Spending on U.S. e-mail marketing is expected to reach $6.1 billion in 2008, up from $2.1 billion in 2003.
The findings, by JupiterResearch, indicated that three critical factors contributed to the growth: the dramatic cost reductions of e-mail marketing, the growth of sponsored and acquisition e-mail campaigns and the challenges presented by spam.
The greatest share of non-spam e-mail marketing spending is earmarked for customer retention e-mail campaigns, driven by the cost effectiveness of e-mail marketing versus direct mail.
“Smart marketers have to manage their lists, test mailings against control groups and adopt behavioral targeting to get the biggest payoff, David Daniels, a research director at JupiterResearch, said in a statement.
Strong growth for sponsored e-mail campaigns is forecast driven by rising CPM rates, increasing inventory, richer creative formats and increased effectiveness resulting from diligent targeting and testing, JupiterResearch reported.
U.S. acquisition e-mail marketing is recovering and is projected to climb steadily from $720 million in 2003 to $1.8 billion in 2008.
Spam continues to clog inboxes, with consumers each receiving on average 3,920 unwanted commercial e-mail messages last year. And there is no end in sight as that number is expected to reach 6,395 by the end of 2008. JupiterResearch cautioned however that spam is not the leading factor to reaching customers, but rather the volume of messages sent by legitimate marketers. Sponsored e-mail messages are expected to grow at nearly twice the compound annual rate (19%) of total message volume (11%) between 2003 and 2008.
