In Q2 2020, Forrester Research unveiled its highly anticipated Forrester Wave Email Service Providers report, a comprehensive review of email marketing service providers in the Enterprise B2C marketing segment. This analysis delves into the findings of the 2020 edition. For a deeper dive into the most recent iteration, the Forrester Wave Email Marketing Vendors (2022), you can find our updated review.
Each email service provider undergoes rigorous evaluation, including detailed interrogations, surveys, demonstrations, scoring, and ranking, before being positioned within the final Wave by Forrester. The report presents both a graphical Wave chart and a dedicated paragraph for each participating vendor.
Understanding the Forrester Wave Email Service Providers Report 2020
The 2020 report categorized vendors into distinct labels: “Leaders,” “Strong Performers,” and “Contenders.” Notably, there were no vendors marked as “Challengers” in this edition, indicating a generally strong performance across all participants.
The outcomes of the ESP scorecard within the Forrester email marketing service providers report 2020 are meticulously charted on the Wave graph. Forrester evaluates email marketing software providers across three high-level categories, incorporating 23 underlying criteria:
Detailed Scoring Criteria
- Features / Current Offering: This category determines a vendor’s vertical position on the Forrester Wave graphic, assessing the ESP’s current capabilities. Key criteria include:
- Campaign management
- Dynamic content
- Analytics
- Data integration
- Privacy and security
- Distributed business model support
- Artificial intelligence
- Services
- Vertical capabilities
- Strategy / Vision: Positioned on the horizontal slider, this evaluation assesses the vendor’s forward-looking aspects, including:
- Vision
- Innovation roadmap
- Past performance
- Commercial model
- Market Presence: The size of each vendor’s marker on the Wave graph is scaled to reflect their market presence, considering factors like:
- Email marketing revenue
- Globalization
- Number of employees dedicated to the email product
Email Service Providers Featured in the Forrester Wave 2020
Forrester’s 2020 report included 13 enterprise-level email marketing software solutions vendors. The following 12 were explicitly detailed:
- Acoustic (via Acoustic Marketing Cloud)
- Adobe (with Adobe Campaign Standard)
- Bluecore (offering Bluecore Communicate)
- Braze
- Cheetah Digital (presenting Cheetah Customer Engagement Suite)
- Dotdigital (through their Engagement Cloud)
- Epsilon (powered by Epsilon PeopleCloud)
- Exponea (featuring Messaging Exponea, a CDXP)
- Iterable
- Oracle (with the Oracle Responsys solution)
- Salesforce (specifically Salesforce Marketing Cloud)
- Zeta Global (leveraging their Zeta Marketing Platform – ZMP)
Notable Changes and New Entrants
Given that the Forrester Wave report for Email Service Providers is typically released every two years, alongside other reports focusing on adjacent areas like Cross-Channel Campaign Management or Enterprise Marketing Software Suites, several notable shifts were observed in the 2020 edition:
- The number of included providers saw a significant increase, growing from 8 in the previous version to 13 in 2020.
- Newcomers to this specific report included: Bluecore, Braze, Cordial, Dotdigital, Exponea, and Iterable.
- IBM Watson Campaign was sold by IBM and relaunched as the independent platform known today as Acoustic.
- The Epsilon platform solution was rebranded to “Epsilon PeopleCloud.”
- Zeta Global was evaluated based on its Zeta Marketing Platform, a shift from the ZetaHub in the 2018 report.
- Yes Lifecycle Marketing with Yesmail360i was no longer included in the report.
Driving Enterprise Email Marketing Growth and Innovation
According to Forrester, email marketing continues to be a crucial channel for enterprises. They predicted that “the accessibility, reliability, and cost-effectiveness of email will grow the investment in email marketing in the enterprise segment, even as budgets for other media and services are being cut.” This foresight proved particularly relevant in May 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic further emphasized the need for efficient and reliable marketing channels, reinforcing brands’ commitment to investing in email marketing solutions.
The stakes for selecting the right vendor partner are higher than ever, yet vendors have also significantly enhanced their offerings, ensuring that buyers of Email Service Providers benefit from improved selection options.
Diverse Offerings and Emerging Trends
Forrester identified several key developments and trends shaping the email marketing landscape, highlighting that while there isn’t a single “best” email vendor for everyone, a diverse ecosystem offers solutions tailored to varied needs and wishes:
- A Diverse Landscape Drives Innovation: The varied ecosystem, particularly fueled by new entrants, is spurring innovation. This includes advancements in data management speed and scale, expanded multi-language options, and more flexible service, product, and pricing models.
- Vendor Specialization: Many vendors are choosing to specialize, either by focusing on specific industry verticals or by developing unique, differentiating functionalities.
- Professional Services vs. Tech-Only Offers: A clear distinction emerged between vendors offering comprehensive professional services and those primarily providing technology. Companies like Cheetah Digital, Epsilon, Oracle, and Zeta Global function as full-service email agencies while also providing standalone technology. In contrast, Adobe and Dotdigital are primarily technology-first but also offer supporting services.
Comparing Forrester Wave Email Marketing Reports
For those interested in observing trends and changes over time, the last three Forrester Waves Email Marketing Service Providers reports from 2020, 2018, and 2016 offer valuable insights for side-by-side comparison.
Accessing the Latest Forrester Wave Report
While the full PDF of the Forrester Wave Email Marketing report for 2020 is no longer available for direct download, the newest version can be accessed and downloaded directly from Forrester’s website.
Shar VanBoskirk, the lead analyst on the 2020 report, provided insightful commentary, highlighting both the strengths and identifying areas for improvement for each vendor. The report’s candid language, including terms like “braggadocio” to describe a vendor’s corporate positioning, underscores its commitment to thorough and honest evaluation, offering valuable insights for attentive readers.