EmailLabs (www.emaillabs.com) today announced that email marketers have yet to adopt widely accepted best practices -- except those required by the CAN-SPAM Act. That's the principal finding of the 2006 Email Marketing Audit, conducted by EmailLabs, the leader in high-performance email marketing technology and a subsidiary of J.L. Halsey Corporation (OTCBB:JLHY).

Available as a PDF online at http://www.emaillabs.com/articles/email_articles/email_best_practices_audit.html , the study of 203 commercial emails found that the inclusion of a working unsubscribe link, required by the CAN-SPAM Act, was the only best practice to be universally adopted. (Due to its length, this URL may need to be copied/pasted into your Internet browser's address field. Remove the extra space if one exists.)

By industry, travel companies -- including airlines, hotels and booking agents -- had the highest adoption rates of the 18 best practices considered in the audit, scoring six top ratings and none of the lowest ratings. Financial marketers like credit card companies, mortgage brokers and banks -- who rely on trustworthy emails to be delivered to the recipient's inbox -- performed the worst of all market segments.

"It's not surprising to see widespread adoption of the federally mandated 'working unsubscribe' link and company address," said Stefan Pollard, director of consulting services, EmailLabs. "But what is surprising is that commercial marketers are not incorporating best practices into their email campaigns -- even as they struggle for attention in crowded email inboxes. Taking the time and effort to design an effective email marketing campaign contributes to strengthening your brand, generating sales and leads, and building a base of loyal customers. Incorporating email best practices reduces the chance that customers -- or potential customers -- will delete your email as spam."

EmailLabs audited senders in six market segments -- travel, publishing, business, retail, consumer and financial services. The company analyzed whether the emails incorporated best practices, such as a design that takes into account the preview pane and blocked images, and whether or not they included a link to a profile update, a link to a privacy policy and a forward-to-a-friend button, among others.

The top three most widely ignored practices involved including a subscription or administration center, providing a site-search function in the email itself, and including a forward-to-a-friend link. By ignoring these features, email marketers are missing opportunities to build and retain loyalty, increase leads and gain new customers.

Other adoption trends among the market segments:

-- Travel marketers are increasingly using the subscription link function, allowing customers to easily update their email and personal information.

-- Publishers increasingly optimize their messages for preview panes and blocked images, and incorporate a subscribe link in the email to make it easy for people who've received the original email from a friend to subscribe.

-- The financial services market adopted the least best practices of all the industry segments audited.

For more email marketing tips, articles and tools, visit the industry's most exhaustive resource center at http://www.emaillabs.com/resources.html and subscribe to EmailLabs' awarding-winning newsletter, the Intevation Report at http://www.emaillabs.com/resources_enewsletter_subscribe.html.

About EmailLabs

EmailLabs is a leading provider of high-performance email marketing technology solutions to agencies, publishers and marketing, sales and customer service departments of middle-market and Global 2000 companies. The EmailLabs email marketing platform is provided as an ASP (Web-based) service, and is easily customized and integrated with a company's Web site, sales force automation and CRM technologies. The company provides email marketing solutions to more than 550 companies, including Nokia, Agilent, PalmSource and Jupitermedia. Headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif., EmailLabs was founded in 1999 and is a subsidiary of J.L. Halsey Corporation (OTCBB:JLHY). For more information, visit www.EmailLabs.com.