If the anti-e-mail lobby was around yesterday, its members weren’t on the exhibit hall floor. An on-site survey conducted by Direct and Vente, Inc. revealed that DMers use e-mail heavily—and some make purchases from it as well.
Sixty-three percent said they were using more of it than they were a year ago, while only 7% were sending less. Fourteen percent sent the same amount.
Were those using more e-mail doing so at the expense of other marketing channels? Well, 53% said no, but 22% had pulled money from print and mail expenditures. Only 3% took money from telemarketing, while 10% said their e-mail efforts had drained cash from other channels. The remainder either did not know, or did not use e-mail.
As for its purpose, just under one third of all marketers rely on it as a retention tool only, while only 17% use it solely for prospecting.
Twenty-nine percent send it for both prospecting and activities. Not that the channel isn’t without its concerns. More than one third (36%) indicated that consumer burnout was the most serious hazard, followed by the 20% that cited Internet service providers blocking messages. Nine percent mentioned the lack of corporate support for e-mail marketing programs. Ten percent cited other challenges, while 24% said they either didn’t do, or didn’t know whether they do, e-mail marketing.
Marketers embrace the channel as consumers as well. More than three in four respond to e-mail solicitations, although 47% said that they do only from companies they have previously done business with.
