A new company called Connectify Inc aims to built Electronic Direct Marketing (EDM) software for companies like Williams- Sonoma and NetCentives, which conveniently enough are its first two customers. Connectify was founded on the premise that companies need to stay in touch with their customers to ensure loyalty and customer retention in an increasingly attention-challenged economy. The company says it wants to transform direct marketing from a transaction-focused activity to a lifetime relationship between a company and its customers – personalized catalogs from the cradle to the grave.
The startup’s flagship software, Connectify Direct, manages multiple, permission-based relationships for each customer, handles campaigns with customer targeting and segmentation, scales to millions of email messages per day and provides drill- down reporting and analysis of return on investment. Potential customers can license the software or outsource their electronic direct marketing to a service bureau, depending on their budget and needs.
In short, Connectify is not your father’s spam start-up. It boasts a management stable of heavy-hitters, including president and chief executive Joseph Ansanelli who co-founded Trio Development, which was acquired by Claris Corp in 1994. Investors and board members include Stewart Alsop of New Enterprise Associates, Mark Kvamme of USWeb/CKS and Bob Frick, formerly of the Bank of America. The company, based in San Mateo, California, is privately held. á
