How do you get into the subscriber’s primary inbox

Latest statistics reveal the importance of the primary inbox

We talk a lot about getting delivered into THE inbox. But the days of "one person one inbox" are long gone.

If you make it into my Gmail account, you join the 2,432 unopened mails filtered automatically into the bulk folder:

If you make it into my work account, however, it has only one other unopened email competing for attention:

Gulp.

So is the real challenge with email response about getting delivered to the right inbox?

Fact is, multiple email accounts are the norm. An April 2011 UK consumer survey revealed 65% using more than one email account.

There are several questions we need to ask here to get better email engagement:

• Does it really matter which email address you get?
• If it does, how do you make sure you get the right one?
• Does it make sense to block certain kinds of email address?

I'm not actually sure we have all the answers, but let's talk through some of the issues and perhaps you can offer your own insight or suggestions.

Does it matter - is there a right inbox?

Common sense tells us that some accounts must get more attention than others, and there are numbers to support this argument.

• The UK survey cited above found 35% of those with two or more accounts admitting they have at least one they don't check regularly. Over half said:

"I tend to use at least one to give to companies/websites when
I don't want to give away my main email address"

• In a 2010 ContactLab survey, just under a third of consumers with multiple accounts said they used some to get emails that were of little or no interest.

• Back in late 2009, an e-Dialog sponsored survey discovered that 12% of US consumers had a dedicated email account for marketing messages only. The figure for the UK was 20%.

The implication is that at least some accounts are used to collect bulk or low-priority emails. But can you identify and solicit the "right" email address?

How do you get the right address?

Trying to second guess the "right" address is a tricky prospect. Can you assume that the user has a "main" email account that trumps all others for getting attention and response?

Consider, for example, how context affects an account's likely value.

Does a retail email in the "main" email account get ignored in lieu of the important personal or work-related email it shares space with?

Does it actually get more attention in the email account which gets visited less often, but when the recipient is in an actual shopping mood?

Can you really tell which email account maximizes share-of-attention for your messages? I'm not sure.

In a broad sense, perhaps the only practical approach is to help the would-be subscriber self-select the “right” email account.

You can do this by establishing trust and clearly expressing the value of your emails.

Trust reduces subscriber uncertainty and the chances that your emails go to a throwaway account or even a disposable email address.

Value encourages would-be subscribers to get your emails where they’re most likely to get timely and relevant attention.

Possible approaches here might be:

• Feature subscriber testimonials or other forms of social proof on sign-up forms and pages
• Make subscription benefits obvious
• Set expectations in terms of frequency and content
• Highlight samples of past emails (perhaps those that got the best response)
• Ensure the sign-up process is clear and the opt-in explicit
• Include a privacy statement (or link to one)
• Showcase relevant privacy, membership, security or certification seals
• Give people the ability to express their content preferences

If the value of your content or offers is dependent on timely reading (e.g. 24 hour sales or stock news), then make that clear to prospective subscribers, too.

You might also talk about submitting a "main email address" rather than "email address" in subscription forms and sign-up instructions.

Does it make sense to block certain types of emails?

A related issue is whether you prevent certain types of addresses being used to subscribe to your emails. Some marketers use blacklists of temporary address services to reject addresses they know will expire soon after use.

It's also not uncommon to find B2B organizations that won't accept “consumer” webmail addresses like @hotmail in their sign-up or lead generation forms.

Typical reasons cited for doing so are that:

• non-webmail addresses are more likely to be work addresses and thus the email lands in the right inbox in terms of context
• the address itself can indicate the likely value of the subscriber (if, for example, it reveals the company name), which can be useful insight for lead generation and follow-up
• business people don’t use webmail

Do all those reasons remain valid in an online era where webmail services have become sophisticated and durable?

What effect does email forwarding and integration have? Messages to Gmail can get pulled to a work desktop client and work emails can get pulled into the Gmail environment.

Additionally, it can be easier to meet the design and delivery challenges of webmail addresses, since you have a better, if imperfect, chance of knowing where the email is displayed and whether it gets through (via, for example, seed list monitoring). People also tend to keep the same webmail address.

Here are some rough numbers for my own B2B list that accepts any address. I pulled out stats for addresses featuring the Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo domain (GHY), the three biggest webmail services.

GHY users are 19.3% of the total subscriber base, but 18.6% of the active subscriber base (defined as having clicked or opened an email over the last year).

Open rate on the last email:

Gmail: 20.7%
Hotmail: 17.9%
Yahoo: 14.7%

All GHY addresses: 18.9%
Non-webmail addresses: 21.0%

Let’s assume I block Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo addresses from signing up.

I would (theoretically) actually lose opens if just 1.5% of those would-be Gmail subscribers abandoned the sign-up form completely, rather than submitting a “better” address.

The equivalent number for Hotmail and Yahoo is 15% and 30% respectively.

So do I refuse to accept Hotmail and Yahoo addresses?

What if the under-performance of Yahoo addresses is a delivery issue? Solve that and they may be as equally engaged in the B2B content as Gmail users. But if I can't solve it, is that in itself an argument to reject them?

Accepting that blocking webmail addresses leads to some form abandonment, does that matter? Might it be that those who abandon the form are less motivated and less valuable subscribers anyway?

What about the "relationship" implications of "rejection"?

With all the pros, cons, ifs and buts associated with different kinds of addresses, perhaps we’re left with our original idea: let the user decide and give them enough reason to make the “right” choice.

What do you think?