• by Bill McCloskey , September 19, 2007

As I write this, I'm in Vegas at Shop.org. The main show starts today -- but I was able to walk the show last night and visit with vendors and join Habeas and Strongmail for an elegant dinner they threw for some of their clients. Despite the sumptuous feast, email, judging by most of the vendor focus in the exhibition hall, is still not getting the respect it deserves, especially at a show geared towards online retailers.

Last week I reported on the size of the market and wondered out loud how much revenue is generated by the $3 billion being spent on email advertising and services. The answer was supplied by Sean O'Neal at Datran Media, who pointed out that the DMA itself projects that marketers will spend around $500 million and generate over $29.9 billion in revenue as a result of acquisition email in 2007, an increase of over 18% from 2006.

So, why isn't that bit of news getting more play?

As an industry we still do a poor job in tooting our own horn and getting this information out. The EEC provided a good start, but until recently was a mostly volunteer effort, staffed with folks most of whose full-time jobs lay elsewhere. Now that it is part of the DMA, we need for it to do more.

In a post from last week Michael Munz writes: "Our Company is very SEM and SEO heavy, with little or no attention spent on other forms of marketing with the Web. I have pleaded for e-mail campaigns and blogs and wikis and portals for the better half of a year, with little or no response. I see the stats and read the articles deciding the future of the online advertising world. I would appreciate any and all 'ammo' for me to convince my superiors that these other forms need to be addressed."

Right now, today, we need to begin addressing Michael's need. We need our trade organizations to start providing the ammo needed to convince the upper reaches of management that email really does provide the greatest return on investment of any marketing channel. We don't need another round table on deliverability. We need solid facts from reputable sources, successful case studies that reach beyond the boundaries of our email-only focus groups and articles. We need to blow the doors off the corporate boardroom with the only ammo they understand: bottom line numbers. And those numbers and case studies need to be published in The New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

We've preached to the choir long enough. Let's take our preaching to The Street.