The Q3 2024 Forrester Wave for Email Marketing Service Providers has put Zeta Global and Bloomreach at the head of the pack, with Adobe, Emarsys, and Salesforce, trailing in terms of performance and offerings.

According to the report, Zeta's Marketing Platform has seen consistent growth, with more than a 20% increase over five consecutive years. Email send volumes have also risen by 16% over the past three years. The company achieved the highest possible scores in 13 of the 22 total criteria, including personalisation, preference management, privacy, deliverability, and email value.

"Zeta's current offering leads our study because it can personalise send time, delivery frequency, channels, content, products, offers, and subject lines. It has delivery specialists dedicated to user accounts, separate chief privacy and chief security officers, and a full suite of professional services," the authors stated. They also noted that "Zeta's products and services focus on enabling marketers to know and do more. For instance, its incremental customer data signals found purchase behaviours on its media network to help one client identify prospects responsive to luxury pricing."

Bloomreach's personalisation capabilities have placed it at the forefront, with strong privacy credentials and the ability to pull in customer insights to assist marketers. Its Engagement product has grown by over 40% in the last year. The Forrester authors commented, "Its vision of limitless personalisation is memorable and, though not completely feasible, aligned to Bloomreach's technology, AI engine Loomi and dedicated innovation lab."

Co-founder and CEO of Bloomreach, Raj De Datta, said: "We believe this recognition underscores our ongoing commitment to unlocking limitless ecommerce personalisation, powered by our proprietary Loomi AI. For us, this acknowledgment is a testament to our team's hard work and our unwavering commitment to innovation, privacy, and personalisation."

Netcore Cloud, Cordial, and Braze were listed as strong performers on Forrester's list for email marketing services. Braze and Cordial overindexed on legacy tech integration, while Netcore was a high achiever on email value and organisational improvement.

Contenders on Forrester's list included Optimove, Iterable, Marigold (formerly CM Group, which owns Cheetah Digital, Sailthru), Campaign Monitor, Emma, and Liveclicker. Adobe, Emarsys, and Salesforce were further down the list. Emarsys struggled to describe and defend its value to email marketers in this review, while Adobe offers marketers scale but not best-in-class functionality. Salesforce's minimal product development was also cited as a counter to its strong email marketing brand.