Orlando, FL—Spam remained the top e-mail concern among consumers, according to online ad agency DoubleClick’s annual consumer e-mail study. DoubleClick vice president/general manager Scott Knoll discussed the results during the Direct Marketing Association’s Annual Conference here.
Eighty-nine percent of respondents cited spam as their top concern, and the survey showed that e-mail volume was up to 264 e-mails a week, compared with 254 a week among those surveyed last year. Spam accounts for 56% of consumers’ e-mail.
More consumers are deleting spam without reading it—65% compared with 60% last yea. When asked about how they define spam, 95.5% of consumers said “e-mails intended to trick me into opening them”; 93.5% said “e-mails from senders that are unknown to me”; and 92.5% said “e-mails of an offensive subject matter.”
“The encouraging news from this year’s study is that consumers are clearly differentiating between spam and legitimate commercial e-mail,” Knoll said. “But it’s also clear that marketers must continue to tailor the content, targeting, and frequency of their messages to remain successful marketing through the e-mail channel.”