A fast-growing young company that’s gaining national attention, Mendota Heights–based CotterWeb provides clients with lists of people who actually want to receive their marketing e-mails.
Cotter says his firm has 3.9 million “members” who’ve sign up for the e-mails. His clients—including Net-Quote (an insurance-quote “engine”) and WorldWinner (online games)—are looking for consumers to do product and service testing and marketing research surveys. Those consumer-members get paid or receive other rewards for participating. Cotter touts a pay-for-performance model: His clients pay only for the responses they get.
Online marketing services is a sector dominated by the likes of Google, Yahoo, and ValueClick. But CotterWeb went from 6 to 22 employees in the past 22 months, and Cotter expects to double the size of his work force in the next year. Revenues in 2004 were $2 million; for 2007, they were projected at $11 million.
