With millions of Indians having access to e-mails and their number growing rapidly, e-mail marketing is expected to grow at over 100 per cent every year, an industry expert has said.

E-mail marketing is a form of direct marketing that uses electronic mail as means of communicating commercial or fund-raising messages to audience.

"The potential of e-mail marketing is huge as it is one of the most effective marketing vehicles offering great opportunities to businesses. With e-mail marketing being seen as the fastest medium to create new business and push sales, we expect it to grow at over 100 per cent every year," Abhijit Saxena, chief executive officer of Netcore, a messaging and mobile data services provider, told PTI here.

E-mails, directly or indirectly, influence 48 per cent of the marketing budget of an average size enterprise and are used mainly for promotional and informational purposes, he said.

"E-mail marketing is a potent tool in the hands of a skilled marketer. It is much more than product and technology.

It is actually about building an eco-system where marketers identify a class of curious buyers, qualify them as prospects, engage with them and make an appropriate pitch to convert them into customers. All this by just a simple e-mail," he said.

Around 80-90-million Indians have access to e-mails.

"E-mail marketing is probably one of the effective ways to attract new customers, keep in touch with existing ones and minimise operating costs. We are targeting these 80-90 million people for growth of e-mail marketing business," Saxena said.

The total e-mail marketing size is around Rs 40 crore and "we expect the market to grow up to Rs 500 crore in the next few years," he said.