The Mailroom / The numbers
Every figure in one place
The numbers: every figure on this desk in one place
Every count, ratio and duration used anywhere on this site, with the sample it comes from and the arithmetic it rests on, so a reader can check the desk’s claims instead of taking them.
Desk spec
- tallies
- 11
- samples
- 10
- pages
- 18
- figures
- all re-derivable
the five kindsA receipt records something that already happened, marketing promotes something, a service note explains a state of the account, a security alert says something changed, and a legal notice is the message whose arrival is itself a step.
the two switchesOne stops marketing and nothing else - 12 of 50 messages on the samples. The other does not stop anything: it changes the channel the remaining 38 travel on, which changes how they arrive and what they prove.
the three countsSent is what the operator's log holds (50 of 50), arrived is what a delivery receipt shows (48 of 50), and read is what a read receipt shows (21 of 50). Three counts, routinely called one.
Direct answerOne account receives fifty messages in thirty days, of which twelve are marketing and thirty-eight are not. Eight kinds of message cross five channels in a grid of forty cells, twenty-four of them permitted. Delivery takes 0.9 seconds by email and 2 days 6 hours by post. Fifty messages are sent, forty-eight arrive with evidence and twenty-one are read. The month costs 1.3352.
50messages in thirty days (sample A)
12of them marketing, the only switchable kind
76.0%of the volume an opt-out cannot reach
24 of 40grid cells permitted (sample C)
0.9 semail arrival (sample D)
216,000times slower by post
48 of 50messages with arrival evidence (sample F)
21 of 50messages with read evidence
1.3352the month per account (sample H)
9 of 12log fields kept (sample E)
2 of 4notice windows that survive the post (sample I)
The month, three ways
sample A - by kind
receipts 30 (60.0%) + marketing 12 (24.0%) + service notes 4 (8.0%)
+ alerts 2 (4.0%) + notices 2 (4.0%) = 50 = 100.0%
a day on average = 50 / 30 = 1.67 messages
switchable = 12 / 50 = 24.0%; unswitchable = 38 / 50 = 76.0%
ratio unswitchable to switchable = 38 / 12 = 3.17 to 1
sample C - by channel
email 33 + in-app 9 + push 4 + SMS 2 + post 2 = 50
grid: 8 kinds x 5 channels = 40 cells, 24 permitted = 60.0%,
16 refused = 40.0%; one mandatory channel per kind
sample D - by time
email 0.9 s; in-app 0.0 s; push 1.2 s; SMS 3.4 s; post 2 d 6 h
2 d 6 h = 194,400 s; 194,400 / 0.9 = 216,000
sent -> delivered 0.9 s; delivered -> read 2,481 s = 41 m 21 s;
read -> acted 1,778 s = 29 m 38 s; reader / carrier = 2,757
The message, followed to the end
sample F - four moments
sent 50 (100.0%) -> delivered 48 (96.0%) -> read 21 (42.0%)
-> acted on 14 (28.0%)
of the 48 that arrived, 21 were read = 43.8%
post: 2 messages, arrival evidence 0 of 2, read 0 of 2
sample G - the address
2 addresses of record; a change takes 24 h
messages a day = 50 / 30 = 1.67; caught in the window = 1.7
marketing caught = 12 / 30 = 0.4
sample H - the cost
33 x 0.0004 + 9 x 0 + 4 x 0 + 2 x 0.0410 + 2 x 0.6200 = 1.3352
per year = 16.0224; per message = 1.3352 / 50 = 0.0267
all fifty by post = 31.0000 = 23.2 times the mixed month
4 messages (8.0%) carry 1.3220 of 1.3352 = 99.0% of the cost
What is not in these figures
Every number above comes from the eight samples plus the two defined on their own pages. Nothing is observed from a company, and no real operator, platform or person is described by any of it.
The arithmetic is shown in full so each figure can be re-derived. Where a figure is a ratio of two other figures on this page, both are printed beside it.