Cordial Named Leader in Email Marketing by The Forrester Wave

Cordial, the enterprise marketing platform used by brands including Levi’s, L.L.Bean and Boot Barn, is a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Email Marketing Service Providers, Q1 2026.

In the evaluation, Cordial received the highest possible scores in 10 criteria: identity resolution, queries & segmentation, dynamic messaging, content management, data governance, consumer privacy, regulatory compliance, agency services, pricing flexibility & transparency, and roadmap.

The Forrester report describes Cordial as a great fit for cross‑channel retailers that are reasonably comfortable with marketing technology and want to activate large, disparate data sets into highly customized communications.

“Enterprise brands don’t just need software – they need a partner that understands the complexity of their customers, their data and their business,” said Jeremy Swift, CEO and co‑founder of Cordial. “From the beginning, we’ve built Cordial around that partnership model. Our teams work closely with customers to interpret their data, design sophisticated messaging programs and help them deliver better experiences at scale. Seeing this ambition reflected in both the product and customer findings in this Wave is incredibly meaningful to us.”

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Architecture Built for Context‑Driven Messaging

Cordial received the highest possible score in the Queries & Segmentation and Identity Resolution criteria, with the report citing its ability to ingest structured and unstructured data and make it immediately available for querying.

“The challenge with most marketing AI today isn’t the intelligence — it’s the architecture,” said Matt Howland, President and Chief Product Officer at Cordial. “Most marketing stacks separate customer data, decision logic and message execution across different systems. Context gets fragmented at every handoff. By building a platform where those layers live together, Cordial enables customer signals to translate directly into real‑time messaging decisions.”

The platform also received the highest possible scores in the Dynamic Messaging and Content Management criteria. Forrester defines a score of 5/5 in the Dynamic Messaging criterion as demonstrating innovative 1:1 message streams that are automated by combining AI decisioning with execution.

Recognition Across Product Innovation and Customer Partnership

Cordial was only one of two vendors that received the highest possible score in the Roadmap criterion, which Cordial believes underscores its commitment to product innovation. Forrester notes that Cordial customers collaborate directly with product developers to co-create Cordial’s roadmap and that it has made a “solid” investment in AI which accounts for 30% of Cordial’s research and development spend.

Customer feedback gathered during the evaluation cited that customers love their partnership with Cordial. The report also states: “References relish the fact that they can Slack and text not just with their client support team but also with Cordial executives. One customer calls Cordial it “an extension of our team.”

SOURCE: PRNewswire