An Easier Way to Add Contacts to Your Mailing List

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.

As I see new developers join the program, I need an easy way to send them a customized welcome email that notifies them of previous integrations, documentation, and support avenues available to them.

To accomplish this, I first downloaded the Contact Capture Tool onto my desktop. Then, in my Constant Contact account, I created a “Developer Welcome” email based on a standard Constant Contact template. Next, I created a new list in the account, titled “New Developer Welcome Email,” that I will add these new developers to. Finally, I created an auto responder that contained only the new welcome email, and I attached it to the new list I had created for developers.

My expectation was that any new contact I added to that list would automatically receive my customized Welcome email (obviously, if I need them to receive multiple emails, I can add other messages to this auto-responder sequence). So, when I had my first developer’s contact information that I wanted to receive this email, I fired up my Contact widget, pasted the email address into the widget, and hit Add. Voila! That was it. The new Welcome email was triggered, and we were off and running.

Now, you may say that it isn’t too difficult to simply login to Constant Contact and add the contact manually. And I agree. But the new widget simplifies that even more so that I don’t have to start a new browser to simply add an email address.

If you want to try this at home, here’s what you will need:

• One installation of the Contact Capture Tool from Constant Contact (it’s free!);
• One auto-responder series assigned to a list in your Constant Contact account; and
• One contact email to add to your Contact Capture Tool.

I realize you could use CRMs like Goldmine or ACT, or more sophisticated applications, to accomplish this task, but for many small business owners, this flow will serve the need of getting that first touch on a customer while providing a more unique experience. Just wanted to share.

Send us your integrations and extensions — we’d love to see what you're building and using!