Annuncio Enables Companies to Apply the Five Keys to E-mail Marketing Success Identified in IMT Strategies Report.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 22, 2001

Marketers Stay Ahead of the E-mail "Learning Curve" With the

Annuncio Marketing Platform

Annuncio Software today announced its marketing automation solutions are helping customers apply best practices in e-mail marketing, moving them ahead of the e-mail "learning curve." According to a research study just released by IMT Strategies, Inc. titled "Enterprise Permission Marketing: Best Practices for Managing Targeted E-Mail Programs Across the Organization," most Global 2000 companies are not delivering e-mail programs sophisticated enough to meet the needs of the rapidly evolving online customer. Annuncio, one of the sponsors of the study, is giving companies the tools they need to stay ahead of the curve by delivering world-class marketing programs to their customers.

"Our findings indicate that as the online customer becomes more sophisticated, companies that fail to meet their customers' standards for permission e-mail marketing excellence risk destroying the e-mail channel before it has time to mature into a significant part of the sales and marketing mix," said Stephen Diorio, president of IMT Strategies, a leading marketing technology advisory firm. "The sophistication of Annuncio's marketing automation solutions help organizations realize the impact personalized, permission-based marketing can have on their customer relationships."

The IMT Strategies study outlines five keys to long-term success with e-mail marketing:

-- Multi-Channel Marketing Management -- A strategy and process to integrate
e-mail into other offline and online media campaigns

-- CRM Integration -- E-mail programs incorporated into broader CRM initiatives
and processes

-- Managing Context and Personalization -- E-mails with better personalization,
event-triggers and greater attention to relevance

-- Customer Control Over Permission Relationships -- Let customers enable and
control levels of permission and personalization

-- Enterprise E-mail Governance -- Implementation of enterprise-wide permission
e-mail management and policy administration

IMT Strategies states that these long-term imperatives are important to sustain competitive advantage and the viability of the e-mail channel in the future. Annuncio offers organizations a powerful solution for addressing these critical points. The Annuncio Marketing Platform gives marketers the tools to implement effective customer-centric marketing strategies.

Del Webb, the nation's leading developer of active adult communities, is enhancing its customer relationships by managing marketing campaigns across multiple channels. "By integrating our web-based marketing initiatives and email with traditional channels, such as direct mail and advertising, we've been able to drive highly successful marketing programs that directly impact our bottom line," said Robert Brown, project manager, Del Webb E-Business Group. "We've realized that delivering personalized and timely messages through Annuncio's solution can increase response rates by 500% or more, all while costing less to execute and taking significantly less time."

The study also shows that customer tolerance for e-mail that is untargeted, poorly timed or irrelevant diminishes over time, resulting in 77% of online customers deleting unwanted commercial e-mails without reading them. Additionally, permission e-mail campaigns focused on existing customers are ten times more effective than direct mail campaigns.

"Based on IMT's research findings, our customers are clearly far ahead of the curve in their e-mail marketing programs," said Didier Moretti, CEO of Annuncio. "Now more than ever, companies must maximize each and every customer interaction if they want to succeed in this challenging economic market."

About IMT Strategies

IMT Strategies, Inc. is a research and consulting firm that helps marketers use technology to grow their businesses. IMT Strategies produces market leading best practices research and training on customer relationship management, interactive direct marketing, and call center technologies. The company helps the world's leading sales and marketing organizations develop strategies that take advantage of advances in these technologies. Its upcoming book Beyond e: The 12 Ways Technology Is Transforming Sales & Marketing Strategy (McGraw Hill, 2001) provides sales and marketing professionals a blueprint for building a revenue growth engine using technology. IMT Strategies is an Affiliate and strategic partner of the META Group, a leading IT advisory firm. For more information visit www.imtstrategies.com.

About Annuncio Software, Inc.

Annuncio Software provides an industry-leading marketing automation solution that enables companies to get better results for their marketing dollars and develop long-term, profitable customer relationships. The result is higher revenue, lower costs and a better bottom line. The Annuncio Marketing Platform includes modules for dialog marketing, web site marketing and analytics that help companies build customer relationships that are proactive, personalized, ongoing and optimized. The Annuncio Marketing Platform enables marketers to manage interactions and campaigns across multiple marketing touch points -- including e-mail, web and offline. Global 1000 enterprises use the Annuncio Marketing Platform to implement effective customer-centric marketing strategies that increase customer lifetime value. Annuncio also provides professional services for marketing, software implementation and integration. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Annuncio can be reached on the Web at www.annuncio.com or by calling 650/314-6000 or 877/933-6060.

Annuncio Software and Annuncio Marketing Platform are trademarks of Annuncio Software, Inc. Other product or company names used herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.