Permit #1 Mailers

Direct Mail Industry News

Return on Investment for E-mail Marketing Tops All Other Channels Except for Telemarketing

E-Mail Marketing Balances Low Costs and High Response Rates Better Than Other Marketing Media
NEW YORK, NY -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 04/28/2005 -- Reports of e-mail marketing's slow demise continue to be premature, as a new eMarketer report shows that nearly three-fourths of US online advertisers used e-mail marketing in 2004.

Despite all of the obstacles in e-mail marketing -- the assault e-mail marketing endures from spam (and phishing, its particularly nasty offshoot); the drag on delivery rates imposed by the filters individuals and companies deploy to protect them from spam; and the sheer e-mail overload in most people's inboxes -- e-mail continues to be a valuable marketing tool.

eMarketer's new report, E-Mail Marketing: How to Improve ROI, released today, examines the new developments in e-mail marketing and compares the effectiveness of this still-evolving marketing tool with other direct marketing channels.

"E-mail as a marketing vehicle has been particularly enduring, I think, because it's partially built on a two-fold value: one, driving direct response results and two, cultivating ongoing relationships," said eMarketer Senior Analyst David Hallerman, who authored the report. "Customer retention is the prime objective for most e-mail marketers, but customer acquisition continues to play a smaller yet still significant role."

For marketers who know how to use e-mail, the channel works amazingly well. Even 45% of consumers in a recent survey said it was a "great way" for companies to stay in touch with their customers. And with the exception of telemarketing, the return on investment for e-mail marketing tops all other channels. Dimensional and direct mail may generate higher revenues per contact, and sometimes better response rates, but their costs are higher. And among the four media with lower costs per contact than e-mail, response rates are abysmal.

Projections from eMarketer show that e-mail volume in the US will rise from over 2 trillion message this year -- personal, commercial and spam -- to nearly 2.7 trillion by 2007. But while the traffic builds, the opportunities increase.

"The report's bottom line is this: when properly used, e-mail can balance low costs and high response rates better than other marketing media," says Hallerman. "But the challenge to marketers is to continue to maximize its effectiveness with better content, targeting and tracking."

E-Mail Marketing aggregates the latest data from leading market researchers -- Advertising.com, APWG, Direct Marketing Association, DoubleClick, Exmplar, Jupiter Research, MarketingProfs.com, Millward Brown, Pew, Quris, Roper ASW, Silverpop and many others -- with eMarketer's objective, unbiased analysis to give you the information you need to make your e-mail marketing programs effective -- and profitable.

Key topics covered in E-Mail Marketing: How to Improve ROI include:

-- Can e-mail be used for customer acquisition, or is it merely a
retention tool?
-- Are spam and phishing killing e-mail marketing?
-- How do permission-based in-house lists and better-targeted e-mails go
hand in hand?
-- Is there a best content, best day, best time and best frequency for
marketing e-mails?
-- Which elements should marketers test in their e-mail campaigns?
-- How can e-mail metrics be used to increase effectiveness?

And many more...
To purchase E-Mail Marketing: How to Improve ROI, visit eMarketer online at http://www.emarketer.com.

About eMarketer

eMarketer is "the First Place to Look" for market research information related to e-business, online marketing and emerging technologies. eMarketer aggregates and analyzes e-business research from over 1,700 sources and brings it together in one place. This research is presented in analyst reports and the "eStat Database" -- the most comprehensive compilation of up-to-date e-business and online marketing statistics in the world. For more information, visit www.emarketer.com.

------------------------------------------------

Media Inquiries
David Murrow
Director of Public Relations
eMarketer
dmurrow@emarketer.com
Tel. 212-763-6033

SOURCE: eMarketer

Blog

Electronics