Email Marketing's Return on Investment

have always been impressed with the return on investment that so many American businesses have reported by using email.  Despite the massive amounts of SPAM messages in North America, Email marketing is clearly an inexpensive, easily trackable and highly effective form of marketing for North American and particularly global companies wishing to sell and market in the USA.
Last fall, the Direct Marketing Association released a report on the return on investment and spend of Email Marketers.  It reported that:

• Spending on direct marketing commercial e-mail in the United States will hit $600 million in 2008. That number represents an increase of nearly 25% over 2007.
   
• Commercial e-mail's ROI will hit $45.65 for every dollar spent in 2008.
   
• By comparison, direct response newspaper advertising ROI is $16.86, non-catalog direct mail ROI is $15.60, and telemarketing ROI is $8.61

It will be interesting to see if we get to these numbers by the time the year is out.
BOTTOM LINE...
Even with the proliferation of SPAM, the CANSPAM laws and the distaste American's have for unwanted email messages, direct response by email certainly is an effective medium when your firm considers selling and marketing in the US.
But your business, from the CEO on down need to be extremely careful when considering, planning and/or implementing email marketing strategies in North America.  Done correctly, you can see returns like those mentioned in this post.  Done improperly, your business may find itself in legal troubles or worse yet viewed poorly in your potential customer's perspective all based on the way you implement your strategic plans.