Borell published a new study, Direct Mail Falls, E-mail Soars stating that as more consumers are moving to the internet for their purchase and decision making, the mainstays of direct mail marketing continue to post steep declines.Right after the declines in newspaper and yellow page advertising, the most metric based of print advertising has finally caught up with the change in marketing technology.

While the doom and gloom on the decline of direct mail is not surprising. The findings that small businesses are turning more toward email marketing for local marketing has staggering growth levels.

Borrell is predicting that email will continue to distance itself from other online advertising formats over the next five years, growing to $15.7 billion and remaining the preferred channel among many marketers. In particular, most of the growth in email marketing will be local, the report forecasts.

“We’re expecting local e-mail advertising to grow from $848 million in 2008, to $2 billion in 2013, as more small businesses abandon direct mail couponing and promotional orders and turn to a more measurable and less costly medium, e-mail.”

Borrell’s Keys to Local Email Marketing

“Managing large e-mail marketing campaigns require database marketing expertise, a savvy sales force, adequate e-mail management software, familiarity with the rules and regulations and a lot of patience.”

Local email marketing should be a more attractive marketing channel because of its low cost and easier to see metrics and ease of testing. All three make for a better marketing channel than what direct mail could offer a small business serving a local market.