Inbox Defense: How Email Marketers Can Keep From Overwhelming Consumers

Halloween is prime time for the creepy, spooky, and scary. 

So what better time to remind marketers that while email marketing may be the most engaging and effective channel, it can also be responsible for what some might feel like are creepy, even dreadful intrusions. (And that’s not even factoring how the phone notification can feel like a sudden knock on the door that of course always comes right at the scariest part of the movie. Anyway, Happy Halloween, everyone!)

A recent survey found that 4 in 10 U.S. consumers unsubscribe at least once a week from a brand’s texts and emails, as “the frequency of email marketing content, SMS, or digital notifications appears to be overwhelming consumers and disengaging leads.”

GetApp’s 2024 Advertising Preferences Survey spoke with 496 people in the United States, finding that more than half (53%) who unsubscribe to digital marketing messages do so because of the volume of communications received. 56% say they unsubscribe if they get four or more texts or emails from a company within a month, though GetApp notes that 44% unsubscribe “before reaching that stage.”

“The inbox overwhelm is also exacerbated by the feeling that email content isn’t useful and instead simply adds to the tsunami of messages that they receive,” the report says, noting the higher percentage of American consumers who find more than half of those to be junk mail (49%, compared to the global average of 37%). “This lack of value is likely to drive apathy.”

Incentives have the ability to counter certain apathies, and GetApp found that 60% would opt-in to companies tracking their online activity across websites in exchange for rewards such as discounts or loyalty points, following by 42% who would opt-in for a free trial subscription and 30% for access to exclusive or premium content.

(Source: GetApp)

“It is … interesting to note that personalization doesn’t encourage as many consumers to opt into tracking,” the report says. “Given that we’ve seen apathy towards tracking and targeting generally throughout this study, it seems that this is not a leading incentive when trying to tempt consumers back into sharing their data for marketing and advertising purposes. Instead, it is better to try and optimize messaging and marketing communications so that they provide useful content or rewarding offers for audiences.”

For more information about how to improve your email deliverability, download A Beginner’s Guide to Email Marketing by Mirabel’s Marketing Manager: