email marketing service providers comparison q4 2009

8/3/2019 Email Marketing Service Providers Comparison q4 2009

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Making Leaders Successul Every Day

Deceme 23, 2009

The Feste Wae: EmaiMaketig Seice Pides,Q4 2009 Cat A. Dt ad Jie M. Katz

f Iteactie Maketig Pfessias
http://www.forrester.com/


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2009, Feste reseach, Ic. repdcti Phiited Deceme 23, 2009

The Feste Wae: Emai Maketig Seice Pides, Q4 2009

F Iteactie Maketig Pfessias

3

Fire 1 The Impact of A Dw Ecm o Emai Maketig Pgams

Source: Forrester Research, Inc.47833

Other

We've cut back on the number ofemails we send

Our budget increased

Our budget was cut

No change

We lost staff

We're emailing more frequently

We need to pick up the slack for other, moreexpensive marketing programs

We're trying to make our communicationmore relevant

48%

35%

34%

20%

17%

14%

11%

6%

5%

How has the current economic situation altered your email program?

Source: Q2 2009 Global Email Marketing Service Provider Forrester Wave Customer Online Survey

Base: 218 email marketers who are customers of vendors in Forresters Wave evaluation

TOugh ChAllEngES ARE RAISIng EMAIl MARKETERS ExPECTATIOnS OF VEnDORS

Marketers anticipate continued challenges in list growth and optimizing their email marketingprograms. Additionally, they have high expectations or the continued improvement in email

marketing eectiveness (see Figure 2). In order to meet todays challenges and prepare or the uture,

email marketers seek the ollowing:

Strategic guidance rom vendors to aid in advancing program sophistication. Emailmarketers must continually prove their worth to the rest o the organization and perpetually

optimize their email marketing programs. Te vendors with the highest levels o client

satisaction have clients that repeatedly told us that their vendors were pushing them to be more

sophisticated and relevant. Given the increasing complexity o the email marketing channel

including the need to integrate email with social and mobile channels the call or strategic

guidance will only continue to grow in importance.

Programmed repeatability to ease integration and campaign optimization. In order toincrease both campaign eectiveness and eciency, marketers need the ability to easily

automate programs by using triggers. In act, we heard rom several reerence clients that they

desire more repeatable integrations and custom programs rom their vendors. One client stated,


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2009, Feste reseach, Ic. repdcti PhiitedDeceme 23, 2009



4

We see what they have done or another one o their clients and we want to implement that,

but they tell us it will be a custom deployment. We wish they could more easily deploy or us

what they have built or others. In Forresters evaluation, vendors that package integrations and

triggered campaign libraries achieved higher levels o client satisaction than those that do not.

Analytics capabilities to measure eectiveness and discover new opportunities. Given theprolieration o multiple digital channels, marketers have a greater need or analytics, which

is ueling the ESPs quest to oer integrated marketing solutions. One client stated that, We

would like to implement some o these new social oerings that they are pitching us, but we

eel that the vendor should be investing more in their current analytics oering so we can fnd

more value in our current lists beore we add new unctionality. Marketers are clearly primed

to implement relevancy-empowering tactics in the uture. Accordingly, their appetite or more

robust analytics will increase as they strive to measure program eectiveness across channels.


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5

Fire 2 Maketes High Epectatis Ad Chaeges

Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

Decrease12%

Stay thesame19%

Increase68%

Notapplicable

1%

Integrating email with social marketing

Coordinating email with other campaigns

Creating and managing email content

Measuring email's impact on the bottom line

Leveraging dynamic content

Integrating email with customer database

Having adequate staffing resources

Retaining current email subscribers

Managing email frequency and cadence

Leveraging segmentation

Finding new email subscribers

Increasing open and click-through rates

20%

20%

20%

26%

26%

27%

29%

29%

36%

38%

44%

49%

Base: 218 email marketers who are customers of vendors in Forresters Wave evaluation

Top five emailmarketer challengeshighlight increased

optimizationexpectations

In the next three years, do you think email marketings effectiveness will increase, stay the same,or decrease?

2-2

What are the biggest email marketing challenges you expect to face in the next two years?2-1

Source: Q2 2009 Global Email Marketing Service Provider Forrester Wave Customer Online Survey


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6

EMAIl MARKETIng SERVICE PROVIDER EVAluATIOn OVERVIEw

o assess the state o the email marketing service provider market and see how the vendors stack up

against each other, Forrester evaluated the strengths and weaknesses o top ESP vendors.

Evaatio Criteria

Aer examining past research, user needs, and vendor and expert interviews, we developed a

comprehensive set o evaluation criteria. We evaluated vendors against 69 criteria, which we

grouped into three high-level buckets:

Current oering. We looked at each vendors oering in terms o unctionality, technologyplatorm, and services. o align with customer needs, we paid particular attention to vendors

campaign automation capabilities, analysis and reporting unctionality, integration abilities, and

breadth o both analytical and strategy services.

Strategy. As in years past, we assessed each vendors management team, executive vision, andproduct road map. We included criteria to gauge the strength o their employee base, ability to

support specifc vertical industries, and the breadth o marketing needs that the vendors can

support.

Market presence. o benchmark the relative size o each vendors email business, we evaluatedfnancial growth, employee distribution, and the size and sophistication o its customer base. In

addition, we considered the fnancial stability o parent companies and the percent o parent

revenues contributed by email.

Tis evaluation o the email service provider market is intended to be a starting point only. Readers

are encouraged to view detailed product evaluations and adapt the criteria weightings to ft their

individual needs through the Forrester Wave Excel-based vendor comparison tool.

Evaated Vedors have Estabised Market Viabiit Ad Cstomer Sccess

We assessed each vendor oering against 69 criteria and on the basis o conversations with

key executives and customer reerences, platorm demonstrations, and a review o supporting

documents. We limited our evaluation to 15 email marketing service providers that serve todays

market. We selected these vendors rom a list o 40 email service providers based on (see Figure 3):

Sofware as a service. All vendors in this evaluation deploy their solutions as hosted ASPsolutions. Tis deployment model typifes the ESP marketplace. Tis precluded solutions that

are primarily deployed in an on-premise ashion such as Strongmail.

Revenues rom email. We ocused on vendors that have at least $10 million in global revenuerom their email business. Tis eliminated vendors such as Bronto that did not make this

revenue milestone.


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8

ClIEnT SATISFACTIOn, InnOVATIOn COMMITMEnT, AnD SERVICES DEPTh DRIVE

SuCCESS

Te evaluation uncovered a market in which (see Figure 4):

Eight vendors achieve Leader status as champions o innovation and sophistication.Responsys, Exactarget, e-Dialog, Acxiom, Yesmail, Experian Marketing Services, Epsilon,

and Zeta Interactive all demonstrate highly competitive capabilities, making vendor selection

challenging. Tese leading vendors oer robust integration capabilities, a commitment to

product innovation, and the ability to meet client needs on many levels. While narrowly

separated, there are distinct dierences in key attributes including client satisaction, emerging

channel (e.g., social and mobile) capabilities, and application usability. While nearly all vendors

in this Wave provide dierent service engagement models, these leaders are largely ocused on

delivering packaged strategic services to assist in advancing client sophistication (see Figure 5).

Datran Media, Silverpop, and ClickSquared oer competitive options. Tese vendors arestrong perormers and many have been included in the Wave process or the frst time. While

they oer much unctionality, these service providers oerings are less comprehensive than

their peers and/or their ocus is on niche parts o the broader marketplace. Tis makes this

segment o vendors a strong competitive option or some, but not all, marketers. Tese frms are

most appropriate or specifc verticals such as travel or midmarket companies and/or those that

are ocused on acquisition or partner channel development.

Lyris, BlueHornet, Alterian, and Emailvision are sae bets. While these vendors have theirindividual strengths, they lack eatures such as advanced segmentation and analysis tools that

would meet the demands o todays enterprise-class clients. Te strength o the vendors in thiscategory is that they are specialists in one area such as service message delivery or mobile

message delivery. However, they have yet to illustrate a comprehensive solution that aids the

marketer in executing all o the interactive messaging channels that are tied to email as well as

the strategic services that are necessary to make these endeavors successul.

Tis evaluation o the ESP market is intended to be a starting point only. We encourage readers

to view detailed product evaluations and adapt the criteria weightings to ft their individual needs

through the Forrester Wave Excel-based vendor comparison tool.


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9

Fire 4 Feste Wae: Emai Maketig Seice Pides, Q4 2009


Go online to download

the Forrester Wave tool

for more detailed product

evaluations, feature

comparisons, and

customizable rankings.

Risky

Bets Contenders Leaders

Strong

Performers

StrategyWeak Strong

Current

offering

Weak

Strong

Market presence

Full vendor participation

Yesmail

Experian Marketing Services Responsys

Emailvision Lyris

ExactTarget

Acxiom

e-Dialog

Epsilon

Zeta Interactive

SilverpopDatran Media

ClickSquared

BlueHornet

Alterian


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10

Fire 4 Feste Wae: Emai Maketig Seice Pides Q4 2009 (Ct.)


Acxiom

Alterian

BlueHornet

ClickSquared

DatranMedia

e-Dialog

Emailvision

Epsilon

CURRENT OFFERING

Breadth of offering

Functionality

Technology platform

Services

STRATEGY

Strength of

management team

Strength of

employee base

Executive vision

Product road map

Vertical strategy

Cost

MARKET PRESENCEFinancial viability

Total employees

Physical locations and

geographic reach

Customers

4.45

0.00

4.35

4.43

4.62

4.00

3.00

5.00

5.00

3.00

5.00

0.00

4.324.15

5.00

5.00

3.65

Forresters

Weighting

50%

0%

40%

30%

30%

50%

20%

25%

20%

30%

5%

0%

0%40%

25%

10%

25%

2.15

0.00

2.51

2.86

0.95

2.65

3.00

1.00

3.00

4.00

0.00

0.00

1.301.35

0.00

5.00

1.05

2.31

0.00

2.57

2.40

1.88

2.50

3.00

3.00

1.00

3.00

1.00

0.00

1.451.40

1.00

3.00

1.35

3.12

0.00

2.98

3.41

3.04

2.70

3.00

3.00

2.00

3.00

1.00

0.00

1.551.40

1.00

3.00

1.75

3.60

0.00

4.14

4.09

2.42

3.40

3.00

3.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

0.00

3.103.55

2.00

3.00

3.50

4.68

0.00

4.35

4.81

5.00

4.00

5.00

5.00

3.00

3.00

5.00

0.00

3.603.35

4.00

4.00

3.45

2.11

0.00

2.47

3.07

0.67

2.20

3.00

3.00

1.00

2.00

1.00

0.00

2.052.25

2.00

3.00

1.40

4.54

0.00

4.57

4.80

4.23

3.25

1.00

4.00

5.00

3.00

3.00

0.00

4.114.80

4.00

5.00

2.75

ExactTarget

ExperianMarketingServi

ces

4.53

0.00

4.70

4.80

4.05

4.75

5.00

4.00

5.00

5.00

5.00

0.00

3.902.75

5.00

3.00

5.00

4.59

0.00

4.15

4.91

4.86

3.70

5.00

5.00

3.00

2.00

5.00

0.00

4.905.00

5.00

5.00

4.60

Lyris

Responsys

2.14

0.00

2.10

2.29

2.04

2.95

3.00

3.00

5.00

2.00

0.00

0.00

2.441.85

3.00

2.00

3.00

4.45

0.00

4.78

4.47

3.99

5.00

5.00

5.00

5.00

5.00

5.00

0.00

3.172.30

3.00

5.00

4.00

Silvepop

Yesmail

3.43

0.00

4.52

4.29

1.12

3.45

5.00

3.00

1.00

5.00

0.00

0.00

2.721.85

3.00

4.00

3.30

4.72

0.00

4.53

4.70

5.00

3.60

5.00

3.00

1.00

5.00

3.00

0.00

3.814.65

3.00

5.00

2.80

Zetainteractive

3.99

0.00

3.84

4.11

4.08

3.50

3.00

3.00

3.00

5.00

1.00

0.00

1.821.20

2.00

3.00

2.15

All scores are based on a scale of 0 (weak) to 5 (strong).


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Fire 5 veds Ciet Mi b Tpe of Seices Depmet

Source: Forrester Research, Inc.47833

Self-serviceCollaborativeFull-service

Source: information provided by vendors

Base: 16 email vendors

Using the following definitions as a guide, please indicate the percentage of clients

that are engaged with your organization in each of the following ways.

Zeta Interactive

Yesmail

Silverpop

Responsys

Premiere GlobalServices

Lyris

Experian MarketingServices

ExactTarget

Epsilon

Emailvision

e-Dialog

Datran Media

ClickSquared

BlueHornet

Alterian

Acxiom

43% 57%

37% 21% 42%

8%3%

89%

10% 50% 40%

5% 10% 85%

1%40% 59%

47% 12% 41%

5% 20% 75%

60% 10% 30%

20% 10% 70%

46%3%

51%

30% 15% 55%

50% 30% 20%

12% 49% 39%

100%

60% 15% 25%


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VEnDOR PROFIlES

leaders Are Best Aied For lare Eterprise Depomets

Responsys. Te vendor oers a suite o six dierent marketing modules including acomprehensive module or creating and executing campaigns. Additional modules provideunctionality that is specifc to planning and analysis. Clients are overall very pleased with the

companys continual ability to innovate.

ExactTarget. Exactarget has vastly expanded its organization to cater to marketers in anymarket segment. It oers a highly usable sel-service application and has a growing services

organization that oers the ability or its personnel to be deployed at the client location. With

high satisaction scores and online community, Exactarget can successully meet marketers

complex business needs.

e-Dialog. Te vendor oers a comprehensive application unctionality including robustanalytics, the ability to quickly segment and query large amounts o data, and the ability to

automate the testing process. Te frm oers a large services organization and boasts a very high

services personnel-to-client ratio.

Acxiom. Acxiom has been quick to integrate mobile and social unctionality to meet thegrowing needs o the email marketer. Te application includes a exible online analytical

processing (OLAP)-like cube analysis tool. Acxiom is well equipped to manage large global

enterprises particularly in a ull-service manner.

Yesmail. Te vendor has a good mix o sel-service, collaborative, and ull-service clients andserves a variety o market segments. Te vendor oers a rather robust tool or managing all

aspects o email campaign deployment. Tis includes visual tools, a marketing calendar, and

OLAP analytics or campaign analysis.

Experian Marketing Services. Experian Marketing Services platorm has excellent productionservices capabilities as well as a comprehensive sel-service application (Experian CheetahMail)

that caters to the 40% o its clients that work with the vendor in that ashion. It earned a perect

customer satisaction score and has a long history o complex data integrations as well as a

global ootprint.

Epsilon. Te vendors DREAM messaging platorm is comprehensive oering all o thenecessary unctionality to manage and execute mailings. Seventy percent o Epsilons clientsengage with them in a ull or collaborative service manner. Overall, 60% o their clients are ull-

service, and most are satisfed with the overall account service.


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Zeta Interactive. Zeta Interactive was built via a number o acquisitions, and the vendor oersa comprehensive set o interactive marketing tools that transcend email. Te application is very

robust including the ability to easily design email campaigns as well as integrate them to other

marketing channels including social.

Stro Perormers Ofer Compei Sotios For Specic uses Ad Verticas

Datran Media. Datran Medias StormPost is an email marketing, social media, and audiencemonetization platorm. It has a proprietary network and ocuses on reactivating dormant

segments o its house-fle on a pay-or-perormance basis. Te vendor is best suited or those

marketers who are ocused on acquisition and audience monetization.

Silverpop. Te vendor oers a comprehensive email marketing application or all acets othe campaign deployment. Te vendor is primarily ocused on sel-service technology-driven

deployments, and services account or about 15% o its client base. Its clients report a highdegree o satisaction with the application, particularly the segmentation tools.

ClickSquared. ClickSquared provides a host o digital services by leveraging its own proprietaryWeb-hosted platorm that supports sel-, managed, and blended service models. It has good

provisions or enabling multichannel communications including email, direct mail, and SMS. Its

ability to leverage loyalty data particularly within the travel vertical is a plus.

Coteders Are lare Focsed O Se-Service-Orieted Depomets

Lyris. Lyris primarily services mid-market clients seeking a sel-service solution. While easy to

use, some o the eatures lack the sophistication o other solutions on the market, including theability to personalize hosted versions o mailings and implement testing within dynamic content

cells. Forty percent o its clients engage with Lyris in a collaborative service manner.

BlueHornet. BlueHornet primarily services mid-market clients seeking a sel-service solution.Te tool has all o the necessary eatures to design and execute and report on email campaigns.

Some o the unctionality that is lacking including household subscriber data was not

present in the evaluated product but is on the vendors 2009 road map. Commerce integrations

are a strength.

Alterian.Alterian is best suited or basic marketers not requiring advanced segmentationcapabilities only oered in its Plus application. Te solution relies heavily on user-built SQLqueries. Its complete lack o services makes Alterians solution most appropriate or vendors that

wish to embed email unctionality in their own user interaces, applications, and services.

Emailvision. Emailvision primarily services mid-market clients seeking a sel-service solution.Te application has the necessary unctionality or marketers to build and save segments as well


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as manage reports on campaign results; however, the usability particularly on more advanced

eatures such as dynamic content is more dicult than that o its peers. Te application has

good mobile unctionality, and the vendor oers email marketing training.

SuPPlEMEnTAl MATERIAl

Oie Resorce

Te online version o Figure 4 is an Excel-based vendor comparison tool that provides detailed

product evaluations and customizable rankings.

Data Sorces used I Tis Forrester wave

Forrester used a combination o our data sources to assess the strengths and weaknesses o each

solution:

Vendor surveys. Forrester surveyed vendors on their capabilities as they relate to the evaluationcriteria. Once we analyzed the completed vendor surveys, we conducted vendor calls where

necessary to gather details o vendor qualifcations.

Product demos. We asked vendors to conduct demonstrations o their products unctionality.We used fndings rom these product demos to validate details o each vendors product

capabilities.

Customer reerence calls. o validate product and vendor qualifcations, Forrester alsoconducted reerence calls with our o each vendors current customers.

Customer satisaction survey. o urther augment the customer reerence calls, we surveyed218 clients o the ESPs in this report. Te survey urther illuminated customer satisaction and

marketer challenges.

Te Forrester wave Metodoo

We conduct primary research to develop a list o vendors that meet our criteria to be evaluated

in this market. From that initial pool o vendors, we then narrow our fnal list. We choose these

vendors based on: 1) product ft; 2) customer success; and 3) Forrester client demand. We eliminate

vendors that have limited customer reerences and products that dont ft the scope o our evaluation.

Aer examining past research, user need assessments, and vendor and expert interviews, we develop

the initial evaluation criteria. o evaluate the vendors and their products against our set o criteria,

we gather details o product qualifcations through a combination o lab evaluations, questionnaires,

demos, and/or discussions with client reerences. We send evaluations to the vendors or their

review, and we adjust the evaluations to provide the most accurate view o vendor oerings and

strategies.


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We set deault weightings to reect our analysis o the needs o large user companies and/or

other scenarios as outlined in the Forrester Wave document and then score the vendors based

on a clearly defned scale. Tese deault weightings are intended only as a starting point, and we

encourage readers to adapt the weightings to ft their individual needs through the Excel-basedtool. Te fnal scores generate the graphical depiction o the market based on current oering,

strategy, and market presence. Forrester intends to update vendor evaluations regularly as product

capabilities and vendor strategies evolve.

EnDnOTES

1 For the frst time, the number o email marketers using click-through data as a segmentation attribute

increased to 51%, its highest point ever. However, the number o marketers using relevancy empowering

tactics including tests and dynamic content remains low. See the September 16, 2009, Te ROI O Email

Relevance, 2009 report.

2 Emails cost eectiveness and ability to drive ROI two to three times higher than other orms o direct

marketing will drive spending to grow at 10.8% CAGR rom 2009 to 2014. See the June 12, 2009, US Email

Marketing Forecast, 2009 o 2014 report.

3 Email is still highly eective in driving purchases, as 41% o consumers surveyed stated that email was still

inspiring them to purchase. See the April 14, 2009, Te Resilience O Email Marketing In ough imes

report.
http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=54345&src=47833pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=54345&src=47833pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=53620&src=47833pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=53620&src=47833pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=54182&src=47833pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=54182&src=47833pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=53620&src=47833pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=53620&src=47833pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=54345&src=47833pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=54345&src=47833pdf


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email marketing service providers comparison q4 2009

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