This document discusses the results of a study on email marketing conducted by Return Path. The key findings were: 1) Email subscribers can be categorized as either "primary" or "secondary" accounts based on their engagement levels. Primary accounts read the most emails and make the most purchases. 2) The study found that primary accounts don't mind receiving up to 5 emails per week from a single marketer, as this increases their opens and engagement by 43%. Secondary accounts also increased opens by 33% when receiving slightly more emails. 3) However, email marketers need to more carefully consider how many emails to send secondary accounts, as these subscribers have lower engagement levels overall. Tailoring email content and measuring on

1. CHANGEYOUR STRATEGY:
EMAILINGYOUR SUBSCRIBERS
Robert Proctor, CEO and President of Multisoft

2. ATRUISM OF
DIRECT
MARKETING:
Sending too many emails to
subscribers will run you the
risk of becoming a nuisance
and ultimately loosing their
business.

3. …BUTTHAT MAY NOT BE
ENTIRELYTRUE!

4. A STUDY BY RETURN PATH
FOUND
From a sample of over 600,000
email accounts, Return Path
found that the people who
complain the most also read
the most emails and purchase
products most frequently
These “primary accounts” have
expressed that they are okay
with receiving five emails a
week from a single marketer

5. —Tom Sather, senior director of research at Return Path
“At a lot of companies, there would be a fight over
sending people five emails a week, but when we
factored in the amount of emails people were
receiving, you can get up to five until you see a
marked increase in complaints.”

6. HERE ARETHE FACTS:
• Primary accounts only compromised 24% of email recipients
• But they account for 83% of opens/reads
• And registered 50% of complaints
• Secondary accounts made up 65% of users
• But they make up only 16% of opens/reads
• And registered 49% of complaints which is far less on a per capita
basis than the smaller field of primary subscribers

7. YET WHEN IT
CAME DOWNTO
THE QUESTION OF
SENDING MORE
EMAILS…
The two groups—primary
and secondary accounts—
behaved similarly.

8. THE MORETHEY GOT
THE MORETHEY OPENED

9. Return Path fed the data from the study into
its ROI calculator, discovering that:
• Primary subscribers who received three
emails a week instead of two would open
43% more emails in aggregate, and return a
similar lift in revenue.
• There was a 33% increase for secondary
accounts who received an average of 1.4
emails a week instead of 1.05.

10. ATTENTION:
EMAIL
MARKETERS
By all means, send more
emails, but take more care in
determining how many emails
will be sent to secondary
accounts.

11. –Tom Sather, senior director of research at Return Path
“With the secondary group, you have to measure the
value of the types of emails you're sending them.You
may want to look at their activity beyond mere click-
through.What are they looking at on your website
when they get there?”

12. A LITTLE EXTRA ADVICE
• Deviate from the typical limited time deals and throw
out cart emails
• Send your subscribers more content-rich messages
— remember, if they are already fans of your product,
your emails don’t always need to be promotional
• “The wisdom of relevancy is key”

13. TO LEARN MORE,VISIT
http://proctorrobert.com