1999 Survey on unsolicited email

In March 1999, Esearch sent out a third questionnaire in an annual series on unsolicited email. Approximately 2,700 people responded to the survey.

OVERVIEW/DISCUSSION

Most of the respondents (93%) reported that they received unsolicited email often or occasionally. This is consistent with the 1998 findings where 92% reported to receive unsolicited email often or occasionally. When asked if unsolicited email offended them, most (77%) reported that "yes" it did (always or occasionally). Again, this is consistent with the 1998 findings.

It is interesting to note, however, that the vast majority of respondents (78%) reported that they read unsolicited email either always or depending on the topic (even though most respondents indicated they are offended by these types of solicitations). This number is up from 70% from the 1998 study. Only 21% of respondents reported that they never read unsolicited email.

How respondents handle unsolicited email indicates a certain tolerance. Many (35%) reported that the action they took depended on the content of the email, so uninvited email is not arbitrarily deleted from inboxes.

Of the types of messages received, most are product/service solicitations (84%), then multilevel marketing schemes (70%). Not surprising, the most offensive messages are viewed as those inviting recipients to web sites with adult content (70% of the respondents receiving these types of message found them offensive). The least offensive messages are newsletter and ezines (63% of the recipients found them not at all offensive), and then product/service solicitations (57% reported them as not at all offensive).

The number of respondents indicating there should be regulations with regard to unsolicited email has risen from 46% in 1998 to 53% in this recent study. Only 9% of respondents felt there should be no regulation – down significantly from the 32% of a year ago. The ‘not sure’ category has risen from 21% to 38%.

QUESTIONNAIRE

1. Do you receive unsolicited email?
• yes, often (at least one message a day)
• 37% yes, occasionally (one message a week)
• 5% no, never
• 2% not sure
  
  
2. Do you take offense to unsolicited email?
• 14% yes, alway
• 63% yes, occasionally
• 19% no, never
• 3% I’ve taken action not to get it in my mailbox

• 1% don’t wish to answer

3. Do you or would you read unsolicited email?
• 4% yes, always
• 74% yes, depending on the topic
• 21% no, never

• 1% don’t wish to answer

4. If you receive unsolicited email, how do you handle it?

• 22% I read it (always or depending on topic)
• 20% I delete without reading
• 1% my system destroys it before it enters my mailbox
• 1% I flame the sender
• 8% I send a notice asking to be removed from the list
• 13% I read, act or discard as appropriate
• 35% I take one of the above actions based on the content of the message
  
  

5. If you receive unsolicited email, what types of message do you get (check all that apply):

• 84% product or service solicitations
• 70% multi-level marketing schemes
• 58% invitations to web sites with adult content
• 45% newsletters and/or ezines
• 26% other
  
  

6. If you receive unsolicited email of the types listed avove, please rate how offensive you find each (1=very offensive, 2=somewhat offensive, 3=not at all offensive)

	Very offensive	Somewhat	Not at all offensive
Product/service solicitations	6%	37%	57%
Multi-level marketing schemes	30%	41%	29%
Invitations to web sites with adult content	70%	19%	12%
Newsletters/Ezines	6%	31%	63%

 

7. Do you think there should be regulations with regard to unsolicited email?

• 53% yes
• 9% no
• 38% not sure

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

In this group, most respondents reported receiving unwanted email messages and many were offended by this occurrence. However, for this group of respondents, most reported that they used the email topic to determine if they would or would not read a particular message. This is an important finding because online marketers or researchers who desire a favorable response from an online target audience may want to carefully craft their email topics.

Even though many respondents in this group were offended by unsolicited email and email of undetermined origins, there was a substantial group that will first look at the content of the message and then take some action - delete the message, flame the sender, act on it, file or discard, etc. So, they are not necessarily making an arbitrary decision to delete all unsolicited email without opening the message. This has important ramifications for creating the most compelling content and copy for email messages.

Esearch is an Internet market research firm specializing in data collection via email. The company has a database of thousands of individuals willing to participate in on-line surveys, including complete demographic information on all panelists. Individuals interested in becoming an Esearch panelist or companies interested in on-line research should visit www.esearch.com or email esearch@esearch.com.