As reported in eMarketer Daily on Tuesday, October 30th, the Direct Marketing Association is reporting that spending on direct marketing commercial e-mail in the United States will hit $600 million in 2008. That number represents an increase of nearly 25% over 2007.

That statistic is impressive until you consider that – according to the DMA -- spending on non-e-mail Internet direct marketing—such as search and display—is expected to hit $23 billion! Are you kidding me?

Why more marketers are not locked and loaded with email is amazing -- especially when you consider two other findings – also courtesy of the DMA:

  • "E-mail produces the highest response rate for lead generation—especially for house campaigns—of all direct mail methods we have studied," according to Anna Chernis, Senior Research Manager.
  • Commercial e-mail's ROI will hit $45.65 for every dollar spent in 2008. By comparison, direct response newspaper advertising ROI is $16.86, non-catalog direct mail ROI is $15.60, and telemarketing ROI is $8.61

I have been – and will continue to be – a staunch advocate of multi-channel marketing. But at a time when marketers are being hammered to produce "more juice for the squeeze" from the dollars invested to drive new and repeat sales, many need to seriously re-consider how their marketing dollars are being invested.

Joel Book
Director, eMarketing Education