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Tuesday, September 7, 2010
The Pitch
Offerpop social marketing software capitalizes on Facebook, Twitter
By Lynette F. Cornell
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Offerpop Corp.
Headquarters: Franklin and New York City
Phone: 781-801-0279
Email: allen@offerpop.com
URL: www.offerpop.com
Founded: 2009
Employees: 4
The Pitch: Business partnerships
In the company’s own words:
“Offerpop is an innovative social marketing software company, which provides high-value, super easy-to-use apps for recruiting, engaging and converting customers on Twitter and Facebook. We offer a complete web-based social marketing platform delivered as a monthly or annual subscription service, starting at $75 a month with an annual plan. Customers can use the platform every day to create, manage and track their campaigns and deliver fun, effective promotions like giveaways, contests, private sales and social coupons such as Kobo’s recent ‘tweet about your favorite book’ contest.”
The people behind the company:
Wendell Lansford, co-founder and CEO, previously served as senior vice president at registry software company Systinet, which was acquired by Mercury Interactive. He also founded Sitebridge Corp., a developer of real-time customer service software, with Offerpop co-founders Mark Cooper and Prakash Mishra. The company was acquired by eGain. Mishra oversees products, and Cooper is responsible for partnerships. Co-founder Allen Bonde, Offerpop’s chief marketing officer, previously held the same role at CRM company eVergance, which was acquired by KANA.
The technology:
Offerpop’s software allows marketing directors to launch different marketing campaigns on Twitter and Facebook and measure and analyze the success of each one. Wendell and Prakash and a team of developers built the platform starting in the fall of 2009 and rolled out the first Twitter apps via a private beta program starting at the beginning of 2010, which has since become public. The Facebook apps are launching in private beta this week. The software supports delivery of offers on multiple channels, including clickable links, landing pages and coupons that can be for single or multiple uses, printed or displayed on mobile devices.
The competition:
Bonde identifies the marketing platform businesses Wildfire Apps, Buddy Media and Involver as their primary competitors. He said Offerpop is looking to differentiate itself by being a tool that marketers will use every day for marketing campaigns rather than just for one-time promotions.
The market:
The company is looking to tap into the email marketing industry, which Bonde estimates is worth $1.4 billion. The company currently has 15 paying customers and hundreds of free trial users, according to Bonde. Offerpop is targeting retailers, brands and service providers, especially those with a strong online business who do multi-channel marketing. It is mostly selling to B2C companies, although it has a couple B2B clients as well.
The pitch:
Offerpop is seeking agency partners, email marketing platform partners and e-commerce platform partners. Bonde said Offerpop sees agencies as a primary way to market itself since the agencies run the social programs for many of the largest retailers and brands and this gives the company scalability. Because many of their users are already promoting their Offerpop campaigns through email, Bonde said Offerpop is also looking to partner with companies with email marketing platforms to make it a comprehensive tool for marketers.
"The Pitch" takes a look at a company, its executives and its technology-related business plan. To nominate your company for The Pitch section of Mass High Tech, please fill out the submission form.
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