The value of the US email marketing sector is expected to rise from $2.1 billion in 2003 to $6.1 billion in 2008, according to a report from Jupiter Research.
The critical factors driving the market are dramatic cost reductions of email marketing, the growth of sponsored email campaigns and the ever-increasing challenges presented by spam, according to Jupiter.
Customer retention email campaigns account for the greatest share of non-spam email marketing spend and will continue to do so. Strong spending on retention is driven by the cost effectiveness of email compared to direct mail posting.
For marketers to obtain full benefits of online direct marketing they must manage their campaigns with skill, says David Daniels, research director at Jupiter: “Smart marketers have to manage their lists, test mailings against control groups and adopt behavioural targeting to get the biggest payoff.”
The group also forecasts that strong growth in spending for sponsored email campaigns will continue, driven mainly by rising cost per thousand (CPT) rates. Acquisition email marketing in the US is also recovering and will climb steadily from $720 million in 2003 to $1.8 billion in 2008.
The report shows that over 2003, the average US online consumer received 3,920 unwanted commercial email messages; this number will grow to reach a total of 6,395 by 2008.
Contrary to popular belief spam is not the greatest barrier to reaching consumers. In fact it is the volume of messages sent by legitimate marketers. Sponsored email messages in the US will grow by 19% from 2003 to 2008; this is nearly twice the compound annual rate (11%) of total message volume.
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