Email marketing continues to generate impressive ROI

In 2005, email returned $57.25 for every dollar spent. Last year this figure dropped to $51.58. This year, the U.S. Direct Marketing Association forecasts email marketing ROI to be just $48.56, with marketers spending around $500 million to drive $23 billion in sales.

The trend is set to continue next year, forecasts the U.S. Direct Marketing Association, in its recently released annual Power of Direct Marketing economic-impact study. The predict ROI will drop to around $45.65 in 2008, based on a total spend of $600 million driving $27 billion in sales.

However, more and more companies are sending non-revenue generating emails such as order confirmations and double opt-ins, and this could be somewhat responsible for the dip in ROI, but not entirely.

“These types of messages cost money to send and it’s hard to measure their ROI,” said John Rizzi, president of email service provider eDialog, “but there is no doubt they have a positive effect.”

Tags: email marketing, return on investment