DecisionMarketing

Top Brands Face Boycott over Aggressive Email Practices

Clean Email’s 2025‑2026 report reveals that aggressive email campaigns from major brands such as LinkedIn, Uber One and McDonald’s are now the leading cause of spam complaints, eclipsing traditional scammers. While global email users are projected to reach 4.73 billion in 2026 and daily volume to exceed 400 billion, open rates have stabilized around 27‑42 % and click‑through rates are expected to rise to 3.5 % by 2026. Automated, AI‑enhanced lifecycle emails, which make up only 2 % of send volume, deliver 48.6 % open rates and generate 41 % of email revenue, underscoring a performance gap with manual blasts. The report urges brands to abandon batch‑and‑blast tactics in favor of behavior‑triggered, hyper‑personalized experiences.