The Perils of Sending Too Many Emails with Information that Recipients don't want

Internet marketing consultants and others in the digital advertising industry may benefit from turning away from the use of bulk email messaging as a promotional technique, as research has revealed that 75 per cent state irrelevancy to be the main deterrent when unsubscribing from a service.

This figure is from research by Merkle - a customer relationship marketing firm that was founded in 1971 and combines analytics with creativity and a marketing technology platform.

And Econsultancy's Matthew Kelleher went one step further, describing bulk email as "dead".

He noted that brands only have influence over consumers when they are engaged with a product and that it is a company's mission to ensure that they remain in this state.

Battering potential customers with email missives that are "too frequent [and] irrelevant" could result in disengagement, Mr Kelleher continued.

This is an opinion supported by the Merkle study, which also found that 66 per cent of those asked stated that the frequency of messages can be a motivator towards unsubscribing.

Mr Kelleher went on to say that internet consultants should be concentrating on those people that are currently clicking on and opening emails.

"These are the ones we need to nurture and develop," he remarked.