Today 500 small businesses were recognized by VerticalResponse, Inc. in their quarterly customer awards program, the VR500. This awards program highlights the top 500 small business customers that have maintained high email engagement rates – as demonstrated by their average email open rates and click through rates. To qualify for the awards, customers had to have sent at least four email campaigns in the second quarter of 2010, and mailed to a list size of between 100-500 opt-in subscribers.

Community Newsletter Publisher Wins Award

Among the winners of the VR500 awards was KamloopsParents.com, a publisher and distributor of a monthly online newsletter that offers fun, family-friendly event listings and activities in their local area.

“I’m thrilled and surprised to have won this award from VerticalResponse,” said Elizabeth deVries, writer at KamloopsParents.com. “We put out a monthly newsletter which aims to bring our local community closer together. With VerticalResponse it’s quick and easy to put together a professional-looking newsletter for our members in minutes.”

Small Business Focused On Behavioral Health Wins Award

Integrated Behavioral Health also won a VR500 award for excellence in email marketing. The company is a boutique, full-service managed behavioral health, EAP, and work-life resource provider.

“We are very excited to hear of our VR500 award,” said Andrea Mander, marketing assistant at Integrated Behavioral Health. “We began using VerticalResponse to help us better manage our contacts and streamline distribution of our regular monthly, and incident specific newsletters. Now we bring useful work-life management tips, information and seminars to thousands of employers and individuals nationwide in a slick, user-friendly format.”

VR500 Awards: Results

In order to be listed among the top 500 small businesses served by VerticalResponse (http://www.verticalresponse.com) in Q2 2010, companies had to achieve the following results:

• Open rates: average above 20%
• Click through rates: average above 4%
• Size of email send: average between 100-500 emails per email

“VR500 award honorees are successfully using compelling email content and consistently meet subscriber expectations for frequency,” said Janine Popick, CEO of VerticalResponse. “The winners prove that email marketing can be used very effectively to help grow small businesses.”

For details and updates on the VR500 award program, go to: http://www.verticalresponse.com/vr500

About VerticalResponse

VerticalResponse, Inc. is a leading provider of self-service email marketing, online surveys and direct mail services empowering small businesses to easily create, manage and analyze their own direct marketing campaigns. VerticalResponse bundles email, online surveys and postcards to offer customers an integrated Web-based direct marketing solution that’s intuitive and affordable. VerticalResponse is headquartered in San Francisco, California. For additional information, please visit www.verticalresponse.com.

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