email marketing is fast emerging as the most effective Internet promotional tool. It’s fast, precise, and cost-effective. Plus, it allows marketing managers to execute Internet-based promotions with unparalleled precision. With email marketing, you can deliver your message to the right target to generate high-quality traffic to your web site. The best part: you only send your message to the people who want to know more about your products and services. As a result, this promotional tool has generated higher-than-average response rates (as high as 15 percent and even higher for some companies). Such superior response rates are due in part to two distinct characteristics of email marketing: (1) recipients have elected to receive information about specific product or service categories. This makes an audience more responsive to the marketing messages it receives. When a member decides s/he does not to receive promotional email messages anymore, s/he can simply opt-out or unsubscribe. (2) Email marketing is relatively new. The novelty effect has helped numerous marketers achieve superior returns on investments. But the environment is changing rapidly. As the excitement for this Internet tool builds, it is rapidly joining the class of main stream marketing tools. This means recipients receive more messages every day; response rates drop. While 5 to 15 percent response rates were not unusual 24 months ago, today the average return is around 3 to 4 percent. Nonetheless, the fact …