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© 2014 G2 Crowd, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form without G2 Crowd’s prior written per-mission. While the information in this report has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, G2 Crowd disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of such information and shall have no liability for errors, omissions, or inadequacies in such information.

GridSM for Email Marketing | Spring 2014

Email Marketing ProductsProducts shown on the Grid for Email Marketing have received a minimum of 10 reviews/ratings in data gathered by March 30th, 2014. Products are ranked by customer satisfaction (based on user reviews) and market pres-ence (based on market share, vendor size, and social impact) and placed into four categories on the Grid:

n Leaders offer email marketing products that are rated highly by G2 Crowd users and have substantial scale, market share, and global support and service resources. Leaders include: ExactTarget Marketing Cloud, dotMailer, MailChimp, Constant Contact, and Responsys.

n High Performers provide products that are highly rated by their users, but have not yet achieved the mar-ket presence and scale of the vendors in the Leader category. High Performers include: ExpressPigeon, Launchpad, and Campaign Monitor.

n Contenders have significant market presence and resources, but their products have received below average user satisfaction ratings or have not yet received a sufficient number of reviews to validate their products.

n Niche vendors do not have the market presence of the Leaders. They may have been rated positively on customer satisfaction, but have not yet received enough reviews to validate their success. Niche vendors include: VerticalResponse, Bronto, AWeber, Return Path, and iContact.

LeadersContenders

High PerformersNiche

Satisfaction

Scal

e

VerticalResponse

AWeberReturn Path

Campaign Monitor

Bronto

iContact

dotMailer

ExactTargetMarketing Cloud

Responsys

Mark

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AWAPathPath

aign iitoritorr

Contacta

Constant Contact

MailChimp

Launchpad

ExpressPigeon

© 2014 G2 Crowd, Inc. All rights reserved. Document #EMS14E1. 2


Grid Scores for Email MarketingThe table below shows the satisfaction and market presence scores that determine vendor placement on the Grid. To learn more about each of the vendors, please see the executive profiles in the next section.

Product Name # of Reviews Satisfaction (normalized)

Market Presence G2 Score SMB Mid-Market Enterprise

Leaders

ExactTarget Marketing Cloud

111 95 83 85 ✓ ✓ ✓

dotMailer 74 94 54 70 ✓ ✓ ✓

MailChimp 63 88 58 70 ✓ ✓

Constant Contact 39 56 65 68 ✓ ✓

Responsys 42 63 59 67 ✓ ✓ ✓

High Performers

Launchpad 15 78 27 53 ✓ ✓ ✓

Campaign Monitor 9 54 28 50 ✓ ✓ ✓

ExpressPigeon 22 81 18 49 ✓ ✓

Niche

VerticalResponse 16 26 43 54 ✓ ✓

Bronto 11 48 34 52 ✓ ✓

AWeber 10 34 35 51 ✓ ✓

Return Path 8 21 36 49 ✓ ✓ ✓

iContact 12 3 42 48 ✓ ✓



Email Marketing Market DefinitionEmail marketing refers to software platforms designed to directly promote a commercial message to a group of people using email. Email marketing is most often used to acquire new customers, increase customer engage-ment, or share promotional materials. An important feature of email marketing tools is the ability to segment user lists to specifically target subsets of the larger user base. Email marketing platforms that integrate with CRM or website analytics products can enhance the segmentation capabilities of the platform.

Some email marketing vendors also offer transactional email tools. Transactional emails are sent in response to a specific action by the user. These emails may include password resets, order status updates or email confirma-tions. G2 Crowd offers a separate Transactional Email Grid to compare vendors in this category. For more informa-tion, please see http://www.g2crowd.com/categories/transactional-email.

Email marketing is often purchased as part of a broader marketing automation suite, such as HubSpot, Marke-to, Pardot (a Salesforce.com company), and Eloqua (Oracle). This Grid report includes only “best of breed” email marketing products. Based on their own needs and budgets, buyers should decide whether a best of breed email marketing solution or a broader marketing automation suite that includes email marketing would better fit their needs. For more information on the email marketing capabilities provided by the marketing suite vendors, please see http://www.g2crowd.com/categories/marketing-automation/compare.

Grid Rating MethodologyThe Grid represents the democratic voice of real business and IT users, rather than subjective opinion of one analyst. G2 Crowd rates email marketing products algorithmically based on data sourced from product reviews shared by G2 Crowd users and data aggregated from online sources and social networks.

Technology buyers can use the Grid to help them quickly select the best email marketing product for their busi-ness; to set realistic goals for their marketing initiatives, and to find peers with similar experiences. For vendors, media, investors, and analysts, the Grid provides benchmarks for vendor comparison and market trend analysis.

Grid Scoring MethodologyG2 Crowd rates products and vendors based on ratings and reviews gathered from our user community, as well as data aggregated from online sources and social networks. We apply a unique, patent-pending algorithm to this data to calculate the product strength and vendor market presence scores in real time.

The satisfaction rating is affected by the following (in order of importance):

n Overall Customer Satisfaction and Net Promoter Score (NPS) based on ratings by G2 Crowd users

n Customer satisfaction with second-level product attributes based on user reviews

n Popularity and statistical significance based on number of ratings and reviews received by G2 Crowd

The market presence score is affected by the following (in order of importance):

n Number of employees for product and parent company (based on social networks and public sources)

n Market share based on share of voice including number of ratings and reviews received

n Vendor momentum based on web traffic and Google search trends

n Product social impact based on Klout score and Twitter followers

n Vendor social impact based on Klout score, Twitter, and LinkedIn followers

n Revenue and year over year revenue growth rate (if available)

n Age of company (number of years in operation)

n Employee satisfaction and engagement (based on social network ratings)

http://www.g2crowd.com/categories/transactional-email

http://www.g2crowd.com/categories/marketing-automation/compare



Vendor Executive SummariesThis section includes summary profiles of each Email Marketing vendor with 20 or more reviews. The products are listed in order of their G2 score.

ExactTarget Marketing Cloud has been named a Leader based on receiving the highest customer satisfaction score and having the largest market presence. 90% of users rated it 4 or 5 stars; 87% of customers would recom-mend the product to peers; and 94% believe ExactTarget Marketing Cloud is headed in the right direction.

ExactTarget Marketing Cloud was founded in 2000 and acquired by Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) in July 2013. The San Francisco, CA–based company reported 2013 revenues of $4.07 billion and has 13,414 employees listed on LinkedIn.

In short-answer responses, users liked ExactTarget Marketing Cloud’s constant innovation, great customer service, and platform flexibility. Users disliked the interface, finding it difficult to navigate, although many noted recent im-provements. Users highly recommended ExactTarget Marketing Cloud for customers looking to scale their email campaigns and especially for customers integrating with Salesforce CRM. Business problems solved using Exact-Target Marketing Cloud include segmentation, large email campaigns, tracking, and reporting.

In G2 Crowd feature questions, users rated ExactTarget Marketing Cloud at 88% on overall email marketing func-tionality, above the category average of 83%. Users were most satisfied with ExactTarget Marketing Cloud’s send-ing outbound emails with 95% satisfaction (vs. 92% average). ExactTarget Marketing Cloud customers were least satisfied with its internationalization with 80% satisfaction (vs. 85% average). Across all other features, ExactTarget Marketing Cloud received high satisfaction scores between 82-93%.

ExactTarget Marketing Cloud4.3 out of 5 stars

(122)

dotMailer has been named a Leader based on receiving a high customer satisfaction score and having a large market presence. 96% of users rated it 4 or 5 stars; 89% of customers would recommend the product to peers; and 91% believe dotMailer is headed in the right direction.

dotMailer (LON: DOTD) was founded in 1999. The London, UK–based company reported 2013 revenues of $22.9 million and has 115 employees listed on LinkedIn.

In short-answer responses, users liked dotMailer’s easy editor, reporting and analytics, intuitive interface, ease of use, and helpful customer support. Users felt dotMailer could have better integration with CRM systems, and a few users mentioned invoicing problems. Users highly recommended dotMailer for creating professional email campaigns without knowledge of html. Business problems solved using dotMailer include segmentation, in-depth reporting, lead generation, easy editing, and deliverability.

In G2 Crowd feature questions, users rated dotMailer at 85% on overall email marketing functionality, above the category average of 83%. Users were most satisfied with dotMailer’s building and personalizing emails with 92% satisfaction (vs. 85% average). dotMailer customers were least satisfied with its breadth of partner applications with 74% satisfaction (vs. 79% average). Across all other features, dotMailer received satisfaction scores between 79-92%.

dotMailer4.5 out of 5 stars

(77) LEADERLEADER

SPRING2014

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Constant Contact has been named a Leader based on receiving a high customer satisfaction score and having a large market presence. 77% of users rated it 4 or 5 stars; 74% of customers would recommend the product to peers; and 70% believe Constant Contact is headed in the right direction.

Constant Contact (NASD: CTCT) was founded in 1998. The Waltham, MA–based company reported 2013 reve-nues of $285.4 million and has 994 employees listed on LinkedIn.

In short-answer responses, users liked Constant Contact’s ease of use, templates, analytics, and its quick setup time. Users disliked its HTML customization options, and found the template editor to be glitchy when making changes. Users recommended Constant Contact for marketers looking to create well-designed email campaigns without HTML experience. Business problems solved with Constant Contact include email marketing for small businesses, campaign metrics, lead nurturing, and template design.

In G2 Crowd feature questions, users rated Constant Contact at 83% on overall email marketing functionality, in line with the category average of 83%. Users were most satisfied with Constant Contact’s sending outbound emails with 87% satisfaction (vs. 92% average). Constant Contact customers were least satisfied with its A/B test-ing with 71% satisfaction (vs. 81% average). Across all other features, Constant Contact received satisfaction scores between 75-86%.

Constant Contact3.8 out of 5 stars

(58) LEADERLEADER

SPRING2014

SPRING2014

MailChimp has been named a Leader based on receiving a high customer satisfaction score and having a large market presence. 84% of users rated it 4 or 5 stars; 83% of customers would recommend the product to peers; and 79% believe MailChimp is headed in the right direction.

MailChimp is a private company founded in 2001. The Atlanta, GA–based company has 79 employees listed on LinkedIn. Revenue is unknown for this private company.

In short-answer responses, users liked MailChimp’s email templates, easy-to-use interface, mobile apps, and the free option for small email lists. Users disliked the customization options, finding them to be lacking when compared to more enterprise-oriented ESPs. Users from small to medium-size businesses highly recommend MailChimp, especially for marketing professionals without design experience. Business problems solved with MailChimp include deliverability, segmentation, and easily creating professional email campaigns.

In G2 Crowd feature questions, users rated MailChimp at 87% on overall email marketing functionality, above the category average of 83%. Users were most satisfied with MailChimp’s email and mobile preview with 93% satisfac-tion (vs. 84% average). MailChimp customers were least satisfied with its internationalization with 83% satisfaction (vs. 85% average). Across all other features, MailChimp received high satisfaction scores between 84-90%.

MailChimp4.2 out of 5 stars

(82) LEADERLEADER

SPRING2014

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Responsys has been named a Leader based on receiving a high customer satisfaction score and having a large market presence. 95% of users rated it 4 or 5 stars; 84% of customers would recommend the product to peers; and 86% believe Responsys is headed in the right direction.

Responsys is a product of Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL), which was founded in 1977. The Redwood Shores, CA–based company reported 2013 revenues of $37.2 billion and has 124,124 employees listed on LinkedIn.

In short-answer responses, users liked Responsys’ customer service, flexible platform, ability to pull in data from many sources, and its SMS campaigns. Users disliked the integration with other tools and felt that the interface could be improved. Users strongly recommended Responsys’ segmentation capabilities. They also recommend-ed spending time to learn the tool and set up correctly, as it is a robust tool and not a template-driven platform. Business problems solved using Responsys include complex segmentation, automation, customer engagement, and demand generation.

In G2 Crowd feature questions, users rated Responsys at 84% on overall email marketing functionality, above the category average of 83%. Users were most satisfied with Responsys’ high volume sending with 99% satisfaction (vs. 91% average). Responsys customers were least satisfied with its email and mobile preview with 62% satisfac-tion (vs. 84% average). Across all other features, Responsys received satisfaction scores between 76-95%.

Responsys

ExpressPigeon has been named a High Performer based on receiving a high customer satisfaction score and having a small market presence. 95% of users rated it 4 or 5 stars; 94% of customers would recommend the product to peers; and 100% believe ExpressPigeon is headed in the right direction.

ExpressPigeon is a private company founded in 2011. The Chicago, IL–based company has 3 employees listed on LinkedIn. Revenue is unknown for this private company.

In short-answer responses, users liked Express Pigeon’s ease of use, API flexibility, excellent customer service, well-designed templates, and continued improvements. Users would like to see more features such as survey functionality, A/B testing, and greater segmentation capabilities. Users recommended ExpressPigeon’s template designs for nontechnical marketers, and for the technical, the simplicity of using its API. Business problems solved using ExpressPigeon include template design, campaign metrics, segmentation, customization, and deliverability.

In G2 Crowd feature questions, users rated ExpressPigeon at 88% on overall email marketing functionality, above the category average of 83%. Users were most satisfied with ExpressPigeon’s internationalization with 100% sat-isfaction (vs. 85% average). ExpressPigeon customers were least satisfied with its breadth of partner applications with 86% satisfaction (vs. 79% average). Across all other features, ExpressPigeon received high satisfaction scores between 86-100%.

ExpressPigeon

4.3 out of 5 stars

(47)

4.7 out of 5 stars

(22)

LEADERLEADER

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HIGH PERFORMERHIGH PERFORMER

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Satisfaction Ratings G2 Crowd users rated email marketing software vendors ability to satisfy their needs as shown in the table below. Average satisfaction levels across survey questions were varied across all vendors in the range of 70% to 94%. Users validated that these providers meet their requirements at levels between 63% and 90%.

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Likely to Recommend 87% 89% 83% 74% 84% 95% 90% 94% 70% 85% 80% 77% 53% 82%

Product going in right direction? 94% 91% 79% 70% 86% 100% 88% 100% 69% 82% 100% 80% 67% 85%

Net Promoter Score (NPS) (Range from -100 to +100) 44 61 32 -5 42 93 50 81 -11 45 20 10 -22 34

User Satisfaction Details

Meets Requirements 88% 85% 87% 83% 84% 88% 82% 88% 81% 90% 76% 83% 63% 83%

Ease of Use 81% 90% 87% 82% 76% 95% 93% 97% 86% 89% 86% 80% 68% 85%

Ease of Setup 80% 85% 88% 86% 74% n/a 91% 96% 82% 81% 80% 79% 73% 83%

Ease of Admin 84% 88% 87% 86% 77% n/a 91% 93% 85% 90% 86% 82% 73% 85%

Support Quality 86% 87% 85% 82% 72% 100% 92% 99% 82% 89% 90% 80% 71% 86%

Ease of Doing Business 88% 89% 87% 88% 79% n/a 88% 96% 84% 83% 89% 81% 73% 85%

Average Sat by Category 84% 87% 87% 84% 77% 94% 90% 95% 83% 87% 84% 81% 70% 85%



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Feature Comparison G2 Crowd users have evaluated the Email Marketing software vendors by feature. The results are shown below for vendors with at least 10 reviews/ratings.

Customer Segments Served As shown in the table below, email marketing vendors serve a range of small, mid-market, and enterprise custom-ers.

Summary

Email Marketing 89% 87% 89% 84% 87% 88% 88% 97% 85% 89% 84% 92% 75% 87%

Reporting & Analytics 85% 89% 90% 79% 85% 86% 88% 94% 83% 59% 70% 100% 70% 83%

Platform 83% 85% 85% 79% 84% n/a 89% 98% 82% 83% 86% 92% 87% 86%

Integration 84% 80% 86% 78% 78% n/a 86% 89% 76% 84% 69% 90% 75% 81%

Avg. Feature Rating 85% 85% 88% 80% 83% 87% 88% 94% 81% 79% 77% 94% 77% 84%

Customers by Size

Small Business (1-50 employees) 25% 50% 45% 47% 29% 30% n/a 80% 77% 42% n/a n/a n/a 47%

Mid-Market (51-1,000 employees) 29% 35% 45% 47% 31% 10% n/a 20% 23% 42% n/a n/a n/a 31%

Enterprise (1,000+ employees) 45% 15% 10% 6% 39% 60% n/a 0% 0% 17% n/a n/a n/a 21%



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Deployment and Implementation 93% of email marketing solutions are deployed as SaaS (software as a service) solutions in the cloud. Email mar-keting solutions can be deployed quickly with an average implementation time of approximately one month.

Deployment Method

Cloud 75% 79% 100% 56% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 93%

On-Premise 25% 21% 0% 44% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 7%

Implementation Time

Avg. Months to Go Live 2.0 0.7 0.2 0.3 2.5 n/a 0.1 0.0 0.6 1.1 0.0 0.3 0.4 0.8

Implementation Method

% Led by In-House Team 68% 85% 97% 100% 56% n/a 100% 100% 70% 67% 100% 100% 75% 73%

% Led by Vendor PS 23% 15% 0% 0% 44% n/a 0% 0% 30% 17% 0% 0% 25% 11%

% Led by 3rd Party 9% 0% 3% 0% 0% n/a 0% 0% 0% 17% 0% 0% 0% 2%

Number of Users Purchased

Median Number of Users Bought 17 3 3 3 7 n/a 10 3 5 91 3 7 7 13

Contract Term

Avg. Contract Term (Months) 17 10 2 3 23 n/a 0 2 3 10 1 24 8 9



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Mobile Applications Some email marketing platforms include mobile applications to track and send emails on the go. Native iOS and Android app ratings are provided below. Vendors without a native app may provide mobile-friendly versions of their platform to be accessible via a smartphone Internet browser.

Email Marketing User Adoption Levels and ROIG2 Crowd reviewers shared their average adoption levels and payback. Adoption across the vendors averaged 75%. A fast payback was reported for most solutions with an average payback of 7 months. This validates the high value of implementing a email marketing solution to reduce marketing costs and drive revenue growth.

User Adoption

Average User Adoption 75% 66% 73% 39% 92% n/a 60% 99% 94% 80% 65% 92% 69% 75%

Avg. Payback Period (Months) 11 9 4 13 10 n/a 3 3 3 5 5 7 17 7

iOS Mobile App

Rating (5 stars) 2.5 n/a 3.5 3.0 n/a n/a n/a n/a 2.0 n/a n/a n/a 3.0 3

Number of Reviews 35 n/a 166 965 n/a n/a n/a n/a 17 n/a n/a n/a 345 306

Android Mobile App

Rating (5 stars) 1.9 n/a 3.5 3.1 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 2.8 3

Number of Reviews 54 n/a 53 16 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 73 49



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Vendor and Product ScaleKey data on the vendor’s scale and impact are summarized below. Additional vendor demographic data is avail-able for download in the Grid Spreadsheets.

Product Social and Web Impact

Product Klout Score 83 58 82 83 61 44 60 44 80 60 63 56 61 64

Twitter Followers for Product 42,670 12,449 120,300 57,668 11,130 13,993 22,617 1,231 64,552 8,682 26,229 10,774 23,649 31,996

Vendor Background

Year Founded 1999 1999 2001 1998 1977 2002 2004 2011 1915 2002 1998 1999 1992

Financial Data (if available)

Revenue ($M ttm) 4,070 23 n/a 285 37,200 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 187 8,353

Vendor Social and Web Impact

Employees on LinkedIn (Vendor) 13,414 115 79 994 124,124 72 44 3 4,040 195 97 433 1,097 11,131

LinkedIn Followers 239,279 1,924 3,969 8,973 1,030,988 764 592 19 6,997 2,845 836 2,516 10,523 100,787

Twitter Followers 177,019 237 119,477 57,495 225,167 13,543 22,536 1,226 6,570 8,633 26,229 8,124 28,001 53,404

Klout Score 87 57 82 83 87 44 60 43 64 61 63 55 82 67

Alexa Web Traffic Rank 182 30,346 202 304 521 345,578 6,262 140,751 25,175 6,586 167 19,509 8,546 44,933



Rating Changes and Dynamics

The ratings in this report are based on a snapshot of the user reviews and social data collected by G2 Crowd up to March 30, 2014. The ratings may change as the products are further developed, the vendors grow, and as additional opinions are shared by users. G2 Crowd updates the ratings on its website in real-time as additional data is received, and we will update this report at least once per quarter. By improving their products and support and/or by having more satisfied customer voices heard, contenders may become leaders and niche vendors may become high performers.

TrustKeeping our ratings unbiased is our top priority. We require the use of a LinkedIn account to validate a G2 Crowd user’s identity and employer and verify all reviews manually. We do not allow users to rate their employer’s prod-ucts or those of their employer’s competitors. Though we share reviews from business partners (they often con-tain valuable content), we filter out business partner ratings in our aggregate ratings to avoid bias.

Our G2 Crowd staff does not add any subjective input to the ratings, which are determined algorithmically based on data aggregated from publicly available online sources and social networks. Vendors cannot influence their ratings by spending time or money with us. Only the opinion of real users and data from public sources factor into the ratings.

Grid Inclusion Criteria All products in a G2 Crowd category that have at least 10 reviews/ratings from real users of the product will be included in the Grid. Inviting other users, such as colleagues and peers to join G2 Crowd and share authentic product reviews will accelerate this process.

If a Email Marketing product is not yet listed on G2 Crowd and it fits the Email Marketing market definition above, then users are encouraged to suggest its addition to our Email Marketing category on our website at www.g2crowd.com.

http://www.g2crowd.com

http://www.g2crowd.com

email marketing productshosteddocs.ittoolbox.com/email marketing spring... · marketing products....

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