A Growing Realization: Marketing should test eCommerce website effectiveness, not IT

Last week was a busy one at Monetate!

We released a new white paper and sponsored a webinar that drew over 100 people. Also, Monetate was featured in a Philadelphia Business Journal article and the writer, Peter Key, did a great job on the story. It’s such a relief when a smart journalist “gets” what it is that your company does (something that does not always happen when your product is intended to be a game-changer).

So I wanted to share a couple of highlights from that story in this post, the first highlight being the headline and opening sentence:

“Software developer Monetate sees growth on the horizon: Nearly two years after its technology’s public launch, eCommerce software developer Monetate Inc. is planning to start growing seriously.”

This captures an interesting mix of intent and circumstance. Let’s face it, Monetate was launched into the teeth of a recession. I don’t think anyone was surprised that the company did not grow rapidly at the outset. Indeed, the fact that the company grew at all during “the worst recession in more than half a century” speaks volumes about the power of Monetate’s value proposition.

Now that the economy is showing signs of recovery–albeit slim in some sectors and regions–it makes sense to grow the company, even as growing demand is demanding growth. So yes, our newly redesigned web site has a new section for job listings and we are hiring.

The second highlight in the article was the quoting of two people who know a lot about the solution that Monetate delivers and the market in which Monetate competes: David Kaplan, the vice president of marketing at Tafford Uniforms, a Monetate customer; and Joe Stanhope, a senior analyst at Forrester Research.

You can read what Tafford thinks of Monetate on our web site so I thought I would focus on Forrester’s views. Peter Key writes:

Joe Stanhope, a senior analyst with Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc., considers Monetate to be one of a new generation of vendors of software that enables marketing people, instead of information-technology people, to test the effectiveness of eCommerce websites.

Joe goes on to say: “Many testing site optimization technologies had been more complicated to use…[the simplicity of Monetate’s software means]…actual marketing users are coming around to the idea that they can really use the technology.” To me, that’s the real highlight of this article: an experienced industry analyst giving props to a product that is changing the game.

Of course, some marketing users have already come around. These are the Monetate “early adopters” who have been reaping the eCommerce benefits of testing and targeting content with Monetate for several years. In fact, the 2010 Holiday Sales Season will be the third Monetate season for some online retailers. As we continue to add new clients, existing Monetate clients continue to renew their contracts and expand their use of our solution. Did I mention we’re hiring?

Here’s a link to the Monetate story at the Business Journal (registration may be required).