If you are reading this article, you are living proof of the power of permission-based e-mail marketing. But if you need still more evidence that e-mail marketing can work for your company, there’s plenty of it.

Take, for instance, the most recent e-mail trend report from DoubleClick, which -- among other metrics -- tracks e-mail marketing click-through rates by industry. The most recent DoubleClick study (for 4Q03) found the click-through rates increased on a year-to-year basis in all but one of the six business categories it tracks. (The six are Consumer Publishing, Consumer Products & Services, Business Products & Services, Business Publishing, Retail & Catalog, and Travel.)

The lowest performing of these categories, Business Publishing, still had 7.3 percent of e-mails delivered result in a Web site visit. The highest category, Consumer Products & Services, had a 10 percent click-through rate.

Even more important, the enthusiasm of consumers and businesses alike for e-mail from trusted vendors and partners seems to be withstanding the continuing and growing problems of SPAM. With SPAM reaching epidemic proportions, you might expect e-mail open rates to be declining. But the DoubleClick study shows them holding steady at 36.8 percent, up slightly from the same quarter 2002 number (36.4 percent) and down only slightly from the 3Q03 level of 37.1 percent.

For e-mail marketers engaged in eCommerce, tracked in the Retail & Catalog category, direct revenue trackable to e-mail communications increased from an average of 21 cents per e-mail in 4Q02 to 26 cents per e-mail in 4Q03. For every thousand pieces of mail sent, 3.17 purchases resulted. The average order size was $100.

Knowing that a quality, measurable e-mail marketing program is well within the reach of any company, why are so many businesses still on the sidelines? It’s hard to know. But there’s no reason for yours to be one of them.