E-marketers have been advised that their customers engage in email segmentation so they need to adapt their strategies to ensure their mail is received.

DM News has claimed that no matter how sophisticated an e-marketing campaign, it will be unsuccessful if customers' email profiles block them out.

"Your recipients triage all that incoming email according to their email profile. They examine who sent the message, the message's subject and offer, and the last time the sender communicated," the site claimed.

However, identifying email profiles has been described as "frustrating", so it suggested that e-marketers should ask their customers about their own segmentation strategies to ensure emails are received.

For example, customers should be asked if they communicate only when they have a personally relevant message, should the messages be daily or weekly, or if they are prepared to allow the marketer to use his own judgment.

DM News emphasised: "Just make sure you stick with their rules."

Email marketing solutions provider ExactTarget recently claimed that for e-marketers to battle through the recession in 2009, the relevant and timely delivery of information via emails is essential.