Moz Gets Picked Up by iContact in a Strategic Takeover: SEO and  Email To Power Things Up

Together, the brands are expected to form a suite of leading email, SEO, and digital marketing solutions.

When it comes to content marketing, marketing professionals need two important channels: email marketing and search engine optimization (SEO). It may be said that these two channels belong together. As a validation to this, iContact Marketing Corp, an email marketing company and a subsidiary of J2 GlobalOpens a new window , recently acquired the well-known SEO brand MozOpens a new window . iContactOpens a new window and its sister brands, SMTP, Communicator, Campaigner, and Kickbox, provide email marketing services to small and medium businesses (SMBs).

Learn More: Top 8 Takeaways From MozCon Virtual

Quick Peek Into the Firms

Moz, established in 2004, has been an SEO company from the beginning. In its early days, the brand started teaching professionals about SEO through its blog and eventually transitioned to an SEO software company. Today, Moz has more than 40.7 trillion links and more than 1.2 million websites tracked. The brand also has over 500 million keyword suggestions. All these help marketers make better and smarter SEO decisions. While the company focuses on data size, quality, and accuracy, what sets it apart is its ability to translate the data into insights that help professionals of different levels of sophistication and companies of different sizes.

On the other hand, iContact is a company established in 2003. Together with its sister companies, it focuses on email marketing and provides email marketing tools to SMBs. Last year, the company delivered 68 billion emails.

Learn More: SEO Data Visualization in 2020: Moz Launches New Google Data Studio Connectors

Acquisition: Seeds of Inspiration

The idea of acquiring Moz is not new, as both companies were in talks for some time. One of the primary reasons for the acquisition is that both companies focus on the same customers and serve SMBs. Further, both companies genuinely understand the value of each other’s business.

According to Michael Pepe, president, iContact, the number one tool their customers want beyond email is SEO. According to himOpens a new window , “If we ask our customers, which we do routinely, what the number one tool that they need, beyond email, it’s undoubtedly SEO. So there’s a great pairing of SEO and email marketing.”

He further believes that Moz is a value-driven company. Today’s complex ecosystem involves customers, colleagues, and partners of the companies. Supporting all of their needs and having all of those components thrive has been an agenda of Moz for a long time. Both companies also heavily focus on values, integrity, and principles to drive themselves forward.

According to Sarah Bird, CEO, Moz, iContact genuinely knows and understands the value of SEO. She saysOpens a new window , “I know that you guys genuinely understand the value of SEO and are excited to share that with your broader customers.” She also believes that email will continue to be critical and it is just getting better.

This shared value between the two companies, the focus on similar customers, and the belief that both companies’ services complement each other has brought them together.

What Does the Future Hold?

 The exact plans post the acquisition are not very clear at the moment. However, together, the brands intend to form a suite of leading email, SEO, and digital marketing solutions. Bird is confident that Moz will thrive in the new family. She believes that together, they both will achieve greater things for their customers.

In a statementOpens a new window , Bird said, “Since the beginning, Moz has elevated SEO as a critical strategy for growth and brand recognition. With this news, our mission remains the same. Moz should only innovate faster and more effectively for our customers… We are excited to begin collaborating on new solutions for our collective customers.”

Similarly, Pepe, in his statementOpens a new window , said, “Together, Moz and our email marketing brands should continue to offer technology solutions to enable small and mid-size businesses to grow and prosper.” He also believes that the resources and talent across iContact and its sister companies’ digital marketing portfolio will help Moz accelerate product plans to build SEO and other digital marketing products.

Learn More: Predicting Page Ranking Ability With Accuracy: What Moz’s New Update Means for Marketers?

What This Means to the Industry

Both Moz and iContact are well-known companies in the Martech industry providing different yet complementary tools and services critical to their customers. The industry hopes that this sale will help fund new tools, features, and support options for customers. It will also be interesting to see how the tools from the two companies integrate if they ever do.

The industry is already excited about the acquisition. The following are a few tweets from the industry players.

That’s very exciting, congratulations. I hope it means many great things for the team and the platform, and accelerates good ideas.

— Heather Physioc (@HeatherPhysioc) June 4, 2021Opens a new window

Congrats to everyone at Moz, great to see SEO software playing in the big leagues!

— Barry Adams 📰 (@badams) June 4, 2021Opens a new window

What do you think of this new acquisition? Do share your thoughts on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window .