Based on the survey by The Outperformance Marketing Review about email marketing plans for 2007, it is concluded that email is going to be used more frequently in 2007.

The majority of respondents (72 percent) plan to increase marketing budgets around email this year. Almost all expect to see an increase in ROI from email, making email as the most important advertising medium for 2007. It even comes before search marketing, contextual targeting and display ads.

Specifically, 70.5 percent reported plans to increase spending on email acquisition and 63 percent on retention campaigns. This emphasizes the importance of email marketing as a CRM and acquisition channel.

The survey also reported that:

• More than half of the respondents outsouced email marketing.
• Email optimization techniques, including landing pages, subject line testing and triggered messaging, were unanimously ranked as “very important.”
• 83 percent of respondents indicated they were confident that email ROI will increase during the new year.
• The most important reasons why people will use email marketing is 2007 are (in order of popularity) drive incremental revenue (55.3 percent), reinforce brand position (19.1 percent), improve customer loyalty (10.6 percent), reactivate customers (8.5 percent), and drive increased customer purchase frequency (6.4 percent).

The survey involved 1,500 marketing professionals, including KPMG International, InfoUSA, QInteractive and Art.com.

[Datran Media]