Email marketing should not be abused, according to an expert in the field.

Technical director at dotCommerce Simon Bird explained that a website works as a conversion engine compelling people to buy things, while email marketing is a retention mechanism which can help people talk to customers who have bought with the company.

As a result, the organisations which adopt a strong strategy in this arena will naturally become "market leaders".

Mr Bird added that while email marketing is seen as cheap and therefore a tempting proposition to "bombard" customers with deals, this is a huge mistake on the part of small businesses in IT hoping to make a good reputation for themselves.

He concluded: "We try and get customers to segment that data and not to send them offers constantly but instead ask customers how often they want to be contacted and what information they want."

Recent research from eMarketer shows that online retailing has not been immune from the recession, with sales in the summer months slowing slightly.

In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were guaranteed response times and allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues.