Email is hard. If you find that designing email marketing campaigns, building your email lists and ensuring that your messages land in the inbox is a tricky process, imagine what it's like to make this happen for thousands of customers every day! In this talk, Ros Hodgekiss discussed both the trials and tribulations that come with running an email marketing company, as well as lessons learnt. From a humble start in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia, to taking on the big players of Silicon Valley, find out what 10 years of "overnight success" has been like, plus what our plans are for staying relevant to designers and marketers for the next 10 to come.

1. Campaign Monitor:
10 Years of Overnight Success

2. Ros Hodgekiss
Community Manager, Campaign Monitor
ros@campaignmonitor.com
@yarrcat

3. #futureofemail

4. What is Campaign Monitor?

5. Email markeGng for business

6. Campaign Monitor
Email marke*ng for business
2 10 120,000
Offices (Sydney & SF) Years young Amazing paying customers

7. Loved by over 2 million people at 120,000 companies around the world

8. BuzzFeed is focused on telling stories that
people want to share. Email is one of the top
referrers to the website, and that’s growing.
BuzzFeed has developed 15 newsleAers that
curate content based on certain ver*cals, and
send the best of BuzzFeed right to your inbox.
“Campaign Monitor allows us to get new hires
up to speed and sending emails on Day 1”

9. SAM Music is a music management agency, with
a branch that focuses on digital. Their client lists
include the Beas*e Boys, Nine Inch Nails, Band
of Horses, and the Foo Fighters.
“I manage digital for dozens of bands, and I can create
emails quickly without ever jeopardizing their brand”

10. How did we get here?

11. Dave Greiner &
Ben Richardson
Founders, Campaign Monitor

12. A brief product history
1999 -­‐ 2004
• Dave and Ben create a service to help designers send
email marke*ng campaigns
• Campaign Monitor is launched
2005 -­‐ 2008
• MailBuild is launched, allowing designers and agencies to
sell email marke*ng services to their customers
• Reseller pricing is launched, allowing designers and
agencies to sell at a markup on base rates
• Campaign Monitor and MailBuild are merged into a single
product
2009 -­‐ 2011
• $1 million in markup is paid to designers and agencies
• Our email template editor is launched
• We release 30+ free email templates
• Autoresponders (workflows) are added to the app
• Monthly pricing plans are launched
• Our template builder and language is launched, allowing
designers to create reusable email templates with no
coding required
• $5 million paid in profit to designers and agencies
2012 -­‐ 2014
• RSS-­‐to-­‐email is launched
• Dynamic content is launched
• Canvas (email builder) is launched
• Campaign Monitor raise $250 million from Insight Venture
Partners
2015
• Automa*on and workflows are launched
• Sydney and San Francisco offices are opened

13. A brief product history
1999 -­‐ 2004
• Dave and Ben create a service to help designers send
email marke*ng campaigns
• Campaign Monitor is launched
2005 -­‐ 2008
• MailBuild is launched, allowing designers and agencies to
sell email marke*ng services to their customers
• Reseller pricing is launched, allowing designers and
agencies to sell at a markup on base rates
• Campaign Monitor and MailBuild are merged into a single
product
2009 -­‐ 2011
• $1 million in markup is paid to designers and agencies
• Our email template editor is launched
• We release 30+ free email templates
• Autoresponders (workflows) are added to the app
• Monthly pricing plans are launched
• Our template builder and language is launched, allowing
designers to create reusable email templates with no
coding required
• $5 million paid in profit to designers and agencies
2012 -­‐ 2014
• RSS-­‐to-­‐email is launched
• Dynamic content is launched
• Canvas (email builder) is launched
• Campaign Monitor raise $250 million from Insight Venture
Partners
2015
• Automa*on and workflows are launched
• Sydney and San Francisco offices are opened
Don't worry, we'll talk
this through!

14. 1999 -­‐ 2004
Creating an email marketing service for designers, by designers

15. CreaGng an email markeGng service for designers, by designers
Getting started
• Dave and Ben launched a web design
business in 1999
• Moved from a home office, to an local
incubator, SSHED
Solving real problems
• Email marketing is hard. No tools, had to roll
your own
• Launched Campaign Monitor in 2004 to make
it easy for designers and clients to create and
send campaigns

16. 2005 -­‐ 2008
Two products, one goal

17. Two products, one goal
MailBuild (2006)
• Built so customers can create campaigns
based on templates and manage their
subscriber lists
• Possible to separate sub-accounts for clients
• Now, designers can sell email marketing
Reseller pricing (2007)
• Add markup to base rates, make a profit
Two become one (2008)
• Campaign Monitor and MailBuild merge to
become an easy-to-use service for both
designers and their clients
• Totally white-label
• 15,000 customers

18. 2009 -­‐ 2011
Email, no longer for hackers

19. Email, no longer for hackers
From templates, to a template builder
• Our email template editor is launched (2009)
• We release 30+ free templates
• Template builder is launched; no coding
required (2011)
Reseller pricing
• Profits paid to designers and resellers rise
from $1m to $5m ('09-'11)
Shifting with the times
• Monthly plans are introduced; targeted
campaigns are more affordable (2010)
• We introduce email automation / workflows
(2010, called "autoresponders")
• 50,000 customers (2011)

20. Office expansion
Sutherland

21. 2012 -­‐ 2014
Email marketing, no code required

22. Email markeGng, no code required
Smarter email sending
• RSS-to-email is launched, Feedburner takes
a dive (2012)
• Dynamic content is launched (2013)
• The email builder launch marks a new
direction: drag-and-drop email creation (2014)
• First overseas company offsites…

23. 2012
Queenstown, New Zealand

24. 2013
Nadi, Fiji

25. 2014
Waikiki, Hawaii

26. And yes, funding.
$250 million from Insight Venture Partners,
now all grown up
• Company expansion from 65 employees
• 100,000 customers
• 80% of customers in North America & EU,
but majority of staff in Australia
• Provide a better experience for customers,
drive innovation
• Acquire GetFeedback - awesome surveys

27. 2015
Advanced email marketing for businesses

28. Advanced email markeGng for businesses
Major expansion
• New Sydney and San Francisco offices are
opened
• Introduce Sales and Customer Success; we
have 100+ employees
Even better tools
• Automation and workflows get an overhaul
• Dynamic content in the email builder
• Transactional (tba)
• Advanced marketing functionality now within
reach of everyday email marketers

29. Advanced email markeGng for businesses

30. What have we learned?

31. What have we learned?
Product
• Solve your own problems, build great things
for people like you
• Religiously get feedback
• Technology stack is irrelevant
Design
• Invest in good design and great people
• It's easier to increment on a quality product,
than periodically re-do everything
Marketing
• Aim to educate. This is the key to timeless,
valuable content marketing
Pricing
• Make it easy to get started, but don't feel that
you have to be the cheapest
James Jirat Patradoon

32. What happens in
10 years?
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things,
not because they are easy, but because they
are hard, because that goal will serve to organise and measure
the best of our energies and skills

33. Your questions?
campaignmonitor.com
@campaignmonitor

34. Thank You