• by May 9, 2001

The new eMail Marketing Report from eMarketer forecasts that $2.1 billion will be spent on email marketing by year-end 2001, a 110% increase over the $1.1 billion spent in 2000.

The report also reveals that there is a significant difference in the click through rate between opt-in emails and banner ads. There is an average 3.2% click-through rate for opt-in emails versus only 0.3% for banner ads.

"eMail is more interactive, personal and intrusive than web ads which allows marketers to get in front of customers and prospects in a more concrete and forceful way," said Jonathan Jackson, eMarketer senior analyst. "At the very least, e-mail marketers can be assured their advertising message headlines will be seen by particular prospects."

The report reveals that both unsolicited and permission-based e-mail can be significantly cheaper than traditional direct marketing methods, such as postal direct mail and telemarketing programs. The average cost per e-mail message in the United States is less than $.01, compared to between $1-3 for telemarketing and $.75-2.00 for direct mail.

"No marketing communications medium exists that is more targetable, customizable and more flexible than e-mail. That is why e-mail is revolutionizing direct marketing," said Jackson. "eMail direct marketing, when done correctly, can overcome the limitations of traditional direct marketing by offering limitless targeting ability at pennies per e-mail and allowing marketers to have a one-to-one conversation with each of their customers."

The report also says that email users outnumber web users by 10% -- 96.6 million to 87.9 million, respectively and that more than 1 billion e-mail messages are sent daily in the United States. Notably, 80% of email marketing messages are responded to within 48 hours, as compared to the 6-8 week period for traditional direct marketing methods. eMarketer also says that 85% of responses to an email offer are received within the first 48 hours

This eMarketer Report aggregates research data from a variety of sources including ActivMedia, AdRelevance, Competitive Media Reporting, Credit Lyonnais, Datamonitor, Direct Marketing Association, Forrester Research, Giga Information Group, IAB, IDC, Jupiter Research, Simba, Salomon Smith Barney, Media Metrix, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Myers Group, Nielsen/NetRatings, 24/7 Media, Yankee Group and Zenith Media.