Past Winner Stories
ExactTarget
www.exacttarget.com
For ExactTarget, staying on top of an ever-increasing demand for its services as an Email Service Provider (ESP) has been the primary priority facing the company on a daily basis.
While that’s an enviable position to be in, it’s also an incredible challenge, according to owner Scott Dorsey. In just three years, the company’s staff has grown from 46 employees to more than 190, while customers under annual contracts have grown to more than 5,000. In addition, Dorsey says, infrastructure growth has been daunting and internal systems and processes in all departments have required improvements and streamlining.
And, as can be expected in this type of quickly growing market, the number of vendors trying to take advantage of it also has expanded—increasing the competition from other vendors in the business.
“The challenge to ExactTarget is to continue to establish, grow and lead a company that can execute flawlessly in this fast-paced growing environment,” Dorsey says.
In its quest to be the dominate service provider in the ESP arena, ExactTarget focused on managing this growth and maintaining a leadership position in the market.
Scott Dorsey determined that hiring a top management team was essential in order to translate opportunities for growth into actionable plans for every department of the organization.
Other solutions included:
While that’s an enviable position to be in, it’s also an incredible challenge, according to owner Scott Dorsey. In just three years, the company’s staff has grown from 46 employees to more than 190, while customers under annual contracts have grown to more than 5,000. In addition, Dorsey says, infrastructure growth has been daunting and internal systems and processes in all departments have required improvements and streamlining.
And, as can be expected in this type of quickly growing market, the number of vendors trying to take advantage of it also has expanded—increasing the competition from other vendors in the business.
“The challenge to ExactTarget is to continue to establish, grow and lead a company that can execute flawlessly in this fast-paced growing environment,” Dorsey says.
In its quest to be the dominate service provider in the ESP arena, ExactTarget focused on managing this growth and maintaining a leadership position in the market.
Scott Dorsey determined that hiring a top management team was essential in order to translate opportunities for growth into actionable plans for every department of the organization.
Other solutions included:
- Developing new technology to drive accounts payables in a more timely fashion.
- Implementing the latest marketing technologies to drive increased leads, improving the qualification process and distribution process of those leads to a growing sales force.
- Implementing other local technologies such as Interactive Intelligence to maximize call center performance with clients.
- Creating on-demand training tutorials for the growing client base to maximize the number of clients that can be, and stay, educated, in order to increase the use of the ExactTarget solutions and reduce time with support staff.
- Implementing state-of-the-art quality assurance and testing tools to reduce the time to market with new features and releases, as well as improve the overall quality of the solutions being used in the market.
Those efforts have paid off. Today, ExactTarget is the market leader in on-demand email software solutions for permission-based email marketing with more than 5,000 clients, including Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield, The Home Depot and Delta Faucet, relying on its service.
The company’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. A 2005 Jupiter Research Report says, “ExactTarget is one of the fastest-growing ESPs, in due part to its sharp focus on the midmarket and its comparatively broader suitability across markets.”
ExactTarget also was named to the 2006 Inc. 500, a list of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. ExactTarget made its debut on the Inc. 500 with a ranking of 56, meaning from 2002 to 2005, ExactTarget was the 56th fastest-growing private company in the nation.
The company’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. A 2005 Jupiter Research Report says, “ExactTarget is one of the fastest-growing ESPs, in due part to its sharp focus on the midmarket and its comparatively broader suitability across markets.”
ExactTarget also was named to the 2006 Inc. 500, a list of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. ExactTarget made its debut on the Inc. 500 with a ranking of 56, meaning from 2002 to 2005, ExactTarget was the 56th fastest-growing private company in the nation.