Opt-in News announced the availability of their "Email Marketing Factbook", which contains opt-in email industry research from 1999 to the first quarter of 2002. This report contains documentation never before released by Opt-in News Research Division.
Of the 200 U.S. media buyers that were surveyed, 64 percent favored the double opt-in method for gaining permission; 31 percent preferred the single opt-in e-mail marketing process; and 4 percent selected opt-out or pre-check data collection. Opt-in News projects that non-permission-based methods will become obsolete in 2-3 years, as media buyers will demand a higher return on investment (ROI) and privacy concerns will dictate opt-in methods as the industry standard.
According to the report, 77 percent of those surveyed indicated that audience interest is the most important form of profiling when planning business-to-consumer e-mail campaigns. However, for business-to-business e-mail marketing campaigns, the numbers are nearly reversed: 67 percent choose demographic and geographic targeting as most important and only 33 percent felt that audience interest was a priority.
Other significant findings include: