Meet Emma, the email marketing and communications service that's taken a unique approach to web-based software. We think it should be easy to use (goodbye, cluttered interface). It should be made for you (farewell, generic templates). And it should even be fun (see ya around, support phone queue). It's all about email marketing in style, and it's why 20,000 small and midsize businesses, non-profits and agencies have chosen Emma to power their email newsletters and campaigns.

At Emma, we're on a mission to create a world-class brand that's known by every small business owner, marketer and designer. And we're on our way, supporting the email marketing efforts of 25,000 businesses, non-profits, organizations and agencies doing all sorts of interesting things in all sorts of interesting places, assuming Belgium makes your list of interesting places, and why wouldn't it.

And that's been the mission since Emma was founded in late 2001. That's when Emma's founding partners, Will and Clint (known in more familiar circles as the Tall One and the Not-So-Tall One), began researching the email marketing and communications field. They found there were the eMailer Mailbots with crazy features and even crazier price tags. And there were the Email Blastinator 2000s with cookie-cutter email templates and unrefined interfaces. And there were the Boingo Mail-a-trons, with boingie thingies and tron-like doo-dads. This part of the research remains unclear.

What was clear, though, was that small businesses needed a simple, stylish way to stay in touch with their customers, members and fans. And with the first Emma prototype, we aimed to do just that, pairing an open, easy-to-use interface with smart, powerful features. We wanted to bring software to life, but not literally because the software might decide to begin lopping people's heads off, or running out for sandwiches at extremely inopportune times.

It was also clear that email marketing software shouldn't be merely software. It should be a service, too, where customers can get help from real people, whether that's in the form of stylish custom email design from graphic designers or attentive support and advice. That's why we liked the name "Emma." Sure, it's a nice and handy abbreviation of the phrase email marketing, but more importantly, it brings with it an inherent human quality. It's a real name — like Antoinette or Frederick, only shorter.

And ever since, we've been expanding our efforts around the same mission, aiming to turn this fledgling little service into a slightly larger fledgling service by hiring all kinds of smart, kind people along the way. Some of those people have helped us develop Emma's service with features that, despite their sophisticated technology design, feel remarkably simple to use. Others have helped us expand our presence, opening up Emma satellite offices in Portland, Denver and Austin, while others have offered the kind of world-class support and custom design that we always knew would help set us apart from the Boingo Mail-a-trons of the world.

It's official! We're thrilled to announce the arrival of Social Sharing for your email campaigns. Today, we’re thrilled to announce the arrival of Social Sharing for your email campaigns. Our latest feature makes it easy for your audience members to share your emails with their friends and followers on social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. It’ll exponentially increase the reach of your emails. And we’re not the best at math, but we’re pretty sure exponents are a good thing. You’ll be feeling like a social media superhero in no time.