Campaign Monitor was built to solve the founders' frustration with existing email marketing tools. It has grown significantly since its launch, now having 15,000 designers sending over 90 billion emails per month through its simple one-field interface. The founders provide some lessons they learned creating Campaign Monitor, such as focusing on a small niche market and their needs, getting early customer feedback, and supporting customers directly.

1. What we learnt building Campaign Monitor Ben Richardson and Dave Greiner freshview.com

2. Why did we build Campaign Monitor? Frustration

3. Campaign Monitor today... 15,000 1,000 90,000,000 designers new designers each month permission based emails delivered

4. Deciding what to build

5. Solve your own problem We knew there was a problem We knew how to fix it

6. Don’t try and please everybody Conventional thinking usually leads to dumbed down or too complex

7. Small group with common interests Develop unique features perfect for that market only Kill the bloat they don’t need

8. Constant Contact 83 fields by default

9. The result

10. Campaign Monitor, 1 field

11. The result

12. “ It’s almost like it was built just for me !” Much easier to create passionate users

13. Pricing your app

14. How much? Get it right from the start You don’t need to be the cheapest Keep it simple Easy to try without spending a cent

15. Building the sucker

16. Identify the need to have features Set yourself a release date and stick to it Eat your own dog food Getting to launch

17. Get real customer feedback Iterate, iterate, iterate Direction might change Give yourself a pat on the back Solicit early feedback

18. .NET, nested tables and spacer gif’s Who cares? Technology choice is irrelevant

19. Getting customers

20. It’s all about word of mouth Is your app worth talking about ?

21. Give it a kick start Ask peoples opinions Update religiously, be transparent Promotion through education EMDG Grant

22. Supporting from Sydney

23. Feel their pain We still do all our customer support Don’t filter what your customers are saying You need to know why , not just what

24. 90% in opposite time zone Comprehensive help system Easy to try before you buy It’s 2.37am in Sydney right now

25. Have a go! Try and solve your own problem Niche, targeted apps are easier to build and market Release early and get feedback Worst case aint that bad

26. Q & A campaignmonitor.com mailbuild.com fre shview.com