Digital marketing firm Interactive Prospect Targeting (IPT) announced a report that states that half of marketing professionals surveyed intend to increase their email marketing budget in the next year.

The IPT study found that a 75 percent of marketers surveyed believe that email is an effective customer retention tool and 51 percent plan to increase their budgets regarding email marketing.

"Provided email addresses have been collected fairly, the cost and resource benefits of frequent email as opposed to direct mail are undeniable. More and more people will adopt email for customer acquisition as they become more confident of opt-in legislation and creative treatment," says Martin Kiersnowski, chief officer, IPT.