Amy Black's Blog Posts

I recently attended the Email Experience Council’s first email marketing conference, the Email Evolution Conference. 

Overall, I found the event helpful. Much of what I heard served to reinforce the best practices that we teach here at Constant Contact. I also walked away with some new ideas for our Hints & Tips email program and some goodies to pass on to all of you, including ideas for starting a VIP program and for re-engaging your subscribers.  

One of the best aspects of these events is the networking. It’s great to be surrounded by people who spend most of their waking hours thinking about email marketing. I made some new friends at the EEC event with email marketers who are passionate and knowledgeable in the field. A few of these folks, bloggers Tamara Gielen and Chad White, linked to our blog.  

Are you a believer in surveys? I am. I love surveys. I’ve used them for years and have gotten great results. I rely on them to make important decisions. For example, at the end of 2007 I sent a successful survey to the subscribers of the Hints & Tips newsletters. I was working on the editorial plan for 2008 and I wanted to get their input to make sure I can meet their needs with our newsletter. An online survey was the perfect way to get their feedback. No matter what your organization does, or whether you are a business or nonprofit, online surveys are a very important part of your tool kit. If you are wondering why you should send one, I can help. While there are many reasons to send a survey here are my top eight.

Pete Sheinbaum, the CEO of DailyCandy, spoke at today’s luncheon. The DailyCandy story is a pretty amazing one. I’d heard it before, but it was great to be reminded. According to their website, DailyCandy is, “a free daily e-mail newsletter and website, that is the insider’s guide to what’s hot, new, and undiscovered — from fashion and style to gadgets and travel.”

The company was started in 2000 by former New York magazine writer Dana Levy. According to Pete, the email list for the first email sent out consisted of 70 people. (A recent article from New York magazine has the number as 700. So maybe I heard Pete wrong, but whether it was 70 or 700, the point is, it was a small list). Today, 2.5 million people receive DailyCandy email in their inbox.

In the session Uncovering the True Value of a Customer’s Email Address, Lawrence DiCapua from PepsiCola North America covered the topic of creating a VIP program for your most active subscribers, especially those who are telling others about you by forwarding your emails.

Have you paid much attention to who is forwarding your emails? Those who forward are your influencers (in the case of Pepsi, these are the people who are drinking Pepsi products and getting others to as well). You have an incredible opportunity to build an even deeper connection with people who like your company and your email content so much that they are willing to tell their friends and family about it.  

One of the sessions I attended was Fighting Off Old Age: Keeping Your List Young and Active. It was primarily about what to do with the inactive segments of your list. The discussion centered around re-engagement: identifying those on your list who have been dormant for some time (could be 6 months, could be 12) and then sending targeted emails to them with the goal of getting them to engage once again.

I’m sitting in this morning’s keynote session on blogging. The five panelists are all bloggers who write about email marketing (and some other topics). Listening to them compelled me to write this blog post.

These individuals were chosen for the panel because they have quality blogs. Some of their content is more focused on the needs of larger companies, but there is a lot that smaller companies can learn from their observations and insights.

This week I’m at the EEC’s (Email Experience Council) Email Evolution Conference in San Diego with about 500 other email marketers. I’m here to get new ideas and insights that I can share with you. I will be writing and publishing a number of blog entries today and tomorrow (much more than usual) in order to share what I’m learning as I’m learning it.

I started my time at the conference by attending the Email Marketing Bootcamp. This was a session that had roughly 50 people from different companies (medium to large in size) who wanted a crash course in email marketing. It was a pre-conference workshop that I attended with our Distance Learning (a.k.a Webinar Guru) Heidi Tobias.

Results from Constant Contact's 3^rd Annual Small Business Valentine's Day Outlook Survey are in!

68 percent (up 53 percent from last year) plan to use promotions to capture more Valentine’s sales.

February 14 is Valentine’s Day. Most of America’s “lovers” will be doing some shopping over the next few weeks, so, if you are in the business of selling something, you can show some love to your customers by sending them some great gift ideas in a Valentine’s Day-themed email.

Constant Contact has a selection of Valentine’s Day templates you can choose from. They are complete with all the images this holiday of love is known for: love birds, flowers, and lots of hearts in red and pink. See a few samples.

Around here, e-newsletter expert (and Constant Contact customer) Michael Katz is somewhat of a legend. I may be overstating it a bit, but it’s true that several of our senior executives, including our CEO, mention Michael’s newsletter often as an excellent example of compelling content. Just this week Michael’s name came up in conversation, and today I received his email newsletter. So it seems the universe wants me to write a blog entry about Michael.