2018 Email Vendor Guide by Red Pill Email PDF

20 8
1
Red Pill Email’s
Email Vendor Features

& Functions Guide
A Comprehensive Guide to ESP Capabilities

© RED PILL EMAIL
All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized distribution strictly prohibited. Information provided by participants and is
subject to change with product advancements. CONTACT Red Pill Email – 833-RED-PILL
EMAIL VENDOR FEATURES & FUNCTIONS GUIDE
A Comprehensive Guide to ESP Capabilities
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary 4
Participant Selection 5
Using This Guide 5
Vendor Overview 6
Features & Functions 6
Business Offerings 7
Regions served 7
Supported channels 8
Business & pricing models 9
Pricing options by participant 10
Professional services 11
Targeted verticals & Geographic markets 19
Product Offerings 21
Table Stakes 22
Platform 22
Security Features 23
Security Scores 23
Set-up and Onboarding 24
Average Annual Updates 24
Supported Browsers 24
Supported API Protocols 26
Data & Segmentation 27

Data Control: 28
Queries & Segmentation: 32
Form Processing: 36
Exporting Data Via The User Interface: 39
Email Vendor Features & Functions Guide | Designed by Email Monks
Data & Segmentation Scoring: 40

Data & Segmentation Score Breakdowns: 42
Deliverability & List hygiene 43
Deliverability & List hygiene Scoring: 46
Deliverability & List hygiene Scoring numeric values: 48
Campaign Building & Workflow: 49
Account Management: 50
Asset Support: 54
Deployment Management: 56
Pre-Configured Programs: 58
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Content Support: 60
User Support: 66
Campaign Building & Workflow Scoring: 68

Campaign Building & Workflow Score Numeric Values: 70
Testing & Reporting 71
Testing: 72
Reporting: 75
Testing & Reporting Score numeric values: 81
Third-party Integration 82
Deliverability 83
Suppression Management 84
Analytics 85
CRM 86
Ad-serving Integration 87
Remarketing Integration 88
Review Services Integration 89
Profile/persona Services Integration 90
Email Validation Services Integration 90
Content Management Systems 92

Real-time Content 93
SMS (Short Message Service) 94
E-commerce 95
Other Integration 96
Industry Associations 97
Training & Support 98
Training 99
Support & Account Management 100

Additional Information – Open Q&a 101
Protecting User Accounts & Data 101

SLA Offerings & Processes 104

Asset Retention Policies 109
Onboarding Process 112
New User Training 116
Tech Support Process 118
Addressing Maintenance Issues 122
Differentiators Seen By Users 124
Differentiators Seen By Participant 127
Biggest Competitors Seen By Participant 131
Participant Statements 132
2
Adestra Message Focus 132
Cheetah Digital Marketing Suite 132
Communicator 134
Epsilon Agility Harmony
135
ExpertSender 136
Inbox Marketer Connect 137
Maropost Marketing Cloud 138
MessageGears 140
PostUp 140
Zeta Global ZetaHub 142
From Our Notes 148
Adestra Message Focus 149
Cheetah Digital Marketing Suite 149
Communicator 149
Epsilon Agility Harmony 149
ExpertSender 149
Inbox Marketer Connect 150
Maropost Marketing Cloud 150
MessageGears 150
PostUp 150
Preparing for Vendor Selection 151
Discovery 152
Functional 152
Non-Functional 152
Preparing an RFP 153
Scoring the Prospects 154
S.A.M.E 154
The S.A.M.E. Project Metrics & Calculations 155

Appendix 158
Additional Charts & Graphs 158
Supported API Functions 159

Asset Support 163
Report Levels: 167

Reports: 172
Sample Discovery Questions 175
Sample RFP 176
Sample score card 178
Glossary of Terms 179
About Red Pill Email 182
3
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Welcome to the ninth annual edition of the Email Vendor Features &
Functions Guide from Red Pill Email, the only guide compiled and
written by email marketing veterans who have made their living
sending email and integrating email-deployment tools, not just talking
about it.
The authors of this Guide, John Caldwell and Jeremy Grecco, have
decades of email-marketing experience between them. Their strengths
complement each other perfectly for vendor selection, integration and
migration, and customer support.
Vendors do not pay to participate in this Guide. Participants are asked

a series of Yes/No questions about their product features and
functions, and about the level of access to those features and
functions. Information is provided by the participants and is accepted
as submitted.
Responses to our questionnaire are converted to binary values and

then weighted by the responses in each category and subcategory to
provide an objective view of each participant’s features and functional
capabilities.
Before delving into this Guide, it is important to understand the

foundational concept on which it is built. The Guide is not a
high-score-equals-good and low-score-equals-bad reference.
Vendors are scored on a binary, yes/no basis. Either a vendor offers a
particular feature or function or it doesn’t.
And failing to offer a feature or function in no way reflects badly on a

particular provider. Sometimes the decision whether or not to offer a
particular feature or function boils down to business focus. Other
times it boils down to philosophy. And other times it boils down to low
or no demand for the feature or function from clients.
This Guide is not about helping you avoid making a bad vendor
selection. All the vendors in this Guide are at the top of their game. This
Guide is about helping you make the best vendor selection for your
specific needs from a roster of A-list vendors.
For 2018, Red Pill Email surveyed a select 10 international providers

with over 600 questions across eight top-level categories regarding
their technical product offerings and service options important to
prospective users.
4
PARTICIPANT SELECTION
Participants were selected from previous editions of this Guide, the author’s hands-on experience with them,
from vendor evaluations conducted by the author on behalf of end-user clients, because of their international
market presence, and because of their active Industry participation.
All participants in this Guide support their own email deployment tools. While several vendors leverage OEM
products and services such as commercial MTAs, no white-labeled services of other turn-key products are
included. Vendor revenue was not taken into consideration, nor was the size or revenue of vendor clients.
A dozen vendors were invited to participate in this year’s edition of the Guide. Harland-Clarke Digital and
Dotmailer did not meet the questionnaire deadline so they are not included.
USING THIS GUIDE
This document provides general overview information about the product and service offerings of the partici-
pants, and the ranking of participants across all categories and by category.
Data is presented in aggregate at the beginning of each section, and by each market separately following
aggregate data. When using this Guide in the selection of an appropriate vendor, users should focus on vendor
capabilities within each category and not aggregated data. Buyers should not focus on price alone and should
let business requirements and contact strategy drive the selection process.
Most users of email deployment products will rarely use more than 30% of the features and functions available
from any vendor; however not all organizations will use the same 30%. Know what features you need to
support your business objectives before shopping for email deployment vendors.
Because most users will rarely use more than 30% of any platform selecting vendors based on our cumulative
total will not find the best-suited platform for you, only the platform with the most features and functions,
many of which you probably won’t need. The total cumulative vendor scores should mean nothing to you.
Instead, your focus should be on category scores in the areas that are most critical to your business.
You will get the best results from this guide if you first define and list the messaging specifications critical to
your organization, and then see how each vendor rates in the categories that address those specifications.
You can compile your own unique vendor rating or score by weighting each category of importance to your
organization’s needs and disregard features and functions you don’t need.
As stated throughout this Guide, we look only at what the vendor can do; how they do it will be unique to each
participant. A vendor may offer a feature or function, but leveraging it may require a skill level beyond your
organization’s current capabilities. The skill level required to implement features and functions of interest
should be a part of any product demonstration. If the skill level required for a particular feature or function is
beyond your company’s capabilities, you then must decide whether hiring people with the right skill sets is
realistic or that it’s time to pass on that vendor.
5
1
FUNCTIONS
FEATURES &
VENDOR OVERVIEW
6
BUSINESS OFFERINGS
REGIONS SERVED
More and more Email Service Providers (ESPs) are extending their market presence around the globe. While the
majority of participants in this Guide are based in North America, those that are not are supporting a physical
presence on the Continent. Challenges of providing service to global markets often include:
» Dilution of Brand-Name Power - Being popular in your home country doesn't mean you'll be as popular
when introduced in other countries.
» Cultural Nuance - Expanding into other counties requires more than accurate translation of the message
from one language to another.
» Communication Style - Besides language differences the customs and pace of business negotiations can be
different.
» Time and Distance - Time zone differences can make it difficult to coordinate projects where collaboration is
required
Regions Served
NOAM
APAC
EMEA
LATAM
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
LATAM EMEA APAC NOAM

n = '10' 80% 90% 90% 100%
7
SUPPORTED CHANNELS
ESPs are not just about Email Marketing anymore. In addition to expanding into Social Marketing with the
ability to share to and from social networks, as well as collecting and leveraging that data, ESPs have long
integrated with and supported SMS platforms.
Supported Channels
Email
SMS/MMS
Social
Push
Display
Print
Fax
Television
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
n = '10' 10% 10% 10% 40% 50% 90% 100% 100% 100%
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8
BUSINESS & PRICING MODELS
Organizations without technical resources to support an on-premise solution will look to SaaS vendors.
Advanced users with available technical resources may consider Licensed Software or Appliance vendors.
Fast-growing larger senders may consider vendors capable of supporting more than one business model.
Business Offerings
SaaS
White-Label
Licensed Software
Appliance
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Appliance Licensed Software White-Label SaaS
n = '10' 30% 50% 60% 100%
Business Models
Licensed
SaaS Appliance White-Label
Software
Adestra Message Focus
Cheetah Digital Marketing Suite
Communicator
ExpertSender
Inbox Marketer Connect
Maropost Marketing Cloud
MessageGears
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
9
PRICING OPTIONS BY PARTICIPANT
The most common pricing is by Tiered Rates. Tiered Rates are most often based on the volume of messages
sent, usually at a CPM, or cost per mili (thousand), but may also be based on the number of records hosted on
the platform. With Tiered Rates, as message or record volume increases to meet contractual benchmarks rates
are reduced, however not always automatically. Ninety percent of this year’s participants offer tiered rates. We
attribute this increase by percentage to a smaller, more-focused, top-quality group of participants for our 2018
edition. With a larger sample set in 2017, 77% of participants offer tiered rates by volume sent, up from 75% in
2016, yet still down from 100% in 2015, while 50% offer tiered rates by data stored up from 41% in 2016 and
from 48% in 2015.
Pricing Options
CPM-Based
Term Contract
Tiered Rates
Flat Rate
Free Trial
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Free Trial Flat Rate Tiered Rates Term Contract CPM-Based
n = '10' 40% 40% 90% 90% 100%
Email deployment costs are dropping and the gap between high-volume rates and low-volume rates is narrow-
ing. This is good news for marketers. With this year’s group of participants low-volume CPM rates are averaging
$3.71 and high-volume rates are as low as $0.23. In our 2017 edition we saw CPM rates varying wildly among
participants with low-volume rates anywhere between $7.50 and $0.90 compared to $27.50 and $0.50 in 2016,
with high-volume rates anywhere between $0.90 and $0.14 compared to $2.50 and $0.35 in 2016. The average
low-volume CPM across all participants is $3.68, compared to 2016 at $7.50, and with the average high-volume
CPM coming in at $0.33 compared to 2016 at $0.75.
Contracted rates define a minimum message or data/record volume over the term and often build in a tiered
pricing structure. Not meeting or maintaining minimum contract volume requirements will result in a higher
Effective CPM (ECPM) than the contracted rate when based on the volume of messages sent or amount of
data/records stored.
Flat-Rate offers a single fixed fee regardless of the volume of messages sent and is usually based on the
number of records hosted on the platform. Flat Rates may be Tiered based on the number of records hosted
on the platform. This generally includes both active and inactive – including unsubscribed – records.
10
PRICING
Our 2017 edition of this Guide separated Mid- and Enterprise-market focused participants’ pricing. The most
common pricing structure among Mid-Market vendors in 2017 was CPM-Based (80%; unchanged from 2016) on
a term contract (60%; down from 70% in 2016) with tiered rates (60%; also, down from 70% in 2016). The most
common pricing model for Enterprise Market vendors in 2017 was CPM (75%; down from 79% in 2016) on a
term contract (92%; up from 86% in 2016) with tiered rates (92%; up from 79% in 2016).
Our 2018 edition of the guide shows 100% of participants offer CPM-based pricing on a term contract with
tiered rates.
Pricing Models:
CPM Tiered Term Term

Flat Rate
Based Rates Contract Contract
Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Vendors in this Guide offer a wide array of professional services, including strategic, production, technical and
creative. Essentially, you can get a full set of services from any one of them. It all depends on what types of
services you want, how you want to get those services and how you would like to pay for them. Depending on
your internal resources, you ‘ll want to consider whether you want a vendor that provides full-services included
in the agreement so you know you’re completely covered or à la carte so you can pick and choose services
without overpaying. You’ll also want to consider full- versus self-serve. Services are billed by the hour or by
quote.
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Professional Services
In-house Strategy
In-house Technical
In-house Production
In-house Creative
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
In-house In-house In-house In-house

Creative Production Technical Strategy
n = '10' 80% 90% 90% 100%
Not every type of professional service will be of equal importance to all users. Consider and prioritize the
professional services required by or important to your organization when selecting a vendor.
For example, an ESP that offers creative services may mean less to an organization that has its own in-house
creative staff. An organization with strategic and creative professionals may not staff technical or production
professionals and require those services from a vendor. Likewise, an organization may be well staffed techni-
cally, but require strategic and creative services.
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A/B Testing
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12
STRATEGIC SERVICES
With a smaller sample set for 2018, 100% of participants surveyed offer strategic services for the second year in
a row, compared to 88% in 2016. Of those 77% are company employees, compared to 78% in 2016; the rest are
from 3rd-party providers. However, in-house staff versus 3rd-party is simply a business decision based on the
vendor’s preferences that should have no effect on the service provided.
One hundred percent offer tactical recommendations, up from 84% in 2016; Likewise, 100% offer reporting
metrics, also up from 88% in 2016. 100% also offer actionable analysis, which is up from 75% in 2016, while 95%
offer competitive analysis, up from 75% in 2016. The number of participants offering strategic services has
increased over the last year after having dropped from the year before.
While almost all participants are now offering competitive analysis, it may be difficult for vendors that do not
have a high enough sampling of client verticals to provide data that is valuable enough to one client while not
divulging confidential or sensitive information on another. Likewise, “financial services” may include banks,
credit card companies, pre-paid credit and gift cards, credit reporting agencies, mortgage brokers, and lenders
of all stripes, making available data too broadly categorized to provide actionable intelligence.
If you want competitive analysis and actionable intelligence from your vendor, it is important to make sure the
vendor you select has a large enough sample size in exactly the vertical you want analyzed. But remember, if a
vendor comes out strong in all or most of the other categories important to you, third-party intelligence
providers exist.
Strategic Services
Actionable Analysis
Competitive Analysis
Reporting Metrics Analysis
Tactical Recommendations
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Tactical Reporting Metrics Competitive Actionable

Recommendations Analysis Analysis Analysis
n = '10' 100% 100% 100% 100%
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TECHNICAL SERVICES
For the second year in a row all participants surveyed offer technical services, up from 91% in 2016, of which
95%, up from 75% in 2016, are company employees and the rest third-party providers. And again, in-house
staff versus third-party is simply a business decision based on the vendor’s preferences that should have no
effect on the service provided. Ninety five percent offer specialized training and tactical implementation, while
all offer systems integration, systems architecture and design, and tactical implementation.
Technical Services
Specialized Training
Tactical Implementation
Systems Architecture/Design
Systems Integration
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Systems Systems Tactical Specialized

Integration Architecture/Design Implementation Training
n = '10' 90% 90% 100% 100%
Vendors have a vested interest in integrating a client’s internal system with the vendor platform. Generally
speaking, the deeper the integration the more sophistication can be gained by the platform; and the more
difficult – and expensive – it is to switch to another vendor. All vendors surveyed integrate with third-party
products (listed later in this Guide) to provide greater business intelligence while extending the functionality of
the vendor platform.
PRODUCTION SERVICES
This year all of participants surveyed offer production services, up from 91% in 2016, of which 86% (up from
75% in 2016) are company employees and the rest third-party providers. All participants this year, up from 91%
in 2016, offer automated message and/or campaign development, and message and/or campaign reporting,
and message and/or campaign assembly and deployment.
14
Production Services
Automated
Reporting
Assembly
Deployment
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
Deployment Assembly Reporting Automated
n = '10' 80% 80% 90% 90%
CREATIVE SERVICES
Email creative can be very detail oriented. You may prefer to have in-house creative professionals who know
your product or service intimately and can be trusted to execute properly. However, there are advantages to
tapping the resources of a vendor’s creative staff. They have seen successes across multiple clients and may be
able to offer ideas that simply wouldn’t occur to a focused, in-house staff. It’s simply a matter of preference.
Seventy three percent of participants surveyed offer creative services, down from 78% in 2016, of which 73%,
up from 66% in 2016, are company employees and the rest third-party providers. Ninety one percent offer
graphic and design services, up from 75% in 2016, while 82% offer copywriting and/or editing services, up from
66% in 2016.
Creative Services
Graphic/Design
Copy/Copywriting/Editing
Other
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Other Copy/Copywriting/Editing Graphic/Design
n = '10' 40% 70% 80%
15
SERVICE TYPES
All of the participants surveyed offer a self-service option compared to 91% in 2016, 91% offer a la carte
services, or a mix-and-match offering of self- and full-service options, up from 81% in 2016, while 82% offer a
full-service option; an increase from 78% in 2016.
Service Types
Self-Service
à la carte
Full-Service
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Full-Service à la carte Self-Service
n = '10' 90% 100% 100%
SERVICE TYPES BY PARTICIPANT
Full-Service Self-Service à la carte by Hour by Quote
Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
16
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES STAFFING
Although specific numbers have fluctuated in recent years, the vendors in this Guide tend to be highly staffed,
skilled and experienced in professional services. Keep in mind that six or seven years of experience may not
seem like a long time, but it is a lifetime in email marketing. High staffing and experience levels are a sign that
the vendors in this Guide have experienced ongoing demand for these services and have responded according-
ly. This should translate into high service levels for you. Of the organizations sharing staffing data, the average
number of in-house production staff is 62.1 compared to 30.5 in 2016, and 14.0 in 2015, with an average of 6.9
years of experience compared to 6.6 years of experience in 2016 and to 4.9 in 2015. In-house technical staff
averages 39.3 compared to 72.4 in 2016 and 6.7 in 2015, and averaging 8.0 years of experience compared to
9.31 years in 2016 and 7.4 in 2015.
The average number of in-house strategy staff is at 28.8 compared to 13.2 in 2016 and 5.5 seen in 2015.
in-house creative averages staff of 32.7 down slightly from 36.8 in 2016.
While public companies are sometimes reluctant to share staffing numbers, most come forward with average
years of experience for each category.
When tallying staff averages we include both insource – an employee – or outsource – a third-party – resources.
For you, the difference between in or out-sourced services should not be noticeable.
Service Types
In-house Creative
In-house Production
In-house Strategy
In-house Technical
0.0 0.5 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 35.0 40.0
In-house In-house In-house In-house

Technical Strategy Production Creative
Average Number 7.6 8.7 6.4 8.4

Average Years 29.6 11.0 38.0 6.0
It is important to note before moving ahead that scores in categories that you will not use should have no
influence on your choice of vendor or platform.
17
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES SCORE
Score Score
Adestra Message Focus 5.00 PostUp 5.00
Cheetah Digital Marketing Suite 5.00 Zeta Global ZetaHub 5.00
Communicator 5.00 ExpertSender 4.72
Epsilon Agility Harmony 5.00 MessageGears 3.89
Inbox Marketer Connect 5.00 Maropost Marketing Cloud 2.50
What it Means: Remember, a score of less than five in this guide is not a bad score. It simply means a
particular vendor does not offer every service in this category. When a vendor does not offer a service, it
usually means they have experienced little to no demand for it. In professional services, the demand for
technical and tactical services is high, which is why all the vendors offer them. Likewise, the demand for
creative services is not as high so the vendors who score less than five tend not to offer creative services.
Also, creative services are people, not technology so it is reasonably easy to staff up quickly with talented
professionals. If a vendor in this Guide scores high in other categories important to you that does not score
high here, it’s hard to believe you wouldn’t be able to negotiate creative services into any deal with a
vendor that currently doesn’t offer them.
What we Think: Even if a vendor scores less than five in professional services, they still offer the services for
which there is a high demand. All of the vendors in this guide offer high-demand professional services. As a
result, unless your company needs-wise is an outlier, chances are that even vendors that scores less than five in
professional services will offer the services you want. If a vendor looks to be a match for you in all or most
other categories, it scores less than five in professional services, and you know you want creative services as
part of your package—for which there is low demand—you know you’ll have to have that discussion during
negotiations.
Do not let a score of less than five in any single category dissuade you from considering any vendor.
18
TARGETED VERTICALS AND GEOGRAPHIC MARKETS
Any ESP would be loath to say they specialize in a specific vertical for fear of limiting their prospects. But the
fact is that several vendors in this guide are strong in in specific vertical markets. This is not to say they are
weak elsewhere or that other vendors should be dismissed out of hand. But having specialized experience in a
specific market can influence the features and functions a vendor offers. Professional-services staff experi-
enced in specific vertical markets often brings experience that can accelerate their client’s marketing efforts.
Also, a strong presence in a highly regulated vertical such as financial services means a vendor can take on new
clients in that vertical and have the advantage for both parties of being familiar with that vertical’s unique
regulatory hurdles.
Standouts: Every Every ESP in this guide is a platinum-level vendor. That said, there are a few standouts in
certain verticals. An ESP with a large client base in a certain vertical will be familiar with the common challenges
unique to that vertical. An ESP with a strong presence in a certain vertical will also be more likely to be able to
provide benchmarks against which each client in that vertical can measure themselves.
If you’re in a vertical that one or more of the ESPs in this guide shows strongly, don’t ignore any of the other
vendors because they may not openly focus on your vertical, but do make sure the ones that do show strongly
in your vertical end up in your consideration set.
Among the vendors in this guide, Adestra Message Focus and Cheetah Digital Marketing Suite have a strong
retail presence, Inbox Marketer Connect has a strong showing in the mid-market financial vertical and PostUp
has a strong presence in publishing. Do not discount other vendors based on this information, but if you’re in
one of these verticals, you may want to give the vendor or vendors with a strong showing in your vertical an
extra look.
TARGETED VERTICALS
Targeted Verticals
Consumer/Retail
Media/Publishing
Travel
Banking/Financial
Business to Business
Health/Insurance
Entertainment
Other
Education
Automotive
Real Estate
0% 5% 10% 15% 20%
Real Health/ Business to Banking/ Media/ Consumer/

Automotive Education Other Entertainment Travel
Estate Insurance Business Financial Publishing
n = '10' 0.92% 2.25% 3.04% 4.48% 5.88% 6.19% 7.32% 9.75% 10.32% 10.88% 18.75% 20.25%
19
This graph shows that the vendors in this Guide have a strong showing in retail and publishing. It simply
means that retailers and publishers are more likely to find a vendor that has a strong showing in their vertical
in this Guide than others. But each category in the graph has had a vendor or vendors in this Guide say they
have a strong presence in that vertical.
An ESP with multiple clients in your vertical will have witnessed tactics and strategies that work for
organizations similar to yours and may be able to present you with winning ideas that you may not have
come up with on your own.
It would be wise to discuss vertical presence with any prospective vendor and take that discussion into
consideration as one data point among many.
TARGETED GEOGRAPHIC MARKETS

Targeted Market Location
Organizations with a global market are going to want to
gravitate toward ESPs with an international targeted market
location. Email marketing rules and regulations vary from
country to country and ESPs with an international targeted
market theoretically will be familiar with the various
International
international rules and regulations.
28%
Domestic
72%
N = '10'
AVERAGE CLIENT MIX

Business-to-consumer and business-to-business email
marketing differ considerably from one another. A
business-to-consumer marketer will typically be sending Client Mix
mail to common, free-email-address providers such as
Outlook.com, Gmail and Yahoo Mail. A business-to-business
marketer will typically be sending email to more corporate
domains. One difference between the two disciplines is that
if a business-to-consumer marketer gets in trouble with spam B2B
filters, as long as they start to behave and do so for a period 23%

of time, the spam blocks will be lifted and the marketer will
start reaching the inbox again. If a business-to-business
marketer gets labeled as a spammer, corporate administra-
tors will block anything coming from that domain and the B2C
likelihood of a corporate block ever getting lifted is pretty 77%
close to zero. Business-to-business email marketing also
tends to be more personalized.
Both types of marketers will want to discuss with any

N = '10'
prospective vendor how much of their client base matches
their business-to-business or business-to-consumer profile.
20
PRODUCT
OFFERINGS
21
TABLE STAKES
Table stakes are features and functions that every vendor must have as part of their basic package of offerings.
If a vendor doesn’t have one of the following, they shouldn’t be in the business. As a result, some of these
offerings are not scored in this guide. Assume every vendor scores a five in the following:
Authentication SLAs Distaster Recovery
Data backup Redundancy Audit Trails
Deliverability Integration Documentation
PLATFORM
The average user won’t be concerned with a vendor’s platform.

Advanced and technical users may have opinions on commercial MTA Type
and proprietary Message Transfer Agents that may influence
their purchasing decisions. But for the vast majority, the type of
MTA is “under-the-hood” type information where every engine Proprietary
features similar power and performance. For most users, it 10%
shouldn’t have the slightest bearing on their vendor selection.
A commercial MTA is a software agent supported by an

independent vendor. A proprietary MTA is a software agent
supported by the vendor. Ninety percent of participants this year Commercial
are developed on commercial MTAs compared to 72% in 2017
90%
and 59% in 2016.
Seventy percent of participants using a commercial MTA use

Port25’s PowerMTA compared to 73% in 2017,
N = '10'
with 20% of participants using Message Systems’ Momentum
MTA for a second year in a row, and 10% of participants use another commercial MTA compared to 7% last
year. With Message System’s purchase of Port25 and PowerMTA, Message Systems MTAs are used by 90% of all
participants in this year’s Guide compared to 93% in 2017.
MTA Brand
Other
10%
Most users won’t have a preference or concern regarding the
Message
MTA used by their provider. Those who do are encouraged to ask
Systems
their sales representative for details. 20%
Port25
70%
N = '9'
22
SECURITY FEATURES
ESPs protect not only their own data, but also the data of hundreds of clients. Security breaches at ESPs and
their users within the past few years have heightened the need for improved security of vendor and user data
alike. PCI Compliance is on the rise amongst leading ESPs, as is Multi-Level Authentication. Geo-Based Access
Restrictions are gaining in popularity while basic record encryption remains flat. Popular encryption methods
include MD5#, PGP/GPG, and TripleDES.
Security Features
Data Security Policy
Encrypt Data at Rest
Record Encryption
SSL
IP-Based Access
Geo-Based Access
Multi-Level Auth
PCI-Compliant
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
PCI- Multi- Geo-Based IP-Based Record Encrypt Data Data

SSL
Compliant Level Auth Access Access Encryption at Rest Security Policy
n = '10' 40% 80% 80% 90% 100% 100% 100% 100%
SECURITY SCORES
ESPs protect not only their own data, but also the data of hundreds of clients. Security breaches at ESPs and
their users within the past few years have heightened the need for improved security of vendor and user data
alike. PCI Compliance is on the rise amongst leading ESPs, as is Multi-Level Authentication. Geo-Based Access
Restrictions are gaining in popularity while basic record encryption remains flat. Popular encryption methods
include MD5#, PGP/GPG, and TripleDES.
Score Score
Epsilon Agility Harmony 5.00 Inbox Marketer Connect 4.38
Zeta Global ZetaHub 5.00 MessageGears 4.38
Adestra Message Focus 4.38 Communicator 3.75
Cheetah Digital Marketing Suite 4.38 Maropost Marketing Cloud 3.75
ExpertSender 4.38 PostUp 3.75
23
What it Means: The security section of Red Pill Email’s guide does not disclose whether or not specific vendors
offer specific security features. If the Guide offered such specifics, it might provide a roadmap for criminals on
potential areas of attack.
As a result, the Guide indicates what the likelihood is a vendor will offer a specific security feature, not which
vendors offer which specific security features.
However, the security section of the guide is not completely opaque. If a user of email deployment services is
looking for a vendor who offers secure socket layer (SSL) compliance, a data-security policy and encrypt data at
rest—features offered by 100% of the participants—you can proceed scoring vendors in other categories
knowing security features are unlikely to be an issue with the vendors who score high in other categories.
If, however, you are an e-commerce site operator who requires the vendor to be PCI (payment-card industry)
compliant—a feature offered by 40% of the vendors profiled—you will have to have a discussion about
PCI-compliance with any prospective vendor.
What we Think: It should be noted that any vendor that scores a 5 in security probably offers the rarer
features, such as geo-based access and PCI compliance. A vendor with a lower score in security may also offer a
particular, rarer security feature. As a result, a vendor scoring less than five in security that scores high every-
where else in the guide may still be a fine fit.
It can’t be stated clearly enough that a score of less than five in security does not equal “less secure.” Every
vendor in this Guide offers platinum-level security.
A score of less than 5 in security is no reason to avoid a provider. If a vendor looks to be a good fit for you in
other categories, but scores less than five in security and you require one of the rarer security features, don’t
rule the vendor out until you discuss that feature with them.
SET-UP AND ONBOARDING
The average account set-up time across all participants is 12.4 days compared to seven days in 2017, with
average on-boarding of new users averaging 23 days compared to twenty-four days in 2017. You can expect
set-up to take about two weeks and onboarding to take about a month. This information is included to help
manage client expectations.
AVERAGE ANNUAL UPDATES

The average number of updates per year for all participants is 15.75 in 2018 compared to twenty in 2017. All
the vendors in this guide work very hard to stay ahead of the curve in terms of updates.
SUPPORTED BROWSERS
All participants support more than one browser. Although browser support is interesting information, it should
not really be a consideration when selecting an ESP. The most common “Other” supported browser is Opera.
24
Supported Browsers
Chrome
Firefox
Internet Explorer
Safari
Other
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Other Safari Internet Explorer Firefox Chrome
n = '10' 30% 90% 90% 100% 100%
25
SUPPORTED API PROTOCOLS
Application Programming Interfaces play an important role in bi-directional data integration and real-time
messaging. Technical users and resources will appreciate knowing what API protocols are available for the
transfer of documents and data to or from the vendor. See Appendix for percentages of Supported API
Functions.
SUPPORTED API PROTOCOLS
SOAP XML GET/POST JSON REST WCF SDKs

Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Supported APIs is one of the more cut-and-dried categories in this Guide. Either an ESP supports your organiza-
tion’s preferred in-house API or it does not. We do not believe there is a need to elaborate further.
26
DATA &
SEGMENTATION
27
Data is at the heart of any email marketing program. The greater the options are to transfer, structure, query,
and segment data, the more intricate and complex messaging can become. Participants were surveyed in four
subcategories of data and segmentation.
DATA CONTROL
Organizations with complex data matching as a core function of their business will at some point want to
flatten multiple sources to a series of single relational tables that may be joined together and queried for
reference and/or supplemental data to support a variety of messaging programs; or may just want a well-struc-
tured flat file hosted on the vendor.
The greater control over your data at the vendor the more flexibility you will have with complex queries,
Primary and Foreign Keys, and joining and querying multiple and/or relational tables. The ability to bypass filter
wizards and directly query data may decrease processing time while yielding more refined data sets for
advanced messaging.
Each vendor will have their own unique way of implementing the features and functions of their product. Some
will require advanced programming skills and/or technological resources implement, while others may be
easily accessed and/or configured by non-technical resources via the UI.
Data Control
Access to Log Files
Query Any Field/Log/List
Control Over Tables
Multiple Tables
Multiple Indices
Data Version Control
SQL in the UI
External DB
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
External SQL in Data Version Multiple User- Multiple Control User- Query Any Access to
DB the UI Control Fields Indices Tables Over Tables Field/Log/List Log Files
n = '10' 50% 70% 70% 80% 80% 90% 90% 90% 100% 100% 100% 100%
28
Full-service vendors implement features and functions on your behalf. While the features and functions
supported by full-service vendors will be important, ease of use should not be a concern.
Most of the ESPs in this Guide offer all or most of the data-control functionality referred to in the graph above.
Half of the vendors offer the ability to connect an external database to perform functions such as allowing
customer service to access data from the ESP and feed data into it in near-real or real time. As with other
categories in this Guide, if a vendor does not offer a specific function, it is usually because they have experi-
enced low demand for it. If you require one of the rarer features, discuss that need with any potential vendor. If
you require only the top four data-control functions, you know you can check this category off as having been
addressed by every vendor in this guide.
Data Control Access
Data Version Control
Query Any Field/Log/List
Multiple Indices
SQL in the UI
External DB
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
User Pro Services
Access refers to whether the user can access the functionality on their own or must rely on professional
services to get a task done. Discuss functionality access with every potential vendor and in the cases of having
to rely on professional services, make sure responsiveness is spelled out in the final service level agreement
or SLA.
29
DATA CONTROL SCORE
Data Control
MessageGears
Zeta Global ZetaHub
ExpertSender
PostUp
Communicator
Average
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00
Email Success Starts

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30
DATA CONTROL ACCESS
Data Control Access
Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
Average
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
User Pro Services
As with the earlier data-control-access graph, data control access refers to whether the user can access the
functionality on their own or must rely on professional services to get a task done. Discuss functionality access
with every potential vendor and in the cases of having to rely on professional services, make sure responsive-
ness is spelled out in the final service level agreement or SLA.
What it Means: If you want one or more of the rarer data-control functions, Cheetah Digital Marketing Suite,
Maropost Marketing Cloud and MessageGears will offer them. Other vendors offer a varying mix of the rarer
functions. If you require a rarer data-control function, and a vendor that scores less than five in data-control is
bubbling up to the top in your overall assessment, note that you will have to have a data-control discussion with
that vendor.
What we Think: As with other categories in this Guide, a score of less than five in data control is not a “bad”
score. It simply means the vendor probably doesn’t offer some of the rarer functionality, often because they
have experienced low demand for it. All the vendors in this Guide offer the most commonly sought data-control
functions. Most marketers neither need nor want all the data-control functions covered in this Guide. If you
don’t need it, it doesn’t matter whether a prospective vendor offers it or not. More bells and whistles does not
necessarily make a better vendor. However, if your organization is in the unique position of needing all the
data-control functionality covered in this Guide, you’ll want to gravitate toward the vendors that scored fives.
31
QUERIES & SEGMENTATION:
Several participants provide advanced data querying and segmentation wizards making it easier on marketers
with limited technical skills or resources to segment data required for advanced messaging programs.
will require advanced programming skills and/or technological resources implement, while others may be easily
accessed and/or configured by non-technical resources via the UI.
With demand for segmentation capabilities continuously increasing, ESPs have responded in kind. Every vendor
in this guide offers a wide array of segmentation capabilities. However, some ESPs require more technical
expertise to leverage their segmentation capabilities.
There is little that is more frustrating than going through the arduous process of integrating systems with a new
vendor and then finding out some of the very features and functions for which the vendor was chosen are
technically out of the organization’s grasp.
As a result, it is incumbent upon you to accurately assess the technical expertise of those who will be using the
platform and make sure they’re at a level where they can leverage the segmentation features and functions you
require.
Queries & Segmentation
Behavior-based
by Channel
by Client
by Device
by Mobile Use
by OS
Compound Rules
Hosted Tool
Nested Queries
on The Fly
Social Sharing
Drag & Drop
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Drag & Social on The Nested Hosted Compound by Mobile by by by Behavior-

by OS
Drop Sharing Fly Queries Tool Rules Use Device Client Channel based
n = '10' 80% 90% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
32
Queries & Segmentation Access
by Channel
Social Sharing
by Mobile Use
by Client
by OS
by Device
by Device
Compound Rules
Drag & Drop
Nested Queries
Hosted Tool
Behavior-based
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
User Pro Services
WE PRODUCE OVER 2500

CUSTOM EMAILS TEMPLATES &
LANDING PAGES EVERY MONTH.
Email Monks
33
QUERIES & SEGMENTATION SCORE
Queries & Segmentation
ExpertSender
MessageGears
Zeta Global ZetaHub
Communicator
PostUp
Average
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00
34
QUERIES & SEGMENTATION ACCESS
Feature Access
Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
Average
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
User Pro Services
What it Means: As in any business, ESPs respond to market demand. Direct marketers have been segmenting
their files for decades. Email marketers, or at least email pundits, talked about segmentation in the early days of
email marketing, but not many of the folks who actually hit the “send” button did it—hence the now hackneyed
phrase “batch and blast.”
But in the last five years or so, email marketers’ demand for segmenting capabilities has skyrocketed. At Red Pill
Email, we believe the increased demand for segmenting coincides with the increased industry focus on engage-
ment that began in 2012.
The argument then was that inbox providers had largely solved the problem of criminal spam and were going to
start focusing on the next level of the problem: marketers with large, largely inactive files. How aggressive ISPs
would be with marketers sending to inactive addresses has been a hotly debated topic ever since. But one area
no one debates is that segmentation of a house file and sending tailored messages accordingly is a proven way
to increase engagement and more importantly, sales.
35
That ESPs have gotten the messages is borne out in the graphs above. Segmentation is obviously a challenge
they have taken head on and won. That’s good news for you.
What we Think: Segmentation is one of the most user-accessible features in this guide. However, each vendor
makes its segmentation features available in its own way. Some will require more technical expertise than
others. Just because a vendor calls a function user-accessible doesn’t necessarily mean the function is
realistically accessible to your organization.
It is incumbent upon you to discuss the technical expertise required to access the features with each prospec-
tive vendor and realistically assess whether your organization has the right people in the right positions to
execute the features efficiently. For example, you may have people with the appropriate expertise in IT and IT
only, and you may not want to have to rely on IT to get the job done. Likewise, IT may already have enough to
do.
Ensuring your organization has staff with the appropriate levels of technical expertise in the appropriate
positions is one of the most critical assessments you can make when choosing a new email deployment vendor.
FORM PROCESSING
The ability to process forms supported by the vendor opens a variety of data collection and user-triggered
messaging possibilities. The more flexible vendors are to write data to a table, with the option of triggering a
message as a result, the greater the application options are to the user.
Form Processing
Any by Action
Any by Form
Pre-Def by Form
Form Processing
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Form Pre-Def by Any by Any by

Processing Form Form Action
n = '10' 100% 100% 100% 100%
will require advanced programming skills and/or technological resources implement, while others may be easily
accessed and/or configured by non-technical users via the UI.
36
Form Processing Access
Any by Action
Any by Form
Pre-Def by Form
Form Processing
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
User Pro Services
FORM PROCESSING SCORE
Form Processing
Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
Average
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00
37
FORM PROCESSING ACCESS
Form Processing Access

Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
Average
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
User Pro Services
38
EXPORTING DATA VIA THE USER INTERFACE:
Most vendors will you allow the export of lists through the user interface. Not all provide the option to export
account logs, content, or message rules.
UI Export
Content
Log Files
Lists/Tables
Rules
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Rules Lists/Tables Log Files Content

n = '10' 60% 90% 100% 100%
UI EXPORT SCORE
UI Export
ExpertSender

Zeta Global ZetaHub
Communicator
PostUp
MessageGears
Average
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00
39
DATA & SEGMENTATION SCORING
Data & segmentation scores are based on scores of each of the four subcategories outlined above; data
control, queries & segmentation, form processing, and UI Export.
DATA & SEGMENTATION SCORE
Data & Segmentation
Zeta Global ZetaHub
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Communicator
Average
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00
40
DATA & SEGMENTATION FEATURE ACCESS
Data & Segmentation Access
Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
Average
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00
User Pro Services
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41
DATA & SEGMENTATION SCORE BREAKDOWNS
The following charts provide a side-by-side comparison of the scores of each of the four subcategories and the
total data & segmentation score for each participant. Participants are ranked first by the total score, then by
each subcategory in order below. Users of this Guide may choose to consider the total score for each partici-
pant or may weigh prospective vendors by subcategory.
DATA & SEGMENTATION SCORE BREAKDOWN
Score Score
Cheetah Digital Marketing Suite 4.84 Adestra Message Focus 4.38
Maropost Marketing Cloud 4.69 Epsilon Agility Harmony 4.22
Zeta Global ZetaHub 4.69 Inbox Marketer Connect 4.22
ExpertSender 4.53 PostUp 4.22
MessageGears 4.53 Communicator 4.06
What it Means: Data is the lifeblood of any email marketing program and the vendor scores in each subcatego-
ry—data control, queries & segmentation, form processing, and UI export—show it. In terms of feature offerings
and access, there is barely a point of difference between them. While accessibility varies slightly from vendor to
vendor and some don’t offer rare, low-demand features, if your organization is like most, you could throw a dart
at one of the charts in the data & segmentation section of this Guide and hit a vendor that can theoretically
meet your needs with the latest and most sophisticated data & segmentation features.
What we Think: While all the vendors in this guide are strong from a data & segmentation standpoint, they will
each offer the functions in their own unique way. Some will require little to no expertise to execute. Others will
require some higher level of technical expertise. As a result, it’s not enough to ask: “Do you offer it?” You must
also ask: “What level of expertise do I need to use it?”
If your organization does not have the right level of expertise to use a particular function at a particular vendor,
from your perspective this would be the same as the vendor not offering the feature at all.
As stated before, it is also important to ensure the people with the right levels of expertise are in positions to
execute efficiently. Your organization may have people with the appropriate expertise in IT, but relying on IT to
execute certain tasks on an ongoing basis may not be realistic.
Remember, a low level of technical expertise among end users—the people who will be creating and sending
the campaigns—is nothing to be ashamed of. Do not be tempted to portray your organization to a prospective
vendor as having more accessible technical expertise than it has. That’s a recipe for a poisonous client-vendor
relationship. Realistic self-assessment is key.
42
& LIST HYGIENE
DELIVERABILITY
43
Marketers spend hours agonizing over the details of their email programs. But email that gets treated as spam
on the receiving end may as well not have been sent. Deliverability can be one of the more frustrating aspects
of email marketing because every inbox provider has their own secret formula for determining which messages
of the millions coming their way are spam and, as a result, unwanted. The same campaign successfully
delivered to Outlook users might be shunted off to the spam folders of Gmail users.
That said, marketers who exercise basic deliverability best practices—solid permission practices, ensuring clean
data coming in and list hygiene, to name a few—experience far fewer deliverability blips than those who don’t.
As a result, the main deliverability levers are in the list owner’s control. Some ESPs will tout their high delivera-
bility rates. But in reality, they’re touting their clients’ high deliverability rates. And their clients’ deliverability
rates are usually high because the ESPs enforce high levels of behavior in order to ensure their reputation
remains untarnished with inbox providers and the email of all their clients stands a better chance of reaching
inboxes. You can assume an ESP with a high deliverability rate will enforce high behavioral standards on you, as
well.
While the main deliverability levers are in the sender’s control, there are tools ESPs will typically offer to help
clients maintain high deliverability rates. Among the most important are:
1. Throttling/Metering per ISP 2. Integrated Feedback Loops 3. Authentication
4. Good ISP relations 5. White-listing services
will require advanced programming skills and/or technological resources to implement, while others may be
easily accessed and/or configured by non-technical users via the UI.
Deliverability & Hygiene
Deliverability Scoring
Frequency Caps
In-bound Message Mgt
Opt-Out bypass for Trans
Separate IPs for Trans/Promo
Suppress dupe email at send
Throttling by ISP
Unsub/Pref Page
Validate Data on Import
Custom Bounce Rules
Data Householding
Selectable IPs
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Suppress Separate
Data Custom Validate Unsub/ Opt-Out In-bound
Selectable Throttling dupe IPs for Frequency Deliverability
House Bounce Data on Pref bypass Message Opt-out
IPs by ISP email at Trans/ Caps Scoring
holding Rules Import Page for Trans Mgt Per List
send Promo
n = '10' 70% 70% 90% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
44
Feature Access
Custom Bounce Rules
Data Householding
Frequency Caps
In-bound Message Mgt
Opt-Out bypass for Trans
Suppress dupe email at send
Throttling by ISP
Unsub/Pref Page
Validate Data on Import
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
45
DELIVERABILITY & LIST HYGIENE SCORING:
Deliverability & list hygiene scores are based on participant responses to the questions in the eleven delivera-
bility & hygiene categories. Every vendor in this Guide offers all the necessary deliverability and list-hygiene
tools. Deliverability will not be an issue with any vendor in this Guide. They all hold their clients to best-practic-
es, non-spamming behavior.
DELIVERABILITY & LIST HYGIENE SCORE
Deliverability & Hygiene
Communicator
ExpertSender
Zeta Global ZetaHub
MessageGears
PostUp
Average
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00
46
DELIVERABILITY & LIST HYGIENE ACCESS
Deliverability & Hygiene Access
Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
Average
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
User Pro Services
Advanced Reporting
Strong Deliverability
Behavioural Segmentation
Configurable Technology
Extensive API Integrations
A/B Testing
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47
DELIVERABILITY & LIST HYGIENE SCORE NUMERIC VALUES
The following charts provide the numeric scoring values for each participant.
DATA & SEGMENTATION SCORE
Score Score
Adestra Message Focus 4.62 Inbox Marketer Connect 4.62
Cheetah Digital Marketing Suite 4.62 Maropost Marketing Cloud 4.62
Communicator 5.00 MessageGears 4.62
Epsilon Agility Harmony 5.00 PostUp 4.62
ExpertSender 5.00 Zeta Global ZetaHub 5.00
What it Means: Deliverability & list hygiene are right up there with data & segmentation in terms of importance
to any email marketing program and the vendor scores in this section of this Guide show it. All of the vendors in
this Guide offer all the features and functions necessary to help clients manage their own deliverability. As with
data & segmentation, there’s barely a point of difference between them. All of them offer 10 of the 13
deliverability features and functions listed. Most offer the rest. And the few that don’t offer one or more of the
three non-universal features probably have experienced no demand for them. If you don’t need data
householding, it doesn’t matter whether a prospective vendor offers it or not.
What we Think: Too many users of email-deployment services think their ESP can wave a magic wand and get
their messages delivered. They can’t. If you’re thinking of switching ESPs because you’re having deliverability
issues, don’t. A new ESP will only be able to fix your deliverability issues the same way your current one would:
by getting your organization to adhere to certain best practices.
We listed good ISP relations as one of the features an ESP should have to help you maintain high deliverability,
which is true. But the way ESPs maintain good relations with ISPs, or inbox providers, is by not allowing their
clients to spam. No ESP has a hotline to ISPs they can pick up and get their clients’ messages delivered.
The deliverability features and functions they offer are all there to help you maintain the high standards
necessary to ensure clean, deliverable campaigns.
As in previous categories, the level of expertise required to use the features and functions may vary from
vendor to vendor. It is up to you to determine whether or not your organization has staff with the appropriate
levels of expertise in the appropriate positions to use the features and functions effectively. Have a frank
discussion with the sales representatives of each vendor you consider.
48
&
BUILDING
CAMPAIGN
WORKFLOW
49
CAMPAIGN BUILDING & WORKFLOW
Having an ordered sequence of campaign building and management tasks makes deployment tools easier to
learn and more productive in developing and managing campaigns.
Flexibility, ease of use, and implementation of built-in features such as personalization & dynamic content;
segmentation & filtering functions; campaign deployment & reporting options; and content & asset
management will also add to operational productivity which means less time building and supporting and
more time marketing.
will require advanced programming skills and/or technological resources to implement, while others may be
easily accessed and/or configured by non-technical users via the UI.
ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT
Ideally, as many account-management functions as possible will be accessible through one centralized login.
For example, organizations—particularly enterprise organizations—often have multiple domains for different
identities, business units, or subsidiaries.
Like any back-end function, it is more efficient and cost effective to pool resources and have one “parent”
account manage the email activity of all the various domains. So rather than having a unique user and/or billing
account for each identity, business unit, or subsidiary, it is almost always preferable to be able to manage them
all from one account.
It is also common for organizations to wish to exclude domains, such as those of their competitors, or services
such as SpamCop or Spamhaus. For those organizations domain exclusion might be a tipping factor in their
decision between two otherwise equally matched vendors.
Also, organizations that send transactional messages on a different IP or IP set than their promotional messag-
es usually prefer vendors that support both through the same login, same interface and/or platform. Not
surprisingly, they find having to login to two unique accounts or interfaces less efficient than a single point of
operation.
Beyond efficiency and cost benefits, there is also the personal angle: “I want more passwords and login IDs”
said no one ever. Discuss account-management functionality and centralization with any prospective vendor
and take that discussion into account as one data point among many.
Participants were surveyed as to their functional capabilities surrounding domain and

IP/transactional/promotional interface support.
50
Account Management
Child Accounts Under Master
Domain Exclusion
Integrated Multi-Channel UI
Integrated Trans/Promo
Multiple Top-Level Domains
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Multiple Integrated
Integrated Domain Child Accounts
Top-Level Multi-
Approval Collaboration Trans/Promo Exclusion Under Master
Domains Channel UI
n = '10' 70% 80% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Not every ESP has workflow collaboration and approval integrated into their systems because, as in other
categories in this Guide, they are not experiencing demand for them. Workflow approval can be implemented
independently as can collaboration. Approval can be implemented internally. Collaboration can be implement-
ed through third-party services.
However, certain highly regulated industries, such as finance, have strict guidelines for transferring data to
third-party services. In such cases, this is an area where it’s best to check with the organization’s legal depart-
ment for rules and requirements and assess prospective ESP features accordingly.
Feature Access
Child Accounts Under Master

Domain Exclusion
Multiple Top-Level Domains
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
User Pro Services
51
ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT SCORE
Account Management
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
ExpertSender
MessageGears
Communicator
Average
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00
52
ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT ACCESS
Account Management Access
Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
Average
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
User Pro Services
What it Means: Where access is less than 100%, clients must contact their ESP’s professional-services team to
add a new top-level domain to their account.
Over the years, we have seen great strides in ease of use when it comes to campaign management and work-
flow. Where previously it would take someone with a reasonably high degree of technical know-how to access
these tools, today these tools are more accessible to non-technical users than ever before. This is important
because creative personnel and others who tend to build campaigns are often non-technical. Not too long ago,
a creative person would need a technical person to build the campaign for them. That was not an ideal situation
and ESPs have responded accordingly.
The first wave of campaign-management-and-workflow functionality was highly technical, leading to a second
wave aimed at non-technical users. We have seen hints of a third wave that will be useful for both technical and
non-technical users.
What we Think: The advancement of campaign-management-and-workflow ease-of-use to allow access for

more non-technical users has come with some tradeoffs, which we believe will lead to a third wave of
campaign-management-and-workflow functionality. In order to have drag-and-drop functionality, for example,
the vendor must limit its offerings to a finite number of commonly used options.
53
We believe the third wave of campaign management and workflow lies in drag-and-drop with the option for
more technically savvy users to go behind the drag-and-drop functionality and adjust the code to meet their
organization’s specific needs and create their own customized drag-and-drop functionality. Cheetah Marketing
Suite currently offers this capability. We believe other ESPs won’t be far behind. It may be prudent to discuss
with any prospective vendor the current state of their campaign-management-and-workflow functionality, what
their plans are, and take that discussion into account as one data point among many.
ASSET SUPPORT
Participants were surveyed as to their functional capabilities surrounding content management, image hosting,
personalization, dynamic content, and much more—too numerous to list here. See Appendix for Asset Support
breakdown by percentage.
ASSET SUPPORT SCORE
Asset Support
ExpertSender
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
MessageGears
Communicator
Average
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00
54
ASSET SUPPORT FEATURE ACCESS
Asset Support Access
Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
Average
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
User Pro Services
What it Means: The vendors in this guide offer a vast array of asset support. One hundred percent support at
least one content-management tool, enable content uploads, offer an HTML-to-text tool, responsive design, a
cross-channel calendar, an email-rendering tool, test/preview capabilities, character case control, dynamic/con-
ditional content and subject lines, user-set missing personalization and variable test tools.
What we Think: Asset support includes a large array of features and functions, most of which all of the vendors
in this Guide offer. There are some rare functions not offered by all, however—categorized campaigns among
them. In most cases, all of the vendors in this Guide will offer all the asset-support functionality an organization
will need. See the Appendix for a breakdown of all asset-support functions.
55
DEPLOYMENT MANAGEMENT
Deployment Management is the ability to make adjustments to ongoing message programs, including manag-
ing links, the ability to stop or pause campaigns, allowing the renaming of links, post-launch link and content
swaps, email-delivery and cross-channel scheduling, priority-deployment queuing, triggered emails, send- and
local-time optimization, campaign completion-and-failure alerts and campaign performance alerts.
All of the vendors in this guide offer all or most of these features. The only issue is which functions are available
to end users and which must go through professional services.
DEPLOYMENT MANAGEMENT SCORE
Deployment Management
ExpertSender
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
Communicator
MessageGears
.
Average
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00
56
DEPLOYMENT MANAGEMENT FEATURE ACCESS
Deployment Management Access
Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
Average
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
User Pro Services
What it Means: Anyone who has ever hit the “send” button on a regular basis has had situations where they
wanted to change something after the fact or even wanted to pause the campaign. But given the deployment
speed of today’s ESPs by the time a sender realizes something is wrong and wants to stop the campaign, most
or all of it has gone out. To address this, ESPs offer the ability to change content and links after deployment.
One difference between ESPs in this scenario is whether they offer the capabilities through a native application
or through a third-party provider such as LiveIntent or Movable Ink, which is, frankly, immaterial.
Another difference is which functions are available to end users and which must be accessed through profes-
sional services. If a function is important and must be accessed through professional services, terms such as
acceptable response times must be negotiated up front and included in the SLA.
Other universal deployment-management features include email-delivery and cross-channel scheduling and
priority-deployment queuing.
What we Think: As has been stated repeatedly in this Guide, a higher score is not a “better” score. Vendors
with a score of less than five simply don’t offer lower-demand features. Vendors that score less than five in
deployment management probably don’t offer one or more of the following: send- and local-time optimization,
and performance alerts, or alerts when a specified metric in a campaign exceeds certain parameters.
While these features are nice to have, for most senders they will not be not must-haves. And they certainly
shouldn’t be deal breakers in and of themselves.
57
PRE-CONFIGURED PROGRAMS
To make the marketers’ lives easier, most of the vendors in this Guide provide pre-configured versions of
popular email messaging programs like abandoned order, welcome, and win-back programs. Just add data,
your own content and adjust the messaging rules, and your programs are ready to run.
Pre-Configured
Abandoned Order
Welcome
Win-Back
Other
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Other Win-Back Welcome Abandoned Order

n = '10' 70% 90% 90% 90%
58
PRE-CONFIGURED PROGRAMS SCORE
Pre-configured Campaigns
ExpertSender
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
Communicator
MessageGears
Average
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00
What it Means: There are certain types of campaigns that have proven themselves to be effective time and
time again across all business verticals. Among them are abandoned-order campaigns, welcome campaigns and
win-back campaigns. As a result, they are offered on a pre-configured basis to one degree or another by all the
vendors in this guide.
Abandoned-order emails’ key-performance metrics, such as opens, clicks and conversions, are through the roof
compared to business-as-usual messages. The question isn’t whether or not to send them. The question is how
many? Hint: It’s usually three per abandoned cart.
Welcome emails are a great way to introduce your brand, keep spam complaints down and get new subscribers
interacting with a brand much more quickly than they otherwise would.
Every email program has lapsed subscribers. There is revenue in that segment of the file and win-back emails
are a proven way to tap it.
“Other” pre-configured programs may include less commonly used, but still effective programs such as anniver-
sary, birthday and replenishment messaging.
What we Think: Every vendor in this guide has witnessed the effectiveness of abandoned-order, welcome,
win-back campaigns and other triggered messaging. Just because they don’t offer them on a pre-configured
basis, doesn’t mean their clients are not deploying them. With all of the vendors in this guide, the issue is not
whether you will be able to implement them, but how it will be done. Discuss how you will be able to create and
deploy abandoned-order campaigns, welcomes, win-backs and other triggered messaging with your prospec-
tive vendor and take that conversation into consideration as one among many data points.
59
CONTENT SUPPORT
Email messaging has moved beyond simple text and HTML to include content management systems (CMS),
RSS-driven content, SMS messaging, video email, and share-to-social network features and functions. Content
support includes a wide-ranging set of features and functions, many of which are considered important in
certain verticals and by certain marketers, but not by others. It is up to you to decide which features and
functions are important to your business and assess potential vendors accordingly.
CMS CONTENT SUPPORT
CMS Support
CMS Content Preview
Personalize CMS Content
CMS Integration
Integrated CMS Reporting
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Integrated CMS Personalize CMS Content

CMS Reporting Integration CMS Content Preview
n = '10' 70% 90% 90% 90%
CMS SUPPORT
Personalize CMS Integrated

CMS Integration Content CMS
CMS Content Preview Reporting

Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
60
What it Means: Almost all of the vendors in this Guide offer some level of content-management-system
support, indicating a high level of demand for it from their clients.
What we Think: Vendors that don’t offer certain features and functions should not be viewed as lacking. When
a vendor does not offer a feature, it is usually a sign their clients aren’t asking for it.
RSS CONTENT SUPPORT
Rss Support
Deploy RSS by Schedule
RSS Content Preview
RSS Personalization
Supports RSS
Deploy RSS by Post
Integrated RSS Reporting
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
RSS
Integrated RSS Deploy Supports RSS Deploy RSS
Content
Reporting RSS by Post RSS Personalization by Schedule
Preview
n = '10' 50% 60% 90% 90% 90% 90%
RSS SUPPORT
Deploy RSS RSS
Supports Deploy Integrated
RSS by Personaliza Content
RSS RSS by Post RSS Reporting
Schedule tion Preview

Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
61
What it Means: RSS was the first thing that was supposed to kill email. It didn’t. Ironically, it was email that
saved RSS from fading into oblivion because email is the most efficient way to deliver an RSS feed. Really simple
syndication allows senders to use popular content management systems like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, or
other commercial or home-grown content platforms with RSS output.
What we Think: The growing popularity of content-management systems such as WordPress seems to have
fueled a resurgence of RSS. Organizations that publish new content on regular basis should seriously consider
RSS support. However, some organizations are unlikely to have content their subscribers will want delivered to
them in an RSS feed.
One advantage of RSS support on an ESP platform is it allows non-technical users—which is often the case with
copywriters—to feed content into the email system.
But if your organization is not publishing on a content-management system, you may not need RSS support.
SMS & VIDEO CONTENT SUPPORT
SMS/MMS Support
Integrated Reporting
Supports SMS
Supports MMS
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
Supports Supports Integrated

MMS SMS Reporting
n = '10' 40% 90% 90%
Video Email Support

Video in Email
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
Integrated Video in
Reporting Email
n = '10' 40% 90%
62
SMS/MMS/VIDEO SUPPORT
Supports Supports SMS/MMS Supports Video
SMS MMS Reporting Video Reporting
Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
What it Means: SMS, or short message service (text messaging) support is relatively popular because it is such
a commonly used mode of communication that email subscribers will be comfortable with. Quite naturally, the
vendors who offer it also integrate it into their reports. The high level of video support in this category reflects
its growing popularity as a marketing tactic. The ESPs that don’t offer video reporting don’t offer metrics
pertaining to the videos themselves. Users will still be able to glean the effects of video on their email programs
through other key performance metrics offered in their ESP’s reports.
What we Think: As unlimited mobile device data plans become more ubiquitous, ESP support of MMS, or
multi-media messaging services, should follow suit. MMS is the ability to send audio messages, videos, images
and more to people’s smartphones. Files sent via MMS count against the recipient's monthly data limits. Sellers
of luxury goods and highly considered products and services to high net worth individuals may see a competi-
tive edge in MMS. But limited support for MMS among the vendors in this guide indicates it is an emerging
function at best.
63
SOCIAL SHARING CONTENT SUPPORT
Social Sharing
Share-to-Social
Share-FROM-Social
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
Share-FROM-Social Integrated Reporting Share-to-Social
n = '10' 60% 70% 80%
SOCIAL SHARING SUPPORT
Share From Share To Share Reporting
Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
What it Means: Social media isn’t as effective a marketing channel as email, but it’s certainly sexier. And for
better or worse, social media has become part of the fabric of our lives. Judging by the overall high scores in this
category, it is clear the vendors in this Guide understand this and take social media and its role in the marketing
mix seriously.
What we Think: Though social media is ubiquitous in everyday life, the ability to integrate it into an email
program through an ESP will vary in importance from one organization to another. Share-to-social is popular
because as a passive prospecting tactic, it allows brands to potentially get in front of people who are friends
with and, therefore, probably similar in marketing profile, to their customers.
64
BAR CODING CONTENT SUPPORT
Dynamic Bar Coding

1-D Bar Coding
2-D Bar Coding
3-D Bar Coding
0% 10% 20% 30%
3-D Bar Integrated 2-D Bar 1-D Bar

Coding Reporting Coding Coding
n = '10' 10% 20% 30% 30%
BARCODE SUPPORT
Dynamic 1-D Dynamic 2-D Dynamic 3-D Barcode

Bar Coding Bar Coding Bar Coding Reporting
Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub

What it Means: Dynamic barcoding is the ability to serve unique barcodes to individuals. It is more prevalent in
retail than any other business sector and is often used to control or limit the use of certain promotions that
might otherwise go viral. Dynamic barcoding is also used in issuing event tickets. The fact that it is offered by a
low percentage of vendors in this Guide indicates it is a function for which most of these vendors are experienc-
ing low to no demand.
What we Think: If dynamic barcoding is important to your business, just because a vendor doesn’t offer it is no
reason to reject it out of hand. Dynamic barcoding is available from third parties. However, the vendors that do
offer it may have a strong presence in your vertical, which means the ability to offer dynamic barcoding along
with the benchmarking capabilities, competitive intelligence and unique ideas that come with having a strong
vertical presence might begin to really tip the scales for you in their favor.
65
USER SUPPORT
Features and functions that support user productivity include integrated promotional and transactional
products, user-level permissions, workflow approval options, and more.
User Support
Forward-to-a-Friend
Subscribe from Social
Host Landing Pages
Survey Tool
OAuth Social Sign-In
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
OAuth Social Survey Host Landing Subscribe Forward-to-

Sign-In Tool Pages from Social a-Friend
n = '10' 50% 80% 80% 90% 90%
66
USER SUPPORT SCORE
User Support
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
Average
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00
What it Means: For most users, the features and functions in the user support section of this Guide may be
nice to have, but not necessary. All of the vendors in this guide are platinum-level providers offering all the
mission-critical features and functions their clients demand.
What we Think: For most users reading this Guide, the features in this category are not make-or-break.
However, a few will place more emphasis on them. Those in real estate and automotive may find the
forward-to-a-friend function more desirable than users in other verticals. As with every other category in this
Guide, if you don’t need the functionality listed, it doesn’t matter if a vendor offers it or not.
67
CAMPAIGN BUILDING & WORKFLOW SCORING:
Campaign building & workflow scores are based on scores of each of the six subcategories, account manage-
ment, asset support, content support, deployment management, pre-configured, and user support; and six
content subcategories, CMS, RSS, SMS, video, social, and bar coding.
CAMPAIGN BUILDING & WORKFLOW SCORE
Campaign Building & Workflow
Zeta Global ZetaHub
ExpertSender
PostUp
Communicator
MessageGears
Average
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00
68
CAMPAIGN BUILDING & WORKFLOW FEATURE ACCESS
Campaign Building & Workflow Access
Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
Average
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
User Pro Services
OUR WHITE LABEL

Emails & Newsletter production service
is being used by many leading AGENCIES & ESPs.

We could be your secret arsenal too!
visit : emailmonks.com/agencies-love-monks
Email Monks
69
CAMPAIGN BUILDING & WORKFLOW SCORE NUMERIC
VALUES
The following charts provide the numeric scoring values in the campaign building & workflow category for each
participant.
CAMPAIGN BUILDING & WORKFLOW SCORE NUMERIC VALUES
Campaign Building &

Workflow
Inbox Marketer Connect 4.40
Cheetah Digital Marketing Suite 4.30
Epsilon Agility Harmony 4.15
PostUp 3.75
Maropost Marketing Cloud 3.40
Adestra Message Focus 3.25
Zeta Global ZetaHub 4.15
ExpertSender 3.75
Communicator 2.95
MessageGears 2.10
What it Means: Campaign building and workflow includes a giant array of features and functions, many of
which will be considered important by a subset of users and likewise considered unimportant by others. No
vendor scored a five in this section because no vendor offers every feature and function in it.
What we Think: The scores in the chart above serve only to tell which vendors offer the most features and
functions. While a higher score indicates higher odds that a vendor will offer all the campaign-building and
workflow functions important to you, it is not a definitive indicator. More “stuff” does not mean better. It simply
means more stuff. A higher score in the chart above in no way indicates whether or not the ESP will be the right
fit for your organization. A score of less than five simply indicates you will need to discuss your specific
features-and-functions needs with any vendor that appears to be a good fit elsewhere.
70
REPORT
TESTING &
71
Testing is the foundation upon which world-class email programs are built. It allows marketers to make better
decisions, consistently over time to show measurable improvement while proving success based upon rational,
objective decision making. Vendors offer many features that make ad-hoc and/or repetitive message testing
easier to implement and measure.
TESTING
Testing is essential for the long-term success of your messaging programs, and the only way to determine what
works best with your audience. Having a wide variety of testing options allows you flexibility to develop target-
ed and insightful tests to help guide your message programs.
Each vendor will have their own unique way of implementing the features and functions of their product.
Testing
Multivariate Tests
Randomized Segment Creation
Split-List Test
Supports List Seeding
Testing by Amount
Testing by Percentage
Automated Split-Path Testing
Archive Test Results
Machine or Self-Learning Testing
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Machine or Automated Supports Randomized

Archive Testing by Testing Multivariate
Self-Learning Split-Path List Segment
Test Results Percentage by Amount Tests
Testing Testing Seeding Creation
n = '10' 60% 80% 90% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
72
TESTING SCORE
Testing
ExpertSender
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
Communicator
MessageGears
Average
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00
73
TESTING FEATURE ACCESS
Testing Access
Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
Average
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
User Pro Services
What it Means: As with any feature-and-function set that is important to managing a world-class email-market-
ing program, testing functionality is strong with every vendor in this Guide. Each vendor in this Guide offers the
most in-demand testing features: multivariate testing, randomized segment creation, split-list testing, list-seed-
ing support, testing by amount and percentage. Ninety percent offers automated split-path testing.
It has been said that the one trait all good direct marketers have in common is curiosity. They are constantly
asking: “What will happen if I do this?” And, of course, the only way a good direct marketer’s curiosity can be
sated is with a full suite of testing tools. The vendors in this Guide understand this and it shows in their testing
functionality.
What we Think: The above being said; most senders won’t use all of the testing capabilities any of the vendors
in this Guide offer. If a vendor in this Guide does not offer a testing feature and you won’t need it, it doesn’t
matter. Automated split-path testing, archiving test results and machine self-learning testing will be considered
important by a small percentage of senders. If these features are important to you, discuss them with your
perspective vendor.
74
REPORTING
The reporting scores are based on vendor response to asked in the three subcategories: reports, report levels,
and audit trails. See Appendix for breakdown of reporting levels and reports by percentage.
REPORTING LEVELS SCORE
Report Levels
Communicator
Zeta Global ZetaHub
MessageGears
PostUp
ExpertSender
Average
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00
75
REPORTING LEVELS FEATURE ACCESS
Report Level Access
Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
Average
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
User Pro Services
76
REPORTS SCORE
Report
Zeta Global ZetaHub
ExpertSender
PostUp
Communicator
MessageGears
Average
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00
See your customers

from every angle
Delivering the essential tools to maximize revenue
through increased multi-channel customer engagement
Advanced cross-channel marketing

automation and analytics made simple
www.maropost.com | 888.438.3152 ext. 1
77
REPORTS FEATURE ACCESS
Reports Access
Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
Average
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
User Pro Services
What it Means: Report levels and access are highly unlikely to be a factor that rules any vendor in this Guide
out except for extremely rare cases. For example, every vendor in this Guide offers reporting by campaign, by
link and by program or category. They all also offer the ability to drill down via graphical user interface,
side-by-side reporting, and total and unique statistics.
They all also offer reporting by acquisition source, by device, by OS/platform, by segment, record and subject
line.
Ninety percent offers real-time reporting, dynamic content reporting and reporting on values at deployment.
Access levels are also extremely high across the board.
What we Think: Data is only as good as the ability to query it, manipulate it and generate readable, actionable
reports with it. This is an area where there is little difference between the vendors in this Guide. They all offer
platinum-level reporting. For a complete list of vendor reporting levels and access, see the appendix.
78
AUDIT TRAILS
Email audit trails are a sequence of electronic logs used to track email campaign deployment, delivery and subse-
quent action. Email audit trails are used to respond to any internal or external inquiries or complaints, and to
provide a basis for email campaign reconciliation. Email audit trails provide verification and validation of records
processed to and deployed by the ESP, in addition to recipient interaction with the email message. Email audit trails
are also used to meet regulatory requirements and to aid in ISP relations.
All participants in this edition of the Guide received a perfect score for Audit Trails.
TESTING & REPORTING SCORE
Testing & Reporting
Zeta Global ZetaHub
ExpertSender
PostUp
Communicator
MessageGears
Average
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00
79
TESTING & REPORTING FEATURE ACCESS
Testing & Reporting Access
Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
Average
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
User Pro Services
ONLY INFLUENCERS (OI) IS THE
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Apply for Membership, or Just Sign Up for the Free Weekly Newsletter:
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80
TESTING & REPORTING SCORE NUMERIC VALUES
The following charts provide the numeric scoring values for each participant. Testing & Reporting features &
functions have evolved to table-stakes items.
TESTING & REPORTING SCORE NUMERIC VALUES
Testing & Reporting Testing Reporting Reports Audit Trails
Adestra Message Focus 4.53 4.44 4.35 4.69 5.00
Cheetah Digital Marketing Suite 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00
Communicator 4.53 3.89 5.00 4.06 5.00
Epsilon Agility Harmony 4.91 5.00 4.78 5.00 5.00
ExpertSender 4.72 5.00 4.57 4.69 5.00
Inbox Marketer Connect 4.91 4.44 5.00 5.00 5.00
Maropost Marketing Cloud 4.81 4.44 5.00 4.69 5.00
MessageGears 3.96 3.89 4.78 2.50 5.00
PostUp 4.72 5.00 4.78 4.38 5.00
Zeta Global ZetaHub 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00
What it Means: Testing and reporting is one of the more critical, high-demand and mature categories in this
Guide and the high scores show it. ESPs have experienced a lot of demand for it and have thrown resources
against it accordingly.
What we Think: From a features-and-functions standpoint alone, you can’t go wrong with any of the vendors in
this Guide. Even from an accessibility standpoint, there is very little difference between them. In the case of
vendors that don’t offer 100% accessibility, even the lowest is 80%. This indicates that any vendor in this Guide
offers all the critical testing-and-reporting features clients have been calling for and the vast majority will be
directly user accessible with little to no reliance on professional services necessary. However, it is still a good
idea to discuss with any prospective vendor the level of technical expertise that will be required to access their
testing-and-reporting features.
81
THIRD PARTY
INTEGRATION
82
Many organizations want to leverage data from analytics and other third-party vendors to improve the
performance of their messaging programs. Others may want to leverage email data across other messaging
mediums as part of a larger cross-channel effort. Due to customer demand, email vendors regularly resell
third-party services.
The most common third-party applications sold by and integrated with email vendors can be divided into
fourteen vendor categories; Deliverability, Suppression Management, Analytics, CRM, Ad Serving, Remarketing,
Reviews, Profile/Persona, Validation, CMS, Real-Time Content, SMS, E-Com, and POS vendors.
DELIVERABILITY
Deliverability products typically seed email addresses to a message deployment and then measure the number
of messages delivered to the different folders of popular email clients, and allow users to weight seeded
domains to more accurately reflect the user’s subscriber base. Deliverability products often test third-party
filters, such as Barracuda, and provide views of how messages render in different email clients.
Deliverability Reseller
Return Path
250ok
Internal/Own Brand
Other
ISIPP - Surety Mail
MailMonitorApp
Unica (Pivotal Veracity)
GreenArrow
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Unica Mail
Green ISIPP - Internal/ Return
(Pivotal Monitor Other 250ok
Arrow Surety Mail Own Brand Path
Veracity) App
n = 10 10% 20% 30% 30% 40% 50% 50% 90%
For the first time in two years, 100% of participants resell or out-of-the-box integrate with deliverability prod-
ucts. This may be due to a more select participant group, or that deliverability integration is a table-stakes
feature.
Ninety percent of participants resell or integrate with Return Path deliverability products compared to 73% in
2017, 66% in 2016 and 68% in 2015, which was down from 81.25% in 2014 yet up slightly from 71% in 2013.
83
Fifty percent of participants resell or integrate with 250ok, a significant increase from 36% in 2017; from 25% in
2016; from 11% in 2015; and from the collective “other” category in 2014. This is the greatest year-over-year
adoption of a third-party service that we’ve seen in our nine years of producing this guide.
This year, 50% of participants provide or offer their own brand or internal deliverability products, up from 27%
in 2017; from 31% in 2016; from 20% in 2015; and, 38% in 2014.
Twenty percent of participants in this edition of the Guide resell or integrate with Unica deliverability products,
down from 23% in 2017, up from 16% in 2016 yet still down from 28% in 2015, 31% in 2014 and 24% in 2013.
SUPPRESSION MANAGEMENT
Suppression management tools are most often used by publishers sending messages through affiliates to aid
in CAN-SPAM compliance. Suppression management is crucial to making sure people who have opted out
receive no further messaging.
Suppression Management
Custom
Unsub Central
Optizmo
Other
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Other Optizmo Unsub Central Custom
n = 10 20% 40% 50% 100%
For a variety of reasons, senders often want the ability to suppress addresses from receiving certain mail
streams while continuing to reach them through others. Suppression management is also crucial to ensuring
affiliates don’t send messages to people who have opted out.
One hundred percent of participants in 2018 offer a custom suppression management solution compared to
64% in 2017; 63% in 2016; 56% in 2015, 53% in 2014, 39% in 2013, 38% in 2012, and 42% in 2011.
Fifty percent of participants resell or integrate with Unsub Central suppression management services, up from
27% in 2017; 13% in 2016; from 16% in 2015; from 9% in 2014, 8% in 2013, and from 11% in both 2012 and
2011.
Optizmo moves up with 40% of participants reselling or integrating with their platform; a significant increase
from 9% in 2017 and 8% seen in 2015.
84
ANALYTICS
Analytics tools can help develop a firm understanding of the behavioral patterns of subscribers and their
predominant purchasing trends while helping to predict the rate of subscriber engagement and response. They
are important to the success of your messaging strategies and can help you ascertain the behavioral patterns
of your subscribers.
Analytics
Custom
Google Analytics
Omniture
Coremetrics
WebTrends
Other
Comscore
Nedstat
Click Tracks
Econda
eTracker
Fireclick
Webtrekk
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Click Web Corem Google

Webtrekk Fireclick eTracker Econda Nedstat Comscore Other Omniture Custom
Tracks Trends etrics Analytics
n = 10 20% 20% 20% 20% 20% 30% 40% 50% 70% 80% 90% 90% 100%
One hundred percent of participants offer a custom analytics solution, compared to 68% in 2017, 63% in 2016,
80% in 2015, 63% in 2014 and 66% in 2013.
Ninety percent of participants offer Google Analytics integration, up from 86% in 2017 and 84% in 2016, yet
down when compared to 92% in 2015, 93.75% in 2014 and 92% in 2013.
We also find 90% of this year’s participants reselling or integrating with Omniture compared to 64% of partici-
pants in 2017, 47% in 2016, 76% in 2015 and 69% in 2014.
Eighty percent of participants resell or integrate Coremetrics, compared to 59% in 2017, 47% in 2016, 52% in
2015, 47% in 2014, and 53% in 2013.
Seventy percent of participants resell or integrate WebTrends, compared to 45% in 2017, 34% in 2016, 48% in
2015, 31% in 2014 and 40% in 2013.
85
CRM
Most CRM systems fall short when it comes to supporting the kind of email statistics needed to measure for
program and sales funnel improvements. Integrating CRM systems to email deployment vendors can provide
that statistical information at the campaign and recipient level while gaining better message and template
support, and moving deployment from corporate IP addresses.
CRM
Custom
SugarCRM
Other
SageCRM
Teradata
Oracle On Demand
Saleslogix
Javelin
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Oracle MS
Batch Sales Net Tera Sage Sugar Sales
Javelin Pearl On SAP Zoho Other Unica Dynamics Custom
book logix suite data CRM CRM CRM force
Demand
n = 10 10% 10% 20% 20% 20% 20% 30% 30% 30% 40% 50% 60% 60% 80% 80% 100%
Once again Salesforce is the most popular CRM platform with 100% of participants reselling or integrating with
Salesforce CRM compared to 77% in 2017, 59% in 2016, from 64% in 2015, from 81% in 2014, from 84% in 2013,
and from 68% in the 2012 Guide.
MS Dynamics is up with 80% of participants reselling or offering integration compared to 50% last year. Sugar-
CRM and Unica both come in this year with 60% of participants reselling or integrating,
86
AD-SERVING INTEGRATION
Newsletter and other email publishers are often advertiser-supported. Publishers of all sizes will often turn to
ad networks for advertisements to be featured in their newsletters and on their web sites. Ad networks will
track ad placement statistics and generate reports for their advertisers.
Ad-Serving
LiveIntent
Custom
LiveClicker
Google
Other
Proprietary
DoubleClick
Experian Digital Advertising
Direct Response Technologies
Improve Digital
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Direct Experian
Improve Double Live
Response Digital Proprietary Other Google Custom LiveIntent
Digital Click Clicker
Technolog Advertising
n = 10 20% 20% 30% 30% 40% 40% 40% 60% 60% 80%
Eighty percent of participants resell or integrate with LiveIntent compared to 50% in 2017, 31% in 2016 and
44% in 2015. In 2014 LiveIntent was the most mentioned platform under the collective, “other.”
LiveClicker jumps from 41% of participant reselling or integrating in 2017 and 16% in 2016 to 60% this year.
Sixty percent of participants also offer custom integration compared to 32% in 2017, 34% in 2016,48% in 2015,
28% in 2014, 32% in 2013 and 29% in 2012.
Forty percent of participants support Google AdSense, compared to 27% in 2017, 22% in 2016, 28% in 2015, 6%
in 2014, 18% in 2013 and 21% in 2012.
DoubleClick is up to 30% compared to 18% in 2017, 16% in 2016, 24% in 2015, 9% in 2014, and 18% in both
2013 and 2012.
87
REMARKETING INTEGRATION
Remarketing services and solutions target across multiple channels to previous prospects, customers, and
subscribers who didn’t take the desired action the first (or subsequent) time(s). Most often used by retail
organizations, remarketing services automate the analysis and execution of cross-channel marketing programs
through systems integration.
Fifty three percent of participants integrate their products with remarketing services technology compared to
60% in 2015, 50% in 2014 and 44% in 2013.
Remarketing
MyBuys
Other
Certona
SeeWhy
Windsor Circle
SmarterHQ
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%
SmarterHQ Windsor Circle SeeWhy Certona Other MyBuys
n = 10 10% 20% 20% 30% 40% 40%
MyBuys passes Certona this year with 40% of participants reselling or integrating versus 30%. At 30% Certona
sees an increase from 23% of participants reselling or offering integration in 2017, 16% in 2016, 20% in 2015,
22% in 2014 and 18% in 2013.
MyBuys for 2018 is up from 23% in 2017, 22% in 2016, 28% in 2015, 25% in 2014 and 24% in 2013.
SeeWhy is down a little from 23% in 2017 to 20% for this year. SeeWhy, saw 16% in 2016, 24% in 2015, 28% in
2014 and 24% in 2013.
Windsor Circle ties in with 20%, up from 14% in 2017 and its 2016 debut at 13%, while SmarterHQ still hovers in
the 10% range compared to 9% in 2017, 13% in 2016, and 8% in 2015 and 2014.
88
REVIEW SERVICES INTEGRATION
Good product and service reviews boost sales, and when written by a customer can instill value in a company
or its products and services.
Reviews
MyBuys
Bazaarvoice
Certona
RichRelevance
iGoDigital
Other
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%
Other iGoDigital RichRelevance Certona Bazaarvoice MyBuys
n = 10 10% 10% 20% 30% 30% 40%
Forty percent of participants offer review services from MyBuys, compared to 23% in 2017, 22% in 2016, 28% in
2015, 22% in 2014, and 24% in 2013.
Bazaarvoice review services are offered by 30% of participants compared to 18% in 2017, 9% in 2016, 24% in
2015, 19% in 2014, and 24% in 2013.
Thirty percent offer review services from Certona, compared to 18% in 2017, 13% in 2016, 20% in 2015, 16% in
2014 and 18% in 2013.
89
PROFILE/PERSONA SERVICES INTEGRATION
Profiles of prospects and customers modeled into Personas identify the possible actions and behaviors of
prospects and customers, helping to create better customer experiences to increase sales and revenue.
Profile/Persona
Customer Portfolios
Other
Windsor Circle
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%
Windsor Circle Other Customer Portfolios
n = 10 20% 20% 20%
EMAIL VALIDATION SERVICES INTEGRATION
Email Validation services have grown in popularity as they aid in deliverability and hygiene by validating and
verifying email addresses in real-time or by batch.
One of the key metrics inbox providers use to determine whether incoming email is spam is the percentage of
garbage addresses the sender tries to reach. As a result, it is imperative for any sender of bulk, commercial
email to take steps to ensure data is clean as it enters their system.
Retailers whose associates collect email addresses at point of sale, for example, are particularly vulnerable to
bad data. Low-wage associates can be sloppy. Some customers will purposely give bad addresses, such as
MickeyMouse@Gmail.com.
Email validation services are one way to ensure clean, deliverable email addresses are being added into the
system.
FreshAddress was once again the most widely resold or integrated email validation service supported by 70%
of participants compared to 55% in 2017, 31% in 2016, 36% in 2015, 25% in 2014, and 21% in 2013.
90
Forty five percent support BriteVerify ties with ReturnPath this year at 70% compared to 45% in 2017, 25% in
2016, 40% in 2015, 25% in 2014, and 8% in 2013.
Sixty percent support or resell StrikeIron, which was purchased by Informatica, compared to 23% in 2017, 19%
in 2016, 24% in 2015, 18% in 2014, and only 5% support in 2013
Fifty percent offer integration with Experian Data Services compared to 27% in 2017 and 19% in 2016.
Webbula is also seeing 50% of participants reselling or integrating its services, up from 18% in 2017, 13% in
2016, and 12% when it debuted in our Guide in 2015.
Validation
BriteVerify
FreshAddress
StrikeIron
Experian Data Services
Webbula
Impressionwise
Other
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Impression Experian Fresh

Other Webbula StrikeIron BriteVerify
wise DataServices Address
n = 10 20% 20% 50% 50% 60% 70% 70%
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91
CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
CMS enables the user to more easily manage web and email content. 77% of participants provide
“out-of-the-box” integration with a content management system, an increase from 59% in 2016, 56% in 2015
and from 47% when this item debuted in this guide in 2014.
CMS
Magento
Drupal
WordPress
Hybris
Sitecore
Joomla
Other
Share Point
MODx
Open Text
OpenCMS
Radiant
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Open Open Share Word

Radiant MODx Other Joomla Sitecore Hybris Drupal Magento
CMS Text Point Press
n = 10 10% 10% 10% 10% 20% 20% 20% 40% 40% 60% 60% 70%
Once again, the most supported CMS integration is with Magento at 70%, up from 45% in 2017, 31% in 2016,
from 36% in 2015, and 41% support in 2014.
Support for WordPress from participants is at 60%, up from 36% in 2017, 31% in 2016, 32% in 2015, and from
25% in 2014.
Drupal also comes in at 60%, up from 27% in 2017, 25% in 2016 and from 16% support in both 2015 and 2014,
while Joomla is at 20%, up from 5% in 2017, 9% in 2016, 8% in 2015, and from 13% in 2014.
Twenty percent of participants support a CMS system not listed, compared to 23% in 2017, 9% in 2016, and
20% in 2015, with the most common once again being Adobe.
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REAL-TIME CONTENT
In 2015 we introduced real-time content resale or integration to our questionnaire and report and found that
60% of 2015 participants offered integration or resale with real-time content platforms. In 2017 73% of partici-
pants offered or supported real-time content, compared to 56% in 2016.
Real-Time Content
Movable Ink
LiveClicker
LiveIntent
Other
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Other LiveIntent LiveClicker Movable Ink
n = 10 80% 80% 80% 90%
Real-time content allows marketers to tailor messages based on such things as device, geo-location, time
opened, local weather, previous clicking behavior, current inventory of a particular product, and more.
Real-time content also enables the use of countdown clocks—important for limited-time sales and
auctions—and custom images.
In 2015 the most supported real-time content platform by 44% of participants was Movable Ink followed
closely by LiveIntent at 40%. In 2016 the roles were reversed with LiveIntent at 34% and Movable Ink at 31%.
In 2017 the roles were reversed again with 64% of participants reselling or integrating with Movable Ink and
80% reselling or integrating with LiveIntent.
LiveClicker tied with LiveIntent and is now offered or supported by 80% of participants compared to 45% in
2017, 22% of participants in 2016 and 32% of 2015 participants.
93
SMS (SHORT MESSAGE SERVICE)
Back for the third year are vendors integrating with commercial SMS platforms.
SMS/MMS
Other
Dynmark
OpenMarket
Twilio
Clickatell
EZ Texting
MessageBird
RingCentral
SAP
Trumpia
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Ring Message EZ Open

Trumpia SAP Clickatell Twilio Dynmark Other
Central Bird Texting Market
n = 10 20% 20% 20% 20% 20% 20% 40% 40% 50% 70%
Seventy percent of this year’s participants are integrating with an SMS system not listed compared to 55% in
2017, 34% in 2016, and 56% in 2015.
For the fourth year Dynamark was the most named SMS platform integrating with 50% of participants,
compared to 32% in 2017, 19% in 2016 and 16% in 2015.
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E-COMMERCE
Eighty percent of participants are integrating with commercial e-commerce platforms compared to 64% in
2017, 47% in 2016 and 52% of participants when this category debuted in 2015.
E-Commerce
Magento
Hybris
Demandware
Other
Shopify
Tibco
eSellerate
IBM Websphere
iCongo
Intershop
Marketlive
Venda
Yahoo Stores
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Yahoo Market Inter IBMWe e Deman

Venda iCongo Tibco Shopify Other Hybris Magento
Stores live shop bsphere Sellerate dware
n = 10 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 20% 40% 40% 40% 50% 70%
Seventy percent of participants offer integration with the Magento platform compared to 50% in 2017, 41% in
2016 and 40% in 2015, followed by Hybris at 50%. Shopify ties for third this year at 40% compared to 32% in
2017, 22% in 2016 and 20% in 2015.
95
OTHER INTEGRATION
Just 30% of participants provide integration with point-of-sale systems, up from 18% in 2017, 17% in 2016, 24%
in 2015, 19% in 2014, and 16% in 2013.
Point of Sale
Other
MS Dynamics RMS
GotMerchant
Lightspeed
ShopKeep
Springboard
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%
MS
Springboard ShopKeep Lightspeed GotMerchant Other
DynamicsRMS
n = 10 10% 10% 10% 10% 20% 40%
96
INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS
For the second year in a row 100% of participants belong to one or more Industry associations compared to
84% in both 2016 and 2015, 97% in 2014 and 74% in 2013.
Ninety percent of participants belong to one of the chapters of the Direct Marketing Association compared to
77% in 2017, 69% in 2016, 76% in 2015, 63% in 2014 and 71% in 2013.
Ninety percent belong to the Email Experience Council, compared to 73% in 2017, 66% in 2016, 68% in 2015,
59% in 2014, and 66% in 2013.
Sixty percent belong to MAAAWG, compared to 45% in 2017, 50% in 2016, 56% in 2015, 63% in 2014, and 55%
in 2013.
Ninety percent belong to the ESPC, compared to 59% in 2017, 56% in 2016, 48% in 2015, 47% in 2014, and 37%
in 2013.
Forty percent belong to the Online Trust Alliance, with 50% belonging to IAPP, and 20% at the Anti-Phishing
Working Group.
Forty percent belong to an association not listed, compared to 36% in 2017, 38% in 206, 48% in 2015, 50% in
2014, and 57% in 2013.
Industry Associations
DMA
EEC
ESPC
MAAAWG
IAPP
Other
OTA
APWG
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
APWG OTA Other IAPP MAAAWG ESPC EEC DMA
n = 10 20.00% 40.00% 50.00% 50.00% 60.00% 90.00% 90.00% 90.00%
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SUPPORT
TRAINING &
98
Training and support provided by vendors is crucial to the overall success of their clients. Whether basic or
customized for a particular business, training is essential to giving clients the ability to maximize their utilization
and effectiveness of the tools available within the ESP. A company’s growth within the email channel relies on
the capabilities of the user, not just the service provider. While account management and high levels of support
are valuable, being able to provide basic training and self-administered training for clients who are
semi-technical can also benefit both client and vendor.
TRAINING
Vendors offer a variety of training options. Standard on-site training is in-person basic product training at the
user location. Custom on-site training is in-person product training customized to specific corporate goals,
terminology, and business processes. Basic product training is commonly performed via scheduled online
conferencing.
Video or on-demand training is a common alternative to on-site training and lets the user progress at their own
pace. Through presentations and demonstrations, and on-demand topic modules, training should provide
step-by-step instructions and illustrate best practices to help the user get started.
Video or
Standard Custom Standard Custom Anti-Spam Platform
other On- Workshops
On-site On-site Vendor-site Vendor-site Training Certification
Demand
Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
99
Training Costs
Anti-Spam Training
Custom On-site
Custom Vendor-site
Platform Certification
Standard On-site
Standard Vendor-site
Video or other On-Demand
Workshops
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Fee Free
SUPPORT & ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT
Technical Support helps solve problems in implementing the vendor's tools. Account managers and teams
work with users to identify their needs and work out how the vendor can best meet them. The average stand-
ard support resolution time across all participants in this edition of the Guide is 13.67 hours compared to 7.54
hours in 2017, 10.48 hours in 2016, with the average actual resolution time at 5.33 hours compared to 5.12
hours in 2017 and 2.48 hours in 2016.
Technical Implementation Premium

User Forum
Support Support Support

Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION – OPEN Q&A
Red Pill Email’s Features & Functions Guide would not be complete without letting vendors speak for them-
selves. After all, a binary, yes/no score can only tell you so much. Asking open-ended questions gives vendors
the opportunity to point out what they believe are their core strengths and gives you the opportunity to see if
their focus seems to align with yours. The questions also allow vendors to highlight areas where they believe
they really shine. Besides offering more robust information, answers to the following questions can give you an
idea as to the communication style of a particular vendor so you can decide if you’re comfortable with the idea
of interacting with its representatives on an ongoing basis.
PROTECTING USER ACCOUNTS & DATA
We asked, How do you protect user accounts/data?
Adestra Message Focus:
Customer accounts are in separate logical databases within our database server cluster, the application servers
can only connect to one database at a time, and each connection can only access data from the designated
account to ensure data security. We also prevent data loss by performing a comprehensive, daily backup -
alongside frequent offsite backups.
MessageFocus allows administrators to manage user access at a granular level. Restricting their access to only
the actions they need to perform, in the spaces they need to perform them in. This helps to ensure that contact
data is used within the right sections of an account and prevents users from editing content and data that
they’re not entitled to.
Adestra offers two-factor authentication with a One-Time Passcode (OTP) token. Helping provide an extra layer
of security to your account by preventing unauthorised access.
We adhere to a strict data policy and have been accredited by the DMA’s DataSeal standard, recognizing our
information security management systems. Assuring you that we have a robust approach to managing and
protecting consumer data. We are currently working towards ISO 9001/27001 and are hoping to be accredited
with this early in 2017.
Cheetah Digital Marketing Suite:

No Response.
Communicator:
We’re ISO27001 certified, meaning we take an information security minded approach to business operations.
We offer role-based platform access to manage who can do what with data. We have secure SFTP and HTTPS
connections for data encryption in transit and data encryption at rest. We let clients have full control over how
long their data is stored and we have annual independent penetration tests.
101
Epsilon Agility Harmony:
Epsilon employs a complex multi-layered security controls approach across the enterprise using best-of-breed
technical solutions. This is coupled with policies and procedures that align with industry best practices such as
the ISO27001 series and NIST Infosec Framework.
Technologies employed within Epsilon include, but are not limited to, data encryption (database, laptop,
DKIM, TLS), host and network intrusion prevention system (IPS); advanced persistent threat (APT); data loss
prevention (DLP); 2-factor authentication; API management; automated user account provisioning/deprovision-
ing and user attestation reviews; and more. These adaptive security controls feed into Epsilon’s advanced log
correlation solution which is then managed by a highly trained certified Security Operations Center (SOC) team
on a 24x7x365 basis. The team uses these tools to aggregate and normalize millions of system logs in order to
detect and provide a continuous response approach to possible security threats.
ExpertSender:
The following documents covering data privacy are in effect at ExpertSender:
Security Policy, Software Change Control Policy, Acceptable Use Policy, Backup Policy, Security Operation
Procedures (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Annual), Personal Data Security Policy, Business Contingency Plan, Disaster
Recovery Plan.
All procedures are monitored and enforced by the Security Manager appointed in writing. Where applicable,
rules are enforced programmatically (e.g. password lengths, geo-based access restrictions).
Access to user accounts is restricted to account manager, security manager and user logins. User logins can
have different access permission levels.
Customer's data can also be encrypted on the database level. On top of that it's possible to obfuscate the email
addresses in the user interface, so users without appropriate credentials will not see the email addresses when
logged into the system. It's also possible to completely revoke access to segmentation for particular users, so
they don't have access to the user base at all (like agencies providing creative work).
Physical security of the data is ensured by Tier III Data Center (all requirements apply, i.e.: CCTV, electronic
entry control system, physical security 24/7/365).
Inbox Marketer Connect:
Inbox Marketer has hosted customer data for a cross-section of corporate clients since 2002. Large clients
across North America, such as financial institutions, telco's and retailers, rely on our SaaS technology to deploy
targeted digital messaging campaigns. Inbox Marketer is an active member of industry associations. (CMA,
MAAWG, EEC) and we adhere to industry best practices on privacy and security. Our core competence is digital
messaging and the hosting of data marts that serve the marketing needs of various companies. Inbox Marketer
is located in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Our Tier 2 hosted data centres have elaborate physical access security
procedures and are equipped with a full fire control system, backup systems, and redundancy of critical
systems and disaster recovery capabilities. We are continually expanding and investing in our IT infrastructure
to ensure we meet our highest security requirements. In the past 10 years, Inbox Marketer has not experience
any security breaches. Inbox Marketer has passed security audits for a number of clients in the financial
services sector where security requirements are paramount. Inbox Marketer contracts 3rd party application
dynamic & static scanning (quarterly) and penetration test service (annually) to perform risk and vulnerability
testing. Data is sent to and from Inbox Marketer in a variety of ways. All channels are SSL signed, including web
connections and email systems. Methods that transfer data include (but are not restricted to) the following:
Email Attachments (preferably encrypted), Secure FTP Transfers over SSH, and Direct Data Query (preferably
102
over SSL connection). Inbox Marketer encourages its clients and partners to deliver data in an encrypted
format. Inbox Marketer has experience using most encryption standards including PKI, PGP, etc. Inbox
Marketer has an SSAE16 SOC2 Audit report.
Maropost Marketing Cloud:
All access to Maropost Marketing Cloud (MMC) requires a user ID and password over HTTPS. Account admins
are responsible to create the user accounts. Users receive an automatically-triggered notification email for
them to complete their account setup which includes creating their own passwords. Every login attempt to
MMC is logged including the IP address of the requesting source and the date/time.
MMC also offers 2-factor authentication to clients wishing to implement for their users.
API access is over HTTPS and requires an authentication token whose access privileges are user-defined. All API
method calls are logged including IP address of the requesting service, the method calls and payload, and
date/time of access.
All client data is stored in a 3rd-party cloud hosting provider that is certified to comply with industry-standard
security protocols including PCI-DSS, ISO27001, SSAE-SOC2, and HITRUST.
MessageGears:
Our solution lives behind the customer's firewall; therefore, it does not use our own security protocols but
theirs. We have redaction services built into the MessageGears cloud that wipes and identifiable customer data
that has passed through w/in 24 hours.
PostUp:
We operate our own authentication system which offers the ability to use strong passwords and multi-level
security groups with fine grained ACL controls for client facing UI access. All web activity is over HTTPS. User
data is stored in our data center. Active directory authentication is utilized for a single point of access control,
only accessible by senior level administrators, for back end systems. Customer data can be encrypted when
housed on the PostUp platform.
Zeta Global ZetaHub:
To protect sensitive data, Zeta has multiple security controls in place. This includes role-based database access
control, service layer interaction between application and database, separation of duties, firewalls, IPS, Antivi-
rus, log rotation, archiving and encryption of the backups with AES. Log files will not have any client sensitive
data except the audit data. The client specific database instance and warehouse instance has access review,
administrative controls and background checks. Separation of development, staging and production environ-
ments is maintained.
In addition, Zeta requires encryption to protect any data containing confidential data or sensitive data defined
in the Data Classification policy. Proven, standard encryption methods (e.g. AES, Blowfish, RSA, RC5, IDEA, etc.)
must be used as the basis for encryption technologies. These methods represent the actual cipher used for an
approved application.
The Zeta Encryption Policy addresses the following:
• Network level encryption • Data encryption • Standards Support for Open PGP • Algorithms
• Key Management • Devices and Media Requiring Encryption • Electronic Data Transfers
• Physical Transfer of Electronic Data • Software
103
SLA OFFERINGS & PROCESSES
We asked, What are your SLA offerings and processes?
Our standard contract contains a 95% uptime SLA, and we do provide higher SLAs for an additional charge. Our
uptime is very high (99.97% currently) and historically very good, but we try to avoid rigid SLAs where possible,
preferring instead to publish our uptimes publicly so our customers can see our history and decide for them-
selves.
status.adestra.com stats.adestra.com
Also, we publish a customer charter - http://www.adestra.com/clients/customer-charter/

We aim to follow the KPIs described in our ‘Customer Charter’. We measure quality through our support case
survey and target scores average greater than 4.5 out of 5.
No Response.
Communicator:
Our current SLA for platform uptime is 99.9% – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our aim is to reach 99.99%!
Harmony leverages a set of synthetic transactions that provide measurement for all SLAs. These synthetic
benchmarks measure platform uptime and availability of the user interface and API, data import and export
performance, and messaging throughput.
ExpertSender:
ExpertSender’s average uptime is 99.9%.

Maintenance works are always conducted within fixed maintenance windows. New features are introduced in
weekly production cycles.
Support is offered 24/7. Average response time for non-critical requests is 3 hours.
Protection of Your Data: Information that You upload to the Services, including without limitation Your market-
ing plans, email lists, materials or content, remains Your exclusive and confidential property at all times ("Your
Data"). Inbox Marketer takes commercially reasonable precautions to prevent the loss of or alteration to Your
Data at all times, including without limitation the precautions and procedures outlined herein. However, Inbox
Marketer cannot guarantee against any such loss or alteration. Accordingly, you must, to the extent that You
deem necessary, keep copies of all source documents related to Your Data that has been uploaded to the
Services and You must also maintain a system external to Inbox Marketer for the backup of Your Data.
Data Center: At any time, Inbox Marketer may host serv
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ers and infrastructure at a variety of hosting providers including its own data centre. When hosting is with an
external provider, only Tier-2 providers or better are used. Each such provider employs no less than the
following:
• Redundant web servers, database servers, application servers, and firewalls
• Weekly update of OS patches and firewall patches
• Daily anti-virus definition updates
• 24-7 application and hardware monitoring with email alerts to operations staff
• UPS or generator power backup
• Multi-Layer Physical and Network Security including Fire Detection & Suppression
Server and Data Backup: Within its hosted environments, Inbox Marketer employs the following configuration
and procedures for server and data backup.
1. All customer data, including without limitation Your Data, resides on Raided subsystems, which provide
real-time data redundancy in the unlikely event of disk failure.
2. Inbox Marketer has scheduled daily incremental and weekly complete hosting system backups ("System
Backup"). A System Backup includes without limitation all content and data and system resources to allow for
the recovery of an entire server in a short period of time.
3. All system backup data is stored on backup media on-site at the respective data centre and operates on a
7-day incremental rotation.
Scheduled Maintenance & Upgrades: Inbox Marketer may occasionally perform maintenance and upgrades
to the Services, its data centre or network environments including bug fixes and patches. All Scheduled Mainte-
nance and Upgrades shall be performed during non-business hours (local time) where possible and shall be
kept to a practical minimum.
Support & Incidence Procedures: Inbox Marketer will provide phone and email support to you through its
tiered management structure listed in this document under section 4 Key Contacts. Most support requests fall
into one of the following categories and will be dealt with accordingly:
Technical in nature:
• During regular business hours: within 4 hours • Outside of regular business hours: within 12 hours
Customer Service related:
• During regular business hours: within 2 hours • Outside of regular business hours: within 12 hours
Work request items:
• Typically, 72-hour turnaround from time of receiving final assets to time of deployment (for email campaigns)
please check with your account manager for actual turnaround times depending on the nature of the request.
• In the case of emergencies, a 24-hour turnaround may be accommodated based on current workload at
Inbox Marketer.
In the case of an incident which interferes with Your immediate ability to use the Services, the following
escalation procedures are used.
Escalation Inbox Marketer Monitors System Outages ("Problem Reports") on a 24/7 basis. You may contact
Inbox Marketer to report problems with Your Services at any time by submitting a Problem Report by either
email or phone in accordance with the Key Contact list. PLEASE NOTE: Inbox Marketer WILL ONLY RESPOND TO
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PROBLEM REPORTS RECIEVED FROM YOUR AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVES.
a. Problem Report Prioritization. All Problem Reports are prioritized as follows.
i. Inbox Marketer, in Inbox Marketer's sole and absolute discretion (acting reasonably), will make an initial
investigation of the severity level of each Problem Report and classify it as either a platform error or an
external problem.
ii. If the Problem Report is classified as a platform error, then it will be assigned a severity level according to the
descriptions set forth below.
iii. After further research, Inbox Marketer may reclassify platform errors from one severity level to another
upon consultation with You.
iv. When a severity level is assigned, Inbox Marketer will promptly designate appropriate management and
technical support personnel to investigate and take corrective action with respect to any platform error.
v. Corrective action for platform errors may initially include a temporary fix or work-around solution.
b. Severity Levels. Platform errors are separated into severity levels depending on System Access and
availability of the Services for users. The severity levels are as follows:
i. Level 1 is a Platform Error that makes the general use of the Services impossible and that cannot be
circumvented or avoided on a temporary basis. The condition requires an immediate solution that is not
already available. Inbox Marketer will initiate an effort to replicate and verify the reported Platform Error within
one (1) hour of Platform Error classification during applicable support hours, provide continuous effort to
arrive at a fix or work-around, and will use commercially reasonable efforts to provide You with a fix or work
around within twenty-four (24) hours of receiving the Problem Report. You shall be updated on the current
status of severity level 1 problems by telephone or email every two (2) hours during normal business hours.
ii. Level 2 is a Platform Error that makes the general use of the Services difficult and that can be circumvented
or avoided on a temporary basis. Inbox Marketer will initiate an effort to replicate and verify the reported
Platform Error within two (2) hours of receiving the Problem Report during normal business hours, and will try
to provide You with a fix or work-around within three (3) business days of receipt of the Problem Report.
iii. Level 3 includes all other Platform Errors that are not covered in severity levels 1 or 2. Inbox Marketer will
begin work on such problem identification and verification within two (2) business days of receipt of the report
of the problem during normal business hours, and will provide You with a proposed fix or work-around within
seven (7) business days.
Documentation and Reporting: Inbox Marketer will provide online and offline documentation as it may become
available. Such documentation might include basic training elements for use of Your Services. Examples of such
documentation include:
• Access to reporting system and available functions

• Retrieval of specific campaign reports
• Access to secure FTP site for data transfers

Uptime Commitment: Inbox Marketer will assure 99% uptime for Your Services where Uptime is calculated on
an annualized basis (the "Uptime Commitment"), excluding Excusable Downtime, as defined herein.
1. System Access to Your Services means: access to the Services that You have purchased at any time.
2. System Outage means: Non-access to any System Access, excluding Excusable Downtime.
3. Excusable Downtime means: (i) Scheduled Maintenance and Upgrades as described herein; (ii) acts or
omissions by You or Your customers, users, employees, agents, or contractors, or anyone gaining access to
Your Services by means of Your passwords or equipment (except where such access is the result of an act or
omission by Inbox Marketer); or (iii) suspension of Your Use of the Services due to Account Lockout or
temporary suspension for unpaid services.
4. Emergency Action. Inbox Marketer reserves the right to take immediate corrective action in order to
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maintain stability and overall availability of the Services as reasonably required and such emergency action
shall not be considered or calculated towards system downtime.
Remedy: Your sole remedy for Inbox Marketer's breach of its Uptime Commitment level contained herein shall
be a pro-rata reimbursement of monthly or annual fees actually received by Inbox Marketer from You for any
percentage of System Outage outside the Uptime Commitment on an annualized basis.
Security: Inbox Marketer takes commercially reasonable precautions to prevent commonly known means of
obtaining unauthorized entry into Your Services. Inbox Marketer will notify You of a security breach within two
(2) hours of discovery of any such occurrence.
• Password Management. System Access is password protected according to industry standards. Users are
responsible for security of their passwords. Lost or forgotten passwords may be reset directly from the Inbox
Marketer login page. All passwords can be administered by a client administrator designated by you and by the
senior Inbox Marketer administrators.
• Account lockout. Misuse of the Services or non-conformance with Inbox Marketer’s Privacy Policy is reviewed
by Inbox Marketer personnel and may result in account lockout and or termination of user privileges.
• Physical Security: The hosted data centre has elaborate security measures including:
• Escorted Access only • Tamperproof multipath fiber and copper lines all run via underground conduit
• Redundant cooling and power, including backup generators

• Concentric Security model • Recorded video surveillance • Internal punch code door lock system
• Biometric scanning • Steel, fire-rated interior doors
Hardware and Disaster Recovery

Hardware Restoration: In the event of a hardware failure, all critical systems will be promptly restored via
first-line support services from relevant hardware manufacturers and/or data centre personnel. In the event
that additional or new hardware is required to rectify any hardware failure, Inbox Marketer will obtain such
hardware at its expense as soon as commercially practicable. All data will be restored on hardware as soon
thereafter as commercially practicable as defined in paragraph 2 of this section. If the affected hardware
cannot be restored within one (1) business day, then all affected customers will be notified. Inbox Marketer
maintains a team of technical support personnel on duty and standby for physical replacement, as necessary
and as per the support hours outlined above.
Data Recovery:
a. First notification. Upon first notification of a hardware or data failure, Inbox Marketer's disaster
recovery coordinator will:
i. Assess all damage and failure issues, including networks, hardware and data;
ii. Promptly notify Inbox Marketer's technical support personnel of a failure status;
iii. Determine immediate courses of action;

iv. Retrieve backup media of all affected systems and sites; and
v. Provide You with an initial status report either by phone or email.
b. Restoration. As soon as reasonably possible after first notification, the disaster recovery coordinator
will commence the process of restoration as follows;
i. Develop a restoration and recovery schedule;
ii. Begin the system recovery process for normal network operations;
iii. Restore any of Your affected servers or systems;
iv. Provide You with an updated assessment of progress and status of any failure to Your data;
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v. Continuously monitor restored servers and systems to verify that data recovery is complete and accurate.
c. Conclusion. At the conclusion of the recovery process, Inbox Marketer will provide all affected customers
with a final status report in accordance with the Service Level Commitments and Procedures section above and
further detailing the cause(s) of the failure, all corrective steps taken and any future preventative measures
added.
Terms for conclusion of Services: In the event of termination or conclusion of Services for whatever reason, you
must promptly contact Inbox Marketer to arrange to remove and recover Your Data. Your Data will be perma-
nently removed and deleted from Inbox Marketer databases and servers within ninety (90) business days and
backups of data will be removed 4 months thereafter after the conclusion of Services. Inbox Marketer IS IN NO
WAY RESPONSIBLE FOR DAMAGES OF ANY KIND (WHETHER DIRECT OR INDIRECT), INCLUDING WITHOUT
LIMITATION LOSS OF PROFITS, RESULTING FROM THE FAILURE TO REMOVE YOUR DATA AND CONTENT WITHIN
THE PRESCRIBED TIME.
No Response.
MessageGears:
No Response.
PostUp:
We have an established SLA process that ensures the following:
Availability - 99.5% uptime outside of regularly stated maintenance windows. Availability is measured on a
monthly basis beginning at 12:00:00 AM CT on the first day of a calendar month and ending at 11:59:59 PM on
the last day of the calendar month.
Response time to errors - Severity 1 Error (most critical) will receive a response within 1 hour of notification.
Severity 2 Error will receive a response within 2 business hours of notification. Severity 3 Error will receive a
response within 4 business hours of notification.
Zeta has an established standard Service Level Agreement (SLA), however, Clients have the ability to work with
their account management team for project specific SLAs to configure an SLA to their specific needs, be it a
small or large scale.
Our typical SLA addresses the following performance agreements:
• Uptime and Performance Guarantee of being fully functional 99.5% of any calendar month
• System monitoring the availability of the ZetaHub
• Data Privacy, storage and backup related to response data and client customer data
• Server response times - ensuring that all HTTP requests are responded to in under 1 second
• Scheduled platform maintenance
• Customer support and client services request acknowledgement, status update and resolution timelines
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ASSET RETENTION POLICIES
We asked, What are your asset retention policies (data, reporting, content, images)?
Contents of bounce messages (3 months) and temporary data storage (up to 1 month), Event data older than 2
years is archived; Reporting will still be available for campaigns that used this data, but the data itself will no
longer be accessible for filters or exports.
No Response.
Communicator:
Primary contact information is stored for the lifetime of the account; all other data linked to a contact (filtering,
segmenting, personal, behavioural) is user controlled with automatic deletion processes. Email activity transac-
tional data (sent, opened, clicked, etc.) is kept for 16 weeks before being rolled-up into anonymous data
summaries. All content and imagery are stored for the lifetime of the account.
Harmony provides the user with flexibility to archive any data, reporting, or content asset, as they see fit. Data
and content assets are archived at the user’s discretion while aggregate campaign reporting data is retained for
36 months, and detailed activity data is retained for 15 months. Epsilon also offers solutions for clients who
would like to extend the retention of the reporting data beyond the system defined policies should it be
required.
WE CONVERT
YOUR BEAUTIFULLY
CRAFTED DESIGNS
INTO AWESOME
WEBSITES
RESPONSIVE
Websites & Landing Pages
Webby Monks
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ExpertSender:
Data retention policy – all personally identifiable data is by default purged within 1 month of user agreement
termination
Reporting retention policy – full account statistics by default are kept for 14 months, but this can be adjusted
on per-account basis; aggregated statistics are stored for an unlimited amount of time; all reporting data is by
default purged within 1 month of user agreement termination
Content and image retention policy – all past email content and images are permanently kept within the
account throughout the duration of the contract; all content data is by default purged within 1 month of user
agreement termination.
Protection of Your Data: Information that You upload to the Services, including without limitation Your
marketing plans, email lists, materials or content, remains Your exclusive and confidential property at all times
("Your Data"). Inbox Marketer takes commercially reasonable precautions to prevent the loss of or alteration to
Your Data at all times, including without limitation the precautions and procedures outlined herein. However,
Inbox Marketer cannot guarantee against any such loss or alteration. Accordingly, you must, to the extent that
You deem necessary, keep copies of all source documents related to Your Data that has been uploaded to the
Services and You must also maintain a system external to Inbox Marketer for the backup of Your Data.
Data Center: At any time, Inbox Marketer may host servers and infrastructure at a variety of hosting providers
including its own data centre. When hosting is with an external provider, only Tier-2 providers or better are
used. Each such provider employs no less than the following:
• Redundant web servers, database servers, application servers, and firewalls
• Weekly update of OS patches and firewall patches
• Daily anti-virus definition updates
• 24-7 application and hardware monitoring with email alerts to operations staff
• UPS or generator power backup
• Multi-Layer Physical and Network Security including Fire Detection & Suppression Server and Data Backup:
Within its hosted environments, Inbox Marketer employs the following configuration and procedures for server
and data backup.
1. All customer data, including without limitation Your Data, resides on Raided subsystems, which provide
real-time data redundancy in the unlikely event of disk failure.
2. Inbox Marketer has scheduled daily incremental and weekly complete hosting system backups ("System
Backup"). A System Backup includes without limitation all content and data and system resources to allow for
the recovery of an entire server in a short period of time.
3. All system backup data is stored on backup media on-site at the respective data centre and operates on a
7-day incremental rotation.
Scheduled Maintenance & Upgrades: Inbox Marketer may occasionally perform maintenance and upgrades
to the Services, its data centre or network environments including bug fixes and patches. All Scheduled
Maintenance and Upgrades shall be performed during non-business hours (local time) where possible and
shall be kept to a practical minimum.
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Campaign response data is stored up to a maximum of 12 months. All other data including assets, email
content, lists, segments, contact data, custom fields, relational table data, web tracking history, mobile app
session tracking, etc. is stored in perpetuity for as long as an account remains in good standing.
All data is retained for a period of 90 days post contact termination. After that point, all inactivated account
data is purged from the system.
MessageGears:
No Response.
PostUp:
PostUp has varying levels of retention based on the type of data being retained. In many cases the retention
time is configurable based on the needs of our customers. The retention policies outlined here are based on
the averages we see our customers use, but should be noted that in certain instances the data may be retained
longer than stated here.
For data: Recipient information, lists, segments, and campaigns are retained as long as the customer is using
our platform. When a customer elects to leave our platform, we will allow a 30-day period for the customer to
export their data.
For reporting: Reporting on sent mailings is retained for the duration the customer uses our platform. Recipi-
ent level data within the mailing is archived off after 180 days, however the aggregate totals remain. (Example,
you can download the actual recipients from a mailing for up to 180 days. After the 180 days you'll no longer be
able to download the actual recipients, however you will still see the number of recipients that the mailing was
deployed to. This holds true for bounces, responses, opens and clicks as well.
Content from deployed mailings, as well as, content uploaded into our native CMS is retained for the duration
of the customer using our platform. The same holds true for images as well.
ZetaHub retains response and opt-in/opt-out data forever. All other data is stored within ZetaHub for up to 7
years according to our standard issued SLA, however we work with our Clients to modify this timeframe should
they require a longer retention period.
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ONBOARDING PROCESS
We asked, Explain your onboarding process.
You will be assigned a dedicated Project Manager as part of your account set up to ensure your migration to
MessageFocus runs as smoothly as possible. We complete simple account setups within 1-2 weeks, however
exact timescales depend on the complexity of the account and the level of integration required.
No Response.
Communicator:
Depending on the package you’ve bought, which is tailored to your level of sophistication, the onboarding
process will last either one, four or six weeks.
On day one, you’re granted with access to our software suite and from then your setup process will be
managed by an experienced project manager from a marketing background. Each package has a time
allowance tailored to your sophistication needs and your project manager will talk you through how that time
could be best used for your brand.
At the onset of the relationship a detailed kick-off meeting occurs to define intake requirements and key goals
and objectives for the business to best ensure platform implementation that will meet current and evolving
needs. Leveraging a dedicated team of experts, Epsilon implements the environment and can move assets,
re-establish existing campaigns, automations and API logic as defined by the needs identified prior to contract.
Dedicated resources also include deliverability expertise to help in defining the number, and assignment of IP
addresses as well as custom IP Warming plans for every client to re-establish reputation as quickly and
effectively as possible, leveraging both delivery and inbox placement as key measures of success.
ExpertSender:
Typically onboarding starts with bilateral consultations regarding identifying client’s data structure, current and
planned campaigns and application integration needs. A plan with milestones and responsibilities for onboard-
ing is created.
Next, the client and ExpertSender staff work on executing the plan, which takes on average between 4 days
and 2 weeks. In the end the Business Unit is set up and tested. The client receives the login credentials along
with the dedicated IPs warmup plan and guidelines.
The dedicated account manager is involved in the entire onboarding process to make sure the onboarding is
conducted with the minimum amount of disruptions.
112
New clients are provided a document outlining the required information necessary to Onboard them into our
platform. This information includes data structure, sending domain set-up instructions, etc. Our account
management/sales team also meets with the client to identify any custom requirements that might be needed
and plans the work that needs to be done. Once this is provided back, our Client Success team begins setting
up the tool for use including the data structure and setting up any custom work request by the client such as
templates/data hygiene/etc. Client Success then provides credentials back to the client so they can access the
tool and schedules the first training session with any users.
Implementation time is dependent on the program. Our team works at the speed of the customer and we are
very well known for how quickly we help customers get up and running. Some of our customers are sending
within days but on average customer is sending their first campaign within the first 2-3 weeks. Please see
below for an example of how your onboarding process would look.
1) Account Setup - Our VP, Customer Success sends login information and makes an introduction to our
Client Success and Deliverability teams.
2) Maropost works with client on the Creation of Integration Plan. This includes:
• Data Setup plan
• Data migration - Maropost can assist on lists/contact transfers

• Data Validation (Customer Side)
• Data script to validate data from current ESP to Maropost
• Content Transfers
• Ask if customer needs us to move some content pieces
• Any attributes being moved
• DNS configuration (customer side)
• Content Transfers and Validation
• Opt-in form integration

• Automation Setup
3) Website integration
• Cover any aspects of a web integration (web tracking etc.)
4) IP Setup (see below for IP warming plan)
5) Test Sending to begin and full start.

6) Live User Training sessions via screen share
During Onboarding, our deliverability also works with clients to set up a warming plan. We start by getting a list
migrated over, understanding the level of engagement with customer contacts, then proceed to target the
most engaged contacts first while we are warming the IP. The way we warm the IP with the sending domain is
by breaking down the percentage of the customer list by ISP (i.e. how many people on the list are Gmail
Subscribers, Yahoo Subscribers, Outlook Subscribers, AOL Subscribers and so on) and start sending to a small
percentage for the first campaign while gradually increasing this volume until the client is at full capacity.
Typically, we find this process takes at least two weeks to attain optimal results. For example, a client with a list
of 1 million subscribers could potentially have their first campaign sent to 20k contacts, followed by 50k
contacts, followed by 150k Contacts, followed by 300K contacts followed by 600K contacts and then 1 million
contacts.
113
New clients are provided a document outlining the required information necessary to Onboard them into our
platform. This information includes data structure, sending domain set-up instructions, etc. Our account
management/sales team also meets with the client to identify any custom requirements that might be needed
and plans the work that needs to be done. Once this is provided back, our Client Success team begins setting
up the tool for use including the data structure and setting up any custom work request by the client such as
templates/data hygiene/etc. Client Success then provides credentials back to the client so they can access the
tool and schedules the first training session with any users.
MessageGears:
No Response.
PostUp:
PostUp's Implementation Project Managers are involved during the sales process to ensure the customer’s
requirements are understood prior to customer on-boarding. The IMP will be involved with the client through-
out the sales process and will stay engaged during onboarding and implementation. An initial discovery phase
during setup will result in a custom integration plan, a migration plan and a project timeline. From there, the
team will work with the client to deploy the platform, configure brands and other UI components, whitelist IPs,
set up all feedback loops and coordinate all implementation related activities. The Integration consultant and
training staff will make up the team who provides any applicable training to the customer and leads the
transition into our Client Services team of ongoing support. During this entire time, regular weekly meetings
are held as setup status ‘check ins’ to ensure the project time line is met by reviewing ongoing assigned tasks
with completion dates.
Every customer is assigned a dedicated Account Executive. The role of the Account Executive is to act as a
single-point of contact for day-to-day activities during and post setup, questions, issues etc. The Account
Executive is responsible for the following:
* Customer Relationship Development – Manage the day-to-day relationship by identifying and meeting the
client’s business, marketing and technology needs
* Project Team Lead - Function as the senior member of the client services team responsible for managing all
PostUp resources assigned and/or associated with service delivery and the corresponding status documents to
keep the client up to date on all ongoing work.
* Ongoing Marketing Strategy - Deliver regular advice and recommendations for designing and executing
successful email programs through knowledge of industry best practices to deliver insightful analysis and
strategies while ensuring the client avoids issues that could negatively impact their program or business.
* Program/project management – Manage all project plans, issue tracking and resolution, status reporting,
meeting schedules and minutes, and manage resources across multiple internal teams (e.g. creative, IT,
support, operations, strategic services, etc.)
The combination of the Implementation Project Manager and dedicated Account Executive ensure that all
requirements are gathered upfront, verified to be within scope, assigned to teams for execution with assigned
target dates which are then reviewed weekly with the customer to ensure timely and proper completion.
114
We recognize that while all software development and implementation projects are unique, it is also true
that they have a great deal in common; the duration and the complexity of the tasks may vary, but they
should virtually always be carried out. At Zeta, our team of experts follows standard project management
methodologies to implement our solutions and has an average of 10+ years’ experience doing so.
Communication is Key
Zeta schedules meetings with the client to occur at least once a week. Following each meeting, we host an
internal session to review takeaways, goals, and expectations for tasks and work to be completed are
documented, scoped, approved, and requested via our internal time/task management tools.
Zeta distributes weekly milestone reports offering up to date status on weekly accomplishments, issues, what’s
on deck next and overall status/project completion.
A Project Plan is developed, and is accomplished with the support of a dedicated Project Manager. All requests,
tasks, and changes are entered into the Project Plan for tracking, prioritization, and dependency leveling. All
issues and/or changes are viewed as “downstream” impacts. To ensure we stick to the Project Plan, Zeta has a
pool of Solutions Managers, Project Managers, Developers, DBA’s, and Web designers available to avoid delays
from any unforeseen circumstances.
The sequence of events in the onboarding process are as follows:
1. Project Initiation: An in-person meeting to identify key sponsors, roles responsibilities from both the Zeta
and Client side. Status reports, frequency and timing are also defined.
2. Business Requirements: The most important step where requirements are defined and collected. This is
completed in person and requires a formally signed off documentation by both parties.
3. Data Format Specification and Design: Documentation that formally defines the interface between Clients
and Zeta for data transfer, merging, business rules, hygiene and opt-out handling. Internal technical design is
also completed at this time.
4. Build: Builds are performed in a staging environment and contains a number of sub steps. Unit testing is
conducted during this phase.
5. Testing: A formal test phase to ensure the solution is functioning correctly.
6. UAT: The typical approach for UAT before client training is through data reconciliation counts. A series of
counts across a number of aspects and cuts of the data is provided to the client to validate that they meet
expectations.
7. Promotion to Production: Once the solution is robust, it is moved from staging to the production
environment.
8. Training and Sign off: Training covers product and data model overviews and is designed around marketing
needs, service level and user skill-set. After training with actual data in the tool, client signs off.
115
NEW USER TRAINING
We asked, Explain your new user training.
Our comprehensive MessageFocus training program enables you to fully utilize and benefit from all the
features that MessageFocus offers. For new users our ‘Getting Started’ session will get you up and running and
sending email campaigns right away. More advanced training sessions cover topics such as Automation, Forms,
Email Coding and Administrating your MessageFocus account. The Adestra training team also offer Adestra
Expert certification. This combined with the other training packages on offer combine to give you the very best
start with MessageFocus.
Training is available by webinar or a face to face session at your office. We also offer drop-in webinar sessions
every Wednesday for popular topics.
No Response.
Communicator:
Our platform training is based around the package a customer has purchased and how sophisticated their
emailing is. We offer varying levels of complementary training based on both factors as our investment in our
customers.
Training is offered online or in person at a location of choice (where only expenses are billed) and recordings
are made available at any time through our Service Desk. Training can be undertaken each and every year
while you’re in contract with us.
Customer Success sessions are also complementary in some of our packages, which are tailored sessions with
recommendations based on your brand.
New users participate in guided, multi-media distance learning, including both online and instructor-led
training. Online training is available 24/7 within Ignite and consists of over 75 short (3-8 minute) simulations
and videos, allowing for both conceptual exploration and hands-on learning in our tools. Our instructor-led
training consists of a rotating 3-week schedule of modules, starting with the basics of tool usage and moving
into more advanced and specialized features. Learners can participate in any number of these classes in any
order and at a time that works best with their specific learning needs. Following training, Epsilon Associates are
required to pass proficiency measures to ensure they are knowledgeable and skilled in these tools.
ExpertSender:
Typically, the new user training is conducted online by the means of teleconference with screen sharing. Basic
training takes on average 2 hours and covers the most important processes to get the client up to speed with
using the platform.
The training focuses on: creating data structures and populating the data, setting up campaigns and marketing
automation workflows, handling reports, optimizing efficiency and ensuring legal compliance.
116
The clients also benefit from direct contact to a dedicated account manager. For self-learners ExpertSender
provides comprehensive user guides for the most advanced features.
Standard training is done over a web-ex. A demonstration is done within the community that has been set up
for the client so they experience the training in their own environment. This is generally a 1-hour session but
can be extended at an additional cost. We will also cater to clients who wish to have on-site training, again at a
cost. Training documentation access is also provided as reference materials.
Live user training via screen share is offered to walk customers through the platform and demonstrate how to
use all of the features and functionality available. Training is ongoing however as new individuals join the team
and new features are implemented.
MessageGears:
No Response.
PostUp:
PostUp offers new user, new feature and refresher training anytime a customer would like to participate. Our
training staff will schedule a time that works for the customer to get on a conference bridge with a screen
share so that they can walk through a review, or be interactive with the trainer. Anytime a new client comes on
board we make training part of the onboarding process for the whole team. Anytime a new user starts working
with PostUp we offer one-to-one training to get them up to speed as quickly as possible. Part of that new user
training will also include the Account Executive as well, in case the new user is also new to the company. The
support from the AE can also help the new user get up to speed with how that company has been using PostUp
(we know their business well enough to train their new employees). Anytime we introduce a new feature,
PostUp users are encouraged to request a time with our training staff to learn how to get the most out of the
new functionality. All of this training is free of charge. PostUp offers premium training at the customer's
location if desired. The pricing for this is dependent on how many users will be in the training and the length of
the training sessions. Distance to the location is also taken into account to help cover costs. Typically, the fee is
just enough to cover our costs, we don't try to mark up the costs for a profit.
Zeta is sensitive to the unique needs of our Clients, and we understand that their marketing programs some-
times require support outside of normal business hours, on holidays and during office closures. Twen-
ty-four-hour support is available in addition to the support of their Client Services team where required and
appropriate. Technical Support is offered to all of our clients as standard and free of charge.
As a global provider in email marketing services, Zeta's offices are located in multiple locations throughout the
US, UK and India. Therefore, customer support staff is available 24x7, and 365 days a year with multi-language
capabilities. Unlike many of our competitors, Clients may email or call our customer support team at any time.
All email inquiries and phone calls will be responded to within three (3) hours of receipt by Zeta. An estimated
time of arrival (ETA) for the completion of the request will be provided within twenty-four (24) hours.
All Zeta clients have their Account Team’s cell phone numbers, including Zeta CRM President, David Bonalle.
Should a client need to contact Zeta regarding an urgent campaign issue, the Account Team can be available
24/7 to address issues. We take pride in being a leader in client services and will work on weekends and
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holidays to ensure our client’s campaigns are deployed on time and without error.
In the event of an issue, we ask our Clients to open a ticket via email to file a report. Within 20 minutes of client
notification, Zeta customer support will acknowledge receipt and begin triage of the issue. An estimated time to
resolution will also be assigned and communicated will continue to occur with frequency dependent upon
nature and severity of the issue. For any issue deemed Severity 1, additional communication and escalation is
invoked which includes senior team lead(s).
If it is determined that a Client requires additional Technical Support beyond issue resolution, Zeta’s global
Technical Services organization also provides any custom data, technology and solution development services
required for our customers. Typical services include:
• API Development and Support • Data Modeling, Import, Export and Transformation
• Partner Integrations • Custom Web Applications and Solutions
TECH SUPPORT PROCESS

We asked, Explain your tech support process.
End users have three channels available to contact Adestra Support; email, chat and telephone. SLAs include
email response within 1-hour, online chat in 60 seconds and phone calls in 3 rings.
Service and customer satisfaction levels are carefully monitored via periodic surveys sent to our clients to
ensure these performance levels are maintained. As of Winter, 2017, we’re maintaining a 4.7/5 score for our
Support and Professional Services team.
The Support Teams' approach to customer service is guided by Adestra’s core values as a SaaS provider.
No Response.
Communicator:
We’re on hand 24/7 but our SLAs operate during core office hours between 8am and 6pm GMT. We’re available
on the phone, through screen shares, through our Service Desk and through the channel we all know best:
email!
Our Service Desk is regularly maintained and the instant search functionality makes it incredibly easy to find
the information you need, fast! That said, our friendly Gordie-based team aren’t too bad to speak to over the
phone, either.
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A follow-the-sun technical support group is available for Harmony. This group provides 24x7 platform support
to all end users.
Epsilon features a very structured technical customer service area that includes problem escalation procedures
for each client. The customer support area covers installation, training, help desk, problem resolution and
more.
A Relationship Manager (RM) is assigned to each client and maintains hands-on responsibility for managing
service delivery and coordinating the involvement of Epsilon’s technology, marketing and analytic resources
and any relevant third-party providers. An RM serves as the central point of contact for our clients. The account
team assigned to <<client>> will be available during normal business hours.
Epsilon is devoted to providing superior, timely support and will make every effort to be as responsive as
possible in every situation. Epsilon maintains an on-call technical support channel available 24 / 7 / 365,
empowered with all necessary authorities and access privileges to take any actions to support all email
campaign activities. Client access to technical support is available via email and global toll-free numbers.
Epsilon Technical Support and Account Management teams use a web-based ticketing system to track all client
projects and issues (cases). Clients have access to this system in order to track all progress through each step
of the job, including completion times and staff responsibility assignments. Case confirmations are sent
immediately, with the appropriate case numbers for follow-up, upon the creation of new cases. This system
sends alert emails at each stage to keep all internal and external team members up-to-date on the current
status and timelines for completion. This information is stored in the system so that all parties have relevant
histories and timelines of all interactions.
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ExpertSender:
ExpertSender offers 2 levels of support.
First level support is a contact with dedicated account manager via the preferred channel: email, phone, chat
or DM. The account manager is a single point of contact for support on platform usage, strategy, deliverability,
campaign optimization, legal compliance and troubleshooting.
Second level support is a tech support, which in most of the cases is conducted via the dedicated account
manager. Any critical issues are immediately handled 24/7, while non-critical issues are handled within 48
hours depending on internal priorities.
The client never has to go through the phone trees or ticketing systems, as the account manager
(or a shadowing account manager when the primary one is out of office) remains a single point of contact in
majority of the cases.
All support requests go through our Client Success team and are then triaged to the appropriate tech resourc-
es. They are submitted either through email/support ticket site or in-app live chat. Status updates are given on
their ticket and if a code change is required, it is escalated to the development team.
Maropost offers 24-hour support and dedicated Client Success teams, as well as a dedicated Senior Director of
Deliverability on every account.
Support
24-Hour in App Support– Chat with a Maropost employee inside the app when you are looking for an immedi-
ate response.
5-minute Response Time on Email Tickets – In the event a more complex question or would just like to log an
issue, open a ticket and we will respond in under 5 minutes.
24-Hour Phone Support –Maropost support is available over the phone 24/7.
Customer Success Manager
Additionally, clients are assigned a Customer Success Manager. The Customer Success Manager is assigned
based on vertical, level of expertise, and location. These professionals help clients with data migration, support
integrations, staff training, and strategy advice. Training is ongoing as new individuals join the team and new
features are implemented.
Deliverability
Since deliverability services are included for all of Maropost’s customers, one of the client's first points of
contact will be one of our Senior Directors of Deliverability. This team help put strategies in place around IP
ramp up, while advising the client on best practices for successful inbox placement. Status calls will be
daily/weekly while migrating, and clients have the option to do weekly, monthly or quarterly status calls
ongoing.
MessageGears:
No Response.
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PostUp:
The PostUp Technical Support team can be reached by telephone, email, or our support case system. Issues
can be assigned one of three priorities, with P1 being the most severe and reserved for system down or
severely degraded performance. Our tech team is the hub for all issues the customer may experience, and is
well versed in bringing in the appropriate team member to address the issue (i.e., deliverability issues are
routed to the Delivery Consulting team, enhancement requests are routed to the Product Manager, etc.) P1
cases will be responded to within one hour, and isn't done being worked on until it is resolved. P2 cases will be
responded within 3 hours and resolved within one business day. P3 cases will be responded to the same day it
is created, with resolution expected to be within 3 business days. Often times we are able to respond to all
cases within the hour they are created. In most cases we're able to resolve the issue quicker than the stated
expectation. Once an issue is resolved the support case is placed into an 'Awaiting Client Confirmation' status,
where we will not close the support case until the customer has confirmed the issue has been resolved to their
satisfaction.
Zeta is sensitive to the unique needs of our Clients, and we understand that their marketing programs some-
times require support outside of normal business hours, on holidays and during office closures. Twen-
ty-four-hour support is available in addition to the support of their Client Services team where required and
appropriate. Technical Support is offered to all of our clients as standard and free of charge.
As a global provider in email marketing services, Zeta's offices are located in multiple locations throughout the
US, UK and India. Therefore, customer support staff is available 24x7, and 365 days a year with multi-language
capabilities. Unlike many of our competitors, Clients may email or call our customer support team at any time.
All email inquiries and phone calls will be responded to within three (3) hours of receipt by Zeta. An estimated
time of arrival (ETA) for the completion of the request will be provided within twenty-four (24) hours.
All Zeta clients have their Account Team’s cell phone numbers, including Zeta CRM President, David Bonalle.
Should a client need to contact Zeta regarding an urgent campaign issue, the Account Team can be available
24/7 to address issues. We take pride in being a leader in client services and will work on weekends and
holidays to ensure our client’s campaigns are deployed on time and without error.
In the event of an issue, we ask our Clients to open a ticket via email to file a report. Within 20 minutes of client
notification, Zeta customer support will acknowledge receipt and begin triage of the issue. An estimated time to
resolution will also be assigned and communicated will continue to occur with frequency dependent upon
nature and severity of the issue. For any issue deemed Severity 1, additional communication and escalation is
invoked which includes senior team lead(s).
If it is determined that a Client requires additional Technical Support beyond issue resolution, Zeta’s global
Technical Services organization also provides any custom data, technology and solution development services
required for our customers. Typical services include:
• API Development and Support
• Data Modeling, Import, Export and Transformation
• Partner Integrations
• Custom Web Applications and Solutions
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ADDRESSING MAINTENANCE ISSUES
We asked, explain how you identify and address maintenance issues.
Standard scheduled maintenance of the platform will take place during weekends and during times of low load,
typically during the evening. While access to the system during this time will be restricted, it will not interfere
with campaigns that are scheduled to launch. Advance warning will be given to all clients when maintenance
and downtime is required.
System vulnerabilities are classified into High, Medium and Low by our systems team.
High risk vulnerabilities will be patched as soon as possible after discovery.
The methods used to discover high risk vulnerabilities include:
* Penetration report
* Vulnerability scans
* Mailing lists
* Notifications from vendors
* Notification from auditing packages on the machine
No Response.
Communicator:
Our software is maintained with fortnightly bug scrub sessions that assesses any known issues to be prioritized
in our development sprints. Product enhancements can be requested by any of our users through our Service
Desk.
Our infrastructure is built around redundancy with the goal of eliminating all single points of failure. We
provide 24-hour monitoring covered by multiple members of staff at any one time. We use a number of diverse
systems that monitor and alert against hardware, operating system and application level events and excep-
tions. This is backed up with 4 hours 24/7/365 response contracts with our hardware vendors to ensure that
any failures are dealt with and resolved swiftly.
Maintenances windows are outlined at the start of each and Epsilon reserves the right to take one mainte-
nance window per quarter. These maintenances are only taken in the event where maintenance is deemed
necessary. Maintenances are different than releases, in that maintenances are typically architectural changes.
Releases occur frequently (bi-weekly), and a continuous development model is in place allowing continuous
innovation and rapid deployment of new capabilities. Users will receive new features bi-weekly without any
product downtime.
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ExpertSender:
ExpertSender has a fixed maintenance window for each geographic colocation during which all planned
maintenance work is conducted. Weekly planned downtimes last on average several minutes and are mostly
related to minor improvements and functionalities.
Every 1-3 months ExpertSender conducts longer planned downtimes, which can take between several minutes
up to 2 hours. During these downtimes larger features are introduced.
ExpertSender has a designated Quality Assurance team, which performs a series of automatic and manual
tests, both before and after deployments.
We have a number of monitoring services and process in place to identify any potential issues as early as
possible. We pride ourselves on pre-emptively reaching out to clients when we detect an issue they may be
having and provide a resolution.
Maropost performs maintenance on an as-needed basis. The majority of cases are purely to increase capacity
in order to accommodate our continued growth. Within the past year, we've only had two maintenance
windows -- one to install a new high-performance network switch, and the other to install newer, larger
capacity data servers. There was absolutely no down time incurred due to our platform architecture's redun-
dancy and fault tolerance.
MessageGears:
No Response.
PostUp:
We reserve Monday and Wednesday night's from 8pm - 12am (CT) for maintenance windows. During this time,
we address any maintenance issues that have been observed and can wait until the stated maintenance
window. Should an urgent issue arise that will cause client facing downtime, we have a process in place to
notify clients of the issue and the expected amount of time it will take to correct it. We have several tools in
place monitoring and reporting our system uptime and performance. New Relic, Zenoss, Pingdom are just a
few of the services and tools we use to identify any maintenance issues. On a daily basis we have a software
developer and technical operation team member reviews the reports from these tools and bubble up anything
that needs to be reviewed more closely. We have a daily Tech Ops meeting that includes members from the
Technical Operations, DBA, Software Developer, Product and QA teams. This meeting is specifically for discuss-
ing any type of maintenance issue that needs to be addressed, or to raise questions about something seen in
the reports that may or may not be an issue needing to be addressed.
The ZetaHub platform is continuously enhanced with every new release. Each release contains new features,
bug fixes, performance enhancements, component upgrades, and the elimination of technical debt. Compo-
nent upgrades are considered for each release as these component upgrades become available and can be
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triggered by performance benefits or security improvements. Patches are performed on an as needed basis
and are triggered if an issue meets criteria associated with security, performance, data quality, severity and
pervasiveness of client impact.
As with all application upgrades at Zeta, we follow standard Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) procedures
to assure continuity and quality for our code and customer-facing applications. Should any changes be
required on the customer side, we would inform them well in advance so proper installation and testing of the
API could be accomplished to mitigate any disruptions to services. We would also provide development
environments for clients to test any API changes.
Zeta has implemented all the necessary controls and procedures to limit any service disruptions.
1. The following policies minimize risk during platform service distributions: Zeta Information Security Policy,
Zeta Incident Management Policy, Zeta Business Continuity and Backup Recovery Plan, Zeta Monitoring and
Platform Alerts, and the Encryption Policy and Other Operational Procedures.
2. Technical controls: Designed the architecture to have redundancy for all the components with the
implementation of redundant network devices (Cisco switches, load balancers, CISCO ASA firewalls with IPS
modules, High Availability SAN controllers, redundant ISP connectivity, redundant power, VLANs, RBACK
Authentication and Authorization), two factor authentications (RSA Tokens)
3. Xymon, Nagios, and Netrio monitoring for all the components
4. Dedicated NOC and support teams to address the alerts
5. Centralized log monitoring for audit purposes using the Security Center LCE and Syslog servers.
Zeta has established preventive maintenance schedules every quarter to minimize any disruptions because of
any hardware failures.
DIFFERENTIATORS SEEN BY USERS

We asked, What do your users say differentiates you from the competition?
Most companies will go on and on about how their USP's are unlike anything you’ve ever seen before and how
their users love their product. Admittedly, we could do the same by telling you that Adestra is obsessed with
making our client partners successful, we have a robust API for any integration and our platform is simplistical-
ly powerful. We could also go on about how we have Customer Service awards from independent companies in
every geography that we operate. So rather than try to convince you, we let our clients speak for themselves
because we can talk about our USP’s in person. Here are just some quotes from client partners (we had to pick
from over 100+):
"Adestra have proven themselves to be a highly valuable asset to UBM over the past year. As well as providing
a professional and responsive service at all times, they have demonstrated the benefits of truly working in
partnership with our supply chain. As well as exemplary customer service, they have provided insight and
technologies that have aided UBM in our aim to be the number one company in Event sector globally and
provide our customers with a portfolio of services that are truly world class. - Andrew Hinton, UBM on Adestra
winning 2016 Vendor of the Year out of 5,000 suppliers."
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"I can truthfully say that, if I'd received the same level of customer support and guidance from some of the
other companies I've worked with in the past, my life would have been a great deal easier!"
"There are many things about working with Adestra that I love, but what springs to mind over anything is how
much they truly care about the importance of doing awesome email marketing and their clients' success. They
get super geeky and excited about educating their clients and it gets me pumped-up to do the best email
marketing possible."
"The main reason why Adestra is, and always will be our number one choice for email marketing, is their
continual push to keep evolving their platform and educating us on the email marketing industry. Message
Focus itself is super intuitive and easy to use. I love the automation options that allow us to set up smart,
targeted campaigns to reach people at the most optimal times. And I'm excited to try out their new automated
workflow campaign solution”
No Response.
Communicator:
Our guidance to supplement the platform's functionality, our customers find our Sophistication Scale very
useful for setting their strategy.
Epsilon’s clients consistently identify our outstanding client service approach and team as a major differentia-
tor from the competition. Epsilon partners with its clients to serve as an extension of their teams and they
often see Epsilon as a strategic partner, working closely to get the most impact out of their digital marketing
initiatives. Our clients also note the following about Agility Harmony:
Know – Agility Harmony brings together your customer’s online and offline profiles in real time, creating a single
profile that enables marketers to engage in 1:1 conversations across channels and devices.
Personalize – With Epsilon's proprietary data assets and data insights, we can create the most personalized
experience with relevant content at the most appropriate time, and in the desired channel.
Learn - Agility Harmony’s adaptive machine learning environment is built to process Epsilon’s depth of customer
insight – 9,000+ data points and every customer action observed online and offline – in an effort to learn what each
individual responds to and factor those decisions into the customer experience.
Measure & ROI - Epsilon's ability to see across online and direct marketing channels provides the fullest picture for
that measurement..
ExpertSender:
1) retargeting abandoned shopping carts and product recommendation engine available without programming
2) proactive support
3) intuitive user interface
4) high level of data security
5) great ROI
6) powerful segmentation and personalization
7) easy to automate marketing processes
8) ability to import past transactional data in any format
9) detailed help with integration
10) high inbox placement rate
11) international experience
12) easy to test without annual commitment upfront
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Our users love our simple, fast, and accurate self-serve email platform. They are able to quickly and easily
manage their high-volume email campaigns and don't have to worry about whether or not their messages
make it to the Inbox. They also love the dynamic personalization it offers, enabling them to drag and drop
segmentation that ensures they are targeting their customers with the right content. Lastly, they love the
service and support offered by Inbox Marketer, with many clients saying they feel as if Inbox Marketer is an
extension of their own team. With Inbox Marketer and CONNECT we look at you as a true client, not just a
number or user ID. Our top-notch level of service with the human touch separates us from the very crowded
ESP market.
1) Support - Our customers tell us that our support is unmatched by other email marketing platforms and is
all-inclusive. Every customer has access to our live chat, receives a 5-minute response time on tickets, receives
ticket resolution within 24 hours, and has access to a dedicated Client Success Manager and Deliverability
Director.
2) A single, all-inclusive price and platform. We don't offer various package tiers or solution offerings. Our
customers get access to all of our modules. This allows our them to continuously expand their marketing
automation capabilities as they become more sophisticated without the worry of having to upgrade their
platform tier or price.
3) Our Deliverability Directors constantly monitor our customer's deliverability and performance to proactively
catch issues that can potentially damage our client's campaign and inbox placement. Maropost is the only
company that shows how each campaign performs for every ISP for inbox placement. This team helps put
strategies in place around IP ramp up, while advising clients on best practices for inbox placement. They hold
status calls daily/weekly while migrating customers to the Maropost platform and offer weekly, monthly or
quarterly status calls on an ongoing basis.
4) Constant innovation - We offer all clients with accessibility to our product roadmap to see what new features
are coming and when. Backed by our constant innovation model, new functionality is rolled out every month.
We strive to continuously evolve and improve the offerings within our platform to accommodate the rapidly
changing digital marketing world and what our clients are striving to accomplish with personalized experiences.
MessageGears:
"The simplicity of the product, while still being robust is very impressive. In the past I've worked with 4 other
"Top-Tier" ESPs and this is by far the easiest one to use."
"Our previous tool required us to manually pull and upload lists and we wanted to deep segmentation or
include new attributes, while MessageGears allows for this in real time with some simple queries. Recent
updates have enabled us to roll out campaigns translated in our 12+ languages with significantly fewer steps."
"There were 3 primary reasons we chose to switch to MessageGears from our previous solution- 1) the 'hybrid'
solution allows us incredible flexibility with our data, 2) responsive developers & support, and 3) aggressive
approach to pricing that fits well with our unique sending patterns. We've been very happy for about 3 years
now with the service and the team. All 3 of our initial reasons have remained positives for the service."
Source: G2 Crowd
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PostUp:
We have received a wide range of positive feedback when bringing on new customers, as well as, speaking with
long term users of PostUp. Some areas that we hear regularly about is our reporting capabilities, service
offerings and responsiveness, and the ease of use our platform offers. More specifically, our integration with
Tableau BI gives PostUp users powerful analytics to better optimize campaigns. Our service offerings have
been able to off-set resource constraints on the client side, provide strong strategic direction to improve email
ROI, and assist in achieving the highest inbox delivery rate possible. Customers also have noted that our user
interface is very intuitive and easy to use, and if they do have a question for our support team they are
responded to very quickly, with answers that give them exactly what they need instead of just dropping a
document off to them and having them figure it out on their own.
Our users would say that Zeta is not just another vendor providing email marketing services, we are a trusted
business partner. We have strong relationships that complement their priorities and way of working. We’re
accountable to our Clients for actionable recommendations, process transparency and always doing what we
say in the timeframe committed.
At Zeta, we’re obsessed with being an indispensable part of our clients’ marketing teams, providing an
unrivalled level of service with an absolute focus on helping Clients win. Our integrated team of marketing
experts, strategists, analysts, designers, developers and campaign operations, focus on proactively guiding our
Clients based on our expert industry, analytics, strategy, creative and operations knowledgebase. With our
engagements, we bring an experienced account team with a small company feel, but behind each account
team, Zeta has massive resources to deliver added value across the spectrum of our end-to-end solution.
Zeta’s Client Management process is designed to deliver continuously improved marketing performance. We
accomplish this by exceeding at:
• Partnership – Establish mutually agreed to goals and objectives for which there is clear ownership,
accountability and measurement
• Process – Leverage our optimized, best-in-class, processes for delivering your implementation, programs and
reporting as promised
• Communication – Ensure clear, timely and effective communication, both inside and between our teams
Whether it be a self-service email technology engagement or a full-service managed CRM solution, our Clients
rely on us to support their business and receive the very best level of service and partnership.
DIFFERENTIATORS SEEN BY PARTICIPANT

We asked, What do you say differentiates you from the competition?
Scalable technology that you can and will actually use. Built to fit our client’s business; Adestra is uniquely
designed from its core, using a multi-layered structure that is infinitely scalable and adaptable. MessageFocus
at its core is not only built for marketers, it’s built around marketers to conform to their business needs. From
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single campaigns to complex, data-driven and dynamic real-time communication programs, whether you are
an organization with one team or a large-scale enterprise with a number of globally distributed marketing
teams; with Adestra, marketers can deliver with ease.
Connected technology at the heart of your MarTech landscape Our open API and extensive partner network
allows marketers to connect with the systems and the rich data and content marketers need. We believe in
letting marketers choose the context that drives their communications to deliver the best possible results.
Why? Because we believe that an email platform should conform around what the marketer needs.
Customer-obsessed service and support, assuring your success Over a decade of being a global award-winning
client service network which is responsive, thought-leading and determined to help you meet marketer’s goals.
We are obsessed with providing the type of support and guidance that the market and first person marketers
demand. With dedicated account management for every partner, plus less than 30 second response times for
customer support, Adestra is there when our partners need it!
Finally, we now have customer service awards from independent organizations for every geography that we
operate. We firmly believe and can attest that Adestra is Software AND a Service.
No Response.
Communicator:
We're focused on helping ambitious brands improve their email sophistication. All of our work is focused
around our Email Marketing Sophistication Scale – www.communicatorcorp.com/emailsophistication.
Scale - We support the largest multichannel messaging programs in the world. Harmony's platform scale and
ability to support the throughput required for enterprise direct marketing volumes, coupled with industry
leading deliverability services to ensure those messages are received, is unparalleled. Not only does our
technology scale, but as an organization, we have the resources to make a difference at every stage of your
marketing programs from strategy, to execution, to analysis.
Increased productivity - Harmony's market leading user experience, built-in automation capabilities and
dedicated campaign teams ensure that your messages are sent out efficiently and on time. Built with the
enterprise marketer in mind, boasting industry leading user experience that are sure to improve your ability to
deploy campaigns quickly and efficiently. Built from the ground up to be multichannel, the process to creating
a campaign in one channel v. another is essentially identical - improving organizational time to market when
exploring new channels.
The richest customer insights fueling the best campaign results - The ability to view the richest set of data
about your customers, gain insights, and use those insights to drive marketing strategy and fuel performance is
paramount in Harmony. Every marketer wants to send their subscribers the right message and eliminate
wasteful marketing. With the richest insights, based on the richest data set, Harmony ensures you can reach
subscribers with the correct offers, in their preferred channel, at the most relevant time.
Flexible API for ease of integration - The ability to view the richest set of data about your customers, gain
insights, and use those insights to drive marketing strategy and fuel performance is paramount in Harmony.
Every marketer wants to send their subscribers the right message and eliminate wasteful marketing. With the
richest insights, based on the richest data set, Harmony ensures you can reach subscribers with the correct
offers, in their preferred channel, at the most relevant time.
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ExpertSender:
1) advanced web behavior tracking features with seamless integration
2) the best segmentation engine
3) knowledgeable, proactive & dedicated support
4) powerful multi-channel marketing automation workflows
5) relational database (RDBSM) capable of integrating and storing user data from any external system
6) highest value for money ratio
7) unique features, i.e.: retargeting abandoned browsing, emails for price alert drop, web behavior seg-
mentation, product recommendation engine, split test statistical significance results, drag & drop editor
for building responsive message content, recounting segments in real time
8) unique services, i.e.: eye tracking tests of message content
Broader, deeper, more actionable reports in in real time enable clients to see where their customers have
clicked, when they viewed their email, and the best ways to target them in real time. CONNECT has 9 layers of
reporting, allowing users to see trends and changes to continually improve their campaigns. We also like our
clients to think of us as their digital marketing partner. CONNECT reporting allows marketers to send smarter
email. We’ve got the skills and expertise to handle whatever they throw our way. Full-serve or self-serve, our
experts have the industry experience and strategic know-how to provide clients with a plan and the valuable
insights they need to boost their results and achieve their goals.
What our customers say is very much aligned with what we see as our key differentiators in the marketplace.
MessageGears:
Our technology (Hybrid vs. SaaS or On-Premises) is the key differentiator. It removes limitations of data
synchronization and integration for large-volume senders while keeping the efficiency and scalability of cloud
delivery in place. Enterprises frustrated with the limitations of SaaS ESPs and Marketing Clouds find
MessageGears to be exactly what they were looking for.
PostUp:
We look at our business offering as a way to achieve overall business results that our customers are targeting.
We do not focus only on platform features and functionality. We employ a wide range of strategic efforts
outside of our platform to help customers grow their audience base, achieve maximum inbox delivery,
increased engagement, and ultimately their bottom line revenue. For example, a couple of our programs,
Audience Development and Continuum Digital Publishing Suite, are designed specifically to grow our
customers audience base through better ways of capturing email addresses upon website visits. When
combined with our award-winning platform our customers have the power to significantly increase their
bottom line revenue.
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Zeta enables businesses to contain costs by helping enterprise marketers message more efficiently and
effectively with existing and prospective customers. Our depth of industry expertise and breadth of knowledge
spans across 3 core solution pillars: ZetaHub (proprietary Machine Learning Marketing Cloud technology), CX
Services (Data-Driven Marketing Experience Design) and Data Services (Preparation, Selection, Integration,
Activation).
We recognize and embrace the complexity of our clients’ businesses and know how to support their future
state vision by offering end-to-end solutions inclusive of platform, a global follow-the-sun service model, and
marketing strategy services with flexibility to drive efficiencies across the board. In addition, we believe that our
new data model and algorithm-based optimization are our core
differentiators:
• New Data Model. Much of the Email ecosystem is predicated on very complex and antiquated data models
that hamper innovation and features. Zeta has examined the needs of our customers and built a data platform
that can accommodate any data nuance without manual intervention. This means onboarding is fast, and
when new business needs arise, the system works as intended.
• Algorithm Based Optimization has traditionally been a matter of A/B testing. Zeta has built an engine that
deploys multiple algorithms in search of optimal business outcome. As one algorithm performs better than the
others, more traffic is gradually steered to use that algorithm in real time. We found, however, that these
experiments need to run continuously. As the weather changes, day of week changes, and zeitgeist changes, a
system that allows your algorithm and underlying features to change performs best.
• Global, follow-the-sun service model. We’re obsessed with being an indispensable part of your success. Zeta’s
client centric business model is designed to deliver high quality and flawless execution, expertise in marketing
systems integration and optimization, and a platform to coordinate multi-channel communications rapidly and
with less risk. With a 24/7 follow-the-sun operation model supported by offices around the globe, we provide
efficient email marketing operations with a 99.9% error-free rate. We continuously refine and improve the
systems, processes and learnings required to ensure excellence.
• End-to-end platform. Our SaaS-based marketing cloud and Artificial Intelligence-driven marketing technology
platform helps leading brands acquire, retain and grow customer relationships. ZetaHub offers a sophisticated,
data-driven approach to cross-channel, cross-device marketing optimization. The platform enables marketers
to deliver highly complex campaigns at scale for easy execution of multi-mailing, large volume campaigns. In
addition, it’s clearly defined process flow and collaborative tools make for quality campaign execution. Last, our
robust reporting and analytics offers flexible, easy-to-use, and customizable visual dashboards for
comprehensive insights at every level.
• Marketing Strategy Services. Zeta’s Customer Experience Design practice is an innovative approach to help
marketers optimize the Customer Experience. Using a proprietary methodology and unique set of tools, the
Zeta customer experience team identifies the micro-moments that matter, designs omni-channel programs to
maximize the impact of those moments and builds dashboards to track and improve performance. Our
integrated team of marketing experts, strategists, analysts, designers, developers and campaign operations,
activate your brand through intelligent interactions with each customer – supplying the right content, in the
right channel(s), at the right time. These micro-moment decisions are carefully designed and optimized to
increase go-to-market speed, improve bottom line results, and enhance future customer interactions.
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BIGGEST COMPETITORS SEEN BY PARTICIPANT
We asked, What three companies do you most often compete with?
SalesForce Marketing Cloud; Oracle Marketing Cloud (Responsys); IBM Watson Marketing
No Response.
Communicator:
dotmailer, RedEye, Adestra
Cheetah Digital, Salesforce (ExactTarget), Oracle (Responsys)
ExpertSender:
Emarsys, SmartFocus, Teradata
Maropost, SendGrid, Campaign Monitor
Infusionsoft, Bronto and ExactTarget/Salesforce
MessageGears:
Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Adobe, SendGrid

PostUp:
Maropost, Sailthru, Campaign Monitor
Cheetah Digital, Oracle and Salesforce Marketing Cloud
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PARTICIPANT STATEMENTS
The decision to bring email marketing in-house is not something to be taken lightly. On-premise solutions often
require dedicated technical staff for regular maintenance and monitoring, and take longer to effectively
implement than do hosted solutions.
With over a decade of dedication to email marketers, Adestra is a leading global provider of one-to-one email
and lifecycle marketing solutions for global and growing brands alike. The company's industry leading digital
marketing platform provides marketers with a powerful infrastructure that helps them communicate more
effectively with their customers and subscribers by providing hyper-relevant context. This proprietary technolo-
gy also allows for automated messaging and incorporates enterprise-class native functionality, which reduces
implementations. Along with a superior platform to execute marketing automation, Adestra was founded on
the principle that marketing success takes more than technology, which is why customer service is at the heart
of our business. We differentiate ourselves in the market through three key approaches to enabling best in
class email marketing.
Scalable technology that you can and will actually use

Built to fit you and your business; MessageFocus is uniquely designed from its core, using a multi-layered
structure that is infinitely scalable and adaptable. MessageFocus at its core is not only built for marketers, it’s
built around marketers to conform to their business needs. From single campaigns to complex, data-driven
and dynamic real-time communication programs, whether you are an organization with one team or a
large-scale enterprise with a number of globally distributed marketing teams; with MessageFocus you can
deliver with ease.
Connected technology at the heart of your MarTech landscape

Our open API and extensive partner network allows you to connect with the systems and the rich data and
content you need. We believe in letting YOU choose the context that drives your communications to deliver the
best possible results. Why? Because we believe that an email platform should conform around what the client
partner needs.
Customer-obsessed service and support, assuring your success

Over a decade of being a global award-winning client service network which is responsive, thought-leading and
determined to help you meet marketer’s goals. We are obsessed with providing the type of support and
guidance that the market and first person marketers demand. With dedicated account management for every
partner, plus less than 30 second response times for customer support, Adestra is there when our partners
need it!
Adestra is trusted by top companies like UBM, Franklin Covey, Incisive Media and Toyota, among others.
Established in 2004, Adestra is based a global company with offices in London, Oxford, New York City, Dallas
and Sydney. For more information, visit www.adestra.com.
Cheetah Digital is the only independent, enterprise cross-channel marketing solutions provider dedicated to
the marketer. Our unique combination of data, software and trusted industry experts helps marketers build
meaningful customer relationships and create profitable brand outcomes. We provide marketing leadership
for the world’s best brands, including Williams-Sonoma, Delta Airlines and Hilton.
We work closely with each client to develop solutions that meet their individual business needs today, and
grow with them as those needs evolve.
The software and expertise we provide help brands transform the data generated by today’s connected
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consumer into the insights required to create and execute personalized, meaningful interactions. We do this
through data, software and people:
• Data: Our platform helps marketers collect, manage and activate billions of individual customer records to
deliver timely, relevant messages across every channel.
• Software: Our software is designed to help marketers build and optimize high-volume, high-complexity,
high-performing cross-channel campaigns for each individual customer.
• People: Our global team of experts provides a comprehensive set of services to support enterprise marketers
at scale
Product and Service Offering

Marketing Suite
The Marketing Suite is an enterprise marketing platform designed to help marketers get new levels of access to
their data and use it to create meaningful customer interactions with high-volume, high-complexity, high-per-
forming cross-channel campaigns.
Marketing Data Management
Consumers can interact with brands across multiple channels every day, and marketers have to collect,
organize and maintain information about every interaction if they want to build lasting customer relationships.
The Marketing Suite offers powerful data management tools to help you control your data and create deeper
customer engagement.
Campaign Management
Delivering the right message at the right time to your most valuable audiences is the key to deepening
customer relationships. The Marketing Suite offers a set of campaign management tools that enable you to
target your ideal audience, create personalized, engaging and dynamic messages, and deploy optimized
campaigns across any channel.
Analytics & Insights
For modern marketers, understanding how campaigns are driving business outcomes and improving the
customer experience is a critical responsibility. The Marketing Suite offers tools for reporting and insights that
equip marketers with the information they need to measure success and build even more engaging campaigns
in the future.
Connectivity
Complex enterprise organizations often use more than one solution to market effectively to their customers.
That’s why the Marketing Suite gives marketers the flexibility to seamlessly connect any data, campaign and
reporting activities directly to any other providers – ensuring that you and your customers are always in sync.
Services
When you partner with Cheetah Digital, our experts join forces with your marketing team to ensure your
programs are successful, your customers are engaged and your business continues to grow. We offer in-house,
dedicated services teams to help you as much as you need — 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a
year. Our ultimate goal is to provide a personalized approach to services support, ensuring you are able to use
the full power of the Marketing Suite confidently.
Campaign Services
We pride ourselves on providing a partnership approach and customer service that is second to none. With
unparalleled industry experience and platform expertise, we have established a proven track record of
executing customer programs effectively.
Technical Services
At Cheetah Digital, we believe that great service goes hand-in-hand with technology. We provide you with the
right tools and access to experts to manage customer interactions and a clear path for using that technology
effectively. We will ensure you execute the most successful cross-channel marketing programs by working with
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you to understand your business needs and designing the ideal technical solution for you.
Marketing Consulting
We are a team of consultants, analysts and data scientists focused on challenging marketing norms and
building innovative strategies that maximize revenue in cross-channel investments. We apply our deep
business experience to your marketing organization and focus on turning your data into the intelligence you
need to create lasting customer relationships.
Creative Services
Our global team of designers, copywriters, developers and producers are dedicated to using the most effective
marketing methods, beautiful design and proven best practices. Our expertise ranges in rendering for multiple
browsers and devices to ensure that your message is never lost. Our goal is to turn every creative challenge
into a memorable, impactful user experience.
Training and Enablement
Cheetah Digital’s training team enables you to successfully execute your marketing goals. We work with you to
create a training plan based on your desired results: whether you are new to marketing technology or are an
experienced Marketing Suite user, you will benefit from our performance improvement training solutions.
From instructor-led classes to self-paced content and on-the-job tools, we support you as your business grows.
Communicator:
Communicator is a trusted partner in sophisticated email marketing, with a focus on helping ambitious brands
achieve breakthrough results.
We are experts in email performance.
Powered by our unique SMARTSend technology, our flexible modular software enables customers to optimise
their performance and accomplish sophisticated email marketing.
Having worked closely with brands for more than a decade, we’ve channeled our experience into one easy to
understand format. We call it our Email Marketing Sophistication Scale. Find out where your brand lines up on
it today – www.communicatorcorp.com/emailsophistication
Everything we do is for our customers. We do this across five key areas:
1. PERFORMANCE
Our customers outperform in their email marketing campaigns and achieve breakthrough results.
This is due to our industry leading SLA of 99.9%, our dedicated UK data centre and the speed and flexibility at
which customers can start working with us.
2. PROTECTION
We take privacy and compliance extremely seriously and are leading the industry with our ISO 27001
accreditation.
This makes our customers lives easier as they prepare for General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) when it
comes into force in 2018.
3. TECHNOLOGY
The scalability and sophistication of our email marketing suite helps customers achieve their email ambitions.
Using our Sophistication Scale, customers can choose the package that’s right for them, enabling them to scale
up their sophistication.
Our next-generation email delivery technology, SMARTSend, optimises the delivery of billions of individual
emails. It uses predictive intelligence to segment mailing lists and deliver to high value, highly-engaged
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recipients first. That unique configuration enhances your sender reputation in a way that traditional sending
simply cannot match.
Our platform can integrate with almost any other web platform via our powerful and open source API. In
addition, we have a suite of ready to go integrations for all major CRM providers including plugins for Sales-
force, MS Dynamics, Sugar CRM, Magento and a comprehensive flat file integration tool set.
We partner with leading technology companies to provide customers with the optimum tools and expertise
available in the market. For example, one or our key partners is Litmus who enhance email rendering previews
and provide testing, giving results back in seconds.
4. SOPHISTICATION SCALE
We understand that email marketing requirements vary for every business.

Our Sophistication Scale provides a framework for ambitious marketers to prioritise for progression, no matter
where they start out. Our proven track record and robust experience, built up over 14 years, gives brands the
expertise to create sophisticated email marketing campaigns so they can achieve their goals.
5. CULTURE OF SUCCESS
Our experts are dedicated to helping customers achieve their business goals and work closely with them.
Our company values create a culture of success, putting the needs of our customers first to ensure they get
breakthrough results. Our strong team spirit ensures we’re dedicated to helping our customers every step of
the way. This was why we were able to work together to win a Guinness World Record for the longest domino
train using the book in 2016.
If you’re interested in learning more about Communicator, you can call us on +44 (0) 844 870 8971 or email is
on info@communicatorcorp.com. We’d be delighted to hear from you!
Epsilon is the global leader in creating connections between people and brands. A $2.2B global marketing
company, Epsilon goes well beyond email marketing to harness the power of rich data, unmatched reach,
consumer identity services, an expansive media network, loyalty solutions, engaging creative and strategic
services to get the results their clients require. Recognized by Ad Age as one of the largest marketing agencies
in the world and the second largest digital agency in the U.S., Epsilon provides email marketing services
including: customer strategy, analytics, creative, campaign and deliverability services to some of the world’s
most recognized global brands.
As a permission-based channel, consumers expect their email experiences to be personal and relevant to them
at any given moment in time. Achieving that type of relevance, in a moment that truly matters, is critical to the
long-term success of email marketing programs today. Epsilon's platform, Agility Harmony, is primed and ready
to help brands achieve delivering truly connected customer experiences, orchestrated in real time, across
multiple channels including email, SMS, and mobile push. Agility Harmony, unlike competitive solutions, was
developed and introduced after the mobile and social revolutions which means the underlying focus has not
only been on the storage and use of data, but to make that data actionable, in real-time. Purpose-built for
today’s modern marketer, Agility Harmony is open and features a flexible and dynamic architecture which can
be easily integrated with other systems, without compromising user experience. The platform is built to enable
the use of structured and unstructured data to achieve moment-messaging while remaining scalable with the
evolving multichannel experience, the data and insights it produces and the introduction of new innovations in
email and digital technology.
Epsilon is one of the few ESPs that delivers robust full service, self-service and hybrid service models for
brands, allowing flexibility to meet the specific needs of the brand at any given point in time. This approach
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recognizes that needs and focus change for brands and we need to be flexible enough to accommodate those
needs. Our continued focus on providing full services for enterprise email marketing organizations leveraging
our global resources in account management, creative design, program strategy, campaign management, and
deliverability is unmatched in the industry. Epsilon doesn’t outsource services, which means their clients can
count on consistency in quality, while providing a central point of contact for service and support. Outstanding
client satisfaction scores reinforce Epsilon’s dedication to quality and superior client services. Epsilon’s teams
are squarely focused on maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction across each touch point, throughout
the relationship – which is also how they are compensated. It’s not about selling more stuff, our focus is on
your success. It’s in the company culture.
Epsilon is much more than just an ESP, which means clients can take advantage of Epsilon’s broader offerings
to solve additional business problems without having to engage multiple vendors. For example, Epsilon can
provide proprietary third-party data to enhance customer insight and personalization; orchestrate email
strategy with additional channels including SMS, online and device retargeting; deliver true machine learning
and AI experiences within your email program; and expand offerings to include CRM, marketing automation,
and loyalty engagement strategy.
ExpertSender
ExpertSender is a marketing cloud for managing, executing and measuring complex multi-channel marketing
campaigns. Our platform allows companies to communicate with their clients via email, mobile and push
channels. Communication empowered by ExpertSender ranges from marketing and advertising content (e.g.
discounts, coupons, new products/collections, advertising partnerships), behavior based one to one communi-
cation (e.g. abandoned shopping carts, abandoned views, abandoned search, price alerts, stock change
notifications), newsletters (news updates from companies/services/products, magazines or blogs, investor
relations), to strictly non-marketing transactional messages such as order confirmations, payment reminders,
invoices and product shipping updates.
ExpertSender focuses on providing multi-channel marketing solutions for companies located in the USA, EU,
Russia, Brazil and India, processing over 15 billion messages a year. With the support of our customers and
team of internal experts, our proprietary platform is being continuously developed to accommodate the needs
of contemporary marketing departments in terms of features, marketing practices and email deliverability.
Unique features:
Customer lifecycle automation - predefined sequences of events can be created with drag & drop blocks that
support any marketing scenario (retargeting abandoned shopping cart, abandoned browsing, price drop alert,
product recommendation based on past behavior, retargeting anonymous website visitors, lead scoring, lead
nurturing scenarios, etc.).
Powerful and scalable segmentation engine. It allows using nested statements mixing demographic, behaviour-
al and transactional data to define any size of target audience within a matter of seconds.
Dynamic content capabilities allow for serving different message content based on conditional statements
along with each recipient’s demographic and behavioural data. Content can be served from external servers,
RSS feeds and RDBMS. Dynamic Content powered by C# technology from Microsoft allows much more than
content manipulation from converting time zones or calculating invoices to operating external APIs. Virtually
any scenario can be implemented using the power of a real programming platform for advanced users.
Relational Data Tables (RDBMS) allow storing client data from external systems (CRM, billing systems, loyalty
programs, etc.). It is used for storing data that has a complex structure, as is typically the case with purchase
history from an online store, offline sources like frequent customer cards or points from reward programs. This
powerful data hub allows the marketing department to centralize data from different systems and use it for
customer communication and increasing customer retention / sales. Storing data in RDBMS enables the
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customers to use the data spread throughout the company with even more advanced segmentation built using
intuitive visual statements. For complex data queries it’s possible to use SQL queries prepared by IT that can be
later merged into the visual segments. All data in the RDBMS can also be used to generate truly one to one
content sent to each individual subscriber with ExpertSender’s Dynamic Content.
Unique selling proposition:
Direct access to account managers bypassing any ticketing systems or call center phone trees. Account manag-
ers can be contacted directly via email, phone or IM. They work with designated customers from initial
onboarding and thoroughly understand each customer’s business processes.
No additional fees for enabling majority of the features. New features are deployed for all customers almost
every week.
Month-to-month contracts instead of long-term commitments. At ExpertSender we offer its customers flexible
terms and believe they stay for years because they value and appreciate the service rather than being
constrained by fixed contracts or exit fees.
Flexibility and responsiveness. We listen to our customers’ needs and quickly shift our development pipelines
to match specific requirements. We do not operate with rigid, long-run release plans and we always adapt
swiftly.
Selected customers:
Auchan, AXA, DaWanda, Domino’s Pizza, Leroy Merlin, Michelin, MediaMarkt, Mothercare, National Geographic
Learning, Next, Peugeot, SEAT, Starbucks, The Body Shop, TUI, Vans, Victoria’s Secret.
INBOX MARKETER CONNECT
Founded in 2002, Inbox Marketer is a leading data-driven email marketing services and technology solutions
company, with 3 offices operating in the heart of Canada’s innovation corridor; Toronto – Guelph – Kitchener,
Ontario.
Inbox Marketer provides expert strategy and practical eCRM expertise, with turnkey execution for enterprise
brands. We guide clients to make smarter, more strategic marketing decisions, to better connect with their
customers to gain insights and achieve transformational results. We are an innovation catalyst who owns a
portfolio of intellectual property including configurable technology, marketing processes, data and unique
reporting. This depth and breadth provides us with unique strategic insight into the continuously evolving
digital world.
We Have a Consistent Track Record of Success
- The only Canadian agency named among the leading email marketing agencies by The Relevancy Group (TRG)
in its 2017 Email Agency Buyer's Guide
- Ranked on the Profit Magazine 500 Fastest Growing companies list for 7 consecutive years
- Recognized in Branham’s Top 300 Tech companies in Canada for the past 3 years
Our Strengths: People, Process and Technology
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People:
• We are an extension of your marketing department: We are strategic partners and advise senior executives
on the latest digital marketing trends and how other leaders are building their email programs. Inbox Marketer
has over 80 employees who bring a diverse range of skills in-house.
• We are subject matter experts in compliance and CASL: We know the requirements and the need to protect
your sensitive data.
• We are industry thought leaders: Inbox Marketer staff are widely published and frequent speakers at industry
seminars and events. When Industry Canada drafted its recent CASL legislation, they invited Inbox Marketer to
the table to advise. When industry gatherings require the foremost experts on deliverability and privacy as
speakers, they call us. We don’t simply adhere to best practices, we help shape them.
Processes
• We are founded on database marketing principles: Data drives our industry, and the reason Inbox Marketer is
so comfortable and competent handling the enormous data needs of its customers is our historical roots in
database marketing.
• We own bankable insights through shared learning: We constantly optimize targeting, offer relevance,
creative, and timing.
Technology
• We have advanced IT infrastructure and industry-leading deliverability: Our advanced IT infrastructure is built
to meet the stringent performance and security requirements of some of the world’s largest telecommunica-
tion and financial services companies. Our 90+% deliverability into the inbox derives from two main factors.
Our dedicated deliverability team is constantly monitoring deployments and proactively flagging potential
issues before they escalate into larger deliverability issues
CONNECT
Simple, fast, accurate and secure. CONNECT is our self-serve platform that enables users to quickly and easily
manage high volume campaigns while ensuring messages lands in the Inbox, not the Junk folder. CONNECT
offers dynamic personalization and drag and drop segmentation ensuring our clients target their customers
with relevant content to enhance the customer experience. Reports in real time allow users to see where their
customers have clicked, when they viewed their email, and the best ways to target them in real time. CONNECT
has six layers of reporting, giving visibility to trends and changes to continually improve campaigns. As well,
CONNECT has marketing agency efficiencies build right in.
Our team of in-house developers build solutions and integrate with other technologies to suit your needs. We
secure it, measure it, and make the necessary tweaks as needed. As a strategic integrated tech partner, we are
nimble and can modify your application to the needs of the market or internal business demands quickly and
effectively. Fitting the pieces of your digital ecosystem together like a puzzle. Real, customized, integrated!
MAROPOST MARKETING CLOUD
Maropost is a B2C cloud-based revenue optimization suite that gives companies the ability to increase
multi-channel customer engagement to maximize revenue. Through integrated marketing and sales automa-
tion, Maropost provides essential tools, strategic guidance and support needed to create more personalized
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customer experiences through a 360-degree business view – from marketing automation to CRM, commerce,
and customer support.
All-inclusive Platform and Price
Our single, all-inclusive price and platform model means that clients get access to all of our modules. This
allows our customers to continuously expand their marketing automation capabilities as they become more
sophisticated without the worry of having to upgrade their platform tier or price.
Unmatched Customer Success and Deliverability Support
All customers have the same support access levels, which are included in the overall platform cost. We offer
24x7 in-app live chat, phone and email support with a 5-minute response time on tickets and ticket resolution
within 24 hours. All customers are assigned a dedicated Customer Success Manager and Deliverability Director.
Customer Success Managers are assigned based on vertical, level of expertise, and location. They help clients
with data migration, support integrations, staff training, and strategy advice. Live user training via screen share
is offered to walk customers through the platform and demonstrate how to use all of the features and
functionality available. Training is ongoing however as new individuals join the team and new features are
implemented. The Customer Success Manager’s ultimate goal is to help customers adopt all of our platform
features and functionality, provide creative approaches to develop unique and automated campaigns that
deliver high engagement/conversion and meet their overall goals and objectives.
Our Deliverability Directors constantly monitor our customer's deliverability and performance to proactively
catch issues that can potentially damage our client's campaign and inbox placement. Maropost is the only
company that shows how each campaign performs for every ISP for inbox placement. This team helps put
strategies in place around IP ramp up, while advising clients on best practices for inbox placement. They hold
status calls daily/weekly while migrating customers to the Maropost platform and offer weekly, monthly or
quarterly status calls on an ongoing basis.
Custom Onboarding and Implementation
Every Maropost customer has unique goals and objectives for their campaigns. As such, a custom
implementation program is developed to get off to the right start. Known for how quickly we help customers
get up and running, our customer success and deliverability teams can help get the first campaign setup and
sent in just days.
Every implementation program includes a creation of integration plan that supports data setup, migration and
validation; content transfers and validations and other attributes from their previous platform to be moved
over to Maropost. Also included are DNS configuration, opt-in form integration, automation setup, website
integration and IP setup, and a full testing program.
During onboarding, our deliverability team also works with clients to set up a warming plan. We start by getting
a list migrated over, understanding the level of engagement with customer contacts, then proceed to target the
most engaged contacts first while we are warming the IP.
Commitment to Constant Innovation
We offer all clients with accessibility to our product roadmap to see what new features are coming and when.
Backed by our constant innovation model, new functionality is rolled out every month. We strive to continuous-
ly evolve and improve the offerings within our platform to accommodate the rapidly changing digital marketing
world and what our clients are striving to accomplish with personalized experiences.
Trusted by 300 Brands
Maropost is trusted by 300 brands, across a variety industry’s, like New York Post, DigitalMarketer, Golden
State Warriors, Warby Parker, Shop.com and Mercedes-Benz.
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MESSAGEGEARS
Built for the world's largest consumer-facing brands MessageGears is passionate about helping businesses
deliver personalized experiences at scale. As consumers expect (and demand) a consistent, relevant experience
from the brands they trust, marketers are under increasing amounts of pressure to deliver timely, 1-to-1
messaging. In order for marketers to be successful, we believe that technology needs to work directly with
existing systems rather than creating additional silos of data. MessageGears has reinvented enterprise email
marketing technology with a truly unique solution that combines the power and security of software that lives
behind the firewall with the efficiency and scalability of cloud delivery. Our solution integrates directly with our
customer's existing systems to empower them to take complete control of their marketing programs.
Trusted by global leaders such as Expedia, Chick-fil-A, Orbitz, AmTrust Financial, and Ebates, we're solving
challenges unique to today's enterprise email marketers.
What sets us apart:
- Fast and easy implementation. Switching email providers doesn't have to be difficult, time-consuming, or
expensive. Our simple integration gets global brands moving 5 times faster than the typical marketing cloud
integration, meaning you'll be sending marketing campaigns faster than you expected.
- Increased data security. With our solution you don't need to move any data to the cloud. MessageGears
installs directly to your existing data sources, leaving sensitive customer data where it belongs - behind your
firewall and under your control.
- Technology built for marketing agility. Don't let your ESP limit your success! Today's marketer requires
technology that enables control, speed, and the ability to test, learn, and optimize in real-time.
- A solution that scales with your business. We power email for some of the world's largest companies. We
currently send billions of marketing and transactional messages each month. The solution scales quickly and
easily, and is designed to handle jobs of any size.
- Industry-leading service and support. Your success is our success. From day one, MessageGears is providing
white-glove service, making sure your team is comfortable with the solution and helping you succeed. We've
been recognized three years in a row for our excellence in account management and support among ESPs.
- Disruptive pricing. Check your expectations at the door. Our solution doesn't require the overhead of our
SaaS competitors, meaning we're able to offer unique, fair pricing packages to our customers. We believe in
creating authentic, long-lasting relationships with our clients (which is why so many of them were brought to us
by existing customers)!
We are led by a team of marketing technology veterans who truly understand the needs and challenges of
enterprise marketers. Hybrid works and we'll prove it at no cost - no strings attached. Contact MessageGears to
see if your company qualifies for a free proof-of-concept.
POSTUP
About PostUp
PostUp is a world class technology platform with over 200 billion emails sent. We don’t believe in “silver bullet”
features, and instead focus on a platform with breadth and depth of functionality, with advanced capabilities
designed for professional email and multi-channel marketers. PostUp is the only Email Services Provider
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Deliverability and Inbox Placement
At PostUp, we’re serious about inbox placement. If it’s not in the inbox, it might as well have not been
delivered. Knowing that inbox placement is key, PostUp is the only ESP with best in class Return Path delivera-
bility tools baked directly into send workflows, at no additional cost. With PostUp you can be confident that
your email will be seen. Our deliverability team is continuously monitoring your program performance, and will
alert you to problems before they impact your top line, as well as guide you through solving them.
Automation
We want our clients to be email marketers, not email executors. Our best in class automation capabilities allow
email professionals to focus on what they do best: engaging audiences with great content. We integrate with all
major CMS and CRM systems, and can typically build fully automated email programs with little or no involve-
ment from our client’s IT resources.
Audience Development
PostUp is the only ESP with Audience Development capabilities built directly into the platform. Your marketing
team can orchestrate and analyze email capture campaigns on your web properties from a single portal, and
with no dependency on your IT teams. We also offer full service Audience Development, where our team of
expert list growth strategists will work with you to build a high-performance Audience Development system,
and then hand over the keys to you. Our average performance from client engagements is an increase of 300%
in list growth rate.
Business Intelligence
PostUp has industry leading Tableau business intelligence tools baked directly into the platform, for
best-in-class email analytics at no additional charge. PostUp with Tableau provides unprecedented capabilities
for visualizing and analyzing your program data, allowing you to see both the big picture and drill down on
technical performance data as needed. Our Business Intelligence team will create dashboards and custom
reports based on your requirements, and our platform also has a rich set of standard reports out of the box.
Conclusion
If you are looking for not only a world-class email platform, but a true partner in marketing success, choose
PostUp. We are a team of email technology and strategy experts, backed by a world-class platform, with highly
competitive pricing. with a focus on client business outcomes. Our award winning and world class technology
platform is only part of the story. Our team brings expertise in the business of email: how to make your
program work and maximize email attributed revenue for our clients. In particular, at PostUp we are especially
strong when working with clients in the publishing, media, and gaming industries, and have a track record of
helping over 500 brands to email and multi-channel success.
Strategic Support and Services

PostUp mobilizes a large, dedicated team for each of our clients. When you partner with PostUp, you work with
individual experts that understand your business. When you pick up the phone or email us, you are never in
queue; you have direct access to the specific experts that can solve your problem and already know your
marketing program:
• Account Executive: day to day contact and accountable for your overall success with PostUp
• Business Intelligence Specialist: customizes your dashboards to exactly what you need and helps you
interpret the data
• Integration Engineer: builds and maintains PostUp automation and integrations with your existing and 3rd
party systems
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• Deliverability Specialist: helps manage your email program towards 100% deliverability and alerts you to
problems
• Campaign Manager: consults on program strategy and can execute for you when you are resource strapped
• Audience Development Analyst: helps with strategy and can execute on full service organic list growth
Deliverability and Inbox Placement
At PostUp, we’re serious about inbox placement. If it’s not in the inbox, it might as well have not been
delivered. Knowing that inbox placement is key, PostUp is the only ESP with best in class Return Path
deliverability tools baked directly into send workflows, at no additional cost. With PostUp you can be confident
that your email will be seen. Our deliverability team is continuously monitoring your program performance,
and will alert you to problems before they impact your top line, as well as guide you through solving them.
Automation
We want our clients to be email marketers, not email executors. Our best in class automation capabilities allow
email professionals to focus on what they do best: engaging audiences with great content. We integrate with all
major CMS and CRM systems, and can typically build fully automated email programs with little or no
involvement from our client’s IT resources.
Audience Development
PostUp is the only ESP with Audience Development capabilities built directly into the platform. Your marketing
team can orchestrate and analyze email capture campaigns on your web properties from a single portal, and
with no dependency on your IT teams. We also offer full service Audience Development, where our team of
expert list growth strategists will work with you to build a high-performance Audience Development system,
and then hand over the keys to you. Our average performance from client engagements is an increase of 300%
in list growth rate.
Business Intelligence
PostUp has industry leading Tableau business intelligence tools baked directly into the platform, for
best-in-class email analytics at no additional charge. PostUp with Tableau provides unprecedented capabilities
for visualizing and analyzing your program data, allowing you to see both the big picture and drill down on
technical performance data as needed. Our Business Intelligence team will create dashboards and custom
reports based on your requirements, and our platform also has a rich set of standard reports out of the box.
Conclusion
If you are looking for not only a world-class email platform, but a true partner in marketing success, choose
PostUp. We are a team of email technology and strategy experts, backed by a world-class platform, with highly
competitive pricing.
ZETA GLOBAL ZETAHUB
Zeta Global is a data-driven technology company that uses actionable data, advanced analytics and machine
learning to help enterprises acquire, retain and grow customer relationships. Zeta creates optimized customer
experiences by leveraging a combination of data science, strategy, analytics, and award-winning creative to
create a perpetual dialogue between brands and their customers, throughout the day, every day. We provide
the people, insights, and tools to make marketing technology work for you, so you can make every brand
experience intelligent, personal and meaningful.
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Our goal is to close gaps across your marketing organization, minimize manual and repeatable tasks, quickly
test-and-learn from direct and addressable customer experiences, and free your time to focus on go-to-market
strategy. We deliver this through integrated technology, automation and cross-functional service and solution
design.
Our depth of industry expertise sits across 3 core solution pillars:
• CRM - Proprietary Machine Learning Marketing Technology
• Customer Acquisition - Comprehensive Customer Acquisition Solution
• Customer Experience Design - Data-Driven Marketing Experience Design
CRM
ZetaHub is a single console, SaaS-based marketing solution that unifies and unlocks data, driving return on
marketing investment. The platform enables a seamless multi-channel, dialogue with your customers and
prospects across email, mobile, social, direct, and website. ZetaHub’s powerful BI tools help marketers
seamlessly connect online and offline customer behaviors with its intuitive interface, enabling multichannel
campaigns and cross-channel customer journeys with a simple “drag and drop” execution process. ZetaHub
creates personalized customer experiences and connects brands to consumers through a mix of people-based
data, machine-based learning and omni-channel campaign management to move the revenue needle and
improve marketing ROI.
Customer Acquisition
Zeta’s Comprehensive Customer Acquisition Solution offers omni-channel acquisition, people-based

acquisition, and people-based retargeting. The solution enables marketers to follow an audience with multiple
types of media. By merging anonymous and personally identifiable information (PII), we can establish a single
view of the target audience that you want to target for customer acquisition/reactivation. Ultimately, Zeta’s
programmatic digital media marketing solutions generate results across display, social media, and email
channels.
Customer Experience Design
Zeta’s Customer Experience Design practice is an innovative approach to help marketers optimize the
Customer Experience. Using a proprietary methodology and unique set of tools, the Zeta customer experience
team identifies the micro-moments that matter, designs omni-channel programs to maximize the impact of
those moments and builds dashboards to track and improve performance. Our integrated team of marketing
experts, strategists, analysts, designers, developers and campaign operations, activate your brand through
intelligent interactions with each customer – supplying the right content, in the right channel(s), at the right
time. These micro-moment decisions are carefully designed and optimized to increase go-to-market speed,
improve bottom line results, and enhance future customer interactions.
Zeta’s Third-Party Partner Eco System
Zeta continually makes leading solutions available to service our clients with best available resources in the
industry and our platform has the flexibility to generate integrations with any source system using our open
integration Web Services. Our partnership strategy focuses on the core marketplace needs of personalized,
real-time content across channels and devices. Strategic Partnerships include Acxiom LiveRamp (data) to
enable people-based marketing via direct integration, AppNexus to deliver optimized, relevant cross-channel
communications including programmatic online advertising. Additional strategic engagements include Amazon
Web Services, eDataSource, Return Path, Email on Acid, Dynamic Yield, Brite Verify, Evergage, Dynmark,
Bazaarvoice, Jan rain, Full Contact, UltraCart, and Branch.
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Trusted Partnership with Our Clients
Zeta is a recognized leader in providing omni-channel marketing technology and services and we pride
ourselves on our dedicated people, exceptional customer service, unrivaled ability to deliver, fine-tuned
processes and best-in-class technologies that drive better results for our clients every day. At Zeta, we’re
obsessed with being an indispensable part of our clients’ marketing teams, providing an unrivalled level of
service with an absolute focus on helping you win. With a 24/7 follow-the-sun operation model supported by
offices around the globe, we provide efficient email marketing operations with a 99.9% error-free rate.
Global Presence
With over 1,400 employees worldwide, Zeta Global has offices in 3 continents with headquarters located in
New York City, centers of excellence in Boston, Denver, Hyderabad (India), London (UK), Nashville, Silicon
Valley and 10 additional offices around the globe. Our clients have the option of being serviced by one or
multiple locations with the full capabilities of a global team. This means a US-based Account Team backed by
international of every time zone with 24/7/365 support. Our global footprint allows us to combine the benefits
of scale, control and consistency necessary to deliver on your brands promise with the local knowledge of
culture, regulations and market specific nuance that ensures success in each market.
THE END OF OVERALL SCORING
In previous years, we have offered an overall score at the end of this Guide, indicating which vendors offer the
most features and functions overall, and which vendors offer somewhat fewer features and functions overall.
This year, we have eliminated the overall score. We have determined overall scoring to be antithetical to the
way this Guide should be properly used.
Here’s why:
Ninety percent of end users will use at most 30% of the features and functions of any vendor in this Guide.
At Red Pill Email, our philosophy is that there is no best ESP. There is only the best ESP for a particular
organization at a particular time. All the ESPs in this Guide are platinum-level providers.
A higher score in any category in this Guide is not a better score. It simply means the higher-scoring vendor
offers more “stuff” in that category. When a vendor doesn’t offer a feature or function, it is often a sign they are
not experiencing demand for it.
Likewise, a higher overall score simply means the vendor offers more features and functions overall.
As often as we have explained that a higher score in this Guide is not a better score, we have found that
readers are still tempted to jump to the end of the Guide to see who scored highest overall.
But jumping to the end to look at overall scores defeats one of the primary purposes of this Guide: to have
readers comb through it category by category and assess every area of possible need that they may want their
new vendor to address, including areas they may not have thought of.
As a result, to help readers use this Guide the most beneficial way possible, we have eliminated the overall
score.
Instead we’ve decided to try something a little different:
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USER PERSONAS:
For the first time, Red Pill Email’s Vendor Features & Functions Guide is featuring user personas.
User personas will help readers better determine which vendors are more likely to fit their needs according to
how much technical expertise potential users of the system have, how much feature-control they want and
what kind of customer service they expect.
While every vendor in this Guide is a platinum-level provider, different ESPs will have more appeal than others
for users of different types.
For example, a highly skilled marketer with little or no technical expertise may want to manage his or her
program through an intuitive, drag-and-drop user interface without changing any code behind the UI.
Another marketer may be busy enough to want high levels of customer service, where the ESP’s
professional-services team executes many of the features and functions on their behalf. Another marketer
may want to take most matters into his or her hands, but not have a high level of technical expertise. Still
another may want control and be able to write code so the features and function operate according to his or
her specifications.
There are ESPs that will specifically appeal to each of these types of marketers. As a result, we have created
four broad user personas, defined them and placed ESPs likely to appeal to each persona in their categories.
Not surprisingly, there is some overlap. Some ESPs will be a good fit for more than one persona.
CODE MASTERS & DATA NERDS
Code Masters & Data Nerds write their own SQL and APIs. They’re big on segmenting and want more than
drag-and-drop and point-and-click can offer. They want to roll up their sleeves, dig in and write the code
themselves. Drag-and-drop and point-and-click interfaces are often a layer between them and what they want
to accomplish.
Code Masters & Data Nerds will want to look at Cheetah Digital Marketing Suite, Adestra Message Focus,
Communicator, Zeta Global ZetaHub, Epsilon Agility Harmony, and MessageGears.
BUSY OUTSOURCERS & PLATINUM SERVICE SEEKERS
Busy Outsourcers & Platinum Service Seekers are managers who tend to be in large companies that own the
platform but don’t produce or send email themselves. Rather, they employ agencies and other third parties
who manage their day-to-day marketing activities for them. They tend to switch agencies but keep their email
vendor. They may tend to shy away from their ESP’s professional-services team except for one-and-done
activities, such as integrations, but when they do turn to their ESP’s professional-services team, they expect the
same high level of service they demand from their agencies.
Busy Outsourcers & Platinum Service Seekers may want to consider Inbox Marketer Connect, Zeta Global
ZetaHub, Epsilon Agility Harmony, Cheetah Digital Marketing Suite, ExpertSender, and Maropost Marketing
Cloud.
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DRAG AND DROPPERS & A LA CARTE DINERS
Drag and Droppers want to perform complex marketing tasks but their programming skills tend to be limited.
Or they may know some coding but have neither the time nor inclination to use it for their email marketing
program. Drag and Droppers also tend to be A La Cart Diners who rely on their ESP’s professional services
team as back up support for shorter-term activities such as seasonal mailings, staff shortages and one-time
integrations and setups.
Drag and Droppers & A La Carte Diners will like platforms from Adestra Message Focus, Communicator,
MessageGears, Inbox Marketer Connect, Maropost Marketing Cloud, PostUp, and ExpertSender.
MAD SKILLS MARKETERS & KITCHEN SINKERS
Mad-Skills Marketers & Kitchen Sinkers want every feature and function under the sun, whether they end up
using it all or not. They know where they want to go, but often aren’t sure how they’re going to get there. As a
result, they do not want to ever be limited by what their ESP can or cannot do. While they may use only 20% of
their platform’s features and functions on a day-to-day basis, they’ll play with 50% to 60% just to see what
happens.
Mad Skills Marketers & Kitchen Sinkers will appreciate Epsilon Agility Harmony, Adestra, Cheetah Digital
Marketing Suite, Zeta Global ZetaHub, Maropost Marketing Cloud, and PostUp.
VENDOR PERSONAS:
HEAVYWEIGHTS
Heavyweights are just what the name implies: Big. They have a slew of corporate resources. They tend to offer
almost any feature and function a user could possibly want. As a result, they also offer many features and
functions most end users won’t use or need. Users looking for unique or specialized functionality should look
at these vendors; Zeta Global ZetaHub, Epsilon Agility Harmony, Cheetah Digital Marketing Suite, Inbox Market-
er Connect, and Adestra Message Focus.
LEAN & MEAN
These vendors offer from 80% to 90% of the features and functionality of their larger competitors. They tend to
be nimble and highly responsive. The features and functionality they do offer are as cutting edge as the
heavyweights. They simply don’t offer features and functions for which they have experienced low or no
demand. You won’t go wrong to consider Maropost Marketing Cloud, PostUp, Communicator, ExpertSender,
and MessageGears.
OVERALL FEATURE ACCESS
Overall feature access offers an idea as to the percentage of the features and functions an ESP offers that are
available to the end user and the percentage that the user will have to rely on professional services to execute.
It is important to discuss access with every prospective vendor. In the case of features and functions that are
accessible to the end user, it is important to determine whether or not your organization has staff with the
proper expertise to execute in the proper positions. For example, you may have staff with the right amount of
expertise in IT and only in IT, and IT may already have enough to do. In the case of features and functions that
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are available only through professional services, it is imperative to have a discussion about response and
turnaround times and work them into any SLA.
Overall Access
Communicator
ExpertSender
MessageGears
PostUp
Zeta Global ZetaHub
Average
75% 80% 85% 90% 95% 100%
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NOTES
FROM OUR
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Each of the ESPs in this Guide are platinum-level providers. This year, we sat through some truly astonishing
presentations. Every year, we are astounded by the levels of innovation and advancement we see in ESP
platforms. This year was no exception. As we sat thorough the presentations we took notes. The following is
just some of what jumped out at us and ended up in our notebooks.
ADESTRA MESSAGE FOCUS
Adestra is a coder’s dream. Adestra’s API integration is stellar in the flexibility it allows from a programmatic
standpoint. Anyone who can write code can write custom add-on applications and integrate them with
Adestra’s platform, creating truly customized functionality.
CHEETAH DIGITAL MARKETING SUITE
Cheetah Digital offers users the ability to easily drill down into data visually and get results back lightning fast.
Its drag-and-drop segmentation feature is as user friendly as such features get. What’s more, coders can look
behind the drag and drop interface and customize functions. Cheetah’s highly advanced interface will appeal to
coders and non-coders alike.
COMMUNICATOR
Communicator offers a six-stage email sophistication scale with a quiz to help clients and prospects figure out
if they’re, say Hit & Hope, the lowest level of sophistication, Cultured Kings, the highest, or somewhere in
between. Communicator assigns a single representative who works with clients to move them up the scale
and improve their messaging and campaigning accordingly. Basic users can also create highly sophisticated
campaigns.
EPSILON AGILITY HARMONY
Epsilon has significantly expanded support for relational data, offering users such functionality as the ability to
easily bring in data such as customers’ purchase histories and incorporate it into their messages. Epsilon offers
incredibly easy segmentation capabilities with extreme granularity. Its user interface’s clean, uncluttered layout
makes navigation very easy.
EXPERTSENDER
ExpertSender offers built-in code validation for HTML, helping users avoid coding mistakes. ExpertSender is
another standout from a data standpoint, allowing users to query multiple lists simultaneously, enabling them
to bring in more relevant content for email recipients. ExpertSender also allows the ability to manage multiple
accounts from a single log-in.
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INBOX MARKETER CONNECT
Inbox Marketer Connect is equal parts full- and self-service, whichever model clients prefer. Based in Canada,
Inbox Marketer Connect offers a built-in CASL implied consent checker to help clients avoid running afoul of
Canada’s strict anti-spam law. It also offers a subject line analyzer, easy-to navigate drag-and-drop
segmentation and six layers of real-time reporting, including dynamic content reporting.
MAROPOST MARKETING CLOUD
Maropost Marketing Cloud supports multiple layers of data, allowing users to bring in and use as much as
much personalized customer data as they want in order to improve and target their messaging. Maropost
Marketing Cloud offers deliverability tools right out of the box. Set up is easy. Tech support involves contacting
representatives directly through email and is very responsive.
MESSAGEGEARS
MessageGears offers a hybrid-cloud where the campaign management part of the solution lives wherever the client
database lives while deployment takes place in the cloud. While today’s cloud-based systems can still lag 24
hours waiting for a daily data sync, Easy to connect to most major databases. Offers the ability to use
personalized data outside the email platform, such as on landing pages. Clean, utilitarian user interface.
POSTUP
Like all the vendors in this guide, PostUp has too many strengths to list here, but in its current form this ESP
has become a real standout in publishing. It is content-management-system agnostic, and offers heavy RSS
features. Content from CMS can be slotted into predesigned templates. Content from CMS can also be moved
into PostUp’s CMS platform. Incredible CRM integration. Up to eight combinations of A/B and multivariate
testing in a single message.
ZETA GLOBAL ZETAHUB

Like Legos for email. Zeta’s building-block-like platform structure allows users to pick and choose features and
functions to suit their needs. Integration with third-party products is seamless. For example, 250ok integration
offers in-depth deliverability reporting. Boomtrain acquisition gives 360-degree customer view. Platform offers
what-if segmentation scenarios in which list counts are updated in real time as profile attributes are changed.
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FOR
VENDOR
SELECTION
PREPARING
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DISCOVERY
The primary objective of discovery is to define, map and analyze existing email messages, programs, and
processes; and to document their current state within the organization in order to provide a baseline for the
project moving forward.
The first step is to discover existing processes, step-by-step, and to understand all the functions performed by
individuals on legacy systems. Documenting the processes, with all the required views, data, drawings, and
analytical reports follows.
The Discovery is intended to provide insight into the underlying business problems that motivated the project.
This insight will then serve as the foundation for developing Functional and Non-Functional Specifications
required supporting current and future email messaging programs and initiatives.
A sample set of Discover questions may be found in the Appendix. These are a subset of the discovery ques-
tions used for all Red Pill Email vendor evaluations and selections.
SPECIFICATIONS
A specification is an explicit set of requirements to be satisfied by the prospective vendor. Specifications are
needed to avoid errors due to lack of specification, for instance, in interoperability issues. For instance, when
two applications share data, but use different normal forms or use them incorrectly, in an incompatible way or
without sharing a minimum set of interoperability specification, errors and data loss can result.
The specification describes the features the vendor solutions must meet or exceed to support the client's
messaging needs. In practice, many successful specifications are written to understand and fine-tune applica-
tions that were already well-developed and in operation. Specifications are most important for external
interfaces that must remain stable.
Specifications should be divided into two unique parts, functional and non-functional.
FUNCTIONAL
Functional specifications define what the vendor platform is expected to DO. A functional specification is the
documentation that describes the requested behavior of vendor platform or system.
The documentation typically describes what is needed by the user as well as requested properties of inputs
and outputs of the system. A functional specification is the more technical response onto a matching require-
ments document. Thus, it picks up the results of the requirements analysis stage. On more complex systems
multiple levels of functional specifications will typically nest to each other.
NON-FUNCTIONAL
Non-functional specifications define what the platform is expected to BE. A non-functional specification is a
requirement that specifies criteria that can be used to judge the operation of a system, rather than specific
behaviors. This should be contrasted with functional specifications that define specific behavior or functions.
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The plan for implementing functional requirements is detailed in the system design. The plan for implementing
non-functional requirements is detailed in the system architecture.
A system may be required to present the user with a display of the number of records in a database. This is a
functional specification. How up-to-date this number needs to be is a non-functional specification. If the
number needs to be updated in real time, the vendor must ensure that the system is capable of updating the
displayed record count within an acceptably short interval of the number of records changing.
PREPARING AN RFP
Once you’ve determined your functional and non-functional requirements it’s time to assemble your RFP. Begin
with an overview of your company, what it does, how long it’s been in business, what it specializes in, and what
sets it apart from its competitors.
Next provide an overview of the opportunity for prospective vendors. Explain what you expect the relationship
with the vendor to be, and set the expectations of the prospective relationship before moving on to your
requirements.
The key to writing requirements is to be thorough without being redundant or repetitive. You can do this by
reducing your requirements into core functions. For example, if one of your requirements is for the vendor to
have the ability to trigger a welcome message when someone completes a subscription form and another
requirement is to trigger a message when someone completes a survey form, you can reduce this requirement
to “Platform must support form-triggered messaging”.
Remember that what we’re looking for is function, not application of a function. While you might feel that you
are being thorough, what you’re really doing is adding time to the process as you add unnecessary pages to
your RFP.
The vendor is going to give you the same answer for each application of a core function that you list appended
with the iteration of that function that you listed. Vendors will not be impressed by your thoroughness, but will
more often see you as either inexperienced or high-maintenance. While either of those might be true, the RFP
isn’t the place you want it displayed.
After listing your functional and non-functional requirements, describe and list what types of messages,
campaigns, and programs your company sends. Provide examples in an addendum to your RFP. You may also
want to include an advanced message that you may not have but would like to, and would like to see in a
product demonstration. If so, remember to stay reasonable and not over extend your organization’s ability to
support such a message.
When listing your messages, add some volume projections. While some vendors offer a flat rate, the common
denominator will always be CPM pricing. If you are including flat-rate pricing vendors, be sure to include the
size of your database in records, not bytes. Include all of the records you will be hosting on the vendor
platform; active, inactive, opted-in, opted-out, etc.
Next, add your submission guidelines including upon what criteria you will be basing your final decision.
Provide your evaluation process and your planned schedule. List who will be involved in the selection process
and their roles. And don’t forget to tell them where to send their proposals and direct any questions.
A sample set of Red Pill Email’s RFP template can be found in the Appendix. This is the actual format used for
all Red Pill Email vendor selection RFPs.
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SCORING THE PROSPECTS
Don’t waste yours or a prospective vendor’s time with a demo until you’ve received responses to your RFP;
there is no point to a demo of a platform that doesn’t meet your specifications. Once you’ve reviewed the
returned RFPs and have identified three to four vendors that most closely meet your specifications, it’s time to
schedule product demonstrations.
There will be a lot to cover in each of the vendor demonstrations, and there will be stakeholders in the room all
looking for different things. Technology people will be looking at the platform being demonstrated one way,
marketing and/or operations will be looking at it a different way and upper management will be looking for
other things.
Three to six hours of product demonstrations and many days later, it is easy to forget the details of demonstra-
tions, and sometimes hard to remember the different approaches each vendor had to supporting your needs
and requirements. It’s easy to remember the nice smile or the bad suit, but not always as easy to remember
which vendor supported SOAP and which preferred REST API protocols. That’s where score cards come in.
At Red Pill Email we break our score cards into six major requirements categories, connectivity & integration,
cultural fit, data structure, deliverability, messaging, and reporting; each with three to six specific needs that
are adjusted to meet the needs of our clients.
A sample of Red Pill Email’s score card template can be found in the Appendix. This is the actual format used
for all Red Pill Email vendor selection score cards.
S.A.M.E.
The S.A.M.E. Project or Support the Adoption of Metrics for Email was created and administered by the Email
Experience Council’s Measurement Accuracy Roundtable/Advisory Board. The purpose of project was to create
a standardized framework for the reporting of email metrics across the industry for the benefit of both email
marketers and email service providers.
S.A.M.E. is not only an acronym for the project’s name; it is also its goal – to have all email metrics reported by
ESPs the same way under a uniform industry standard. For email marketers in the field the standard provides
four key benefits:
1. The standard improves testing validity by limiting environmental variance.
2. The standard improves industry benchmarking through increased data conformity and validity across
samples.
3. The standard improves internal historical reporting for benchmarking by easing the transition between
vendors.
4. Use of the standards will eventually normalize data across the industry, a key assumption required for
statistical analysis of email data.
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Email marketers from around the world use the standards and the benefits of the standardization to the
industry increase as more marketers and providers adopt them, continuing email’s advantage over other forms
of marketing as the most measurable medium available. This ensures emails versatility, functionality and
performance for marketers, promoting its continued use as a key form of communication between businesses
and their customers. The ever-increasing ability of email marketing to provide relevance and engagement,
creating a personalized experience for end users will support its position as a favored medium to receive
marketing communications by consumers and customers.
Early adopters of the S.A.M.E. definitions and calculations for email metrics under the project were awarded
and display a seal noting their compliance. Later adopters may not all carry the project seal.
THE S.A.M.E. PROJECT METRICS & CALCULATIONS

The decision to bring email marketing in-house is not something to be taken lightly. On-premise solutions often
require dedicated technical staff for regular maintenance and monitoring, and take longer to effectively
implement than do hosted solutions.
STANDARDIZED TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
Definitions related to current Delivery metrics
Accepted: Any email that is not rejected by a server, including emails delivered to the inbox, spam or junk
folders or those are missing from those folders that did not receive a bounce reply.
Accepted = Sent - Bounced
Accepted Rate: The total amount successfully delivered to the server divided by the total e-mail deployed
(unique records). The amount successfully delivered is the total amount attempted minus all failures, including
hard bounces.
Accepted Emails / Sent Emails = Accepted Rate
Bounce: A message rejected by the receiving server. Typically bounces are referred to as either hard bounce, a
delivery failure for permanent reason (e.g. a misspelled email address) or soft bounce, a delivery failure due to
a temporary condition (e.g. mailbox is currently full).
Inbox Placement Rate: This is the ratio of emails that are delivered specifically to the recipient’s inbox divided
by the total emails sent.
Definitions related to current Open metrics
Confirmed Open Rate: Is the percentage of unique confirmed opens divided by the total number of accepted
emails. While unique is the preferred method, this rate may be calculated using either the unique or the total
confirmed opens.
Confirmed Opens / Accepted = Confirmed Open Rate
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Unique Confirmed Open: The unique number of users that an email is displayed (whether fully opened or
within the preview pane) and recorded using tracking pixel OR if images are blocked and the user clicks any link
including the unsubscribe link. This metric includes both HTML and plain text emails
Unique Confirmed Opens / Accepted = Unique Confirmed Open Rate
Total Confirmed Opens: The total number of times an email is displayed (whether fully opened or within the
preview pane) and recorded using tracking pixel OR if the user clicks any link including the unsubscribe link.
Total Confirmed Opens / Accepted = Total Confirmed Open Rate
Email Render Rate: The number of times an email is displayed (whether fully opened or within the preview
pane), recorded using a tracking image within an HTML format message, divided by the total, and expressed as
a percentage. While unique is the preferred method, this rate may be calculated using either the unique or the
total email renders.
Email Renders / Accepted Emails = Render Rate
Unique Email Render: The unique number of users that an email is displayed (whether fully opened or within
the preview pane) and recorded using tracking pixel. If a user opens the email multiple times or multiple
tracking pixels requests are recorded due to forwarding, only one is counted per unique email address. This
metric applies to HTML formatted emails only.
Unique Email Renders / Accepted Emails = Unique Render Rate
Total Emails Rendered: The total number of times an email is displayed (whether fully opened or within the
preview pane) and recorded using only a tracking pixel for a unique subscriber address. If the user opens the
email multiple times, one email render is counted for each occurrence. This metric is based off HTLM format-
ted emails only.
Total Email Renders / Accepted Emails = Total Render Rate
Average Recipient Render Rate: The total number of times an email is rendered (whether fully opened or within
the preview pane) and captured using a tracking image within an HTML format message divided by the unique
number of emails rendered, expressed as a percentage.
Total Renders / Unique Renders = Average Recipient Render Rate
Aimed as secondary metric, it provides insight into the average number of times each recipient (that renders a
message at least once) views an individual message. This may be of value to senders with deep content and/or
content that has a long shelf life, (e.g. newsletters) assuming that a high number of renders per recipient is a
positive for certain types of email programs. This metric may also be calculated using Confirmed Opens if that
is more applicable for the sender.
Definitions related to current Click metrics
Click Through Rate (CTR): The number of times a link is clicked from a message divided by the number of
accepted messages. For example, if a message is sent to four people and two people open the message,
downloading the images. One of two that opened the email clicked on a link one or more times, the resulting
CTR for that link is 25% (1 unique clicker/4 accepted emails = 25%).
Clicks / Accepted Emails = Click Through Rate
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This metric may be calculated as Unique CTR, which refers to the number of people that clicked or total CTR,
which refers to number of clicks for a specific link. Email marketers also often calculate CTR for the entire email
to compare several emails within a campaign or across campaigns.
Click to Open (CTO): The unique number of times a link is clicked from a message divided by the unique
number of confirmed opens for that message. For example, if a message is sent to four people, two people
render the email, and one of those two click on a link one or more times, the resulting CTO is 50% (1 click /2
confirmed opens = 50%).
Clicks / Email Renders = Click to Open Rate
Again, this metric may be calculated as Unique CTO, which refers to the number of people who clicked, or total
CTO, which refers to number of clicks for a specific link. The Click to Open Rate may also be calculated for
multiple links within an entire email message rather than for an individual link in a message.
157
CHARTS
ADDITIONAL
AND GRAPHS
APPENDIX
158
SUPPORTED API FUNCTIONS
The API functions an organization requires should be listed in its functional specification document prior to any
vendor evaluation, RFP, or selection. Functional specifications should be included in any RFP for ESP services.
Table API Functions
Append Tables
Update Tables
Add Fields
Create Tables
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Create Tables Add Fields Update Tables Append Tables
n = 10 60% 70% 80% 80%
Template API Functions
Message Body
Upload Template/Document
Update Template/Document
Delete Template/Document
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Delete Template/ UpdateTemplate/ UploadTemplate/

Message Body
Document Document Document
n = 10 80% 90% 100% 100%
159
Other API Functions
Export Table
Import Table
Create Category/Segment
Create Filter/Query
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Create Filter/Query CreateCategory/Segment Import Table Export Table
n = 10 60% 70% 80% 80%
Template API Functions
Message Body
Upload Template/Document
Update Template/Document
Delete Template/Document
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Delete Template/ UpdateTemplate/ UploadTemplate/

Message Body
Document Document Document
n = 10 80% 90% 100% 100% Email Vendor Features & Functions Guide | Designed by Email Monks
160
Message API Functions
Create Message Envelope
Schedule/Deploy Message/Campaign
Trigger Message
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Schedule/Deploy Create Message

Trigger Message
Message/Campaign Envelope
n = 10 100% 100% 100%
Deployment API Functions
Deployment Queuing
Deployment Pause
Deployment Stop
SMTP Access
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
SMTP Access Deployment Stop Deployment Pause Deployment Queuing
n = 10 80% 80% 80% 100%

161
Timestamp API Functions
Retreive Server Timestamp
Retreive Schema
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Retreive Schema Retreive Server Timestamp
n = 10 50% 60%
Metrics API Functions
Bounced Records
Campaign-Level Stats
Opt-Out Records
Record-Level Stats
Sent Records
Account-Level Stats
84% 86% 88% 90% 92% 94% 96% 98% 100%
Account- Sent Record- Opt- Campaign Bounced

LevelStats Records LevelStats OutRecords -LevelStats Records
n = 10 90% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% Email Vendor Features & Functions Guide | Designed by Email Monks
162
ASSET
SUPPORT
163
Participants were surveyed as to their functional capabilities surrounding content management, image hosting,
personalization, dynamic content, and more.
Asset Support
Components
Content Management Tool
Content Upload
HTML to Text Tool
Responsive Design
Image Hosting
Template Library
WYSIWYG Tool
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Content
WYSIWYG Template Image Responsive HTML to Content
Management Components
Tool Library Hosting Design Text Tool Upload
Tool
n = 10 80% 90% 90% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
164
Asset Support
Cross-Channel Calendar
Email Rendering Tool
Test/Preview Capability
Content Version Control
Task Management Workflow
User-Level Permissions
Campaign Calendar
Categorized Campaigns
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Task Content Email Cross-

Categorized Campaign User-Level Test/Preview
Management Version Rendering Channel
Campaigns Calendar Permissions Capability
Workflow Control Tool Calendar
n = 10 40% 60% 70% 70% 80% 100% 100% 100%
Asset Support
Character Case Control
Dynamic/Conditional Content
Dynamic/Conditional Subject Line
User-Set Missing Personalization

Variables Test Tool
Personalization
Link Validation Tool
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
User- Dynamic/ Dynamic/

Link Variables Character
Personalization SetMissing Conditional Conditional
ValidationTool TestTool CaseControl
Personalization SubjectLine Content
n = 10 70% 80% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
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Asset Support Origin
Variables Test Tool
Dynamic/Conditional Content
Campaign Calendar
Email Rendering Tool
Test/Preview Capability
Content Management Tool
Image Hosting
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Native 3rd-Party
Asset Support Access
User-Level Permissions
Categorized Campaigns
Template Library
80% 82% 84% 86% 88% 90% 92% 94% 96% 98% 100%
User ProServ
166
LEVELS
REPORT
167
Questions surveying the level of reporting included reporting by segment, message, record, program, dynamic
content, and total and unique statistics.
Report Levels
by Campaign
by Link
by Program or Category
Drill-Down via GUI
Side-by-Side Reporting
Total Statistics
Unique Statistics
Real-Time Reporting
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Real-Time Unique Total Side-by- Drill-Downvia by Programor by by

Reporting Statistics Statistics SideReporting GUI Category Link Campaign
n = 10 90% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Report Levels
by Acquisition Source
by Device
by OS/Platform
by Segment
Rby Record
Subject Line Reporting
Dynamic Content Reporting
Values at deployment
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Values Dynamic Subject Rby by byOS/ by byAcquisition

atdeployment Content LineReporting Record Segment Platform Device Source
Reporting
n = 10 90% 90% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
168
Report Levels
3rd Party Data
by Client
Multi-Channel Reporting/View
by Time of Day
Record-Level Across Channels
Report Distribution
Reporting/View of Child Accounts
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Reporting/ Report Record-Level Multi-Channel by 3rd

by
Viewof Child Distribution Across Reporting Client Party Data
Time of Day
Accounts Channels /View
n = 10 80% 90% 90% 90% 100% 100% 100%
Report Levels Access
by Campaign
by Link
by Program or Category
by Segment
Side-by-Side Reporting
Total Statistics
Unique Statistics
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
User ProServ
169
by Acquisition Source
by Device
by OS/Platform
Rby Record
Subject Line Reporting
Values at deployment
84% 86% 88% 90% 92% 94% 96% 98% 100%
User ProServ
3rd Party Data
by Client
by Time of Day
Multi-Channel Reporting/View
Record-Level Across Channels
Report Distribution
Reporting/View of Child Accounts

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
User ProServ
170
Report Levels Origin
by Client
by Device
by OS/Platform
84% 86% 88% 90% 92% 94% 96% 98% 100%
Native 3rd-Party
171
170
REPORTS
172
171
Questions surveying reporting capabilities include the ability to create custom reports, creating campaigns
from reports, conversion tracking, performance dashboards, and more.
Reports
Charts Integrated into Reports
Heat Map Reports
Create Campaigns from Reports
Create Custom Reports
Create Custom Reports per User
List Reporting (Growth/Churn)
List Composition by ISP
List Composition by Source
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
List List ListReporting CreateCustom Create Charts

CreateCustom Heat
Compositionby Compositionby (Growth/ Reports Campaigns Integratedinto
Reports MapReports
Source ISP Churn) perUser fromReports Reports
n = 10 80% 80% 90% 90% 90% 90% 100% 100%
Reports
Attribution Measurement/Assignment
Click Analysis
Deliverability Analysis
Integrated Conversion Tracking

Performance Dashboards
Report Export
Comparison to Benchmarks
Predictive Analytics
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Integrated Attribution
Predictive Comparisonto Report Performance Deliverability Click
Conversion Measurement
Analytics Benchmarks Export Dashboards Analysis Analysis
Tracking /Assignment
n = 10 50% 70% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
173
Reports Access
Click Analysis
Create Campaigns from Reports
Create Custom Reports
Create Custom Reports per User
List Composition by ISP
List Composition by Source
List Reporting (Growth/Churn)
Report Export
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
User ProServ
Reports Origin
Click Analysis
Integrated Conversion Tracking
Performance Dashboards
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Native 3rd-Party
174
SAMPLE DISCOVERY QUESTIONS
The following questions are a sampling of Discovery questions used by Red Pill Email in vendor evaluations and
selections. These are questions asked of our Vendor Selection/RFP clients.
Critical Issues
» What is the biggest challenge your organization faces regarding email messaging?
» Who needs to be involved with any solution considered by your organization?
» Please identify any technology, resource, or business dependencies.
Vendors
» What limitations do you face with your current deployment vendor?

» What are your strategic messaging objectives (6mos, 12mos, 18mos, 24mos.)?
» What are the pain points with your current provider?
Data
» What data is required to support your current messaging?

» Is data automatically updated, or is data obtained ad hoc? Please describe.
» What metrics are used to measure success?
Subscribers
» What is the total number of active subscribers?

» What is your average message deployment volume?
» What is your average overall monthly deployment volume?
Deployment
» Please describe your current messaging programs and provide content examples.
» Please identify message triggers and/or timing.
» Please provide an overview of your current messaging processes.
» Where do you see difficulties or obstructions in your current messaging process?
Resourcest
» What resources do you have to support your messaging programs? Availability?

» How long does it take to develop and deploy campaigns? Ad hoc? Automated?
» Who initiates and/or requests and/or approves offers and content?
Integration
» Are you currently integrated with any third-party solutions?

If so, who and for how long?
If so, what is your level of integration?
If not, do you plan to integrate with any third-party solutions?
175
SAMPLE RFP
Your Company Name

Email Marketing Service Provider
Request for Proposal
Make a confidentially statement right away. This is also a good place to ask if any clients or affiliates pose a conflict of
interest.
About Your Company

Use this area to explain who your company is and what it does. You want the vendor to see you as a valuable
prospect.
» Use bullets to highlight things about your organization

» Everybody likes bullets.
» State when you expect the project to be completed by.
Overview of Opportunity & Requirements

Relationship with Email Service Provider
» Explain or bullet what you expect the relationship with the vendor to be.
» This is where you will set expectations of the relationship.
Requirements
» Here is where you will list your functional and non-functional requirements:
Functional requirements are what you expect the vendor platform to DO

Example: The platform must integrate with Web Analytics
If you use a specific analytics tool be sure to list it
» Non-Functional requirements are what you expect the platform to BE

Example: The platform must be user-friendly with intuitive navigation

If you can explain what “user-friendly” is all the better. What’s “friendly” to one isn’t to all
» Use top-level bullets like, “Technology must provide/support the following features:”
Then list the features

And sub features
And sub features if necessary
176
Email Campaigns
Describe and list what types of messages you send:
» Daily Offers
Daily triggered email campaign with targeted discount/coupon offers.
Subscription activated with Your Company registration.

Content dynamically populated from backend database
» Transactional Emails
Receipts
Confirmations
Notifications
Lost Password
(Project some message volumes)
Project Email Volume
Campaign Type Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Total
Daily Offer 4,620,000 11,550,000 23,100,000 46,200,000 85,470,000
Transactional Emails 1,386,000 3,465,000 6,930,000 13,860,000 25,641,000
Lifecycle Programs 554,400 1,386,000 2,772,000 5,544,000 10,256,400
Other 55,000 138,600 277,200 554,400 1,025,640
Total 6,615,840 16,539,600 33,079,200 66,158,400 122,393,040
Rfp Submission Guidelines

Define your submission guidelines and on what criteria you will base your final decision.
» Ask about the company
Company name and address

Description of how/why you are uniquely qualified to partner with Your Company Name
» Ask about their technology

Describe system architecture
» How/who will manage your account
Describe the account management and customer support model
» How much will it cost
Provide an outline of your pricing structures and options
» What else do you want to know
API documentation (and any other white paper or guidelines on data integration options)
177
Selection Process & Schedule
Explain your evaluation process and your planned schedule.
Describe who will be involved in the process and their roles.
Describe your schedule and timeline
XX/XX/XXXX Detailed Proposals Due
XX/XX/XXXX – XX/XX/XXXX Vendor Presentations
XX/XX/XXXX Final Selection
Tell them where to send proposals or ask questions:
Give examples of current messages. Put together your most complicated message or program and ask for it to
be duplicated for the demo.
SAMPLE SCORE CARD
178
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
The following terms are used throughout this Guide.
à la carte; user may procure a combination of available self and full services
Access to Logs; user may access account system logs via UI or API
Account Manager; assigned client/vendor liaison
Account Team; assigned individuals with specialized skills
Ad-Serving; Third-party ad serving
Analytics; Third-party analytics
Any Field/Log/List; search any value in any field on any event log or distribution or supplemental data list
API Import/Export; ability to import and export via API
API; Application Program Interface
Appliance; a unique hardware/software component specifically designed to provide vendor product installed
at the client location
Authentication; supports one or more DK, DKIM, SPF, Sender_ID
Auto Split-Path; best results of split test deployed to remaining list
Behavior-based; segment by subscriber behavior
Benchmarks; compares to industry benchmarks via UI
Bounce Log; account log recording reasons for message bounce
Bounce Rules; user-set soft bounce criteria
Case Control; user control of character case (JOHN or john becomes John)
Categorize Campaigns; ability to group campaigns by category
Click/Response Log; account log recording by links, message, and recipient
Components; installation of message and list not dependent on the other
Composition by ISP; reports ISP list representation by percentage
Compound Rules; use of Boolean operators to combine query structures
Content Mgmt; some method of managing message content using rules, processes, and/or workflows
Control Over Tables; user ability to create, name, define, query, and/or join data tables and set primary and
foreign keys
Conversion Tracking; tracked/reported by vendor or integrated third-party
CPM-Based; price per thousand messages sent
Deliverability Svs; integrated services reseller
Different Opt-out; subscription/list-level opt-out
Disposition Alerts; message completion/fail, volume alerts
DK (DomainKeys); authentication protocol to verify sender DNS
DKIM; DK joined with Identified Internet Mail. Standards-track replacement of DK authentication protocolt
179
DNS; Domain Name Server
Domain Exclusion; user ability to globally exclude TLDs
Drill-Down; ability to query any field of any table and view results via UI
Dynamic Content; rules-driven insertion of blocks/cells of content
Failed/Skipped Log; log of recipients not mailed due to missing values/record duplication
Flat Rate; single fixed fee regardless of usage
Form Processing; supports hosted or remote <form></form> HTML and/or HTTP GET or POST
Free Trial; free limited use of service
Frequency Caps; user-set limits number of messages to recipient
FTAF; Forward To A Friend
FTP Import/Export; bulk file transfer
Integrated Charts; account and/or campaign statistics graphically displayed via UI
Integrated FBL; logging of Feedback Loop data by recipient by time/date, by message/iteration
Integrated Rendering; previews message across common clients via UI
Integrated Social; social media sharing and/or tracking
Integrated Survey; advanced survey logic and reporting
ISP Throttle/Meter; measured deployment volume by ISP
Landing Pages; vendor-hosted and measured
Licensed Software; grants an end-user permission to use software applications on their own hardware while
retaining the software owner's exclusive rights under copyright law
Link Swap; user ability to change link URL post-launch
List Reporting; composition by ISP, growth/attrition, churn
List Seeding; ability to add recipients to mailing without adding them to main distribution list
Logs; account system files listing activities and/or actions
Multiple Indices; may index data for query on more than one table
Multiple TLD; support multiple domain identities in a single account
Multivariate; simultaneously test the performance of several content or design variations in a message
Null Handling; skips/fails individual messages for missing data
Open Log; account log recording all opened messages by time/date, recipient, message
Personalization; simple text value replacement (e.g., %%firstname%% = John)

Random Segment; ability to randomly segment a list
Record; recipient email address and/or ID
Renaming; user ability to name message links
SaaS; Software as a Service - software applications provided to end users without requiring the end user to
run the application on their own computer
Scoring; measuring the likelihood of passing spam filters
Sender_ID; enhanced SPF authentication protocol
Sent Log; account log recording all messages sent by time/date, recipient, message
180
SPF; Sender Policy Framework authentication protocol
Split-Test; testing two or more unique messages in a shared segment
SQL Queries; ability to code SQL language via UI
Stop/Pause; ability to stop or pause a message deployment
Term Contract; contracted period of time & volume
Test/Preview; message preview via UI and/or email
Third-Party Suppression; integration with
Tiered Rates; escalating volume discounts
TLD; Top Level Domain
Total & Unique; logs/displays both total and unique activity
Trans/Promo IPs; provides separate IP addresses for transactional and promotional messaging
Trans/Promo; integrated transactional/promotional platform
Triggering; auto-deployment by field filter/date, by form, or 1:1 event by API
UI; User Interface
Unique/Foreign Key; supports unique and foreign data keys
Unsub/Pref Page; hosted unsubscribe and/or subscriber preference page
Uploading Content; alternative methods of uploading content
User-Defined Primary; user defines primary (unique) data key
White-Label; product provided ready for branding by another company
181
ABOUT
There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.
We’ve lived on the client side, building multi-million-dollar email channels with our own hands. We’ve walkedthe
path of systems integration to bring highly complex automated data-driven messaging programs to life.
As the developers of the annual Email Vendor Features & Functions Guide, we have an unparalleled view of the
email vendor landscape and vendor capabilities. Other consultants use our Guide in helping clients to select
suitable vendors, so why not go straight to the source? We won’t always tell you what you want to hear, but will
always tell you what you need to know to make the best decisions for your organization.
Our extensive knowledge of the email industry can help you find the best fit for your needs and budget for your
email program. We can assist you with installation of critical APIs to enable advanced email messaging such as
trigger-based messages, lifecycle email marketing and retrieve all the data so you can make decisions based
upon facts and solid analysis, not guess work.
We are the agency behind other agencies and vendors alike. From process-driven vendor selection, to system
integration, to deep analytics, data-driven profiling and personas, to strategic analysis and tactical implementa-
tion, to production support, we have the knowledge, skills, and experience to help you take your messaging
programs to the next level.
We focus on the Tactical, Technical, and Analytical elements of Email Marketing and applying them to
quickly bring our clients email messaging online. We don’t just crunch numbers, we show what they mean and
how to use the results to improve your messaging.
Email Vendor Evaluation & Selection
The average email marketer will be involved in selecting a vendor for their organization a few times in their
career; we’re involved in client vendor selection several times a year. From producing our Annual Email Vendor
Features & Functions Guide, our insight into vendor capabilities is second to none. We’ve leveraged our years of
experience in vendor evaluation and selection to develop an effective process designed to most closely match
vendors to the client’s needs.
We start with the client’s current messaging inventory and business rules; we move on to data requirements,
and consider future growth and initiatives while looking for areas for technical improvement. We’ll identify the
functional and non-functional requirements needed to be met by the vendor to secure our client’s business.
Based on those requirements we’ll identify a select group of capable vendors to participate in the RFP process.
Working many years with both clients and vendors, we have developed an RFP framework that is clear, concise,
and welcomed by vendors participating in the selection process.
Migration, Integration, & Automation
Moving from one email deployment vendor to another can be overwhelming the first few times. For us those
first few times were a long time ago. Based on our years of experience migrating and integrating dozens of
182
clients to new vendors, we’ve developed a process for this, too. We’ll lay out the steps to take and order of
implementation for a transparent and successful vendor migration.
Integrating data from client systems to vendors and back is the first step in increasing email messaging produc-
tivity. Integration can be as basic as automating bi-directional data transfer or as advanced as bringing dispa-
rate data sets to a central point for processing decisions. Automating repetitive processes based on specific
business rules further streamlines messaging programs while reducing the risk of human error. We show our
clients how to do it, or do it for them freeing internal resources to focus on their core business.
Reporting Dashboards
We keep a strategic focus in making email messages and landing pages more effective and more profitable, not
just more attractive.
Email Marketing Audit: a deep dive qualitative and quantitative analysis of your email marketing program
resulting in recommendations to boost ROI. Some ideas can be implemented immediately; others will lead to
ongoing projects with our team to improve performance. An audit is a great first step to developing a big
picture email marketing strategy.
Big Picture Email Marketing Strategy: development of a formal big picture strategy to increase profitability of
your email marketing program, as well as ongoing guidance as it is implemented.
Campaign Strategy and Tactics: blueprint for a successful single- or multi-effort email marketing campaign
with the goal of increasing ROI. Includes copywriting and creative direction for design and coding; often used in
conjunction with an A/B split test against control creative developed by the client. Can include landing pages as
well as the email messages themselves.
There are a number of ways to make your email marketing efforts more effective and more profitable. We are
happy to mold our services in this area to meet the specific needs of our clients.
Training & Workshops
We also offer training workshops on strategy and tactics, tailored to meet the needs of your in-house team.
Popular topics include:
Lifecycle marketing, including development of personas and customer journeys
Basic and advanced email marketing topics, include list growth, strategic testing, creative optimization and
others based on client’s needs
Custom programs designed to ‘round out’ an organization’s knowledge of the email marketing channel
Production Services
We offer a full suite of production services together and apart from our other services and are available for
on-going messaging services, back-fill for covering vacations and leaves, or any gaps in staffing. Contact us for
a quote or more information.
Red Pill Email is fully insured.
Contact us toll free at 833-RED-PILL or email to hello@redpillemail.com
183
An email marketing practitioner since 1996, Red Pill Email founder, John
Caldwell, has worked on the agency side, the client side, and as a consultant,
using deployment tools from ESPs to in-house to homegrown email systems.
He has been involved in over 50 ESP vendor selections for major clients since
2005, and has produced an annual Email Vendor Features & Functions Guide
since 2009. The annual vendor guide reviews ESPs across 600 data points and
is the only ESP vendor guide written by an experienced hands-on practitioner
providing objective analysis of email vendors’ functional capabilities.
John Caldwell – Founder, Red Pill Email
Jeanne has over 20 years of experience in the email and online marketing
and product development world. She is a recognized expert and
sought-after speaker on email marketing issues for industry conferences
and workshops in the email marketing world. Her direct response
approach to digital marketing strategy, tactics and creative direction helps
organizations make their email marketing initiatives more effective and
more profitable.
Jeanne Jennings – VP Client Strategy & Creative Services
Jeremy has participated in every aspect of email marketing. He has configured

in-house solutions from the ground up and has automated list management
and hygiene for popular ESPs.
Jeremy has written custom applications that automate the transfer of data
between client and vendor platforms, and has developed integrated channel
dashboards to optimize reporting efforts that follow customers through the
sales funnel with greater accuracy and speed.
Jeremy Grecco – VP Programming & Production
184
Hope you have enjoyed this guide..!!
THANKS
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20 8

Email Vendor Features

A Comprehensive Guide to ESP Capabilities

Data & Segmentation 27

Data & Segmentation Scoring: 40

Campaign Building & Workﬂow Scoring: 68

Testing & Reporting 71

Content Management Systems 92

Training & Support 98

Support & Account Management 100

Protecting User Accounts & Data 101

SLA Offerings & Processes 104

Biggest Competitors Seen By Participant 131

Participant Statements 132

The S.A.M.E. Project Metrics & Calculations 155

Supported API Functions 159

Report Levels: 167

Glossary of Terms 179

About Red Pill Email 182

Vendors do not pay to participate in this Guide. Participants are asked

Responses to our questionnaire are converted to binary values and

Before delving into this Guide, it is important to understand the

And failing to oﬀer a feature or function in no way reﬂects badly on a

For 2018, Red Pill Email surveyed a select 10 international providers

USING THIS GUIDE

LATAM EMEA APAC NOAM

n = '10' 80% 90% 90% 100%

Email Vendor Features & Functions Guide | Designed by Email Monks

Network, collaborate, and

NEW MEMBERS SAVE $100!*

Appliance Licensed Software White-Label SaaS

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Adestra Message Focus

Cheetah Digital Marketing Suite

Epsilon Agility Harmony

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Maropost Marketing Cloud

Zeta Global ZetaHub

Free Trial Flat Rate Tiered Rates Term Contract CPM-Based

n = '10' 40% 40% 90% 90% 100%

CPM Tiered Term Term

Adestra Message Focus

Cheetah Digital Marketing Suite

Epsilon Agility Harmony

Inbox Marketer Connect

Maropost Marketing Cloud

Zeta Global ZetaHub

In-house In-house In-house In-house

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Does your email platform deliver

Canada's #1 email marketing platform for 5 consecutive years *

*Red Pill email report

Reporting Metrics Analysis

Tactical Reporting Metrics Competitive Actionable

n = '10' 100% 100% 100% 100%

Systems Systems Tactical Specialized

n = '10' 90% 90% 100% 100%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

Deployment Assembly Reporting Automated

n = '10' 80% 80% 90% 90%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Other Copy/Copywriting/Editing Graphic/Design

n = '10' 40% 70% 80%