An Irish-American startup has set its sights on legitimating bulk email as a one to one marketing tool. E-Contacts Corp, based in Boston and Dublin, has launched a service designed to help web retailers handle email leads in a more organized and automated way. When web users send email to an online retailer, the company can supply these qualified leads to E-Contacts. For $2000 per month, E-Contacts will send out personalized mail to reassure inquirers that someone has received and read their mail. Every positive reply earns E-Contacts another $2.50, meaning it’s in the company’s interests to elicit a happy response. E-Contacts says its system is designed to separate the 5%-10% of people ready to make an immediate purchase from the 50% who are merely tire-kicking, without alienating the 40% who may buy if given enough time and attention. Tire-kickers will demand to be removed, and weak prospects will keep getting follow-ups at increasing intervals. CEO George Reynolds claims that because his company is responding to genuine inquiries, it doesn’t attract the opprobrium with which most net users regard traditional mass email marketing. It’s bulk email without the spam, he concludes.