ExactTarget

ExactTarget
Salesforce Marketing Cloud · Public domain · source
Name	ExactTarget
Type	Private
Fate	Acquired by Salesforce
Founded	2000
Founders	Jon Miller, Kenny Rudin, Sammy Shreibati
Defunct	2013 (brand absorbed)
Headquarters	Indianapolis, Indiana
Industry	Software, Email marketing
Products	Email marketing, digital marketing, marketing automation

ExactTarget was a marketing automation and digital marketing company founded in 2000 in Indianapolis by Jon Miller, Kenny Rudin, and Sammy Shreibati. The company provided email marketing and digital advertising services to corporations, agencies, and nonprofit organizations, growing through venture funding, an initial public offering, and strategic acquisitions. ExactTarget became notable for its role in the expansion of cloud-based marketing tools before being acquired by Salesforce.com in 2013.

History

ExactTarget was established in 2000 amid the dot-com era alongside contemporaries such as Constant Contact, Mailchimp, and Campaign Monitor. Early growth followed participation in startup ecosystems linked to Indiana University and local accelerators in Indianapolis. The company attracted venture capital from firms including Insight Venture Partners and Battery Ventures and later pursued an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in 2012, joining other software public companies like Adobe Systems and Oracle Corporation. In 2013 ExactTarget agreed to be acquired by Salesforce.com in a deal that involved executives from Marc Benioff's leadership, and the acquisition integrated ExactTarget into what became Salesforce Marketing Cloud. The founders and leadership team intersected with industry figures from HubSpot, Marketo, and Eloqua during expansion and consolidation periods.

Products and Services

ExactTarget offered an array of marketing products and services comparable to offerings from Adobe Marketing Cloud, Oracle Marketing Cloud, and IBM Watson Marketing. Core services included email campaign management, list segmentation, delivery optimization, and transactional messaging used by clients such as enterprises, agencies, and retailers. The company expanded through acquisitions of technology and content providers similar to moves by SAP SE and Microsoft in the marketing space, adding social media integration, mobile messaging, and analytics capabilities to compete with firms like Google's advertising platforms and Facebook's marketing solutions. ExactTarget also provided professional services, training programs, and partner integrations with systems from Salesforce, NetSuite, and Shopify.

Technology and Platform

ExactTarget developed a cloud-based, multi-tenant platform emphasizing deliverability, scalability, and API-driven integration, aligning with infrastructure trends championed by companies such as Amazon Web Services and Rackspace. The platform supported application programming interfaces (APIs), template engines, and tracking technologies similar to those used by SendGrid and SparkPost, and integrated with analytics platforms from Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics. Security and compliance features were informed by standards and regulators including Payment Card Industry, CAN-SPAM Act, and cross-border data considerations involving jurisdictions like European Union privacy frameworks. ExactTarget's technological roadmap intersected with open-source and commercial projects, and development practices mirrored engineering organizations at GitHub and Atlassian-powered teams.

Corporate Affairs and Ownership

ExactTarget's corporate governance evolved through private funding rounds with participation from investors known in the venture ecosystem alongside firms such as Sequoia Capital and Benchmark (analogues), culminating in a public listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 2012. Leadership engaged with boards and partnerships involving executives who had previously worked at Yahoo!, Microsoft, and AOL. The 2013 acquisition by Salesforce.com reunited the company with a broader corporate strategy emphasizing cloud software consolidation seen in transactions by Oracle Corporation and IBM. Post-acquisition, operations and brand integration were coordinated with divisions such as Salesforce Marketing Cloud and cross-functional teams supporting customers across regions including North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.

Market Position and Impact

ExactTarget played a significant role in shaping the email marketing and marketing automation markets, influencing product expectations similar to impacts from Mailchimp, HubSpot, Marketo, and Eloqua. Its technologies affected marketing practices at major corporations, agencies, and political campaigns that relied on direct digital communications and analytics, paralleling usage patterns seen in campaigns involving Barack Obama's digital teams or corporate digital transformations at Walmart and Target Corporation. The acquisition by Salesforce.com contributed to consolidation in the cloud marketing sector alongside mergers such as Adobe's purchase of Omniture and Oracle's acquisition of Eloqua, affecting competitive dynamics, partner ecosystems, and enterprise procurement of customer engagement platforms.

Category:Marketing companies Category:Software companies Category:Companies based in Indianapolis