While brazen e-mail “spammers” have been rightfully relegated to the status of Web pariahs, a number of Canadian carriers have quietly discovered a powerful fact about the medium. When leveraged artfully, an ethical e-mail marketing strategy can run circles around the most stunning of Web sites.

Indeed, while the promise of the Web has understandably mesmerized the global marketplace, Internet research marketing firms already know that e-mail is currently the Internet’s true “killer application.”

Consider: of the more than 40 million adults online last year, 75% used e-mail, according to a Cyber Dialogue/Find SVP (www.cyberdialogue.com). Moreover, in another study conducted by the Electronic Messaging Association (www.ema.org) 108 million people are expected to be using e-mail by the end of 2000.

And according to Ann Handley, president and editor in chief of ClickZ Network (www.clickz.com) an e-commerce resource and analysis site, 95 percent of all Internet users currently have an e-mail address. Indeed, in the United States alone, 2.6 trillion e-mails were sent last year, according to Handley.

As the use of digital signatures and message encryption becomes more widespread, even the most sensitive of business data will be sent over the Internet. Bottom line: The already impressive e-mail traffic will continue to grow.

Given the staggering implication of these and similar e-mail use figures, it’s no wonder scores of Fortune 500 companies and others have integrated the e-mail medium into the very core of their online marketing strategy.

Specifically, these online marketers are using the medium for:

E-MAIL NEWSLETTERS: Once the purview of the academics and netizens who pioneered the Net en force in the late 1980s, e-mail newsletters are now also the darling of every business and corporation seeking to establish an ongoing relationship with customers and potential customers. A number of Internet newsletter creation and maintenance software packages – also known as “mailing lists” – are available. Vendors include GroupMaster from MessageMedia (www.messagemedia.com); Listserv Classic, from L-Soft International (www.lsoft.com); Liststar, from Starnine (www.starnine.com); and Lyris, from Shelby Group Ltd. (www.lyris.com). Meanwhile, firms that would rather outsource the maintenance of a corporate mailing list can turn to mailing list service providers such as eGroups (www.egroups.com).

E-MAIL NEWSLETTERS WITH HOTLINKS: A kind of “next generation” e-mail publication, newsletters with “hotlinks” enable subscribers to “click back” for more information and graphics on specials, new service announcements and the like. Essentially, these hotlinks transform an e-mail newsletter into a mobile Web page for a company. (Most e-mail newsletter software offers a hotlinks option.)

That’s the approach taken by Trimac and Overnite Transportation which embed a hotlink leading to company stock quotes in their electronic news releases.

E-MAIL ALERT SERVICES: After signing up for these services at company Web sites, subscribers receive special e-mail alerts when the company generates news of special interest – winning a safety award, the purchasing of new reefer equipment or the servicing of a new lane or market, for example. Indeed, a number of Internet information providers are already sending e-mail news alerts on all publicly traded and other significant corporations in the industry. Virtually all the major online brokerages now offer e-mail alert services that track the movement of corporate stock. And many of the full service online news services and online Internet service providers offer news tracking services, which enable subscribers to receive e-mail news alerts any time firms that interest them make news. Global Transport of Dartmouth, NS uses this approach. It offers e-mail alerts on rate requests made by visitors to its Web site. And Alberta’s Mullen Transportation has a sign-up at its site for e-mail-delivered company press release alerts.

INTERACTIVE E-MAIL NEWSLETTERS: Corporations looking to generate an ongoing dialogue often sponsor interactive e-mail newsletters to which every subscriber can add content. Such newsletters are perfect for developing new service ideas. (All titles from the newsletter vendors above offer a subscriber interactivity option.) Other interactive newsletters represent no one sponsor, but still represent an opportunity for any business to enhance its Net exposure. Any Canadian trucking company, for example, is free to add commentary to an interactive mailing list like “CalgarySusTrans,” an interactive newsletter targeting ideas to make Calgary’s transportation system infrastructure more sustainable. For more information, send e-mail to: calgarysustrans-owner@onelist.com

PARTICIPATION IN THIRD-PARTY E-MAIL NEWSLETTERS: Mailing list clearinghouse Liszt (www.liszt.com) tracks more than 90,000 special interest “mailing lists” or newsletters currently circulating the Net. Many corporations regularly add content to these newsletters to keep their names in front of readers with highly specific – and highly targetable — interests. Currently, Liszt tracks 22 mailing lists on transportation issues, including lists focusing on communication issues in transportation and promoting clean air in transportation.

Once you’ve experimented with e-mail marketing basics, you may want to move on to even more sophisticated uses of the medium. Most popular techniques among these include:

E-MAIL AUTORESPONDERS: Already popular with firms savvy in e-mail marketing, autoresponders enable Net surfers to send a simple e-mail to a pre-designated e-mail address and receive an “instant” e-mail bank on a subject area of highly specialized interest. Essentially: target marketing in its most precise implementation. Type “autoresponders” in any search engine for more information.

E-MAIL PRODUCT PIX-TO-GO: Now that sending pictures over the Net is a snap even on “beginner” services such as America Online, it’s no wonder companies are capitalizing on this facet of the technology to better represent their services via e-mail. Alternatively, trucking companies that would rather outsource the handling of sending data and photos over the Net can turn to press relations services like Toronto-based Canada Newswire (www.newswire.com).

E-MAIL SLIDESHOWS-TO-GO:

Take another look at the latest incarnation of programs such as Microsoft Powerpoint (www.microsoft.com) and Corel WordPerfect Office 2000 (www.corel.com) and you’ll find beefed up applications that enable a company to easily create and send a slideshow via the Net. Another extremely easy-to-use program: Catch-The-Web by Math Strategies (www.catchtheweb.com)

E-MAIL ANIMATIONS TO GO: Firms more at home creating and sending product or service animations via e-mail also have a slew of tools they can use. Software titles in this category – in addition to titles in the slideshow’s category above – include Hijaak Pro by IMSI software (www.imsisoft.com); PrintShop ProPublisher 2000 by Broderbund (www.printshop.com) and Barking Cards by Blaze Technologies (www.barkingcard.com).

E-MAIL PANORAMIC VIRTUAL REALITY TO GO: One of the most sophisticated graphic presentations that can be easily sent via e-mail, panoramic VR enables firms to create 360-degree virtual “walkthroughs” of their facilities. Apple Quicktime VR (www.apple.com) pioneered the medium. Other panoramic VR toolmakers include Communique (www.cvcmedia.com), and Infinite Pictures (www.smoothmove.com).

The tools exist to greatly enhance your e-mail marketing strategy but there is one caveat: None of this e-mail marketing technology will do any good if the resulting presentation is sent as “spam,” or unsolicited e-mail. Virtually anyone who has been on the Net more than 24 hours knows that spammers are the scourge of the Net, and that spamming is the quickest path to commercial suicide known today.