Today's gloomy economic climate means that it is a good time for firms to use email to advertise their brand and company website to their customer base.

Business should recognise the role email can play in managed emarketing to enhance website promotion and communication with customers, it has been suggested.

Email is a communications vehicle as well as a sales tool and the need to reach out to consumers is important more than ever given the impact of the credit crunch, an expert has argued.

Loren McDonald, vice president of industry relations for email service provider Silverpop, told Email Insider: "As the global financial quagmire continues and further contributes to an economic slowdown, smart marketers will use email to help retain customers and maintain or strengthen their brands."

Email can be used to update customers on issues that might affect the use of an organisation's service and be used as a form of website promotion, by educating customers online on how to make the most out of a firms' service, Mr McDonald said.

Customers can be encouraged to shop online, which will help give companies' a high website ranking, he added.

More than 16 million households in Great Britain have access to the internet in 2008 compared to 11 million in 2002, according to research from Ofcom.