Consumers will receive over 3,900 unwanted e-mails each year by 2007, according to a new report from Jupiter Research.
The report, “Marketing & Branding Forecast: Online Advertising & E-mail Marketing Through 2007,” projects that the amount spent annually on e-mail marketing campaigns will grow in the coming years from $1.4 billion in 2002 to $8.3 billion in 2007.
“Consumers have learned to deal with spam the same way as junk mail: they delete it before reading the messages they actually want to read,” said Jared Blank, Jupiter Research senior analyst. “In 2001, U.S. consumers received over 140 billion spam e-mails. A growing number of individuals will begin using separate e-mail accounts and e-mail filters set up specifically for dealing with spam and other unwanted mail.”
Since 2001, the average amount of spam received per user has increased from 3.7 to 6.2 e-mails per day, reports Jupiter. Within the course of the next five years, the total number of unwanted e-mail messages sent will increase to more than 645 billion pieces of spam annually by 2007. Jupiter also predicts that in five years, the average online user will be exposed to 830 marketing impressions online per day, nearly doubling from an average of 447 impressions in 2000.
Retention campaigns will dominate the volume of non-spam e-mails over the next five years, but marketers will spend more on acquisition e-mail through 2004. The proliferation of newsletters and other marketing e-mail will cause consumers to ignore the medium in greater numbers, reducing the branding and messaging effectiveness of these missives.
By contrast, companies will increase the volume of retention e-mail on sharply reduced budgets, according to New York-based Jupiter.
“The economic slowdown of the past two years has forced once free-spending companies to scrutinize marketing budgets much more closely to justify their overall expenditures,” said Blank. “Successful e-mail marketing campaigns can no longer consist of blasts to massive lists, but instead must directly target the specific interest of the individual consumer.
The number of active e-mail users in the United States is forecast to grow to 165.4 million by the end of 2007, compared to 104.5 million at the end of 2001.
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