[Editor's Note: Do your customers know the purpose of your e-mails?] Jeanniey Mullen - ClickZ - 1/19/10 When we think about marketing e-mails these days, we tend to think about two unique types:

* The brand e-mail -- which drives no immediate behavior, but has an impact on future efforts.

* The direct marketing e-mail -- which primarily drives a one "instance" click and hopefully a purchase.

But, have you ever stopped to think of what percentage of your e-mails falls into another bucket? A bucket of people who aren't sure what you want them to do?

I realize that may be a silly question in your mind. How can anyone not know what to do when an e-mail comes? It's e-mail after all. Not necessarily true. I decided to do a makeshift survey to explore this topic further. My initial findings showed that only 41 percent of people who have opted in to a company's list for one reason or another felt they knew why the company was sending e-mail to them, and what the expected response was. That means 59 percent of the responders were unsure of why they received the e-mail they got, or what they were supposed to do with it. Read the full story.