David Cummings on Startups

Email Marketing Companies with 100+ Employees

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David Cummings

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Email marketing is a strange market. It is one of the few technology markets that hasn’t consolidated into a winner take all (think eBay and auctions) or winner take most (think salesforce.com for SaaS CRM). In fact, there are a number of North American email marketing companies with 100+ employees (figure at least $15 million in revenue based on the low-end of $150k/employee/year revenue) all over the place:

That’s just a quick list of pure-play email marketing companies in the U.S with 100 or more employees and contractors. There are more outside the U.S. and some that are divisions or larger companies like Epsilon. Tomorrow I’ll talk more about why I believe this market is unusual.
What else? What hasn’t the email marketing market consolidated or become a winner take most market?

Comments

5 responses to “Email Marketing Companies with 100+ Employees”

  1. Mike Schinkel Avatar
    Mike Schinkel

    Looking forward to your analysis.

    Reply
  2. Why the Proliferation of Successful Email Marketing Companies « 10,000 Startup Hours – David Cummings

    […] SaaS ← Email Marketing Companies with 100+ Employees […]

    Reply
  3. Simms Jenkins - CEO, BrightWave Marketing Avatar
    Simms Jenkins – CEO, BrightWave Marketing

    Simply put, because it isn’t a typical software business as it needs a lot more services thrown at it than other SAS models. Pricing has been commoditized and the marketplace is so fragmented with small business and large enterprise level offerings of to some degree, the same product at widely different price points.

    As someone who runs an email focused digital agency, I am obviously biased but to do email “well” you need more than a software tool and a body or 2. The acquisition trail in this space shows many companies have failed because they didn’t grasp the complexities of email marketing, beyond the technology and upsides of a “must have” marketing tool for any company, regardless of size.

    A commoditized product that needs high touch, specialized services is a tough market to dominate and why many ESPs have diversified.

    Reply
    1. David Cummings Avatar
      David Cummings

      Thanks Simms. Great point that email marketing needs more services thrown at it compared to other SaaS models. The human component of success with SaaS is something often under appreciated.

      Reply
  4. Thinking About Startups and Competitors « 10,000 Startup Hours – David Cummings

    […] to emerge. Email marketing is a great example of a market without winner take all/most (see email marketing companies with 100+ employees). Instead of worrying about competitors, I do think it’s worth tracking them for a few […]

    Reply

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