If only 20, or even 100, people had been surveyed, we’d view any results with suspicion.  Datran Media contacted over 2,000 online marketing professionals, however, so the feedback seems pretty solid.

Also, the survey was conducted in December of 2007, so a recession was already well in sight and the onset of one shouldn’t change anyone’s opinions.  A recession doesn’t seem like the sort of thing that would affect a comparative analysis, anyway.

So on to the results.  Datran reports, "Overall, 82 percent of the marketers surveyed . . . indicated that they plan to increase their use of email marketing in 2008, and 55 percent of the respondents cite that they expect ROI from email to be higher than any other channel."

Businesses should know that this is a hot market, then, and, although we don’t want to be unfair to those businesses, individuals may do well to tweak their spam filters.