Analyzing the spam.

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We looked at the assembled results from the perspective of comparing the spam to typical big brand email communications that incorporate best practices. We analyzed the collection of spam based on the following aspects:

• Did it make sense?
• Did it include a call-to-action (click here, call this number)?
• Did it include links?
• Did it include an unsubscribe link or contact information?
• Did it have a misleading Subject or From line?
• Did it ask for money or assist with a transaction?
• Was it part of a phishing scheme?

We removed foreign language messages since we could not determine what they were asking of us.

Our informal study revealed some interesting finds:

• 32 percent did not appear to make sense at all
• 71 percent had a clear call-to-action 
• 77 percent featured links 
•  43 percent had an unsubscribe link or contact information
• 30 percent had a misleading Subject line while 80 percent had a misleading From line
• Three percent asked for money or assistance with completing a financial transaction
• We received zero phishing scams

With Consumer Reports stating that $630 million was lost in the past two years to email scams, it was encouraging that we received no phishing scams and a limited number of emails from Nigerian friends with monies to move. 

We were surprised to find that so many (32 percent) of the spam messages had no clear agenda and did not make sense. The same goes for the many spams that did not have links or any call-to-action.

Almost half had unsubscribe links or contact information, as required by CAN-SPAM. We did not confirm that they were functional (the real key to the CAN-SPAM law) but there appeared to be other types of deceptive links. Many of the spam messages also featured the same contact information while having very different products and From lines. This means one spammer was working overtime for several clients.

The relatively straightforward Subject lines were somewhat of a shock but the large percentage of shady From lines was not. Fake names did not even match assuredly fake email addresses (e.g., Martin Smith [glenn_rollans@holiway.net])

The leading industries (when able to be determined) represented by the spammers were:

• Pharmaceutical -- (Hoodia for Your Health!) -- 17 percent
• Mortgage -- (Special Refi Rate!) -- eight percent
• Education -- (Get Your Degree Today!) -- eight percent
• Job Opportunities -- (Double Your Income-- Work From Home!) -- six percent
• Stock Market -- (Hot Tips!) -- five percent
• The most glaring absentee of our informal study was the pornography industry, especially considering this analysis from Secure
• Computing: Spam messages promoting pornography are 280 times as effective in getting recipients to click on them as messages advertising pharmacy drugs, which are the next most effective type of spam.

According to their data, porn-related emails get a 5.6 percent clickthrough rate while messages advertising pharmacy drugs get less than a one percent clickthrough rate (compared to the permission industry benchmark of around a seven percent clickthrough rate). Incidentally, the third most successful variety is spam advertising Rolex watches. Our study only received three percent of spams pushing watches.

So email marketers, stay the course for 2007 and don't let spammers one-up you with their distracting and confusing messages that may be competing with your legitimate ones in your customers' inboxes.

G. Simms Jenkins is founder and principal of BrightWave Marketing, an Atlanta-based email marketing and customer relationship services firm. Read full bio.