BtoB reports on eMarketers predictions for online marketing:

New York—Internet research company eMarketer has released the following predictions for the online marketing industry in 2006:

• Online advertising will pass the 5% mark, with 5.4% of total U.S. advertising spent on online.
• Retail e-commerce will grow from $87 billion in 2005 to $105 billion, a 21% increase.
• The U.S. broadband market will grow to 124 million users, from 105 million users in 2005.
• Spending on Internet video advertising will increase by 71% to $385 million.
• The number of video phone users in the U.S. will more than double from 1.2 million to more than 3 million.
• Search engine users will grow to 146 million, from 138 million in 2005.
• The number of VoIP access lines will grow to just fewer than 14.5 million, from an estimated 10 million in 2005.

Here are some interesting stats from eMarketer in relation to the useage of email. Look at the way things have changed over the years. 44% of people state they monitor their email constantly. Where do you fit into the mix? The data is here scales between peoples personal and professional lives. I wonder how many people monitor their email “constantly” after they return from home from work. It’s amazing to see that some folks still only check their email once a week. I have been in the “constantly” column for the last 5 years. If you want to get me quick - email is always the fastest way. Email continues to be an increasingly expanding channel to reach consumers and business professionals. Thanks eMarketer for the great article.

• November 2005 keyword prices dropped 11% on average from November 2004.
• Google reported a 96% increase in third quarter revenue from the same quarter in 2004.

These two seemingly contradictory facts make sense once you dig a little deeper. The source of the keyword statistics, Fathom Online, tracks the price of generic keywords over time. As internet users have grown in number they have also become more search-engine savvy. They have begun to move beyond generic terms to more complicated phrases that include a city name or other descriptors.

This has allowed search marketers to diversify the keywords that they target. The result is phenomenal growth in search marketing spending even while most keywords continue to provide an exceptional return on a modest marketing dollar.

Bill McCloskey writes about some of his email predictions for 2006 in this weeks Email Insider. His top predictions include:

Prediction 1: My No. 1 prediction is that we are going to see a renaissance in e-mail marketing.

Prediction 2: It’s still too early for RSS. We may see the Year for RSS at some point, but 2006 is not it.

Prediction 3: Spam is not going away, but nobody will care.

Prediction 4: E-mail will surpass search in the battle for marketers’ hearts and minds.I would have to agree whole heartedly with Bills predictions, the signs are evident on all 4 predictions. Email has evolved and is now about to mature as a medium. The renaissance that Bill predicts is very much about marketers getting smart about their data, their analytics, which allows them to get to know their customers even better and hence communicate with them on a powerful one to one basis.RSS is indeed on the rise and will no doubt play a key role in marketing communications. It is though as Bill states, still a “geeks toy”

Spam will still indeed be with us. However I believe deliverability will improve, and email marketing will continue to grow and become a powerful arsenal for every smart marketer.

Good news for the online world, a new eMarketer study found that B2B marketers are shifting up to 25% of their budgets online. Thats an impressive shift that will continue to drive the online media landscape forward. The survey consisted of 867 B2B marketers - click here to access the article.

We all know that email marketing done right is much easier said than done. Its important for any marketer to have a solid understanding of the key issues surrounding the medium. I find that when I look at the writing about the “issues” in email, you see a ton about deliverability. However, its key to stay focused on the big picture in the email landscape. Marketing Sherpa has just released a report entitled “Four Key Email Marketing Alerts for 2006″ (executive summary) to give marketers insight on what they should be paying attention to in the new year.

Here are the top 4 alerts that are covered in detail:

Alert #1. Getting bad results? Don’t blame email marketing, blame your execution
Alert #2. Human eyes read more text when email includes pictures
Alert #3. The Arc of Attention — Email Opt-in Recency
Alert #4. Filter hell continues…

I think Anita Campbell said it right in her reaction to the first alert:

“The businesses that are getting good results are those that work hard at it. They test their techniques to see which ones work best, and they adapt their practices. Also, they segment their lists and tailor their messages. Sure this takes time and effort. No pain, no gain. “

As the holiday season and the new year rolls in, its a good time to evaluate your email marketing strategy and see where you can improve. As the landscape continues to change its important to make sure you are up on all of the key elements surrounding successful email marketing.

Every few months another vendor in the email marketing space releases a study on the best day to send email. Some of these articles contain more self-promotion than wisdom but some have also delivered a lot of value. One of the better articles I’ve seen is posted here on eMarketer.

Some of the key findings include:

• Midweek is the low point for open and click-through rates.
• Friday and Sunday have the highest overall rates.
• Average open and click-through rates were 27% and 4.4%.
• For a number of reasons, response rates vary substantially with list size.
• Large senders had the best response on Saturday. Presumably, larger lists are more often B2C lists. Sending on Saturday catches consumers on the day when they are shopping.
• Small senders had the best response on Friday.

In general, like many other variables in email marketing, the best day to send varies greatly depending on your audience, your purpose, and content.