"Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated", quipped Mark Twain. Email could well quip the same with each ominous prediction that users will move on to the next new things such as social networks and text messaging. Not so says the latest survey of members of the Direct Marketer's Association. For starters, they are allocating a greater share of their overall marketing budgets to email every year, increasing from 9.6% in 2005 to 14.2% in 2007. Meanwhile, the average total percentage of revenue produced by email marketing is now 11.86%.

Other key trends are:

1. Still mainly a customer retention tool:
   About 75% of all email campaigns were for retention, and 25% for acquisition.



2. Web forms are the biggest source of opt-ins:
   About 60% of email contacts opted in through Web page forms, while offline signup accounted for 22%. B2C respondents had a much higher portion of Web opt-ins - 90%.



3. Average email database is 20% new customers:
   This is a good indicator of the dynamism of this channel and the growth of email marketing databases.



4. And they make a disproportionate (27%) share of new purchases:
   The challenge is to extend the honeymoon as long as possible and keep them happy.



5. Average duration of a Web page visit generated by an email campaign is more than 5 minutes:
   Make certain that a Web page is worth visiting and lingering over.



6. Demographic information is the most widely used criteria for segmentation:
   But usage of behavioral information is growing as well, such as previous online and offline behaviour.



7. Average email frequency has increased since 2005:
   B2C mailers send nearly twice as often as B2B - every 10 days vs. 18 days for B2B.



8. Experts keep their messages short:
   When dividing respondents into levels of expertise, the average email message size for so-called beginners is a tome-like 350 words; intermediates average 235 words, and experts a svelte 109.