Silverpop's "2005 Broken Link Study"

New Study From Silverpop Reveals Emails Awash in Missing Images

Each year marketing departments spend millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours developing cutting-edge creative for their email marketing campaigns. But is it wasted time and money?

What a conundrum. Just as broadband penetration begins to reach deep into American households, facilitating the display of rich imagery in emails, a growing concern about security and spam has caused new focus on blocking HTML images.

The recently-unveiled Silverpop "2005 Broken Link Study" documents the frequency and degree to which email marketing messages arrive in recipients' inboxes partially or completely broken. It reveals alarming trends in the prevalence of broken imagery and links in email marketing campaigns from some of the best-known brands in the world.

While HTML-based email provides a richer experience for consumers, improperly rendered HTML messages can have a net negative impact on both brand perception and the health and size of your list. Silverpop's comprehensive update of its 2002 study found that, although technologies have changed, the prevalence of broken messages hasn't. Forty percent of the emails reviewed contained missing graphics, compared to 42 percent in the 2002 study.

The study selected 360 companies identified by Dun and Bradstreet as the top revenue producers in nine industry segments. Forty-six percent of the companies were business-to-business and 54 percent were business-to-consumer. The study evaluated how those companies' emails rendered in eight email clients: AOL 8.0+, AOL 9.0, EarthLink, Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook 2003, Outlook Express 6 and Yahoo!.

One Message Rendered Three Different Ways:

EarthLink sent this Blue Cross message to the spam folder, where images are blocked and the email appears as an attachment.




AOL 9.0 displayed formatted copy, but no images.




This message rendered properly in AOL 8.0.




What can you do to ensure your messages arrive intact?
A number of processes, if routinely implemented, can improve not only your email renderability but your response rates as well. For example, ask to be added to your recipients' email address book. Not only will your messages arrive with images intact, they'll move through ISP filters with much greater reliability.

You also can include a link that recipients can click to view images via a Web version of your message.

"Ultimately, the problem with broken images is a problem of broken promises," said Silverpop CEO Bill Nussey.  "Consumers sign up to receive your emails because you initially offered to deliver something interesting and relevant. If you keep that promise, recipients will add you to their address book, smoothing the way for your messages. If you fail to deliver as promised, be prepared to suffer the consequences."


To sign up to receive a complimentary copy of Silverpop's "2005 Broken Link Study," visit:  www.silverpop.com/renderability.