GoDaddy Acquires Email Marketing Company Mad Mimi

Small business technology provider GoDaddy has acquired Mad Mimi, an email marketing vendor, in an effort to extend its solution platform with more far-reaching marketing capabilities. With less than one-third of small businesses relying on email marketing to reach their customers, the technology is largely underutilized in the SMB space. Once the acquisition is finalized, however, says GoDaddy Senior Vice President of Business Applications Steven Aldrich, the company plans to leverage Mad Mimi's technology to develop a "next-generation platform" aimed at helping small business buck that trend.

"Email marketing is the best way for small business to reconnect with existing customers, and bring in new customers as well. It's a shame that more small businesses don't use email marketing, and we're hoping that with the new functionality that Mad Mimi's platform will add to our suite of products, more small businesses will see how critical it is," Aldrich says.

Built with the specific needs of small businesses in mind, Mad Mimi's solution is designed to handle small-scale operations with the ease that SMBs require. "Out of the companies we [tested], Mad Mimi had the highest Net Promoter Score. Small businesses recommend Mad Mimi to other businesses, which was very important. And, like GoDaddy, they're very focused on great customer care," Aldrich adds.

On its own, Mad Mimi's email marketing tool allows users to create, send, share and track customized email newsletters. When paired with GoDaddy's technology, the combination allows customers to also collect customer information, update content on their Web sites, improve customer engagement, and strengthen search engine optimization.

As Mad Mimi's platform becomes integrated into GoDaddy's set of tools, the goal is to create a smooth process that enables each business application to glean intelligence from other applications that customers use, resulting in a high level of effectiveness that small business users may not have experienced in the past, according to Gary Levitt, founder and CEO of Mad Mimi.

"When you look at other platforms that have multiple products, there's a bit of a duct-taped feel. We don't want that. We want the integration to reach a whole new level of quality, not only in terms of functionality, but also in terms of design. Each application is going to be more predictive and intelligent," Levitt says.

Though  the integration isn't expected to be fully completed until 2015, some integrations will take place more quickly. Customers that use GoDaddy to build their online stores, for example, will have their product catalogs available in the Mad Mimi email marketing module immediately. "If they want to use the marketing capability, they can just pull up all their information right away. They don't have to go and grab pricing information or other details from GoDaddy," Levitt says. Additionally, Mad Mimi will allow GoDaddy's Website Builder customers to incorporate sign-up forms onto their sites so they can start collecting email information for marketing purposes.

Although GoDaddy already offers an email marketing tool, Aldrich says he isn't worried about any potential overlap throughout the integration process. The old technology will eventually be phased out, he says, and Mad Mimi's technology will be the "platform of choice."

---

Related Articles

Lyris Rolls Out Content Personalization Tool for Publishers and Media Companies

The solution will deliver customized editorial content to subscribers' email inboxes.

Industry-Specific CRM Solutions Remain the Go-to Choice for Some Businesses

Two vertically focused providers supply companies with improved CRM tools.

ReachLocal Updates ReachEdge to Help SMBs Capitalize on Leads

The online marketing solution provider strengthens its software to boost small business growth.

The Unified Future of Small Business CRM

CRM is only as effective as its users and the information they create.