Blogs

It’s here. Today marks the official release day for The Constant Contact Guide to Email Marketing, written by our very own Eric Groves, senior vice president of global market development.

The book contains tips and suggestions for creating effective email marketing messages, and it's filled not only with inspiring customer examples, but also with the kinds of best practice advice you find on this blog, in our Hints & Tips newsletter, and in our webinars.

More importantly, The Constant Contact Guide to Email Marketing is a comprehensive guide to building stronger customer relationships. As Eric says in his book, “When you invest in building relationships with your customers, they return the favor by thinking of you first when the time comes for making a purchase. Customers who have a relationship with you will also go out of their way and ignore the competition.”

To get more insights like these, pick up your copy of The Constant Contact Guide to Email Marketing today at your favorite local retailer. You can also get more information about the book and read an excerpt by clicking here.

A common question I’m asked by small businesses and nonprofits that are looking for feedback from their customers and members is: “Should I offer an incentive with my online surveys or not?” I think we can all attest to having plenty to do and no time to do it. So the answer I always give is, “Yes. If you want a good response rate, then there should be an incentive for taking your survey. The real question is what your incentive should be.”

Finding the right incentive depends on a few things:

Much has been said about how marketing via email to members of the Millennial generation — those between the ages of 18 and 25 — is ineffective because these people are more connected via social media and don’t use email as much. Well, according to the most recent Global Consumer Email Study from the marketing services firm Epsilon, the opposite is true.

How do you know what aspects of your email newsletter are the most popular? If you’re only looking at your open rate or your click-through rate, then you’re only getting half the story.

A great newsletter is interactive, and has plenty for the reader to do — whether that’s in the form of calls-to-action or links to click on. And the more you give people to click on, the more you’ll learn about what catches readers’ attention.

I've always enjoyed visiting my favorite small business. It's that Cheers kind of feeling, where "everybody knows your name." I walk in and the employees are sociable, friendly, helpful, and truly glad I came. It's this neighborly manner that differentiates small businesses from the big guys, and helps win loyal, repeat customers like me.

There is plenty of research that shows it's the customer experience your employees provide that has a major impact on your bottom line. According to RightNow's third annual Customer Experience Impact Report, published in 2008:

We want to know: What is your greatest challenge when it comes to surveying your customers and members? Share your answer in our latest poll. After you vote, you'll be able to see what other people have said, and you'll know how your answer compares to theirs.

Look for the final tally in next month's issue of Hints & Tips.

Innovation that really drives the performance of your organization and allows you to do more with less requires great ideas. Sure it would be great to hire a consultant that will provide business improvement through proven processes of innovation, but you don't want to shell out a lot of money. So where can you get brilliant innovative ideas for free? Your solution: a web-based suggestion box.

Two email marketers walked into a bar. One turned to the other and asked, “What’s the secret to creating a great email message?” The other one thought for a second and finally replied, “To get to the other side.”

My apologies for that truly lame attempt at humor, but hopefully you get the idea I’m trying to make here: email marketing is no joke. Even people who make their livelihoods telling jokes take it seriously. But that doesn't mean you can't have some fun with the messages you send — especially if your business or organization is known for having a lot of personality.

That’s why I recently spoke with some people in comedy troupes who are funny to get their thoughts on email marketing. Not only do these folks know how to make people laugh, they also who know a thing or two about conveying brand and personality in their email messages.

Here are five lessons they shared:

Autoresponder emails are a great way to keep in touch with your new subscribers and ensure you are providing them value without doing much work. If you aren't familiar with the autoresponder feature, it allows you to create emails that are automatically sent to new subscribers at a set time. Sound good? But what kind of content should you include? Here are a few autoresponder ideas to take advantage of...

When we announced AppConnect^TM earlier this year, we were anticipating that new developments would come in two forms: integrations with third party applications and extensions for Constant Contact that make existing product features easier to use. We have been thrilled with the results to date on both fronts.

Today, I want to show you how I was able to use a new extension that was added to Constant Contact, based on our public APIs and a standard Constant Contact account, to create a customized “Welcome” experience for our new developers who joined the web services program. The extension that I used for this is our new Contact Capture Tool that enables you to add an email address, along with demographic details, right from your desktop.