BrightWave Marketing's founder provides evidence that email marketing has hit its stride.

Email gets it fair share of abuse, whether doled out by the press or senior management (that is, if they even know if their company is running email programs). However, for those of us in the business, we know better; much better. I can't think back of a time when email marketing was gaining as much momentum as it has in the early months of 2007. I sense and hear it talking to industry colleagues, to clients and at conferences I have attended in the past few months. Optimism abounds like never before.

Those in the email vendor space are rejoicing because of increasing needs and budgets. Client-side email teams are finding out that more relevant messaging means more ROI. The major email analysts from Jupiter and Forrester back the claim that email, when done right, is as strong of a targeted channel as any marketers could hope for.

So let's take a step back from the stacks of data, campaign calendars and deliverability issues and collectively take a deep breath. Email is doing very well as a marketing channel. It is moving away from a niche marketing platform and becoming something that any forward-thinking company and its marketing team now use. 

So forgive me as I head to the front of the cheerleading line and pat us all on the back as it can be a healthy exercise for those who are used to being beaten down on the job.

Numbers back email up as a premier marketing channel

• The DMA found that email delivers the highest ROI: $57.25 for every dollar spent on it in 2005, compared against $7.08 for every dollar spent on print catalogs, and $22.52 for every dollar spent on non-email internet marketing. (I use this stat in every speaking engagement and presentation. It is that good and powerful.)
• Forrester Research reports that email has reached almost universal penetration, with 97 percent of consumers and 94 percent of marketers using the channel.
• In fact, Forrester found that people who buy products advertised in emails spend 138 percent more than those who don't buy through email.
• Internet Retailer's recent survey on email marketing found 94.5 percent of retailers surveyed are building bigger opt-in lists and 64.7 percent are conducting more email campaigns than a year ago.

Industry leadership is growing in a significant way

• The Email Experience Council (eec) is an organization of global professionals driving email marketing and communications practices. This is, quite frankly, what the email world has been waiting for, an industry specific group run by email marketers aiming to solve email's problems while championing the channel. The creation and subsequent progress of the group has advanced email from the dark ages to a modern, thriving industry that can now fend for itself.

• Email Measurement Accuracy Coalition (EMAC): The mission of the EMAC is to establish a consistent methodology and framework for the accurate calculation of email delivery, in order to inform the computation of critical email marketing metrics such as open, clickthrough and conversion rates. With most email service providers offering different standards, this is the right group at the right time that should help the way we look at our campaign results in a more cohesive fashion.

• Relevant and insightful research studies: We have moved away from self serving industry reports to meaningful analysis that most email marketers can use for their own betterment regardless of whether they are a client of the vendor or member of the group issuing the study.

Powerful email information is readily available and usually, free.
Great blogs and websites are out there to make your life as an advanced email marketer easier. So use them.

EmailStatCenter.com: This site has garnered much interest and traffic in the first six weeks but the takeaway is interactive marketing professionals now have a one-stop portal for anything related to email metrics. Featuring hundreds of stats in more than 40 categories ranging from frequency to subject lines, the site is a goldmine for those email-related budget presentations or client requests. (Full disclosure: My company, BrightWave Marketing, owns the site and is partners with the aforementioned Email Experience Council for this venture.)

RetailEmail.Blogspot: Anyone in the retail business should deem this a must read. Consider its author, Chad White, a former journalist, your very own retail email industry analyst as he dishes out daily thoughts on various retail email campaigns and trends. Did I mention he is publishing this free of charge?

Tamara's Email Marketing Best Practices Blog: I love this blog because it is written by an actual client side email marketing pro. She offers up regular blog posts with an international perspective and has her finger on the pulse of real email issues and opportunities.

EmailMarketingReports.com: This is one of the most authoritative email websites in existence, written by a PhD with no services or products to sell. The site provides practical email advice, insight on industry developments and aggregated email-related articles.

There are countless other great blogs and industry sources of research and opinions. Do yourself a favor and set aside an hour or six and find some others to bookmark. I have added some of my favorites for great insider email knowledge.

Campaign Monitor Blog
Email Marketing Strategies
The Email Wars
MailChimp Blog
MineThatData
WhiteNoise

So if you agree that email's tide is changing and things are moving along nicely, print this out and hand it to the CMO, CFO and heck, even the CEO to show them how smart they are for hiring you and investing in this key channel.

G. Simms Jenkins is founder and principal of BrightWave Marketing, an Atlanta-based Email Marketing and Customer Relationship Services firm. Read full bio.