• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, December 11, 2007

PARK CITY, UTAH -- JupiterResearch Vice President David Daniels gave Email Insider Summit attendees here a sneak preview of the firm's latest projections, to be released in full next week.

Jupiter estimates that email spending (including relational and sponsored) reached $1.2 billion in 2007, and projects that it will hit the $2 billion mark by 2012. That's a 10.9% CAGR.

Daniels also shared data that sheds some light on how email fits within the increasingly complex multichannel marketing picture. According to Jupiter, the average person receives 274 email messages per week, and 304 at work.

Nearly three-quarters (74%) have two accounts. Eight percent use handheld devices for purposes of email "triage" (up 2% from May), and 18% of the handheld users are heavy online buyers.

About one-quarter (26%) of email in the primary inbox is now opt-in. "There's less junk, but there's still as much email--we're competing with other legitimate marketers," Daniels observed.

He also cautioned that there are signs of some backlash against email. "There are segments of the population who are done with email," opting instead to use the phone, he said.

What's the multichannel profile? Here's a rundown of the responses from a JupiterResearch/Ipsos survey conducted in September, in which people were asked which devices they used instead of email for personal communications purposes last year:

• 27% use SMS/texting. Of these, 44% are ages 18 to 24, 49% are 25 to 34, and 39% are social users. Text users skew male, and receive 8.5% more email than the average person.
• 79% use cell phones. Of these, 87% are ages 25 to 34, and 21% are social users. Cell users skew female, and are heavy online purchasers.
• 37% use IM. Of these, 67% are ages 18 to 24, and 35% are social users. Males and females are equally likely to use IM. IM users receive about 8% more email than average.
• 18% of the online population use social sites as their primary communications mode, instead of email. This group skews "massively" by age, Daniels stressed: 50% are ages 18 to 24, and 32% are 25 to 34.

From an email marketing standpoint, "this is something to be concerned about," Daniels said. This group also has double the average propensity to change email addresses (13%) and add a new secondary account (22%).

Jupiter's research on why people unsubscribe to email shows that 53% cite content that's no longer relevant and 40% cite too many offers.

Another eye-opener: 26% now say that they use the "this is spam" button.