E-mail marketing trends

The database marketing agency Merkle has released its free e mail marketing study 'View from the Inbox 2008'.  The study measures and tracks attitudes and behaviors toward permission-based e-mail among U.S. consumers and points to several trends in consumers' attitudes and use of permission-based e-mail marketing:

Consumers feel in control: Most consumers (88%) feel mostly or completely in control of their inboxes - up nine points from 2004.

E mail users are spending more time with permission email.  Sixty-nine percent of permission email users spend 20 minutes or more reading their email on a weekly basis, up significantly from last year.

General attitudes toward corporate e-mail are positive: More people (58%) believe e-mail is a great way for companies to stay in touch - up from 45% three years ago.

E-mail is effective: Half of the respondents made an online purchase in the previous year as a result of permission-based marketing - up 3 percentage points from one year ago.

E-mail can influence decisions: Half of respondents reported that a company that does a good job with e-mail influenced their decision to do business - up 6% points from last year. However, e-mail can also close doors: About one-third (32%) have stopped doing business with at least one company as a result of poor e-mail marketing practices.

Relevancy is in the eye of the beholder: Consumers (41%) consider transaction confirmation emails to be most relevant, followed by account summary emails (18%).