TMCnet News
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[September 29, 2003] Spam Will Grow To 60 Percent Of All E-mail Traffic In 2004 Says Gartner Approximately 50 percent of e-mail traffic in 2003 is spam, and by mid-2004, it will grow to 60 percent, so marketers must take immediate steps to differentiate their e-mail marketing from spam, according to Gartner, Inc. By 2005, content managers, rule-based software and Internet service providers will effectively blacklist 80 percent of all e-mail marketing campaigns, including permission-based e-mail.Most marketers today find that the pressure to achieve cost benefits far outweighs consideration for the e-mail's usefulness to customers, said Adam Sarner, industry analyst for Gartner. Before customers ignore this valuable medium, marketers must start again by clearly identifying their customer base, surveying their customers as to the types of e-mail they would like to receive, and then deliver on the feedback and give customers a way to update their preferences frequently. When used efficiently, e-mail marketing is an effective communication tool. According to Gartner analysts, a well-crafted e-mail can receive as high as a 15 percent response rate, compared with less than 1 percent for banner ads. Moreover, a company can collect real-time information about its customers and use the data to anticipate customer needs. Because e-mail can be effective and is less expensive than traditional marketing methods, by the end of 2004 more than 80 percent of companies engaged in direct marketing will conduct at least one e-mail marketing campaign, said Sarner. It is thus imperative that marketers start now to differentiate their e-mail campaigns from spam by focusing on communication, personalization and delivery expertise. |