LOCAL SURVEY REVEALS ATLANTA SMALL BUSINESSES POSITIVE ON BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT, EMAIL MARKETING AND TED TURNER

Regional Small Businesses Rate Various Aspects of Owning and Running a Business in the Atlanta Area

Waltham, MA. - October 04, 2005

Nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of Atlanta-area owners of small and medium sized businesses responding to a recent survey cited the city's business-friendly environment, strong local economy, or community support as leading reasons to own and run a business in the region. Other top reasons included local events (13 percent) and great customers (12 percent). (See full results below*). The survey of more than 130 Atlanta-area businesses was conducted by Constant Contact (www.constantcontact.com), the leading email marketing service for small businesses, associations and nonprofits.

The survey also ranked preferred marketing practices, with email marketing cited as extremely or very important for business promotion by 87 percent of small businesses surveyed. Respondents ranked other marketing channels, including direct mail (18 percent) and online advertising (8 percent) as less valuable methods for marketing their businesses, with radio (5 percent) and yellow page advertisements (2 percent) rated least valuable.

When queried about the cultural and entertainment benefits of living in the Atlanta area, survey respondents cited local restaurants (29 percent) most often, followed by educational opportunities (24 percent) and the music scene (17 percent). Atlanta's sports teams and community programs tied at 14 percent in ratings of respondents' favorite reasons to live and work in the Atlanta area.

Atlanta small business owners were also asked which local celebrity, civic or business leader they would choose to endorse their business. Business icon and philanthropist Ted Turner (39 percent) narrowly edged out Home Depot co-founder and owner of the Atlanta Falcons Arthur Blank (36 percent), with former president Jimmy Carter (21 percent) also cited.

Asked to choose from a list of local sports and entertainment celebrities for an endorsement, respondents led with Channel 2 anchor Monica Kaufman (28 percent), followed closely by Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick (32 percent) and baseball legend Hank Aaron (22 percent).

*Included in the survey, small businesses were asked: "Why is Atlanta the best place to own and run a business?"
The results were as follows:
Business Friendly	30%
Local economy	28%
Community support	16%
Local events	13%
Great Customers	12%
Transportation options	2%

For more information about the survey or for additional results, please contact Tom Francoeur at 781-388-7900 ext. 205, or by email at tfrancoeur@topazpartners.com

About Constant Contact
With over 40,000 customers and a recent winner of SmallBusinessComputing.com's "Excellence in Technology Award," Constant Contact® is the leading permission Do-It-Yourself Email Marketing® service for small and medium businesses (SMBs) and associations. Constant Contact is a Web-based email marketing solution that enables small organizations to easily create and send professional HTML email newsletters, promotions, announcements and more with no technical expertise required. Designed and priced for SMBs, Constant Contact is affordable, easy-to-use and includes a free 60-day trial at: www.constantcontact.com. The service is marketed through over 1,500 Business Partners and more than 100 marquee channel partners including American Express OPEN, AOL, Corel, FTD, IBM, Interland, Network Solutions, Register.com, Website Pros and Yahoo Search Marketing. Constant Contact is a founding member of the Email Service Provider Coalition (ESPC), a group formed to fight spam while protecting the delivery of legitimate email. Constant Contact is funded by Morgan Stanley Venture Partners, Commonwealth Capital Ventures, Longworth Venture Partners and Hudson Ventures. For more information, please call 781-472-8100.

Please direct all press inquiries to:

Rosalind Morville Constant Contact 339-222-5772 rmorville@constantcontact.com