MyPoints.com Integrates Mypoints With BonusMail

San Francisco-based incentive marketing company MyPoints.com Inc. merged its MyPoints and BonusMail membership programs to integrated direct marketing campaigns by targeted email and Web-based offers.

“Using the new MyPoints Program, an advertiser can target specific online consumers, reach out to them with rewarded email or Web-based messages, drive them to a commerce site, and reward them for taking advantage of an offer,” said Steve Markowitz, chairman and CEO of MyPoints.com. “It’s a complete solution to direct marketing over the Internet.”

The new program allows advertisers to offer consumers points for responding to their messages both online at the MyPoints Web site and through MyPoints BonusMail email advertising.

Points earned through either medium can be redeemed for a variety of products and services such as travel awards, gift certificates, and prepaid phone cards from roughly 50 rewards providers, including Barnes & Noble, Hilton HHonors, and Macy’s.

“Everybody is searching for the right way to do direct marketing online–you can’t spam people, and competition for the consumer’s attention is so intense you need to have a pre-established relationship in place to reach Internet consumers effectively,” said Chaz Berman, MyPoints.com’s senior vice president of sales. “MyPoints allows advertisers to take advantage of the relationships we already have with each of our members to target them, reach them and reward them.”

Founded in 1996 as Intellipost Corp., MyPoints.com said it serves roughly 2 million consumers and 200 advertisers and partners across its direct marketing and loyalty programs.

Separately, the company said that Microsoft Outlook Express has added MyPoints BonusMail to its featured services, after a successful campaign achieved a response rate of 26 percent. Financial arrangements were not disclosed. Outlook Express enables recipients to read HTML-enhanced rich media email, and MyPoints BonusMail delivers email in this format and rewards consumers who read and respond to it.