More Email Marketing Planned in 2007

A new survey of 1,500 marketing professionals by Datran Media reports that, while sixty percent of consumers who make immediate purchases from email messages did so because messages contained products they were already considering, only one-third of promotional email marketers said relevance was one of their top-three goals.
The study quotes Jupiter Research Vice President and Lead Analyst David Daniels, as saying, in the Jupiter report ROI of Relevance, "Despite additional campaign costs, relevant campaigns increase net profits by an average of 18 times more than do broadcast mailings."
Focusing on marketers' plans to employ email marketing, the survey found that 72 percent of the marketers surveyed indicated that they plan to employ email marketing more in 2007. Specifically indicating email marketing's importance as a CRM and acquisition channel:
70.5 percent reported plans to increase spending on email acquisition
63 percent on retention campaigns
Among the leading brand marketers who participated in the survey, Art.com Director of CRM, Kelsey Lowitz, said "Email marketing is a powerful communication and revenue channel that allows us to engage in real-time, relevant conversations with repeat and new buyers alike. To date, we've seen our email marketing programs result in increasingly satisfied and loyal customers who return and refer us to friends as well as a corresponding increase in new customer registrations."
In addition to boosting email marketing programs, the survey also found that:
More than half of the respondents outsourced email marketing
Email optimization techniques, including landing pages, subject line testing and triggered messaging, were unanimously ranked as "very important."
83 percent of respondents indicated they were confident that email ROI will increase during the new year
You may view the original press release as a PDF document, or see the complete study results here.