CHICAGO--Groupon, a daily deal site offering unbeatable discounts via email on the best things to eat, do, see and buy, has posted a 500 percent increase since October in the number of consumers signing up to receive daily email offers.

“Groupon is harnessing the power of email, social media and community to build deep connections with customers”

Powered by email marketing and interactive marketing provider ExactTarget, Groupon sends nearly 7 million daily emails to consumers in 70 U.S. cities featuring discount offers that only become active if a minimum number of shoppers purchase before the deal expires at midnight.

“Groupon is all about giving people great local deals, and making it easy for them to share the experience with friends and family online,” said Andrew Kordek, Groupon’s manager of email optimization. “Reliable email deliverability is essential to our business, and ExactTarget’s technology and team of experts help make that possible.”

Because each Groupon deal lasts only 24 hours, prompt and reliable email delivery is critical, Kordek said. Harnessing the power of ExactTarget’s infrastructure and sending engine coupled the with ExactTarget’s team of email delivery experts, Kordek has buoyed email delivery rates and sustained click rates and open rates amid Groupon’s skyrocketing growth.

In addition to connecting with customers via daily discount offer emails, Groupon also connects with customers via its online discussion forums, city-specific Twitter and Facebook pages, their official blog at www.Groublogpon.com and post-purchase email surveys.

“By listening to our customers via email and social media,” Kordek said, “we’re able to develop an entirely new level of engagement and provide customers a phenomenal experience that they are compelled to share.”

Over the last 20 months, Groupon has grown from a small Chicago startup to a 900-employee global operation, largely through word of mouth marketing. The company, which acquired European-based CityDeal in May to expand its offering to 19 European countries, continues to broaden its group-buying site and has added a new loyalty program and an incentive program for customer to identify businesses to participate in future Groupons.

“Groupon is harnessing the power of email, social media and community to build deep connections with customers,” said Tim Kopp, ExactTarget’s chief marketing officer. “Groupon is a great example of both how a company can achieve a fun brand online and deliver massive scale, time-sensitive dynamic interactive marketing messages anywhere around the globe using ExactTarget.”

The news of Groupon’s explosive growth in email follows the launch of ExactTarget’s Email X-Factor research brief. Email X-Factor is the second research brief in ExactTarget’s six-part Subscribers, Fans & Followers research series set for release over the next three months. The research series provides marketers exclusive insight into U.S. consumers’ online preferences and motivations for interacting with brands on email, Facebook and Twitter.

About ExactTarget

ExactTarget is a leading global provider of on-demand email marketing and interactive 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 and Wellpoint, Inc. For more information, visit www.exacttarget.com or call 1-866-EMAILET.