Here's how to convince the CMO that more dollars, not less, need to go toward email marketing during an economic downturn.

Every year, most email marketers have to justify their budgets (in addition to their mere existence!) As we head into budget planning season with recession clouds looming, arm yourself with plenty of information to make sure you not only keep your program well funded, but seek an increase in spending as well.

After all, what other marketing channel can boast about the kinds of ROI, performance and industry growth stats that email marketing garners? Like these:

• For every dollar spent on email marketing in 2007, marketers can expect an estimated $48.29 ROI. (DMA 2007)
• Email is delivering sales at an average cost per order of less than $7, compared to $71.89 for banner ads, $26.75 for paid search and $17.47 for affiliate programs. (Shop.org, State of Retailing Online 2007 report Sept. 2007)

And email is big business now:

• Small business Email Service Provider Constant Contact recently went public and has a market cap hovering around $800,000,000. Yep, 800 million!
• One email marketing industry leader (Bill McCloskey, CEO of Email Data Source Inc.) says email marketing is a $3 billion industry.

So while everyone mentions that advertising and marketing budgets are the first to be cut during any kind of economic downturn, head right into your CMO or CFO's office and be prepared to make the case for a bigger cut of spending in 2008.

Why and how, you ask?

Your customers want it and depend on email communications.
What other channel can you have a personalized one-to-one communication platform that is not cost prohibitive to utilize on a frequent basis (hopefully not too frequent, though)?

Email is the perfect complimentary channel.
Email should not be executed in a silo. Not only should email programs be centralized but they should also be used to further broader marketing efforts. Email is best when integrated into overall marketing and branding efforts. By pulling back email efforts, you would be diluting one of the most personal and direct methods to achieve these high level marketing goals. 

Marketing plans and business strategies plans change.
There is no other quicker and easier way to communicate with the people most interested in your company than emailing your opt-in list with timely and relevant updates, news and updates. When timing is key, email is the way to go.

Where else can you test campaign concepts, creative and offers?
Email provides an unparalleled opportunity to test general marketing creative, copy and specific offers while also tweaking overall concepts and value propositions before they are implemented across other more expensive channels.

Email gives you the data you need to determine success.
Most marketers can gauge the success of their campaigns within 24 hours and make adjustments as needed. It is not a wait-and-see type of measurement approach that other marketing platforms have to deal with.

Email is a branding tool.
While some views may vary, email provides ongoing impressions and can impact brand awareness and reputation (both good and bad). Email should not be overlooked as a branding tool and, on the downside, as a branding liability when email campaigns behave badly.

Email cuts other costs.
Email is mainly seen as a relationship- and revenue-generating tool. However, one of the most underutilized aspects of email is to reduce costs from other sides of the house.

BrightWave Marketing is working with a one billion dollar company in a major cost reduction effort with email marketing as a centerpiece of these efforts. Think about the way email can minimize printing, call center and direct mail costs by stepping up email to handle those internal company newsletters, costly postcard direct pieces and proactively provide essential information that could often lead to a customer service call.

There are many other ways to ensure your email budget goes farther, but now is the time to make sure you champion these internally and add to your program's value to all stakeholders.

G. Simms Jenkins is founder and principal of BrightWave Marketing, an Atlanta-based email marketing and customer relationship services firm. Read full bio.