This article was guest written by Joel Book
One of the most valuable assets a company has is its database of email subscribers.
Just ask highly successful large companies like Papa John’s, Scotts, and Hitachi Data Systems as well as hundreds of small and mid-sized companies like CardsDirect, Aptera Software, and Powell’s Books. Each of these companies has the ability to deliver relevant and timely information and offers to their email subscribers, when they need to do so. By, “owning their own communications channel,” these companies are not dependent on traditional print or broadcast media to attract customers or drive repeat sales. They have the advantage of choosing when, how and with whom they communicate. Continue reading
MailChimp is a funny email marketing company. They have gone out of their way to make the language and the feel of their site relaxed, yet their documentation and features are thorough. There is something reassuring to me to see a company that has a rich offering, doesn’t take themselves too seriously, and has far less hand waving than most other email marketing services. They offer a 
My fifth and final review in the Email Service Provider Round-up was ExactTarget. ExactTarget was named a “Market Leader” by the Jupiter report for Top ESP 4th quarter 2007 and they hold mind share within the Email Service Provider industry. 
As part of our 
Lyris HQ is an online Marketing Resource Management (MRM) tool, but this review will focus primarily on their Email Service offering (Email Labs) that is bundled in Lyris HQ. Email Labs is a robust solution that combines all of the Email Marketing features you would want in a modern email Marketing solution such as personalizations, dynamic list segmentation, triggered events and more. 
Criteria for evaluating the ESPs.