You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.  ~John Wooden

I love that quote.  Philanthropy is so important−and I am continually impressed and inspired by leaders who have built the mindset of corporate philanthropy directly into their culture.  Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, has authored a couple books on the subject.  His book titled “The Business of Changing the World” is a great read and describes how Salesforce.com donates 1% of employee’s time, 1% of company equity, and 1% of sales via no-cost product for non-profits. 

At ExactTarget, we also strive to make a difference in our local community and communities around the world.  One of the ways we give back is through providing substantial discounts on our software and services to qualifying non-profit organizations.  In addition, we have a steering committee of dedicated and compassionate individuals who lead our local community and philanthropic efforts.  Around here, they’re commonly known as ExactImpact (Involving Members Passionate About Community Ties).

I had the pleasure of announcing the efforts of our ExactImpact group in 2006. This year, the summary list of accomplishments has grown substantially. Here are some of our 2007 highlights:

• January
-- Employees challenged each other to raise money for the Riley Change Angels event.

• February
-- 430 pounds of food were collected and donated to Gleaners Food Bank.

• March
-- 30 pints of blood were donated during an ExactTarget blood drive. (That’s enough blood to save 90 lives!)

• April
-- The “ExactBark-It” team raised money for Indianapolis animals in need during the Humane Society Mutt-Strut.

• July
-- An additional 30 pints of blood were donated by ExactTarget employees.
-- Approximately two boxes of school supplies per floor were collected for the Backpack Attack.

• August
-- Employees raised money to benefit the Gleaners Food Bank.

• October
-- Employees participated in the Light the Night Walk for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

• December
-- Five families (19 people, including 13 children) were sponsored by ExactTarget employees through the Christamore House. Gifts were purchased by ExactTarget employees, and a company raffle was held to raise additional money for the families.
-- A Wal-Mart gift card was also given to a local family devastated by a house fire.

Thank you to the many ExactTarget employees who have made a difference─both through personal contributions and countless hours of time.  We look forward to making an even bigger impact in 2008.

If you have suggestions on how ExactTarget can make a difference, please send an email to exactimpact@exacttarget.com.

Greetings – happy belated new year! Over the last couple months, my blogging activity has hit an all-time low. With good reason – on December 14, 2007, we filed our S1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed initial public offering of our common stock. The following press release was issued:

http://email.exacttarget.com/ETWeb/pressReleases.aspx?id=2616

Although I can’t comment further on our proposed initial public offering because of the SEC’s quiet period rules, I hope to be more active with my blog in 2008.  I expect the upcoming year to be very exciting for online marketers looking to leverage email and emerging one-to-one technologies to deliver relationships and drive business results.

Thanks for reading and here’s to a successful new year!

We’re pretty passionate about email marketing at ExactTarget. We strive to hire the best and brightest employees, we pride ourselves on our outstanding customer service, and we share our industry knowledge with enthusiasm and vigor.

Recently, we learned just how closely our customers’ excitement mirrors our own when Mark Rice of Webinar Resources sent us this song.

Yes, he penned and recorded an email marketing song titled “Rock and Roll Results Delivered.” It quickly rose to the top of the ExactTarget charts—our employees couldn’t get enough.

We can talk forever about email marketing, customer service, and the groundbreaking innovations in our Fall Release. But what really hits home is when our customers (literally) sing our praises.

Thanks, Mark. And thanks to all of you who feel as passionately as we do about ExactTarget. As Mark so harmoniously crooned, “It doesn’t get much better than this.”

That’s music to our ears.

Many Thanks!

Greetings – heading into Thanksgiving weekend, I want to extend my personal thanks to all of our clients and partners. At ExactTarget, we are very fortunate to have a fast-growing business, terrific customers and dedicated partners. 
 
Without question, the most satisfying aspect of our business is helping our clients achieve their marketing and business goals.  Our teams of passionate and hard working employees understand that everything starts with helping customers achieve success.  In fact, many of our people will be working throughout the weekend to assist our retail clients with their Thanksgiving weekend email programs.  Hopefully, these targeted and personalized email communications will drive record-breaking store traffic and online sales!

Thanks again for the opportunity to serve you and your business – and have a great holiday weekend!

Scott Dorsey

CEO, ExactTarget

Most people have a favorite time of the year – for some, it’s the first few crisp days of fall. After ExactTarget’s annual user conference (held here in Indianapolis Oct. 1-3), I am tempted to say my favorite time of the year might be Connections ‘07! Over 500 clients flocking to Indianapolis for three action-packed days of expert panels, client success stories, hands-on product training, and keynote speakers including Martha Rogers, Chip Heath, Shar VanBoskirk, Craig Spiezle, Jeanniey Mullen, and David Daniels – to name just a few.

I went into Connections ’07 with three major goals:

Thank:

With over 6,000 organizations who use our product, Connections ’07 was largely a display of our gratitude for our clients’ business, innovation, and willingness to challenge us every day. (We only wish we could thank everyone “Hershey Style!”)

Inform:

Connections ’07 featured over twenty break-out sessions on hot topics from list growth and email design to testing and international sending. Most importantly, each session emphasized the need to deliver Results and Relationships.

Inspire:

One-to-one marketing is expanding into exciting new mediums like SMS and Voice. Through our new Integrated One-to-One Platform (available with our Fall 2007 Release), clients will be able to manage their digital communication channels from a single platform.


Be on the lookout for exciting updates about our Fall 2007 Release – with relational data, SMS, and Voice, and a ton of UI enhancements on the horizon, these are exciting times at ExactTarget.

For our clients and partners who attended Connections ’07, it was great to see you. For those of you that missed the conference this year, I hope to see you at Connections ’08!

(And don’t forget to check out Judson Laipply’s Awards Dinner performance of The Evolution of Dance!)