INDIANAPOLIS--Desert Botanical Garden, a Phoenix-based attraction featuring one of the world’s largest collections of desert plants, announced today that email surveys have helped the not-for-profit organization boost repeat attendance despite a tough economy.

The organization, which replaced its previous email provider with ExactTarget earlier this year, uses ExactTarget’s Core Edition to send post-event email campaigns featuring surveys to capture attendee feedback and suggestions for future event enhancements.

“Current donors are an organization’s best advocate, and the nonprofit industry is continuously looking for new ways to engage supporters and increase their commitment level,” said Mike Corak, director of Mighty Interactive, a Phoenix-based interactive agency that designed the Garden’s email campaign. “With its new email survey capturing attendees’ feedback, Desert Botanical Garden is showing its commitment to its constituents and securing a renewed commitment in return.”

Desert Botanical Garden sent its first email survey in October following an on-site event and scored a 98 percent participation rate, providing the organization insight for event improvement and future campaigns, Corak said.

Using ExactTarget’s database integration, Desert Botanical Garden feeds event registration information into its customer database daily and automatically triggers an email to attendees immediately following an event. The Garden also uses ExactTarget’s technology to power a twice a month newsletter to members and non members, featuring details on up-coming events and current projects at the Garden.

"The Garden values the feedback of visitors, members and donors and ExactTarget provides us an important tool to keep the lines of communication open," said John Sallot, marketing manager for Desert Botanical Garden. "In a short time, we have evolved our email communication into a conversation and are realizing the potential of this program."

The organization plans to continue refining its digital marketing efforts in the coming months with ExactTarget’s automated interaction management, a move that will allow the organization to power automated email reminders to members as their renewal date near. The Garden also plans to add ExactTarget’s Social Forward technology to its messages, allowing subscribers to share content with up to 50 social network sites including Twitter and Facebook.

“ExactTarget’s powerful, sophisticated and easy-to-use platform is allowing organizations to connect with their advocates and increase commitment levels,” said Tim Kopp, chief marketing officer of ExactTarget. “ExactTarget’s technology provides organizations of all sizes the industry’s most flexible and scalable solution to deliver results through integrated email, text messaging, Websites, voice messaging and social media.”

The news that Desert Botanical Garden is increasing its online engagement follows the launch of ExactTarget's Integrating Email, CRM, and Web Analytics Whitepaper. The paper provides insights into how some of the world’s biggest brands are harnessing the power of ExactTarget’s technology to build a one-to-one marketing campaign that strengthens customer relationships and boosts ROI. The ExactTarget Integration Whitepaper is available for free download at www.exacttarget.com/integrated.

About Desert Botanical Garden

Nestled amid the red buttes of Papago Park, the Desert Botanical Garden hosts one of the world’s finest collections of desert plants. One of only 44 botanical gardens accredited by the American Association of Museums, this one-of-a-kind museum showcases 50 acres of beautiful outdoor exhibits. Home to 139 rare, threatened and endangered plant species from around the world, the Garden offers interesting and inspiring experiences to more than 300,000 visitors each year. A charter member of the Museum Association of Arizona and National Center for Plant Conservation, the Garden is fully accredited with the American Association of Museums and American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta. It continues to build on its 70-year legacy of environmental stewardship, and has become nationally and internationally renowned for its plant collections, research and educational programs. For more information, visit www.dbg.org.

About ExactTarget

ExactTarget is a leading global provider of on-demand email and one-to-one marketing solutions. The company’s software as a service technology provides organizations a single platform to connect with customers via triggered and transactional email, integrated text messaging, voice messaging, landing pages and social media. Supported by collaborative global services teams, ExactTarget’s technology integrates with more sales and marketing information systems than any other in the industry, including Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Omniture and Webtrends among many others. ExactTarget’s software powers permission-based multi-channel communications for thousands of organizations around the world including Expedia.com, Aurora Fashions, Papa John’s, CareerBuilder.com, Gannett Co., Inc., The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, The Home Depot, Liberty Mutual Group and Wellpoint, Inc. For more information, visit www.exacttarget.com or call 1-866-EMAILET.