Personalization & Dynamic Email Content Are Going Mainstream

CM Group is a marketing unicorn in the making. They had already combined Campaign Monitor, Delivra and Emma — three email-marketing platforms covering different markets. Today they added 2 more companies - Sailthru and LiveClicker.

I don’t know Sailthru very well, and like most companies, reading the website tends to make you think they do Everything In The World. “Sailthru is the most innovative platform for email, web, and mobile.” OK, I believe you.

LiveClicker — or as they prefer, LiVECLiCKER — I do know. They started with a video-in-email service (back @2008)…pivoted away from that and have become a clear leader in personalized, dynamic email content.

We didn’t know LiveClicker existed when we laid the foundations & features of Campaign-Genius. Maybe that’s crap market research on our part, or maybe it’s luck. I think we aimed at a more self-serve, marketer-and-designer target. (That’s not an opinion based on in-depth comparison - just the aforementioned ‘reading the website’.) I’d hazard a guess that being later to this game than LiveClicker was to our benefit technologically - Campaign-Genius is 100% cloud from its little cotton socks on up, and some of the key services that power it didn’t exist even 2 years ago.

My main point, though, is that somebody at CM Group thinks this personalization stuff is valuable enough to make an acquisition. The press release mentions “adding $60M in revenue.” I’d guesstimate that means an acquisition price tag between $480 - $600M, but even if that’s off by tens of millions either way…somebody somewhere thinks this personalization stuff matters.

If CM Group takes LiveClicker’s tech and selectively sprinkles it on their 4 email marketing platforms…it’s gonna get interesting for everyone else. 10 years ago everybody went racing for the drag-and-drop HTML editor prize. Is dynamic content the next “gotta have it” ticket to get in the email door?

Obviously, we think dynamic content can change the email marketing equation. Putting self-interest aside…it’s just common sense. Better personalization, more relevant content, more engagement across the inbox lifecycle. Consumers don’t have to change a single thing - their email clients are already dynamic-content capable. Marketers are gonna go there — how can they not?

Email & marketing-platform companies…we’re open for business, let’s talk :-)