DMA Forecasts Continued Growth in Internet, E-mail Marketing

Commercial e-mail and Internet marketing will see double-digit percentage increases in direct marketing spending, even as ad buys decrease in other channels. So says the "The Power of Direct Marketing," the Direct Marketing Association's flagship research report that was released during DMA08 in Las Vegas.

The DMA research credits this trend to businesses taking "advantage of the continued move toward electronic purchasing."

Here are a few online trends the report cites:

1. Internet marketing and commercial e-mail marketing investment is projected to increase in 2008.
While telephone marketing and noncatalog direct mail will garner the highest number of advertising dollars by the end of 2008, at $42.5 billion and $35.2 billion, respectively, online spending will see the largest increase.

Commercial e-mailers—whose $600 million expenditure is $100 million over that of 2007—represent a 24.8 percent rise in the sector's ad spend. Close on their heels, Internet marketers added $3.9 billion to their advertising budgets in 2008, representing a 19.7 percent increase in spending that translated to $24.1 billion in 2008. Meanwhile, newspaper, direct response radio and telephone marketing saw less investment than they did in 2007.

Internet marketers and commercial e-mailers also experienced the largest percentage of sales increases, at 15.9 percent and 16.4 percent, respectively.

2. Internet marketing and commercial e-mail spending will rise in 2009.
Commercial e-mail will see the highest percentage of spending growth, at 20.7 percent, with online marketing pulling up a close second, at 15.9 percent. Dollars invested in e-mail will total $700 million, while Internet marketing will see $28 billion. Both mediums also will see double-digit sales increases in 2009, with commercial e-mail leading at 16.6 percent over 2008 and achieving $32.6 billion in sales and Internet marketing following at 16.1 percent and $559 billion in sales.

Direct marketers again will spend less on newspaper advertising and telephone marketing than they did in the prior year.

3. Internet marketing and commercial e-mail expenditures will grow in the future.
By 2013, commercial e-mail will remain a powerhouse advertising medium, seeing a 17.7 percent increase in ad spend since 2008 ($1.4 billion). Internet marketing will rise 13.4 percent, reaching $45.2 billion.

DMA predicts commercial e-mail will see the highest sales growth of all the channels, increasing 13.7 percent to $53.2 billion from 2008 to 2013. Internet marketing again will be in second place, at 13.4 percent and $903 billion by 2013.

• MORE ON
• ONLINE MARKETING