National Retailer to Use Advanced Email Technology to Reach Baby Boomers, Seniors

Business Wire, April 27, 2009

FootSmart to Deliver Personalized Product, Health News to Seniors via Email

INDIANAPOLIS -- FootSmart, the nation’s largest direct retailer of foot and lower body healthcare products, announced today it has chosen one-to-one marketing solutions provider ExactTarget to power its personalized email marketing campaign aimed at America’s baby boomers.

The direct retailer of products ranging from shoes and socks to back braces will use ExactTarget’s dynamic content and email segmentation tools coupled with their customer browsing and purchase history to build personalized offers for its growing list of more than 1 million email subscribers.

“FootSmart is more than a direct retailer; we are a trusted source of information for Baby Boomers and active seniors who are facing foot and lower body pain. By leveraging the power of ExactTarget’s integrations and dynamic content features, we’ll be better able to serve our customers by delivering personalized emails that feature products and information specifically targeted to a their unique needs and interests,” said Kim Gnatt, vice president of FootSmart.

Through ExactTarget’s integration with FootSmart.com’s customer database and Web analytics provider Coremetrics, the company will develop a profile of each customer based on their online browsing and purchase history coupled with their offline purchases from FootSmart’s catalog mailings. FootSmart will use the combined customer profile to automatically control which offers and news to include in emails it sends to subscribers.

“We have dabbled with building targeted emails in the past that focused specifically on a customer’s habits and preferences, but the process was entirely manual and required a significant investment of time,” Gnatt said. “ExactTarget will allow us to automate that entire process and deliver a better quality offering to the more than 1 million customers that receive our emails.”

The move by FootSmart to integrate online and offline data to power its online customer communications is a first for the Atlanta-headquartered company that mails more than 55 million catalogs every year.

“There is truly no better model to follow in email marketing than to build a message entirely around a customer’s needs and interests,” said Tim Kopp, ExactTarget’s chief marketing officer. “We are very proud of our new relationship with FootSmart and know that their work to improve the relevancy of their messages will pay dividends well into the future.”

FootSmart joins the growing list of more than 7,000 organizations using ExactTarget around the globe. In 2008 alone, ExactTarget powered more than 13.5 billion permission-based emails through its on-demand platform that also allows marketers to communicate with customers via voice messaging and SMS text messaging.

About FootSmart.com

FootSmart is the largest direct retailer of foot and lower body healthcare products in the United States. Through its Website and mail-order catalog, FootSmart sells more than 2,500 comfort, health and pain-relieving products designed to effectively improve its clients quality of life. A division of Benchmark Brands, Inc., FootSmart has been working to soothe or solve lower body health related problems and discomforts since first opening its doors in 1989. For more information, visit www.FootSmart.com.

About ExactTarget

ExactTarget, Inc. is a leading provider of on-demand email marketing software solutions. The company’s suite of on-demand one-to-one marketing applications enable clients to send business-critical and event triggered communications to increase sales, optimize marketing investments and strengthen customer relationships. ExactTarget offers four editions of its on-demand software application along with integrated solutions such as ExactTarget for Salesforce.com AppExchange, ExactTarget for Microsoft Dynamics CRM and ExactTarget for Omniture Genesis. ExactTarget offers a range of optimization services including support, implementation and training, integration, deliverability, account management, design and deployment and strategic consulting. ExactTarget’s software powers permission-based email communications for thousands of organizations including CareerBuilder.com, Expedia.com, Florida Power & Light, Gannett Co., Inc/USA TODAY, the Indianapolis Colts, The Home Depot, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Liberty Mutual Group, Papa John’s and Wellpoint, Inc. For more information, please visit www.exacttarget.com or call 1-866-EMAILET.