Amazing statistics reported in the DMA's latest research report on direct marketing (available here), in the words of Bill McCloskey, CEO of Email Data Source:

The ROI for e-mail marketing was $57.25 for every dollar spent. The ROI of all non-e-mail-related online marketing was $22.52, less than half. And yet marketers only spent around $300 million on e-mail marketing efforts, compared to $12 billion for non-e-mail-related marketing--$12 billion to get a return that is less than half of what can be achieved in e-mail.

We also know that the return on e-mail is much higher for companies that segment their e-mail marketing offers, so the $57.25 is really just a drop in the bucket compared to what the ROI potential is for e-mail.

We also know that, especially for retail, e-mail is considered the largest demand-generating medium for online retailers.

So where is the disconnect: e-mail provides over twice the ROI, but companies now invest only 02.5% of what they put into other Internet marketing channels? Someone is getting taken for a ride.