Introduction: Rethinking Email
When most people talk about email strategy, they’re thinking about campaigns such as promotional blasts, loyalty offers, and direct marketing. But David Allen of Cumulo9 makes a sharp distinction: not all email is created equal. In fact, his company’s research shows that essential (regulated, transactional) emails are opened at twice the rate of campaign emails and consumers often revisit them multiple times.
The story here isn’t just about replacing mail with email. It’s about how consumers prioritize what matters.
The Numbers Tell the Story
Cumulo9’s Email Insights Report, now in its fifth edition, draws on millions of emails sent monthly for some of New Zealand’s largest enterprises. Over five years, one fact has remained consistent:
Essential emails average ~70% open rates.
Campaign emails average ~35% open rates.
Consumers frequently reopen essential messages, sometimes nearly twice, to double-check information.
This behavior reveals a hierarchy of trust and attention: when it’s about your money, your power, or your health, the message matters.
Why Deliverability Matters
The transition from post to email was fast in New Zealand . Today 80% or more of essential communications have now gone digital. But Allen cautions that the postal service came with a hidden feature: reliability which email traditionally has struggled to match.
The mail almost always got through.
Email doesn’t always unless the sender has the right protocols and infrastructure.
Deliverability rates on campaign marketing platforms can range from 85%–95%. That may sound high, but for essential communications it’s unacceptable. A renewal notice that never arrives can void a policy. A disconnection warning that’s missed can cut power. In one tragic case in New Zealand, a customer relying on oxygen lost electricity and died after a missed notice.
Cumulo9’s platform is built to avoid that risk, boasting 99.5% audited deliverability and the ability to provide deep sending logs and data that regulators in markets like Australia are now requiring in court.
Consumer Behavior Has Shifted
The New Zealand story also highlights how digital substitution reshapes communication itself:
Banks increasingly stop sending statements altogether, pushing customers to online portals.
Government agencies do the same with tax and social services.
Direct mail and loyalty programs that once supported physical communication have virtually disappeared.
The result: a landscape where essential digital messages dominate attention, while promotional ones struggle to cut through.
Andy’s Take
For years, the narrative around digital fatigue has been that “consumers are overwhelmed with email.” That’s true for engagement campaigns. But essential regulated communications are different. People make time for them, because they have to.
If you’re a service provider in print, mail, or digital this is the heart of the opportunity. Don’t just lump all email together. Recognize the distinction, build the reliability and compliance infrastructure that essential messages demand, and you’ll be solving a problem your clients can’t ignore.
And as David Allen’s data proves: consumers are already voting with their clicks.
Essential email is not just another channel. It’s the digital backbone of customer trust. Campaigns may get the creative attention, but essential communications get the real attention that matters. The companies that understand that difference and deliver on it will win the future of customer communications.
