Compared with today's virtual worlds, e-mail is solidly Web 1.0—an almost archaic communication channel.
Yet e-mail works, and marketers and advertisers keep putting it to new uses. Moreover, consumers—whose opinions are the ones that matter—genuinely like e-mail. Nearly three-quarters of adult e-mail users in North America said they used it every day, according to an April survey conducted by Ipsos for Habeas.
Two-thirds of adult respondents said they preferred e-mail for communicating with businesses. Just as many—and this is the important part—said they expected to still prefer e-mail five years from now.
"Far from being eclipsed by Web 2.0 and other emerging communications methods, consumer expectations suggest that e-mail will be the workhorse channel around which future online communications will revolve,"
said Des Cahill, CEO of Habeas, in a statement.
That is not to say that consumers are ready for random, untargeted e-mail. Opt-in is still key. Consumers are even willing to help marketers custom-tailor their messages. More than 88% of respondents said they would like more choices in e-mail content and frequency, including options on advertisements and special offers.
So if e-mail is set to remain a consumer favorite for the next several years, that must mean e-mail ad spending will grow during that time, right?
Yes and no.
eMarketer predicts that e-mail ad spending in the US will hit $492 million this year, then increase by 55% to $765 million by 2012.
And while e-mail accounts for only about 2% of all online ad spending, eMarketer predicts that percentage will actually drop to only 1.5% of online ad spending in 2012, despite the growth in dollars spent. The amount spent on other formats will dwarf what is spent on e-mail, thanks to its low cost.
E-mail is cheap marketing. The pricing scales well, too: The cost of
sending a million e-mails is little more than the cost of sending a
thousand. However, this can also cause problems.
"E-mail is so inexpensive that it lulls many marketers into
underestimating its influence on entire campaigns and a company's brand," said David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer.
The eMarketer Word-of-Mouth Marketing report will be published in July 2008. Click here to be notified when it is released.