Hard to pass up that headline... AOL Mail's fourth annual Email Addiction survey has some interesting results including the strange places people check email, including:• In bed in their pajamas: 67% • From the bathroom: 59% (up from 53% last... More

Hard to pass up that headline... AOL Mail's fourth annual Email Addiction survey has some interesting results including the strange places people check email, including:

• In bed in their pajamas: 67%
• From the bathroom: 59% (up from 53% last year)
• While driving: 50% (up from 37% last year)
• In a bar or club: 39%
• In a business meeting: 38%
• During happy hour: 34%
• While on a date: 25%
• From church: 15% (up from 12% last year)

Suffice it to say that we are addicted to email. As a non-recovering addict I too fall victim to these irresistible urges... all the more reason to consider email communications based on time. For example, sending users real-time and/or event based communications based on their activity and interactions with you.

Check out the full survey results.
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Ken Magill from Direct posted a great summary on the "Habeas Fire Sale" today:http://directmag.com/disciplines/email/0812-habeas-fire-sale/A few snippets:"'They were bleeding money' to the tune of millions of dollars a year, said one source who asked not to be identified.""Habeas's investors also apparently... More

Ken Magill from Direct posted a great summary on the "Habeas Fire Sale" today:

http://directmag.com/disciplines/email/0812-habeas-fire-sale/

A few snippets:

"'They were bleeding money' to the tune of millions of dollars a year, said one source who asked not to be identified."

"Habeas's investors also apparently made it a little too clear they wanted out of the deliverability business."

"Those VCs [Habeas's venture capitalist investors] took a bath," said one source."

"Various sources also speculated that Return Path agreed to the deal because Habeas's pricing was so low, it was putting unreasonable downward price pressure on its competitors and the purchase simply takes Habeas out of the picture."

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Suffice it to say, Habeas was a company that was not going anywhere fast and needed an escape pod. It looks like they found one in Return Path.
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Hot off the press - Return Path is further consolidating the deliverability services space by announcing its intent to acquire Habeas. The acquisition should help reduce the confusion in the market surrounding the various deliverability service providers. Matt Blumberg the... More

Hot off the press - Return Path is further consolidating the deliverability services space by announcing its intent to acquire Habeas. The acquisition should help reduce the confusion in the market surrounding the various deliverability service providers.

Matt Blumberg the CEO and Chairman of Return Path published this key info in his blog today:

"For sender clients, we can now offer expanded service levels and access to a broader "footprint" of ISPs and filters who subscribe to our services. The consolidated company will be one step closer to providing a universal set of standards for measuring sender-focused email quality and reputation...The one thing we do know at this point is that we will be maintaining both Sender Score Certified and the Habeas SafeList as separate and distinct whitelist programs indefinitely."

We recently announced a partnership with Return Path offering their Sender Score Certified Program to our clients. Several clients who have been initial users of the program have seen great improvement in overall program performance including increased open and click rates.

Return Path's key competitor and the remaining force in the world of deliverability, Pivotal Veracity, remains a strong partner of ours. Several of our clients routinely take advantage of their inbox monitoring and content optimization tools.

It will be interesting to see how this acquisition drives the further development of both Return Path and Pivotal Veracity.

More to come for sure... Less

Yesterday Forrester announced their acquisition of Jupiter Research. Big news for the email marketing space!! Over the past several years both companies have become the heavyweights of 'email outside expert opinion'. A fact companies have grown to love and fear.... More

Yesterday Forrester announced their acquisition of Jupiter Research.

Big news for the email marketing space!! Over the past several years both companies have become the heavyweights of 'email outside expert opinion'. A fact companies have grown to love and fear.

In one corner, JupiterResearch offers David Daniels an 8+ year industry veteran who has analyzed the email space longer than most people knew of its existence. David has written an annual Buyers Guide on the Email Marketing channel for several years. The report is quite unique in that it has provided information on email vendors across the Enterprise, Mid-Market and Small Market channels. Yesmail has been ranked a leader by David for three consecutive years.

In the other corner, Forrester offers a lineage of great analysts covering the space. The original Forrester analyst Jim Nail provided a solid foundation of great insight and knowledge. Shar VanBoskirk picked up the reigns from Jim and created a buzz in the industry with her direct opinions and ever present appearances on the speaker tour. Following up on Shar, Forrester's newest analyst, Julie Katz has brought a grounded, highly thoughtful approach and intellect to the position. Julie's most recent Wave report listed Yesmail as a market leader - awarding us a perfect score in 15 subcategories.

Suffice it to say it will be quite interesting to see how these organizations and these analysts mesh. Will they both remain focused on email or will we lose an analyst voice? After talking with people within both organizations the word is that it is "business as usual", which I'm sure that it is... for now...

Don't be surprised to see some interesting shifts and changes in the next 30-90 days. Less