Sailthru by Marigold

Overview

Sailthru, now part of Marigold's enterprise marketing suite, is a cross-channel marketing automation platform designed for data-driven personalization at scale. Sailthru is the marketing solution designed for rapid activation across media, publishing, and retail businesses . The platform is built around industry-leading, data-rich, single-view customer profiles , aggregating behavioral, purchase, and interest data to enable sophisticated segmentation and targeting. Originally developed for digital publishers and media companies, Sailthru specializes in the unique requirements of content-driven businesses.

The platform integrates customer data from multiple touchpoints to create unified profiles, allowing businesses to segment audiences precisely and deliver highly targeted campaigns . For large-scale newsletter operations and media publishers, this data integration capability means understanding subscriber behavior across email, web, and mobile channels from a single system. Sailthru owns and maintains its own email sending infrastructure with in-house deliverability and operations teams, monitoring messages until they reach inboxes , providing enterprise-grade reliability for publishers sending millions of emails.

As of October 2025, Zeta Global announced plans to acquire Marigold's enterprise business (which includes Sailthru) for up to $325 million , signaling continued investment in the platform but also potential changes ahead. What distinguishes Sailthru from general email marketing tools is its foundation in publishing and media industry needs, with features specifically designed for content recommendations, subscriber lifecycle management, and monetization through advertising or subscriptions.

Best For

Sailthru works best for large-scale publishers, established media companies, and enterprise newsletter operations managing sophisticated subscriber relationships across multiple channels. This includes digital news organizations sending millions of emails monthly, media brands with complex subscriber tiers and paywall strategies, publishers using behavioral data to drive content recommendations, and enterprise teams needing deep analytics and customer data integration. The platform is not suited for individual newsletter creators or small operations due to its enterprise pricing and complexity.

Key Features

• Unified Customer Profiles: Sailthru's technology is built around data-rich, single-view customer profiles that aggregate subscriber information across email, web, and mobile touchpoints . Publishers can see complete subscriber histories including content consumption patterns, engagement trends, and conversion behaviors. This comprehensive view enables sophisticated personalization and targeting that goes beyond basic email segmentation.

• Behavioral Targeting and Personalization: The platform uses machine learning to analyze subscriber behavior and automatically personalize content recommendations, send times, and messaging. Publishers can trigger campaigns based on specific content consumption patterns, subscription status changes, or engagement signals. This automation helps large publications deliver relevant content to diverse audiences without manual segmentation for every campaign.

• Owned Email Infrastructure: Sailthru maintains its own email sending infrastructure with dedicated deliverability and operations teams , providing enterprise publishers with reliable delivery at scale. This owned infrastructure means publishers aren't sharing IP reputation with unrelated senders, improving inbox placement rates. The dedicated support helps troubleshoot deliverability issues specific to high-volume publishing.

• Advanced Analytics and Attribution: The platform provides deep analytics that go beyond basic email metrics to track revenue attribution, content performance, and cross-channel customer journeys. Publishers can measure how email campaigns drive subscriptions, content engagement, and revenue, connecting email marketing directly to business outcomes. This attribution capability helps justify email marketing investment and optimize campaign strategies.

• Multi-Channel Campaign Management: Sailthru enables personalized experiences across email, web, and mobile channels from a unified platform . Publishers can coordinate messaging across channels, ensuring consistent subscriber experiences regardless of touchpoint. This cross-channel capability matters for media companies managing complex subscriber relationships across multiple properties and platforms.

Pricing

Sailthru operates on enterprise pricing with costs based on email volume, feature requirements, and implementation complexity. Specific pricing is not publicly disclosed and requires contacting sales for custom quotes. The platform is suited for mid-sized to large enterprises, with its ability to handle complex campaigns and vast datasets making it attractive for companies planning significant digital marketing expansion . Users have noted challenges around pricing , indicating the platform represents a significant investment. For individual newsletter creators or small operations, Sailthru's enterprise focus and pricing make it prohibitively expensive, with more accessible alternatives available at lower price points. The platform makes sense primarily for publishers sending millions of emails monthly who need sophisticated data integration and can justify enterprise software costs.