E-commerce, which is worth $4.5 billion, is set to become a $15-billion business in the year 2000, he said.

According to him, with portals becoming more powerful than ever before, brands have begun to use the Web more effectively to fuel growth.He added that Net-based marketing enjoys several advantages over the traditional form as it seeks permission before information is sent out.

Unlike traditional marketing, which is usually done over mass media such as television, in permission marketing (Net marketing) there is no clutter of messages. Besides, messages can be made more personal and relevant to the prospect.

Further, permission marketing offers better reach and frequency at lower costs thus enabling delivery of messages to as many prospectsas possible with consistent repetitions. "Frequency is the building block of advertising," he added.

Drawing similarities between permission marketing and dating, he said that companies should seek out desired prospects and provide them with incentives to volunteer to access a portal hyperlink.

They should then use the attention received to educate the prospects about the types of products or services they are offering and then offer more incentives to gain further permission.Permission marketing offers six benefits including better speed of testing, higher response rate and frequency of messages come at no cost. American Airlines, American Express, Amazon, AOL and Yahoo are examples of companies which have leveraged Web technologies successfully, he added. AOL and Yahoo, for instance, offer a variety of services.

Mickler said companies should use fusion marketing which is an integrated suite of measurable programmes that can be used by companies to leverage their businesses. Various fusion marketingtools should be used together to generate awareness, preference, trial and build loyalty.

Awareness could be created with targeted ad banners, preference through online promotions, trial through e-mails, coupons and discounts and loyalty by creating online clubs and communities.