According to the Cowan Group, an advertising agency, other means of web communication such as instant and social networking are becoming an increasingly common form of promotion.

Marcel Cowan, the agency’s director, explains that viral campaigns and other less orthodox means of communication are becoming part of the majority of new online advertising campaigns.

He adds: ‘As people become more connected through their devices, and the browser experience improves on mobiles, email will have to evolve into new e-communications methods.’

This will mean that advertising messages will have a bigger chance to ‘achieve stand-out’.

Research from Habeas found that while 65 per cent of respondents believe their main means of communication over the next five years will be email, other ways are also perceived to be useful.

Some 19 per cent think that they will use video conferencing and instant messaging is perceived as the main form of communication by 17 per cent of respondents.

The research showed that SMS text messages were anticipated to be the most-used by 12 per cent of those questioned.