• by April 30, 2002

Email marketing company e-Dialog today released its 2002 E-Mail Marketing Benchmarking Study, a 22-page report based on survey responses from three hundred marketers across a broad range of industries.

The study reveals marketers experiencing both significant rewards and frustration at this still-early stage of email marketing. While appreciation for the medium has risen, so has the need to tackle the challenges that will unlock email's potential most effectively.

Despite these challenges, those who have taken the plunge into email marketing have become believers, e-Dialog says.

According to the findings, 32% of respondents ranked email as their number one most effective marketing vehicle and 82% ranked it in their top three. Also, 48% of those surveyed consider email to be a mainstream marketing vehicle for their company.

e-Dialog also found that 55% of respondents have increased the percentage of their marketing budget they will spend on email in 2002 vs. 2001, while only 5% have decreased it. In comparison, 16% have increased their traditional direct mail budget allocation, while 33% have decreased it.

Of all the marketing budget categories, only email's average percentage of budget rose from 2001 to 2002, the report states, and for many of these marketers, particularly those trying it in-house, implementing an email campaign has meant facing an unexpectedly steep learning curve and an array of technical, logistical and quality issues.

Notably, the report found that 54% of marketers surveyed increased their use of email marketing as a result of the down economy.

"Marketers continue to increase their investments in email marketing because it can be such an effective medium when done right," said John Rizzi, president and CEO of e-Dialog. "We have seen the marketing budgets of our clients steadily shifting toward email, and this study further substantiates that trend."