E-Marketers Are Behaving Responsibly, Says DMA

According to the State of the E-Commerce Industry Report 2001-2002 from the DMA, almost all respondents (96%) indicated that they provide customers with the ability to opt-out of future email offers. In terms of sending out unsolicited mail, most respondents to the survey (60%) indicated that they do not ‘rent’ third party email lists or send non-targeted email (74%).

“An email campaign with the proper privacy and permission etiquette will drive traffic to a store or web site, add to a companyÂ’s bottom line, and increase goodwill among customers,” said H. Robert Wientzen, president & CEO at the DMA. “The continued growth of electronic commerce depends on consumer trust. It is imperative that email marketers take action by placing greater emphasis on privacy and help build consumer confidence and loyalty.”

The report also revealed that:

• The majority of web marketers maintain an in-house email list. The likelihood of having an in-house email list increases with the size of company. However, small companies have more complete email addresses in their housefiles (65.5%) than medium (44.9%) or large companies (46.9%).
• Business-to-business (B2B) marketers have a higher percent of email addresses and in house email lists (a mean of 63.8% compared to only 37.8% for consumer marketers). Across the board, at least nine in 10 companies do not rent their housefiles with e-mail addresses.
• 64% of respondents reported they clean their email lists anywhere from several times a month to 1-3 months, and 65% clean their postal mailing lists with the same frequency.
• B2B marketers are more likely to clean their email files several times a month (38 % compared to 20% of marketers whose web sites are targeted at consumers). Small companies clean their email lists more often (58% clean their lists several times a month or on a monthly basis). 53% of large companies indicated they clean their in house lists several times a month or on a monthly basis.