Everyone is looking to do more with less these days. When you compare the cost of postal mail—about a dollar a piece—to the cost of email —about a penny a piece—any B2B marketer is going to prefer using email as the medium for staying in touch with current customers and inquirers. No brainer, right?

But here’s the rub: Most B2B companies have email addresses for only a fraction of their customers. And even worse, if their privacy policies call for opt-in, only a fraction of that fraction will receive the email.

Consider the case of Cicso Systems, the networking hardware giant. Although 45 to 50 percent of Cicso’s global house file contains email addresses, only 29 percent of those are opted in. Doing the math, that’s a mere 14 percent of the file that can be contacted via email.

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