A new report has predicted that spending on email marketing platforms and services in the UK will rise by almost a quarter this year.

The Email Marketing Platforms Buyer's Guide from E-consultancy suggested that expenditure on the channel will increase by 24 per cent to reach £274 million by the end of 2008.

Companies are spending more on the medium despite the cost of email delivery continuing to fall, as it makes good sense financially, the report's authors indicated.

Furthermore, email is now more integrated within the managed emarketing mix and businesses have an improved understanding of the returns on investment email marketing can offer, according to the publication.

Head of research at E-consultancy Linus Gregoriadis told Precision Marketing: "Despite the general economic downturn, email service providers will continue to prosper.

"In turbulent times, it makes more financial sense than ever for companies to focus on marketing to their own customers and prospects."

About 23 per cent of online marketing budgets are now spent on email, according to a separate E-consultancy report, the 2008 Email Marketing Industry Census.

Living Streams' comment:  With modern hosted email marketing systems, complete email programmes can be designed which automatically segment subscribers from interests indicated by reaction to early messages.  Thus, as the programme proceeds, each subscriber is provided with information more and more specifically addressing the needs that they have identified.  The whole process can run with little or no human intervention except refinement to improve return.