surprise that businesses who do understood and prioritize email deliverability – the ability to place emails in the inbox – have a significant advantage when it comes to customer satisfaction and revenue, according to a new Mailgun by Sinch (Sinch AB (publ) – XSTO: SINCH) survey of over 1,900 email senders. The 2023 State of Email Deliverability report found that 40% of senders who understand and prioritize deliverability saw increased customer satisfaction as the greatest benefit, while another 18% lauded increased revenue.

However, the report also identified awareness and understanding of deliverability as critical impediments to these benefits: 44.4% of respondents were not confident in their knowledge of deliverability, let alone how to achieve it. This education gap often means dissatisfied customers, weaker brand loyalty and missed revenue.

“Email has an exceptionally high average ROI of about $36 per dollar spent, but it’s impossible to drive revenue if your messages aren’t making it to the inbox — and depending on the subject matter, undelivered emails can be detrimental to your brand reputation and customer experience,” warned Kate Nowrouzi, VP of Deliverability & Product Strategy at Mailgun by Sinch. “Deliverability is integral to the success of an email program, and once brands prioritize it and implement the right solutions to improve inbox placement, they’ll see significant improvements in customer satisfaction, engagement, reputation and revenue.”

Other takeaways from the survey include:

• Staying out of the spam folder was the top email deliverability challenge. This was followed closely by getting more emails delivered and staying off email blocklists.

• Yet most companies aren’t monitoring — and therefore, can’t improve — their inbox placement. Only 16.4% of respondents monitor inbox placement with seed testing, which is the best measurement for understanding whether emails are landing in the inbox or the spam folder.

• Email lists are often neglected, which is a leading cause of deliverability issues.

  • Half of senders (50.1%) aren’t using tools to automatically verify and validate email addresses before they’re added to contact lists.

  • Even more (52.1%) aren’t using a double opt-in process for contact acquisition, an important best practice for deliverability that also supports privacy law compliance.

  • More than a third of senders (38.7%) rarely or never conduct contact list hygiene at all.

“Email sending has grown more complex, and the onus is on businesses to ensure emails are actually making it to their customers,” Nowrouzi continued. “When businesses are ready to maximize impact in the inbox, there are a number of solutions on the market which make achieving high deliverability both accessible and cost effective — it’s all about finding the right partner for your business needs.”