Recently the Communications Technologies National Institute (INTECO) has presented a study about Internet usage in connected homes in Spain.

This study reveals that the most used Internet service is e-mail, despite spam and other annoyances. It almost doubles P2P downloads, and on-line gaming.

Curious enough, Internet search has decreased 2.2% in the last 12 months. Participation in forums increases, and e-commerce and on-line payment maintain the same level.

For me it's very interesting to see how Skype, Videoconference and other means of get poeple connected have not been massively adopted.

And this study comes to confirm a fact we already knwo: e-mail continues to be the Killer-app of the Internet :-)

Read the full study (Spanish)

As you already know most of the current e-mail clients (either webmail or desktop) will disable the images in your e-mail by default. Unless your recipients decide to show images or to add you to their white list, images will not show in the screen.

This is a challenge for e-mail marketing design, because you must take this into account and create designs that work well even if images are not shown.

A quick way to test your creativity when images are turned off is to use a couple of web developer tools. In fact they are very similar, but you must choose one or the other depending on what is your browser of choice (Firefox or IE). This tools are very powerful and a must-have for every web developer. They both have a lot of features that I'm not going to describe now, but take my word for it and give them a try. I'll stick to the couple of things that will help you to test your designs.

If you're using Internet Explorer there is a tool called IE Developer Toolbar that you can download from here. When installed you it will show a small arrow icon in IE's toolbar:

If you click on it a small aditional window will appear at the bottom of IE's window with a lot of options. Search for the "Images" menu as shown:

If you disable images you will have an immediate feel of how your design will be shown in an email client with images turned off. You can even modify your HTML directly in the tool's window and see changes in real time.

A very similar tool is available for Firefox, and it is even easier to use. It's called "Web Developer" and you can download and install it from here. Once installed you get a wide toolbar just above the current webpage with a plethora of menus and buttons aimed at the web developer. The equivalent feature in this tool is located under the "Images" menu:

This has been just a quick tip on how to test your designs without images, but if you have HTML/CSS working knowledge and give both tools a try, as soon as you start to scratch the surface you will find fantastic features that will easy your work a lot.

A recent study by Q Interactive and Marketing Sherpa (read in Marketing Charts) reveals how the meaning of the term “spam” has lately changed for users, in a way with high impact for us as marketers.

The survey sought to determine consumers’ perceptions of what spam is, why they report emails as spam and what they think happens when the “report spam” button is clicked.

The main conclusion is that now spam means “unwanted e-mail”, in contrast with the traditional “unsolicited commercial e-mail”.

That’s a huge difference for us. This means that, now more than ever, your content must be relevant. You must engage with your recipients or will have a big chance to be blacklisted by the most important ISPs, such as Yahoo, Hotmail or Gmail.

The reason is that, according to the study, people misunderstand the implications of hitting the “Report spam” button omnipresent in all mayor webmail apps. Take a look at these figures and start to tremble:

• 43% of consumers, miss advertiser-supplied unsubscribe links in email and simply use the ISP’s “report spam” button to unsubscribe from an advertiser’s list - regardless of whether the email fits the consumer’s definition of spam.
• 21% use the “report spam” button to unsubscribe from email that they specifically do not consider spam.

“What this survey uncovered is a major disconnect in consumers’ understanding and use of the ‘report spam’ button, as well as consumers’ definition of spam from ‘I didn’t sign up for it’ to ‘I don’t like it’—all of which signal that the current system of email spam filtering is a broken process” said Matt Wise, president and chief executive officer of Q Interactive.

Q Interactive suggests that ISPs’ “report spam” button be replaced with those that more clearly indicate consumers’ intentions, such as an “unsubscribe” button and an “undesired” button.

And that means a lot more of effort for marketers too: much more targeted and relevant content. It has been the better way to go in the past and, naturally, it has become the only way to go now.

Read the full review at Maketing Charts.

A recent survey taken by the e-Commerce and Direct Marketing Association of Spain (FECEMD) on 400 companies in the IT business reveals some worrying information about e-mail and spam filters.

The study shows that a 30% of e-mail sent by these companies to customers or prospects is rejected by corporate spam filters. This includes marketing emails, newsletters, and transactional messages. The study also estimates that this situation leads to a 20% decrease in sells for those companies.

Too much restrictive e-mail policies in the default configuration of filters is the main reason for this to happen, according to this study. In fact the FECEMD does not discard to file suit against those spam-filter companies that not take more seriously the effect of these restrictive policies, as long as this is a hurdle in the development of the Internet in the country.

You can check the study at the FECEMD website (automatic translation form Spanish, sorry) :-(

The original document in Spanish.

What do you think? Are they exaggerating the problem? Is due to bad e-mailing policies or it really has to do with those spam filters? Leave your comments.