E-mail marketing firm GotMarketing nabbed a sizable chunk of cash from new and existing investors, contributing not only to its coffers but to the increasing attention being given to self-service online advertising plays.
The Campbell, Calif.-based company, which sells an ASP allowing small-business sites and portals to offer e-mail marketing tools to users, raked in $6 million in a round of financing led by Mosaic Venture Partners.
Current investors Celtic House and GotMarketing Chairman Michael Potter also contributed to the financing. The firm did not disclose the investors’ individual contributions.
The financing comes after GotMarketing’s recent success in signing units of Yahoo! and Oracle
to its Campaigner service, which enables small businesses to use a credit card to purchase e-mail marketing campaigns. Through the arrangement, both Yahoo! Small Business and Oracle Small Business intend to promote the service to their users.
“In these tough economic times, e-mail marketing is in high demand because it is an effective, affordable and measurable way to acquire, retain and service customers,” said GotMarketing Chief Executive Lynda Partner. “This financing enables us to build on our success in signing partnerships, and accelerates our ability to meet the needs of customers who depend on Campaigner for their e-mail marketing activities.”
The news also continues a string of successes for providers of self-service online marketing tools.
In addition to GotMarketing’s recent wins, do-it-yourself rich media banner firm Amazing Media this week signed B2B marketplace Verticalnet to its roster. As a result, Verticalnet can offer its small business clients tools to buy, design, and traffic Macromedia Flash-based ads across its network.
In recent months, Amazing Media also signed agreements with Weather.com, eBay and the Excite Network/iWon.com.
Even established online plays have lately delved into the do-it-yourself marketing space. Search engine Google, for instance, has been steadily rolling out enhancements to its AdWords program in competition with firms like Overture and LookSmart
, all of which allow marketers to purchase keyword-based ads.
Do-it-yourself services like these appeal to small business users, who typically lack the resources to fund a full-scale marketing campaign. Similarly, sites that offer such programs benefit by being able to woo new advertisers, without having to allocate sales staff — which can remain focused on bigger-budget advertisers.
