To rise above the spam, retailers are turning to a host of new email marketing technologies

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San Francisco-based Post Communications, a Netcentives company, is one vendor offering pay-for-performance pricing. Client prices are set according to the value of each customer name in a client database. “It is to our benefit then to increase the value of each name in that database,” says Post Communications President Cheryl Vedoe. “Performance pricing models are becoming part of the marketplace.”

With the emphasis on performance pricing expected to grow, precision marketing will become more critical, according to email marketing experts. “The key to email marketing, which is still in its infancy, is to create meaningful dialog with customers in a responsible way,” says Rizzi. “Precision email is delightful to read, and getting customers to read your email is the first step to generating incremental sales.”

Peter Lucas is a Chicago-based freelance business writer.