Digital River Announces Integrated E-Marketing Service Targeted at Building Profitable Client Relationships
Integrates BlueHornet e-mail marketing and Fireclick Web analytics
MINNEAPOLIS, February 15, 2005-- Digital River, Inc. (NASDAQ: DRIV), a global leader in e-commerce outsourcing, today announced that it has completed the first phase of technology integration between BlueHornet Networks, Inc. and Fireclick, Inc., two of its wholly owned subsidiaries. Digital River expects that the deeper integration between its e-mail delivery and Web analytics platforms will deliver improved targeting and higher conversion rates for its clients' e-mail marketing campaigns. The integrated solution reflects Digital River's ongoing commitment to helping its clients acquire, retain and grow profitable online customer relationships.
By integrating BlueHornet and Fireclick technologies, we can offer our client bases an even more robust and sophisticated combination of marketing services for fueling targeted e-mail campaigns, said Joel Ronning, Digital River's CEO. The real power in this solution lies in the deep integration of not only leading technologies, but also best practices and e-marketing expertise. Rather than using e-mail campaigns merely as a sales tool, we intend to use them as part of a larger strategy to improve the customer experience. Together, we can help our clients build long-term, loyal customer relationships by sending customized e-mails that are aligned with end user preferences.
According to JupiterResearch, e-mail will remain the primary interactive advertising/marketing medium to communicate with registered customers. In a recent report Marketing and Branding Forecast: Online Advertising and E-mail Marketing Through 2008 , JupiterResearch forecasts spending on e-mail marketing will increase at a rate of 24 percent compounded annually through 2008, reaching $6.1 billion.
This integration is distinctly different from other e-mail and analytic vendor partnerships because it goes well beyond a relationship, explained Ronning. Our integration also is built on a shared product development roadmap, strategy and team. Together we intend to deliver on a single technology vision, single user interface and common data store.
As a result of Digital River's integration efforts, end user responses to e-mail campaigns now can be synchronized between the BlueHornet e-mail marketing and Fireclick Web analytics systems. Shared campaign analytics then can be used to automatically customize follow up e-mails. The end goal is to improve the e-mail response rates by sending customers targeted promotions that reflect their preferences and buying patterns.
House of Blues is excited about the opportunity to use customer Web site behavior data to directly improve our online marketing ROI, said Nick Wild, House of Blues' vice president of information systems and technology. The BlueHornet and Fireclick integration makes it easy to capture lost opportunities by automatically deploying personalized offer e-mails.
In addition to being delivered as a tightly integrated component of Digital River's e-commerce system, the new e-marketing service also will be sold on a stand-alone basis. The open platform will allow BlueHornet and Fireclick to independently integrate with other Web analytics and e-mail partners to address the business requirements of their respective e-marketing and analytics markets. Moving forward, Digital River intends to build upon its phase one integration efforts to provide clients with more utilities, increased synchronization of customer data and user interfaces, and improved ROI reporting.
About BlueHornet
BlueHornet Networks, a wholly owned subsidiary of Digital River, Inc., is a leading provider of permission based e-mail marketing solutions. BlueHornet conducts e-mail campaigns for hundreds of direct clients, including Sprint, MBNA, Brinker International, 3M, World Wildlife Fund, GUESS?, House of Blues Entertainment, Inc., Kyocera Wireless and Red Lobster. In addition, BlueHornet supports over 100 resellers, many using private label versions of its e-mail marketing solution. For more information, visit www.bluehornet.com.
About Fireclick, Inc.
Fireclick, a wholly owned subsidiary of Digital River, Inc., provides a comprehensive Web analytics solution that offers online businesses real-time, actionable information about their customers. The sophisticated data delivered by the application service can be used to improve operating results, create a better user experience, and increase site traffic, revenues and profits. For more information, visit www.fireclick.com.
About Digital River, Inc.
Digital River, Inc., a global leader in e-commerce outsourcing, builds and manages online businesses for more than 40,000 software publishers, manufacturers, distributors and online retailers. Its multi-channel e-commerce solution, which supports both direct and indirect sales, is designed to help companies of all sizes maximize online revenues as well as reduce the costs and risks of running an e-commerce operation. The company's comprehensive platform offers site development and hosting, order management, fraud prevention, site merchandising, advanced reporting and analytics, product fulfillment, e-marketing and multi-lingual customer service.
Founded in 1994, Digital River is headquartered in Minneapolis with offices in major U.S. and European cities. For more details about Digital River, visit the corporate Web site at www.digitalriver.com or call 952-253-1234.
Digital River is a registered trademark of Digital River, Inc. BlueHornet is a trademark of BlueHornet Networks, Inc. Fireclick is a registered trademark of Fireclick, Inc. All other company and product names are trademarks, registrations or copyrights of their respective owners.
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