New Features and More Reasons to Use Constant Contact for your Email Marketing

Email continues to offer the highest return on investment in comparison to other digital marketing channels. Easy to use email marketing tools can help increase sales, engage customers and generate positive word of mouth. Smart business owners, like you, are using email to get the attention of prospects and clients.  

While there are many email marketing solutions available, Constant Contact has the added features and support that make it a winning solution. Check out these important marketing features that you need in your email marketing solution:

 Maximize Your Open Rate

Compare two subject lines with an A/B test (a.k.a.split test) to ensure you’re sending the most effective subject line to your contacts.

Maximize your open rates by making sure you’re sending the best subject line. Create two subject lines which will be sent to two small groups. The winning subject line will be sent to the remainder of your list.

Increase Your List Growth

Increase your contact list by creating and installing a pop-up sign-up form on your website. Maximize your list growth with a pop up sign up form for your website. Forms can increase sign ups more than 150% than traditional sign up boxes.

Another great list growth asset is the Text-to-Join sign up tool which allows your customers to join your email list via text message. No websites, no sign up sheets. Just choose a keyword for subscribers to enter and prospects can use this channel to submit email addresses via their cell phones.

    Import Your Outlook Contacts

With just a few clicks you can move all of your contacts stored in Outlook into a single list in Constant Contact. 

    Email Click Segmentation 
    Send the Right Information to the Right Contacts

Segmenting your lists is a marketing best practice, especially if your list is large or you have several different audiences. Segmentation allows you to send the right information, to the right contacts. 

When you set up click segmentation in a Constant Contact email, every time a contact clicks a link, a button, or a clickable image in your email, they can automatically be added to a list of your choosing. 

You can either use this list for future emails or trigger an auto responder email that is sent immediately.

These are just a few of the latest features that differentiate Constant Contact as an email marketing tool.  

Small businesses can build new relationships with prospects and foster existing client relationships by sending professional-looking email communications regularly. 

For help with your email marketing plans, contact me at jocelynm@marketing-er.com.

What's a Good Email Open Rate?

Do you know how your email open rates measure up to similar businesses in your industry?

Your email open rate, an important marketing metric, is a tally of how many people open or view a particular email campaign.  Open rates are typically expressed as a percentage and this is the formula:

Open Rate= Unique Opens / Number of Emails Sent

As a business owner or marketer, tracking your open rates (along with a few other email metrics) and attempting to improve them should be a priority.  Keep a spreadsheet of your email open rates and establish your quarterly open rate average.  Now you can do a quarterly comparison to identify trends or patterns.

You can also use your open rate average to compare yourself to others in your industry.

The chart below (source: Constant Contact) contains open rates by industry and other email metrics: bounce rate (percentage of bad emails), click through rate (percentage of people who clicked on links in your email) and unsubscribe rate (percentage of people who leave your list).

Check out your industry's email open rate and see how you compare: 

Stay tuned for next month's blog where we'll discuss how to improve your open rate!

Why Your Business or Nonprofit Needs Email Marketing Now

You've probably heard that email is an inexpensive marketing tool that should be part of your marketing plan and strategy, but maybe you're still on the fence about giving it a try.  Here are some key benefits and statistics that might convince you to include email in your marketing:

Benefits

Minimal Investment

Email marketing tools, like Constant Contact, provide robust solutions including pre-designed email templates with high functionality built in for an affordable monthly cost.  They offer small businesses the ideal solution for creating professional looking email communications to help you meet your marketing goals.

High ROI

Email offers the highest return in comparison to other marketing channels.  This makes sense because email marketing reaches consumers where they spend much of their time-- looking at their inbox! According to the Direct Marketing Association(DMA), email marketing's return on investment almost $41 per dollar spent compared to social media's ROI of $12.71.  

Easy to Execute

With little design and technical knowledge, creating and sending engaging email campaigns is simple. Intuitive email builders guide you through the creation process so you can produce customized communications to attract new clients and retain your existing ones.

Email Statistics

91% of US adults like to receive promotional emails from companies they do business with.

                                                                                                          Marketing Sherpa, 2015

Email is almost 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined in helping  businesses acquire new customers.        

                                                                                                                McKinsey, 2014

66% of consumers have made a purchase as a result of an email marketing message.

                                                                                                                DMA, 2013

If you're still not sure whether or not to invest part of your marketing budget in email, check out what other small business owners are saying about email. Many have experienced great success. And if your're interested in seeing how it works for yourself, you can try it for free! Start your free 60-day trial of Constant Contact today!

Marketing & Event Resources Named a Constant Contact Certified Solution Provider

Local marketing expert to help small businesses and nonprofits
achieve meaningful marketing results

Marketing & Event Resources in Stratford has been named a Certified Solution Provider by Constant Contact^®, Inc., the trusted marketing advisor to more than 650,000 small organizations worldwide.

As a Certified Solution Provider, Marketing & Event Resources has completed the Constant Contact Certification Program which provides training on Constant Contact tools, marketing best practices, and business development. This training imparts industry-leading knowhow on marketing and services to create meaningful results for program participants and the clients that they serve.

"As a longtime Constant Contact Solutions Provider, this new certification will allow my organization to offer additional best practices and knowledge to make the marketing and email campaigns we develop for our clients more productive," said Jocelyn Murray, principal consultant and owner of Marketing & Event Resources. "Email can deliver highly effective results in any organizations' sales, client retention or fundraising efforts."

Marketing & Event Resources helps nonprofit organizations and small and medium size businesses realize the full potential of their online marketing efforts. The company's services include marketing strategy and planning, email marketing, social media and public relations.

“The certification program gives our Solution Providers access to the education that keeps them on the leading edge of marketing best practices,” said Catherine Kniker, chief channel officer and vice president, international, Constant Contact. “By becoming a Certified Solution Provider, Jocelyn has demonstrated her commitment to helping clients succeed by taking proactive steps to grow her marketing skill set.”’

About Marketing & Event Resources

Marketing & Event Resources is a full-service marketing agency founded in 1999. MER works with nonprofits and businesses to help them increase their visibility and revenue through a variety of marketing channels. Clients include Beth-El Center, Junior Achievement of Western CT, Easter Seals Goodwill Industries and many local small businesses. Visit the MER website for more details.

About Constant Contact®, Inc.

Constant Contact introduced the first email marketing tool for small businesses, nonprofits, and associations in 1998.  Today, the company helps more than 650,000 customers worldwide find marketing success through the only all-in-one online marketing platform for small organizations.  Anchored by our world-class email marketing tool, Constant Contact helps small businesses drive repeat business and find new customers. It features multi-channel marketing campaigns (newsletters/announcements, offers/promotions, online listings, events/registration, and feedback) combined with shared content, contacts, and reporting; free award-winning coaching and product support; and integrations with critical business tools – all from a single login. The company’s extensive network of educators, consultants/resellers, technology providers, franchises, and national associations offer further support to help small organizations succeed and grow. Through its Innovation Loft, Constant Contact is fueling the next generation of small business technology.

Constant Contact and the Constant Contact Logo are registered trademarks of Constant Contact, Inc. All Constant Contact product names and other brand names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Constant Contact, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.

                                                                                                                                        

Get Results Using Email and Social Media Marketing

As a Constant Contact Solutions Provider I've got more ways than ever to help your business succeed.   I can help you develop additional strategies to engage with your prospects, customers, clients or members wherever they are. From their inbox to online, I can consult and support you when you need to:

Let's start growing and engaging your audience now!

 

Special Offer: Get 30% off Constant Contact products for 3 months if you sign up before September 30th! 

Email Marketing-  Social Campaigns-  EventSpot-  Online Survey and more!

Contact Jocelyn for more details: jocelynm@marketing-er.com.