Direct email marketing is a format for email-based campaigns in which standalone advertisements are sent to a targeted list of recipients. The messages, which may be text, HTML, or rich media, look like Web-based ads rather than typical email messages. A number of elements make direct email marketing different from spam or other less sophisticated email campaigns. For example, the sender may use customer segmentation techniques to ensure that the message is appropriate for the group it's sent to, and use personalization techniques so the recipient is addressed as an individual