• by Allan Hoving , June 7, 2002

Permission-based email marketing has evolved into a highly effective means of communicating with customers on a one-to-one basis. The ability of technology to precisely identify prospects based on demographics and interest, and track their actions, transformed email into the most customizable and measurable form of direct mail. When these messages were still a novelty, response rates were impressive. Today, although consumer interest has lessened, email marketing spending keeps growing. Top companies and upstarts alike continue to introduce new technologies, products, services, and ever more accurate targeting methods intended to match the medium’s early success.

yesmail.com Experienced in providing customer acquisition and retention email programs, YesMail’s direct-marketing services let clients select audiences, get counts, develop messages, schedule delivery, and track results in real-time. Goto.com, NYTimes.com, Fingerhut.com, eMarketer.com, Dell.com, and Mapquest.com are among YesMail’s top patrons. Available since August, the YesMail Hotline grants access to a million new, segmentable names in the YesMail Network, who tend to respond at higher-than-average rates. YesMail’s Holiday Gift Package (consisting of free email addresses when marketers purchase a campaign of 100,000 names or more, tactics for increasing conversion, and a free strategy session on retention email marketing) is a fourth-quarter initiative to help clients increase their return on holiday marketing dollars.

DoubleClick With its DARTmail delivery platform, a secure web-hosted application, and DoubleClick eMail List Services (which helps list owners monetize opt-in email names and list renters find responsive prospects), DoubleClick manages 41 lists with more than 21 million opt-in names. On a buying spree that enabled it to sweep up less successful competitors and expand market share, DoubleClick recently bought L90’s ad-delivery technology and earlier this year acquired Adgile Interactive, MessageMedia, and FloNetworks. DARTmail has delivered nearly 2 billion emails on behalf of 250-plus agencies, merchants, and publishers, including J.Crew, Virgin MegaStores.com, and The Wall Street Journal Online.

24/7 24/7 Media is a one-stop email shop with a suite of services that includes email list management and brokerage, data analysis, advertising and direct marketing, ad serving, promotions, and more. Its latest program, the 24/7 Mail Business Alliance, consists of a database with email work addresses of 1.3 million business professionals. Earlier this year, 24/7 Media introduced its SelectMessaging opt-in service, which lets marketers automatically construct customized email newsletters and alerts containing chunks of personalized content based on each subscriber’s preferences. SelectMessaging also lets clients store and use consumer-supplied demographic information in numerous attribute categories. Clients include AT&T, Upshot.com, Tech Republic, Seagrams, Ameritrade, and Microsoft.