Major marketers worldwide use e-mail in their campaigns, according to The McKinsey Quarterly.

In a survey of 311 marketing executives, McKinsey found that 83% used e-mail, ahead of display ads, paid search and online video.

McKinsey also asked about the future of online marketing. By 2010, respondents generally thought the Web would be part of the first two stages of the buyer decision-making process — product awareness and information gathering — for a majority of all consumers.

Over one-half of respondents said they planned to increase their e-mail spending in the next three years, but plans to increase spending could mean that e-mail would lose some budget to paid search and other tactics.

E-mail marketing is similarly prevalent in the United States. More than seven in 10 US marketers in a Penton Media Custom Research study commissioned by PROMO Magazine said that e-mail was one of their online and mobile tactics.

Learn what mistakes marketers make with e-mail. Please read eMarketer's E-Mail Marketing: Getting Through to Customers report.