UPDATE: New product, services drive ExactTarget growth plans

A new product roll-out and increasing demand for client services will drive ExactTarget's growth over the next five years, CEO Scott Dorsey said Tuesday morning.

"It's really across the board, but I would say it's driven by investment in product-technology and services," Dorsey said after his firm announced that it would add 500 employees and invest $45 millionin technology and infrastructure through 2015.

ExactTarget, which develops e-mail marketing software, has been growing rapidly in recent years. It employs 580 in Indiana and more than 750 worldwide.

In September, the company rolled a test version of its latest software called the "interactive marketing hub," which allows clients to launch marketing content for e-mail, social media and mobile applications from a single source. Dorsey said several clients are testing it, and he expects the broader market to take it up in the first quarter of 2011.

One of ExactTarget's major clients is the national online marketing phenom Groupon, which notifies customers of its daily deals through e-mail. Dorsey said ExactTarget's recent growth doesn't directly correlate to its relationship with Groupon, "but they're an exciting organization to work with and a very strategic client. Their business relies heavily on our platform."

ExactTarget occupies office space in three different downtown buildings. Dorsey said the company will take up more space, possibly in those buildings, as it adds employees. The jobs will be in software development, engineering and back-office functions, as well as "a lot" in professional services, Dorsey said.

"Clients want help optimizing e-mail, mobile and social programs," he said.

The expansion is ExactTarget's third in three years. The company said in 2007 that it would add 90 employees in Indianapolis. Then, in 2008, it said it would open a new technology center, adding 300 jobs.

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. offered ExactTarget up to $11 million in performance-based tax credits and up to $225,000 in training grants based on the company's latest job-creation plans.  The city of Indianapolis and Develop Indy will support a property-tax abatement request for ExactTarget before the Metropolitan Development Commission.

Earlier this month, ExactTarget launched its Pacific Northwest Services Center in Bellevue, Wash., and in August, the company launched its Asia Pacific operations following the acquisition of mPath Global in Sydney and Melbourne. 

ExactTarget announced the acquisition of San Francisco-based Twitter platform CoTweet in March, and launched a new international division in London in September 2009 following the acquisition of its U.K.-based reseller Keymail Marketing.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels joined executives at the firm for the morning announcement.

"ExactTarget's business continues to grow internationally, now with offices on two more continents, yet the company maintains the bulk of its employment and investment in its home state of Indiana," Daniels said in a prepared statement. "This company is proof of the strength of our state's entrepreneurial capital, business climate and work force, and we are so proud to see them surpass every goal they set."