• by June 5, 2001

A new report titled "eMail Marketing Report," from eMarketer, forecasts that eMail marketing expenses will double in 2001 to $2.1 billion. The report says that because opt-in email is less expensive than other forms of direct marketing, its usage among marketers will continue to grow.

Jonathan Jackson, eMarketer senior analyst, says that eMail “allows marketers to get in front of customers and prospects in a more concrete and forceful way,"

The report says that e-mail can be significantly cheaper than traditional direct marketing methods. The average cost per e-mail message in the United States is less than $0.01, compared to between $1 and $3 for telemarketing and $0.75-$2.00 for direct mail.

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

Key findings from the eMail Marketing Report:

- Email users outnumber web users by 10%: 96.6 million to 87.9 million, respectively
- More than 1 billion e-mail messages are sent daily in the United States
- 80% of e-mail marketing messages are responded to within 48 hours, as compared to the six- to eight-week period for traditional direct marketing methods
- 85% of responses to an e-mail offer are received within the first 48 hours