• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, December 7, 2008

Not until the final day of the last Email Insider Summit in May, did the issue of how the economy might affect marketing spending get mentioned -- and barely so.

But that was pre-bailout and Lehman Brothers collapse and and maybe another bailout (the Detroit Big Three).

This week, the economy is likely to be referenced from the time David Baker, vice president Email/eCRM Solution at Razorfish, offers his introductory remarks Monday morning until he offers a conference recap Wednesday.

It's "the ghost hovering in the room," Blaine Mathieu, CMO of Lyris, Inc. said in an interview.

But Mathieu, who said he's optimistic by nature, is far less concerned about the impact on the e-mail marketing business than he was back in September. (Lyris is an online marketing services provider.)

Back then, he said things started to reach a virtual standstill with marketers falling victim to a "FUD Trap."

FUD is an industry acronym that stands for "fear, uncertainty and doubt." But "fear" was the operative word, Mathieu said.

In October and November -- at a time when 2009 budget prep should have been top of mind -- he said decisions about spending commitments were being made on a week-to-week basis. "The ability to plan longer-term was severly curtailed," he said.

Now, Mathieu said he feels the "FUD Trap" is in the rearview mirror. Budgets may be down 10% next year, but marketers are accepting the new reality and working within it.

"My (clients) feel they've got a much better handle on it," he said.

"We're leaving the 'FUD Trap' and entering an era of fewer resources and we have to figure out how to deal with that," he added.

One hurdle e-mail marketing faced during the "FUD" period was, ironically, one of its benefits: flexibility. Mathieu said that unlike a print or traditional media campaign where dollars are booked months ahead, e-mail marketing can "be turned on and off on a dime."

So, marketing executives were putting dollars in and pulling them out swiftly.