Email was becoming the most direct way a company could reach its customers, and the most abused. Digital Impact gave big brands a professional way to do it: personalized messages, sent by the million, with tracking to show what worked. When it filed to go public in late 1999, online retailers were building customer lists fast. They wanted a way to bring shoppers back for a second order.

Millions of Messages, Measured

Digital Impact bet that email would become a core marketing channel for big companies, and that they would hire specialists to run it. It built systems to send millions of personalized messages, track opens and clicks, and tune campaigns. It sold mainly to big retailers and consumer brands. It pitched itself as a full-service partner, a step beyond a simple tool for sending mail.

InfoUSA Bids, Acxiom Wins

Digital Impact priced at $15 a share in November 1999. Its shares fell with the internet market. Email marketing grew more crowded and cheaper over time. The company kept its focus on big brands and expanded into broader marketing services. It stayed public for more than five years. In 2005, after an unsolicited bid from InfoUSA, the data company Acxiom agreed to buy Digital Impact for about $140 million.

Cover: Beauty Reading a Letter, Ishikawa Toyonobu. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a beauty reading a letter (email).