E-mail marketing spending will grow from $1.2 billion in 2009 to $2 billion by 2014, according to a forecast by Forrester Research.
Retention e-mail will account for three-quarters of the spending, according to the report authored by Forrester analyst David Daniels.
Why is Daniels so bullish on e-mail’s future? For one thing, e-mail remains a low-cost way to communicate.
“Consumers have told us that even in a down economy their home Internet connections will remain on,” his report says.
Moreover, secondary e-mail box usage remains strong, according to Forrester. And, the growth of social media will bolster e-mail because people need e-mail accounts to register for these sites.
Also, the number of active e-mail individuals — defined as people who log into one or more e-mail accounts at least monthly — will grow from 145 million in 2009 to 153 million in 2014, Forrester projects.
The biggest growth area for e-mail spending between now and 2014 will be in transactional messaging. The firm projects transactional messaging to grow at a compound annual rate of 9.2%.
However, marketers will continue to waste money on e-mail messages that never make it into the inbox to the tune of $144 million in 2014, the report contends. Why? Inadequate list hygiene and mailing practices, as well as overzealous ISPs that lump good messages in with bad ones.
DID YOU KNOW?
YOU’RE NOT ALONE
Can’t figure out the ROI of integrating your social media and e-mail initiatives? Talk to your e-mail service provider. They have plenty of clients going through the same thing.
-
According to StrongMail, 55% of respondents to a recent survey said one of their biggest challenges in that very area is metrics. The second biggest concern, cited by 48%? Establishing business goals for the program.
-
Sixty-six percent of respondents said they plan to integrate the two channels this year.
Network
