Return Path, Inc.

Q: "What's your opinion on using an affirmative opt-in email strategy versus an assumed opt-in strategy, when the subscriber groups include existing customers only (no prospects, leads, etc.) and email addresses have been pulled from a CRM system? These subscribers have not necessarily signed up to receive email on a website or through any other method."

By Matt Griffin Follow these six steps to test along the conversion funnel. As a cataloger, you spend time testing your circulation strategy, developing creative that will be a hit with your audience and building an image with which your customers can identify. But are you applying the same rigorous work to your e-mail campaigns? "Merchants test around their catalogs because catalogs are expensive to produce, and they don't want waste," says Eric Kirby, senior vice president and general manager for e-mail solutions at DoubleClick. "But because e-mail always has been cheap, they don't bother to test it as much as they should."

Almost 50 percent of consumers said that e-mail had at least some influence on their online purchases this past holiday season, a 10 percent increase from 2004, according to the Annual Holiday E-mail Consumer Survey, released in January by e-mail marketer Return Path. Comparatively, the survey showed 42 percent of consumers claim e-mail had no impact on their online holiday shopping habits. Other data revealed by the survey: * 50 percent of consumers took advantage of e-mail promotions. * 41 percent used e-mail to comparison shop. * 31 percent got gift ideas from e-mails. * 29 percent went to a retail store as a