US Email Marketing Volume Forecast, 2008 To 2013

Email's low cost and high ROI continue to drive email marketing volumes upward. In the US, volumes will reach a high point of 838 billion marketing messages in 2013. We expect returns resulting from email campaigns to remain strong through 2009, but after that, volumes will level off as consumers increasingly start to ignore marketers' loud and frequent pitches. Messages triggered by events, which only 13% of marketers currently send, represent the next era of email marketing. Because they're tailored to match customer needs, they can generate returns of up to three times their cost. Increasing email volumes and a shift in the types of messages sent will force email marketers to adopt direct marketing techniques, use email for two-way customer communication, and embrace Social Computing.