Zecco Generates 14% Lift in New Account Acquisition With StrongMail Influencer

REDWOOD CITY, CA, Nov 09 (MARKET WIRE) --
StrongMail, the leading provider of online marketing solutions for email
and social media marketing, today announced that Zecco Holdings, Inc.
(www.zecco.com), an online investing site widely known for providing free
stock trading* through its subsidiary Zecco Trading, has achieved a 14
percent lift in new account acquisition with StrongMail(R)
Influencer(TM). StrongMail Influencer creates an interactive experience
that motivates recipients to share while providing marketers with
in-depth data to identify and target their biggest influencers.

"I've been extremely impressed with StrongMail Influencer's ability to
motivate Zecco customers to refer their friends, which has resulted in
thousands of new accounts," said Gabriel Dalporto, Chief Marketing Officer
of Zecco Holdings. "Word-of-mouth referrals are a large and important
source of growth in our business. StrongMail Influencer provides our
customers an easy, engaging and interactive way to earn rewards by sharing
our offers with their friends and colleagues."

Founded in 2006, Zecco's reputation for providing free online stock
trades* has enabled it to quickly acquire more than 170,000 trading
customers. In addition to stock and options trades, Zecco's customers
also benefit from powerful analysis tools, great customer service and
access to ZeccoShare, a ground-breaking online financial community for
sharing investing ideas with other traders. In order to improve the
customer sharing experience for its valuable customer base, Zecco decided
to upgrade its existing referral campaign with the help of StrongMail
Influencer.

StrongMail worked with Zecco to create a viral referral campaign that
would motivate website visitors to refer their friends by offering them
one of three different incentives -- $75 cash, 20 free trades or a $75
Amazon gift card -- through its Zecco Friends program.

Performance data

Zecco experienced a large increase in referral accounts immediately after
upgrading to StrongMail Influencer from their old referral platform, and
this growth continued in subsequent weeks. The campaign launched on July
20th, and saw a 107 percent increase in account applications in the week
that followed, compared to the previous week. The sustained lift in
referral accounts represents a 14 percent increase in new accounts volume
compared to the four weeks prior to launch.

In addition to new accounts, StrongMail Influencer prompted nine percent
of visitors to ZeccoShare to become influencers for the brand, with 85
percent referring friends via email and 15 percent via direct integration
with websites and social networks. While more people shared via email,
posting to social networks generated 2.5 times as many clicks.

StrongMail Influencer quickly became Zecco's lowest cost-per-acquisition
channel. Also notable is that the improved referrer self-service tools
resulted in a reduction in call center volume versus their prior referral
program, which had no noteworthy effect on call center volume. StrongMail
Influencer also offers a complete suite of research and reporting tools
for easy data access, which simplifies and improves the overall usage
experience for Zecco's customers.

"The success that Zecco has had with StrongMail Influencer demonstrates
how easy it is for marketers to extend the reach of their existing
campaigns into social media," said Kristin Hersant, director of corporate
marketing for StrongMail. "Zecco was able to quickly boost the
performance of an existing referral campaign and successfully mobilize
their strongest brand advocates to spend their 'social capital' on
Zecco's behalf. This program shows that when marketers leverage the right
technology in conjunction with the right offer, social referral programs
can drive the lowest CPA of any acquisition channel."

Methodology

In the four weeks prior to launching StrongMail Influencer, The Zecco
Friends Program generated an average of 8 percent of all new accounts.
Immediately after launching the StrongMail Influencer, word-of-mouth
acquisition began to grow. After averaging 34 percent week-to-week growth
for seven weeks, the Zecco Friends Program reached 17 percent of all
acquisition in the first week of September 2009.

Zecco generated a 14 percent lift in new account acquisition with
StrongMail Influencer. The baseline was established by averaging
acquisition from the Zecco Friends Program over the four weeks prior to
launch. In order to establish a point of comparison against the baseline.
They then took another four week average of referral acquisition one month
after program launch. The difference represented a 14 percent increase in
overall baseline acquisition. Examining only accounts tracked to a
specific marketing channel, the lift in new accounts attributable to
StrongMail Influencer rises to 30 percent.

About Zecco Holdings, Inc.

Zecco Holdings (www.zecco.com) is a leading online investing website that
offers access to free stock trading and low-cost options trading through
its wholly owned subsidiary, Zecco Trading, Inc., member FINRA and SIPC,
and foreign exchange trading through its wholly owned subsidiary Zecco
Forex.

*Zecco Trading account users receive 10 free equity trades per month when
they maintain a minimum net equity of $25,000 or execute 25 total trades,
$4.50 per trade otherwise. Zecco Trading, Inc. provides self-directed
investors with discount brokerage services, and does not make
recommendations or offer investment, financial, legal or tax advice.

All forex products are offered through Zecco Forex, Inc., which acts as an
introducing broker to GAIN Capital. Accounts are held and maintained with
GAIN Capital which serves as the clearing agent and counterparty to
trades. GAIN Capital Group, LLC is a registered Futures Commission
Merchant (FCM) and a member of the National Futures Association (NFA #
ID# 0339826).

To learn more about the Zecco Friends Program visit
http://hello.zecco.com/raf/

About StrongMail Systems, Inc.

StrongMail's online marketing solutions for email and social media enable
businesses to reach, engage and influence their target audience using the
most powerful channels available to marketers today. StrongMail gives
email marketers the control and support they need to improve campaign
performance, boost deliverability and lower costs, while also leveraging
the power of social media to extend the reach of their campaigns and brand
to new audiences. Combining an easy-to-use email marketing application,
high-performance delivery system, viral-marketing tool, social media
integration, and a wide range of deliverability, strategic and supporting
services, StrongMail makes it possible for companies with all levels of
resources and expertise to take advantage of its proven solutions.
Headquartered in Redwood City, CA, StrongMail's clients include global
leaders across virtually every industry. To learn more about StrongMail,
please visit www.strongmail.com or follow us online at
www.twitter.com/StrongMail or www.facebook.com/StrongMail.

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