E-Mail Marketing - E-mail Marketing Vs. Traditional Direct Mail, Opt-in And Opt-out Methods

The term e-mail marketing covers a wide range of e-mail used to deliver commercial messages. It includes e-mail newsletters that deliver news, information, or content that people have specifically requested. These newsletters typically contain advertising messages targeted to the interests of the newsletters' readers. At the other end of the e-mail marketing spectrum is unsolicited bulk e-mail, often referred to as "spam."

When e-mail became a part of people's daily routine, using it as a marketing medium became an opportunity that marketers couldn't ignore. According to a mid-2001 Gallup Poll survey, 97 percent of Internet users agree that e-mail has made their lives better. According to the survey, e-mail is the most popular online activity, with e-mail users (96.6 million) outnumbering Web users (87.9 million) by 10 percent. In the United States alone, more than 1 billion e-mail messages are sent daily, according to eMarketer.

eMarketer also reported that e-mail message volume increased from 394.2 billion messages in 1999 to 536.3 billion in 2000. Volume was projected to reach 677.1 billion messages in 2001, 840.1 billion in 2002, and more than 1 trillion in 2003. In early 2001 Jupiter Media Metrix predicted that by 2005, the average online consumer in the United States could get as many as 950 e-mail messages every day.