E-mail Spending to Top $2B by 2012: Jupiter

E-mail marketing spending will go from $1.2 billion in 2007 to $2.1 billion in 2012, according to a new report from JupiterResearch’s lead e-mail analyst David Daniels.

The figures differ significantly from those of other organizations, whose projections also differ widely from one another’s.

For example, JupiterResearch’s figures are significantly higher than those of the Direct Marketing Association, which put out a report in October estimating that marketers spent $500 million on commercial e-mail in 2007, and that the figure would rise to $1.2 billion in 2012.

By contrast, Forrester Research has predicted e-mail marketing spending to go from $2.7 billion in 2007 to $4 billion in 2012.

And in another variance, JupiterResearch’s figures predict far stronger growth than those of analyst firm eMarketer, which has e-mail marketing spending going from $1.475 billion in 2007 to $1.65 billion in 2011. eMarketer figures for 2012 weren’t available.

Daniels said in an e-mail exchange with this newsletter that while he couldn’t explain the DMA’s low numbers, Forrester’s numbers are higher because its figures include strategic services from agencies such as Ogilvy and Razorfish, and Jupiter’s don’t.

David Hallerman, senior analyst for eMarketer, said the reason his firm is predicting slower growth in e-mail marketing spending than the others is because e-mail is such an inexpensive channel to begin with, and increasing its usage and effectiveness doesn’t necessarily translate into spending more money.

“Even as you scale up usage, sending to 200,000 versus 100,000 people doesn’t cost that much more,” he said. “And a bigger list isn’t necessarily more effective. E-mail is a low-cost medium that scales very well.”