Users could then receive direct marketing and tailor-made information by opt-in e-mail, Dr Lai Kok Fung said at a conference session at India Internet World on the future of opt-in mail. Customers have control over opt-in mail. Mr Fung spoke of direct marketing by e-mail, pointing out that it was much cheaper than pasting and posting paper and allowed for frequent communication. Graphics and other add-ons could be used in the HTML format, he added. Mr Fung pointed to the example of a Thai tyre manufacturer, who solved the problem of marketing such a relatively uninteresting product, by sponsoring motor-sports such as safaris and running a newsletter by e-mail on the events and related content like the drivers' personal lives.

He also cited the example of a Chinese set of English tutorials accompanied by real audio attachments. Mr Fung pointed out the need to study how many mails a marketer needed to send, how often, whether in plain text or HTML format and whether he had the resources to manage regular, timely supply, particularly when sudden success led to a quantum leap in the number of mail needed at one go. He emphasised on the need to provide for easy procedures required to unsubscribe and for double opt-in (by requesting confirmation of opt-in) to ensure that a subscriber had not been lured in inadvertently and registered by a spammer. He advised against reminders to double opt in, holding that 70 to 80 per cent confirmation was "good". He also advised marketers to immediately provide easy unsubscribe instructions. He warned that there were black lists of regular spammers, mail from whom was just not delivered by services like Hotmail.com. It did not even bounce back, just disappeared into a "black hole.