Relevancy 'key to email marketing'

Marketing messages are considered to be spam if they are not relevant to the recipient, an expert has explained.

Al DiGuido, chief executive officer for email marketing company Zustek, made his comments through a post on the ClickZ network.

He suggested that in the first few years of the internet, recipients were so delighted to receive an email that they would often respond positively.

This changed when the internet became overloaded with consumer choices and advertising, Mr DiGuido claimed.

Now, in order to attract consumers to a brand it is necessary to build an "ongoing communication stream", he continued.

"The new messaging paradigm demands the marketer take the insight gained by a new, more robust customer database management capability and build dynamic, contextually relevant dialogues with customers on a one-on-one basis," Mr DiGuido urged.

Research conducted recently by the Direct Marketing Association revealed more than 80 per cent of marketers anticipate increasing their spending on email marketing.

However, its National Client Email Marketing Survey discovered that the average firm possesses only 50 per cent of its clients' email addresses.