Attention, spamees:
Don't take your hand off the delete key. Indications are that plenty more spam is on its way.
Folks who follow the e-mail marketing business say a combination of a seasonal pickup in advertising spending and reluctance among marketers to use traditional direct mail have contributed to a rise in electronic mass mailings lately.
Encouraging response rates from people who don't hit the delete key have also played a role. And that may have helped compensate for the fact that many of the Internet firms that used to send out huge electronic mailings are no longer around.
"While dot-coms are less a part of our total business, now it's more traditional companies," said Michelle Frost, vice president of strategic services at YesMail, which sells e-mail lists of people it says have agreed to receive marketing messages.
Inquires are up this year, Frost said, and the companies doing the inquiring are larger than they used to be.
The uptick in e-mail advertising comes as sellers of online banner ads face a sharp slowdown in spending from a year ago. In these budget-conscious times, some companies say they're finding it cheaper to focus on e-mail.
"We did do some banner advertising, but we found that e-mail clearly had the best return in terms of people browsing and buying and returning to the site," said David Karraker, spokesman for BlueLight.com, the online arm of Kmart.
YesMail's Frost said it was difficult to tell whether the anthrax scare -- which prompted many people to refrain from opening regular mail -- contributed to a rise in e-mail ad campaigns. It's possible that companies were already planning to use more e-mail in upcoming holiday campaigns.
Even without current events playing a role, e-mail marketing spending was already expected to grow 12 percent this year, said Denise Garcia, media research director at GartnerG2, compared with a 3 percent growth rate for regular direct mail. A key reason is that it's far cheaper to send e-mail than to mail an envelope.
Still, Garcia said, evidence shows that concerns about the safety of traditional mail have been high on senders' minds. Revenue at the post office, largely supported by direct mail, has been far lower than expected in the last several weeks, she said.
Meanwhile, the volume of e-mail remains as high as ever.
