What email platform would you recommend for an established B2C company wanting to automate and personalize its email communications?

Hubspot and Marketo rock for B2B nurture from lead to client. Companies like Bronto are optimized for ecommerce. its pretty hard to get the BEST solution for both sides in the same package, you will likely compromise on one or the other so focus on the biggest revenue generator and solve for that. Tools don't create process, they implement processes. if you want higher level intelligence in addition to your core of CRM/ecommerce integration transactional efforts our company does that. @http://www.embarke.com

You seem to be on the right path and have some of the biggest name already on your radar: Exact Target and Silverpop. Just keep in mind that there is no "best" solution. All of the top players provide pretty much the same services. In the end it comes down to building a relationship with a vendor that works for you. Experian and Responsys are two more you can add to your list. Further reading: http://www.emailvendorselection.com/ Disclaimer: Working on an integration with Silverpop right now.

For the kind of trigger based campaign you're talking about, you'll want an email program that integrates well with your CRM platform. ClickDimensions works pretty well with MS Dynamics. If you use something else, do some research into which email programs marketers with similar goals and CRMs are using.

Why don't you try LeadSquared's marketing software to nurture your leads with email campaigns and autoresponders. Here are its salient features: Create rich HTML email campaign message using the WYSWYG email editor Use dozens of ready-to-use email templates Use mail-merge fields to personalize the subject line and the email body. Easy to block emails to be sent to one or more domains Easy to schedule email campaigns to be delivered at a particular time and time zone. Automate lead nurturing with email autoresponders Easy to look up email campaign leads who visited website as a result of the campaign Easy to understand email campaign report Pick windows of time you’d like the autoresponders to be delivered Verify and validate email addresses to avoid junk leads You can sign up right here and get a look and feel of the product: Fhttp://pages.leadsquared.com/free-trial-signup.

In my mind it really depends on what CRM you're using.  You want the integration to be as seamless as possible, or you will spend a lot of your time trying to merge marketing data (leads) into the CRM (sales pipeline). Most ESP's have the same general functionality (Tracking statistics, split testing, heat mapping, etc.). In my opinion the differentiators are: What other types of functionality do they offer (web tracking, lead scoring, sms messaging)?  Also, how well do they integrate into the CRM? The point of email marketing and web tracking is to highlight the hottest leads and give that data to the sales people (the sooner the better).  The best marketing automation solutions bridge the gap between marketing and sales by consolidating all of the functions on one dashboard and populating the data in real time. If you happen to use the Microsoft Dynamics CRM, ClickDimensions offers a natively built solution that has flawless integration.  ClickDimensions is aesthetically identical to the CRM look and feel, so there is almost no learning curve. They also have more extensive functionality than most email service providers, and a dedicated support team that is available 24/7. **Also, if you're an Ecommerce retailer or wholesaler who is on the magento platform check out a company called: Springbot.  Springbot ties in demographic and behavioral data to create personalized email campaigns and is a great way to track and attribute revenue to certain marketing campaigns or actions.