Merkle released its annual e-mail marketing ‘View from the Inbox’™ study. This study measures and tracks attitudes and behaviors toward permission-based e-mail among U.S. consumers and points to several trends in consumers’ attitudes and use of permission-based e-mail marketing:

• Consumers feel in control: Most consumers (88%) feel mostly or completely in control of their inboxes – up nine points from 2004.
• General attitudes toward corporate e-mail are positive: More people (58%) believe e-mail is a great way for companies to stay in touch – up from 45% three years ago.
• E-mail is effective: Half of the respondents made an online purchase in the previous year as a result of permission-based marketing – up 3 percentage points from one year ago.
• E-mail can influence decisioning: Half of respondents reported that a company that does a good job with e-mail influenced their decision to do business – up 6% points from last year. However, e-mail can also close doors:About one-third (32%) have stoppeddoing business with at least one company as a result of poor e-mail marketing practices.
• Relevancy is in the eye of the beholder: Consumers (41%) consider transaction confirmation emails to be most relevant, followed by account summary emails (18%).

The report is available for download here.