Sinch Mailgun Survey Reveals Insights on Consumer Preference

The survey found that 75.4% of consumers chose email as a preferred channel for promotional messages.

Sinch, which powers meaningful conversations between businesses and their customers through its Customer Communications Cloud, announced the results from a survey of more than 2,000 global consumers on how they engage with brand communications. The findings reveal a strong preference for email over other channels. However, most respondents will reevaluate their relationship with brands whose emails regularly end up in the spam folder. In fact, 52.7% of consumers said they would either feel frustrated, lose trust or even unsubscribe if emails from a brand regularly ended up in their spam folder.

Kate Nowrouzi, VP, Deliverability and Product Strategy at Sinch, said, “Email is the digital cornerstone of communications between brands and consumers. Senders must comply with these requirements to ensure their email program is successful. While the new guidelines mean it may get harder to reach consumers, they also reflect the reality of what customers want. Businesses need to go beyond compliance and ensure their emails are relevant, personalised and valuable.”

The survey results show the importance of complying with updated requirements from two of the world’s biggest mailbox providers – Google and Yahoo – that go into effect next month as businesses risk derailing customer communications and negatively impact revenue generation and brand reputation. To protect their users from bad actors and reduce spam overall, Google and Yahoo are implementing stricter rules for bulk email senders starting in February. 

The Sinch Mailgun survey found that 72.1% of participants have a Gmail account, 20.3% said they use Yahoo Mail and another 4.8% have an AOL email account. Senders who do not comply may find they are unable to reach contacts with Gmail, Yahoo and AOL email addresses.

The survey found that 75.4% of consumers chose email as a preferred channel for promotional messages. Over 50% subscribe to brand emails primarily to receive special offers or discount codes, and 62.8% report they receive the most value from emails that include exclusive deals and offers, indicating a high likelihood they will make a purchase once they’ve opted in. Additionally, 74% prefer it for transactional messages from brands, such as shipping notifications and password resets.