New Opt-In E-mail Company Races to the Front of the Pack; From Zero Members April 1 to Two Million Members June 30, With 250,000 Added Each Week.

Business Editors/Technology Writers

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NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 13, 2000

SmartReminders.com (www.smartreminders.com), a permission-based e-mail network, announced that their two million-plus registrants has cemented its position as the fastest growing permission-based e-mail marketing and message service on the Internet.

SmartReminders' membership jumped from zero users on April 1, its launch date, to one million users at the end of eight weeks; another one million arrived in June. With its membership pool swelling by 250,000 entrants each week, less than one percent of its users decide to cancel its service, or "opt-out." As a result, SmartReminders catapulted into the ranking of the top 600 Web sites worldwide as measured by PC Data, an independent Internet business monitor, in June. The last week in June, it jumped to rank 330. According to PC Data, SmartReminders is the 12th fastest growing site on the Internet today.

"We are building toward a one-to-one relationship with our users," said Rich Maradik, co-founder of SmartReminders and CEO of its parent company, Smart Direct Inc. "It's what sets us apart from market leaders. In an era of millions of Web sites and 500 cable channels, there are still only 24 hours in a day. We give our users convenience, delivering them the information they want, when they want it, where they want it."

Key reasons for SmartReminders' early success include:

-- Relationship building with members

SmartReminders' commitment is providing content its users want, when they want it, and where they want it, translating into an attrition rate of less than one percent. SmartReminders also adds two or three pieces of content each week.

-- Global strategies through major international ventures

Of its members, roughly half are from countries outside the United States. "We're determined to become the leading permission e-mail network with a global scope," Maradik declared. Recently, SmartReminders sealed an agreement with etang.com, one of the largest Web portals in mainland China, to build a Chinese version of its site. An alliance with Web currency vendor beenz.com allows SmartReminders to distribute its e-mails to the 14 countries where beenz.com operates.

"Our advertising partners already have immediate access to markets worldwide and we're launching major initiatives in Asia and Europe that will build on our successes," said Maradik.

-- E-mail messages are transmitted to pagers, mobile phones, and desktop computers

To provide fast and accurate services to its members, SmartReminders became the first permission-based e-mail messenger to exploit the wireless applications protocol (WAP). In addition, SmartReminders is leveraging its own technology to small businesses, allowing them to notify their customers of periodic events such as appointments and maintenance reminders.

-- Fusion with offline and online direct marketing benefits it partners and clients

Offline direct marketing affiliate SmartDM (formerly DataMark), another subsidiary of Smart Direct, offers a variety of tactics for direct advertising uncommon in today's market. "Doing online and offline direct marketing for customers is very unique right now," Maradik said, "and in very high demand. As a provider of total direct marketing solutions, we are more valuable to our clients."

-- Providing one-stop shopping for all e-mail marketing campaign needs

With the resources of SmartDM, SmartReminders can take clients' e-mail marketing campaigns from concept to completion under one roof. SmartReminders is already offering clients full database services including duplication, merge-purge, and segmentation. Furthermore, SmartReminders is handling the assembly and sending of e-mails for two top 100 Web sites with many more expected in the third quarter. This is just another way SmartReminders is leveraging its core assets to offer clients multiple value channels.

"This is just the beginning," Maradik affirmed. "You've not seen anything yet. Not only are we growing fast, we're going to keep pace with that growth by providing more services to our members, and a broad array of value to our advertising partners. The name of the game now is to reach beyond just acquiring a database of opt-in names, but also to leverage that asset with other services and provide real value to businesses that is unique in the marketplace today. For us that means providing a fantastic permission e-mail network with global reach, but also services that allow our business partners to have their entire offline and online direct marketing campaign handled under one roof."

Opt-in e-mail is e-mail that users give their permission to receive. Users also have the option to "opt-out" and cancel the e-mails they requested. Since e-mail is the most mature and far-reaching application on the Internet, opt-in fulfills the promise of bringing traditional direct marketing practices to Internet marketing. Currently, 100 million viable e-mail addresses exist domestically and abroad. Click-through rates for opt-in marketing range from three to 18 percent, depending on the targeted list and message. The Internet's other primary advertising medium, banner ads, provide click-through rates below .06 percent. So far, Wall Street has looked favorably on opt-in companies, and SmartReminders.com is part of the next group of opt-in e-mail companies to reach the market.