By the Stats: Benchmark Your E-mail Program Against Industry Opt-out Statistics

Eighty-two percent of catalog and online merchants with active e-mail programs remove customers from their e-mail lists immediately upon request, according to a study of opt-out practices conducted by e-mail marketer Silverpop. Here are other findings from the study:

* 8 percent of merchants continued to send e-mail beyond the 10-business-day limit set by Can-Spam.
* 6 percent of merchants took up to five days to handle opt-outs.
* 4 percent took between five and 10 days.
* 67 percent of merchants use the term”unsubscribe” to describe the opt-out procedure to customers.
* 18 percent use alternate wording.
* 13 percent use the term “remove.”
* 1 percent use the term “opt-out.”

Source: Silverpop’s”Retail E-mail Marketing Study, Phase III: Opt-out Practices,” http://www.silverpop.com/practices/retail_email/index.html