Smart Ideas

P>Different from spamming, e-mail marketing (also called permission marketing) involves renting targeted lists for sending information online.

With e-mail marketing, response time is much faster than with traditional direct marketing-and it's cheaper. "It's done electronically, so the costs are lower," says Keith Pacheco, co-owner of FBK Enterprises, a Greenville, Rhode Island, direct-mail company that specializes in e-mail marketing.

Clients with trendy, timely products and services are prime candidates for e-mail marketing. Pacheco says businesses pitching hardware, software and Internet-related products online, as well as marketers offering unique products, are especially successful.

This article was originally published in the January 1999 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Smart Ideas.