EmailAdvisor Ranked #1

Lyris Division Solution’s Scores Highest in Analysis of Delivery Service Providers

BERKELEY, CA – January 11, 2005 – Lyris Technologies announced today that EmailAdvisor, the hosted email deliverability monitoring system developed by new Lyris division Piper Software, has been ranked #1 in an evaluation of email delivery tools by JupiterResearch. The ranking appeared in Delivery Auditing Tools: Tactics to Improve Email Delivery, a report released last month in which the research firm urged email marketers to audit message delivery to maximize their campaign success.

“Marketers must commit to regular delivery testing by embedding it into the campaign quality-assurance testing process,” the report concluded. “JupiterResearch executive interviews revealed investing in delivery services/solutions can improve email delivery by 10 percent to 20 percent.”

EmailAdvisor scored higher overall than any other email delivery service provider on the five criteria used by JupiterResearch to compare vendors’ offerings. Most notably, EmailAdvisor far surpassed the other providers in the critical area of message rendering, which involves pre-testing to determine how messages will appear in different email clients. EmailAdvisor includes a unique “Inbox Snapshot” feature that inspects message appearance in 40 email clients and returns results in minutes, allowing any problems to be fixed before launching a campaign.

EmailAdvisor also ranked as high or higher than the other vendors evaluated on the other criteria used in the JupiterResearch analysis. These included inbox seeding procedures (to determine in advance how different ISPs will treat a given message), content and message scoring (to check email content and structure against a variety of spam filters prior to sending campaigns), blacklist monitoring (to alert marketers if they are added to blacklists), and services integration (to export data). See the complete scorecard.

The report also noted that analysis of opened, bounced and delivered emails after a campaign is of limited value in solving delivery problems, and that marketers lack the expertise to monitor email delivery themselves because of the complexity of the process.

Another recent JupiterResearch report, Delivery Auditing Tools: Justifying the Investment, made a conservative estimate that marketers using an email delivery service will reduce their costs for delivered mail by two to 10 percent, in addition to increasing revenue by delivering more mail successfully to the inbox.

“Email deliverability is a major challenge for marketers today, and JupiterResearch’s recent reports clearly show that services like EmailAdvisor can significantly improve delivery results,” said Steven Brown, vice president of marketing at Lyris. “The research not only recognizes that EmailAdvisor’s message rendering is a ‘must have’ feature, but also validates our position that every email marketer can benefit from delivery monitoring.”

About EmailAdvisor

EmailAdvisor is a hosted suite of five interrelated components that audit message appearance, content, junk mailbox delivery, blacklisting, and real-time ISP delivery problems to minimize undeliverable or improperly formatted marketing email messages.

The solution addresses the rising challenges faced by marketers in generating sufficient returns on their permission-based email campaigns in the face of aggressive anti-spam efforts and other activities that can interfere with the delivery of legitimate opt-in messages. JupiterResearch has estimated that the cost of emails that are sent but not delivered will nearly double from $230 million in 2003 to $419 million in 2008.

EmailAdvisor is compatible with all commercial email marketing software and hosted solutions. All functions and reports are accessible online, with professional services available for clients requiring email deliverability assistance. Subscription fees begin at $200/month for five audits, and a variety of packages are available for different mailing volumes and consulting needs. More information is available at http://www.lyris.com/products/emailadvisor/.

About Lyris Technologies, Inc.

Lyris Technologies, parent of Piper Software, is the developer of the best-selling Lyris ListManager email marketing software. Over 4,000 businesses—from Fortune 500 corporations to fast-growing startups—rely on ListManager and its ASP alternative, ListHosting, for high-performance email campaign management and analytics. Lyris also offers MailShield Server for corporate spam protection, and MailEngine for fast, efficient email delivery. Founded in 1994, Lyris was recently named by the San Francisco Business Times as one of the fastest growing companies in the San Francisco Bay area. For more information, visit http://www.lyris.com.