• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, January 4, 2010

Some companies may have fretted about abandoning plans to go public. Not ExactTarget. After pulling its application in May, the email service provider went on to raise $140 million in venture capital.

Performance-wise, it will finish 2009 with a more than 30% growth in sales, crossing the $100 million barrier.

The capital infusion allowed the ESP to acquire UK-based Keymail Marketing in September, giving it a new international arm. While the company added some 200 employees domestically in 2009, bringing it up to more than 550.

What's ahead for 2010? How will the rest of that war chest be deployed? And will there still be an IPO someday? Chief Marketing Officer Tim Kopp addressed some of those issues in a discussion with Online Media Daily.

Online Media Daily: You've posted $100 million in sales this year. How does that compare to last year in terms of growth?

Tim Kopp: There's an expression -- 'never waste a good recession' -- and that's what we've tried to do. We've really taken the opportunity and some of the increased funding to focus on our customers and double-down with investments. We're going to be up from last year, in the neighborhood of more than 30%.

OMD: What do you attribute the growth to?

TK: For us, it's been an increased macro-trend of moving dollars to more measurable media. There's been an explosion in growth of our platforms beyond email. What a lot of marketers are doing is using email at the hub of the activity, but also beginning to fold in mobile, social and the Web site as part of the overall platform. We kind of call it Email Plus. (Marketers) in control of the budget are obviously just shifting dollars to higher-performing channels.

OMD: How much can growth be attributed to expanding your client base?

TK: We've added over 1,000 new clients this year. We've had two different things powering growth. One is a vast addition of new clients onto the platform. And then increased usage by current clients in using additional modalities of communication. Beginning to use mobile, for example, is one of the big trends we've seen this year.

OMD: How does pricing work in this new cross-channel world? Is it any different than the past?

TK: It's pretty much done on a cost-per-thousand and cost-per-impression basis. For clients, it's cost-effective to add an additional modality (with that structure).

OMD: What do you need more than anything else to better satisfy clients?

TK: What they're looking for more and more is the ability to have one view of their subscriber, and be able to drive and manage the online conversation. Email is at the foundation of what we do, but continuing to build out the rest of our platform across the entire interactive marketing suite is what we're finding the marketers and CMOs want.

OMD: What was your international presence before the Keymail acquisition?

TK: Keymail was our exclusive reseller in the U.K. A good portion of the ex-Keymail folks there really know the market; some of our people from corporate are bringing over the culture and the discipline. And then about a third (of the office) are industry best and brightest.

OMD: Do you expect to add to your 25 employees in London significantly?

TK: One of the biggest strategic priorities for the company is to really build it out and have it be a material part of our business. I would say, roughly speaking, it would be at least double.

OMD: In the past seven months you've received an infusion of $140 million in capital. Where will you be deploying that in the year ahead?

TK: We'll do more investment in our technology platform and innovation. We'll do it in adding some of the best and brightest in the industry as it relates to customer service and relationship management. And we'll continue to add additional sales and marketing help to drive growth.

OMD: As you've re-branded in the UK, have you picked up any new clients?

TK: Overall, the operations in the UK have exceeded our expectations. We have retained every single client since the acquisition, and we're well ahead of our financial plans and targets.

OMD: How much of next year's revenue would you anticipate coming from beyond North America and Canada?

TK: Hard to say. We have a lot of multinational clients now. For example, Microsoft would do business here and in the U.K. I would think about it as a high-single-digit (percentage).

OMD: After the Keymail acquisition, do you have any plans to move into the Asian market?

TK: We try to do first and foremost what our clients lead us to do. So they led us to Europe first -- that's where most of them needed help. And what we're starting to hear is they're leading us to Asia next, so I think it'd be very logical to assume that.

OMD: Is it easier to build or acquire in a new market?

TK: My personal view is a combination. I don't think there's a singular right or wrong answer. But I think a good formula is to start off by buying a local presence, and adding a corporate presence as well.

OMD: Is an IPO coming?

TK: We are in no rush to do it just to go off and satisfy Wall Street. An IPO is clearly in the cards for us at some point in time. But right now we feel like we've got the best of both worlds. We've got the access to capital, a fantastic board, a great set of investors -- and we think that's going to serve us very well. But we think an IPO is a very viable option for us in the future.