Independent Research Firm Names e-Dialog a Leader in E-mail Marketing Service Provider Evaluation

e-Dialog, a proven provider of advanced e-mail marketing services and solutions, today announced that Forrester Research, Inc. named the company a Leader in “The Forrester Wave: E-mail Marketing Service Providers, Q4 2009.” According to the December 2009 report, e-Dialog “offers a comprehensive application functionality including robust analytics, the ability to quickly segment and query large amounts of data, and the ability to automate the testing process. The firm offers a large services organization and boasts a very high services personnel-to-client ratio.”

e-Dialog received perfect scores (5.00/5.00) in all Technology and Marketing Services categories, which are an evaluation of the company’s Strategy, Campaign Management, Analytics, Creative and Other Services. Forrester states in the e-Dialog vendor scorecard, “Its clients report that e-Dialog pushes them to improve their sophistication and message relevancy.”

e-Dialog also received perfect scores in several areas within the Functionality category, including transactional messaging, interface, testing, content library, and flexibility. Additionally, the scorecard comments on e-Dialog’s database marketing capabilities, saying they “extend the ability of the platform, allowing marketers to access essential, actionable data from any source, making it available quickly so that the marketer can take immediate action from any channel.” In the Technology Platform category, e-Dialog received perfect scores in several areas, most notably throughput speed, volume and integration.

“This Forrester Wave identifies that a key reason marketers are demanding more of their e-mail service providers is the need to increase the relevance of their programs. It also points out that marketers are seeking both strategic guidance to aid in advancing program sophistication, and analytics capabilities to measure effectiveness and discover new opportunities,” said John Rizzi, president and CEO of e-Dialog. “These are all key strengths of e-Dialog and our business model has long been based on our ability to deliver on those requirements globally. Our innovative, flexible and comprehensive technology provides the solid foundation on which we are able to deliver unsurpassed services and drive our clients to improve the success of their programs.”

e-Dialog also received perfect scores in several important areas within the Strategy and Market Presence categories, including Strength of its Employee Base and Strength of Management Team, based on their stability and depth of experience.

e-Dialog also achieved a perfect score in Vertical Strategy, derived from the company’s understanding, focus and specific products targeted at given industries. e-Dialog’s target verticals include, retail, travel, entertainment and media. The report states, “To handle the fast turn-around demands and content challenges of e-Dialog’s primary verticals it made improvements to the way its content library categorizes, searches and permissions content assets, simplifying marketers’ ability to work with large content libraries in enterprise environments.”

In the Quality of References category, where e-Dialog also scored a perfect 5.00 for having “sophisticated users who are using many features and services that give the vendor exemplary endorsement,” Forrester writes, “Clients rely on e-Dialog for developing complex triggers and lifecycle strategies for improving the relevance of their e-mail programs. They are impressed with e-Dialog’s eCRM database, segmentation abilities, and relevancy scorecard. e-Dialog pushes its clients to succeed.”

“e-Dialog’s tools are easy to use and technologically advanced,” said the senior global Loyalty/CRM Programs manager of the leading health and wellbeing company. “The fact that we can deploy our own campaigns yet rely on e-Dialog’s services teams when we need them gives us great flexibility. Moreover, the E-data Mart enables us to respond quickly to local market needs yet still maintain our global approach to e-mail. As a multinational brand, e-Dialog’s integrated solution is invaluable to us.”

"e-Dialog are experts in their field and have a very thorough understanding of e-mail marketing strategy and execution," said Sarah Bergeron, director of CRM for Avis Budget Group, and an e-Dialog client for five years. "This knowledge, combined with their expertise in vertical industries like travel, has helped us develop and deliver highly relevant and timely e-mail communications to our customers with great success."

e-Dialog is one of the only e-mail service providers (ESPs) consistently ranked over the last five years as a leader by independent industry analysts.

“The Forrester Wave: E-mail Marketing Service Providers, Q4 2009” is a rigorous and comprehensive evaluation of 15 e-mail marketing service providers based on Current Offering, Strategy, and Market Presence. The evaluation process includes an assessment of each vendor’s offering across 69 criteria, as well as vendor surveys, product demonstrations, customer reference calls and a customer reference survey.

To download the full Forrester Wave report, please visit: http://www.e-dialog.com/resource_analyst.html.

About e-Dialog

Established in 1997, e-Dialog is a proven provider of intelligent e-mail marketing solutions. Through a unique combination of strategic services and relevance enabling technologies, e-Dialog empowers marketers to take meaningful action on their data in order to deliver contextually targeted communications to customers. Some of the world’s most recognized brands, including AirTran Airways, Avis Budget Group, Boots, British Airways, CBS, CVS/pharmacy, Nintendo, the NFL, PETCO, Reuters, the Royal Bank of Scotland group of companies, and The TJX Companies, have partnered with e-Dialog to enhance their permission-based e-mail marketing efforts and maximize long-term customer value.

e-Dialog is one of the only e-mail service providers consistently recognized by the top analyst firms for both outstanding service and first-class technology. In September 2006, e-Dialog was the first e-mail service provider to achieve certification for ISO 27001:2005, the global information security standard. e-Dialog, with offices in Boston, London, New York, and Seattle, is a wholly owned subsidiary of GSI Commerce Inc. (Nasdaq: GSIC). For more information, visit www.e-dialog.com.