Report: E-mail Marketing Will Grow to $4.6 Billion Business by 2004

Spending on E-mail marketing, which amounted to $898 million last year, will increase 417 percent to reach the $4.6 billion level by 2004, according to the new eMail Marketing Report by eMarketer.

The report also predicts that e-mail advertising's share of total US online advertising spending will increase to 15 percent by 2003. Spending stood at 3 percent in 1999.

Emarketer's report shows that 61 percent of medium-large size companies in the United States use e-mail on a regular basis to market to prospects and/or customers.

"Already, leading marketers such as Macy's, Blockbuster Video, Charles Schwab & Co. and J.Crew have enthusiastically embraced e-mail direct marketing," says Geoffrey Ramsey, statsmaster at eMarketer.

The report predicted that the volume of opt-in e-mail will jump 52.3 percent to 61.1 billion by the end of this year, reaching 240 billion messages by 2003. In 1999, an estimated 20 percent of all e-mail received in the US was commercial, equally divided between spam and opt-in e-mail.

The reasons for growth include the low cost of e-mail marketing as compared to traditional direct mail. In addition, the sheer numbers of e-mail boxes are booming. The report said there were 78 million active e-mail users older than 13, accounting for 35 percent of the total US population. By the end of 2002, that number will rise to 135 million e-mail users, 59 percent of the US population.

Emarketer compiles its reports by gathering research from a variety of sources, then filtering, analyzing, and organizing them.