Constant Contact

Constant Contact is an email marketing and online survey platform designed to make online marketing affordable and easy for small business owners.

Per an Interland study, high percentages of business owners indicate that they use email to communicate.  More precisely, 85% indicated that they use email to communicate with customers and 80% of them used email to communicate with partners.    Last, 67% of the business owners surveyed used email to communicate with customer prospects.

Email Marketing is SPAM, right?

SPAM is the act of sending unsolicited email to recipients with whom you have no relationship.  SPAM is defined and governed by federal law under the Can-Spam act and IS NOT considered an affective means of online marketing.

Email marketing is the practice of providing customers, partners, employees, and potential customers with valuable communications via email.  Whether in the form of a "Newsletter", "Market Update", or "Monthly Specials and Close Outs" communication, each individual email campaign should be goaled and providing value to its recipients.  For those who do not find value in it, the email should make "opting out" of the email a single click process.

Why Market to Existing Customers?

Repeat customers are more valuable and profitable to a business than new customers.  The Harvard Business Review revealed that it is 6-7 times more expensive to attain a new customer than it is to retain an existing one.  Furthermore, a Bain & Company study indicated that repeat customers spend, on average, 67% more than new customers and that after their 10th purchase, a satisfied repeat customer will have made seven referrals to your business.

Email marketing should have the marketing goal of staying "top of mind".  A customer who utilizes your legal services for business incorporation might not know that your firm has an attorney specializing intellectual property.  Keeping in touch with customers is a way to educate them as to your business and its evolution.

 Treat It Like Lunch

Newcomers to email marketing often make the classic mistake of "emailing their customers something they are selling".  Though the primary objective of the business owner, this type of email marketing campaign provides little value to customers and often fails.  Email Marketers should treat a campaign like a business lunch.

Imagine that you had the goal of  taking each one of your customers to lunch every month.  Due to time and expense, this is not realistic; yet, there is a point.  What would you talk about?  As a realtor, for example, sliding a piece of paper across the table and saying, "I have the following homes for sale" might result in a short lunch since the customer just bought a home from you last year.  However, if the lunch involves conversations regarding the real estate market changes, opinions on the Federal government's bailout plan, updates on new stores in the area that have fun furniture and accessories, or even valuable refinance information, it would be fair game to end the lunch with, "I do have some great homes on the market at bargain prices if you know of anyone in the market. . . ".  In other words, earn the right to sell via providing value.

Put your email marketing campaign to the test over lunch before you subject it to Pentium processors and giga-bits speeds on the Internet.  A failed lunch is a lot easier to control than a failed email campaign.

Constant Contact

Constant Contact is one of the premier providers of email marketing solutions for small businesses.  Their intuitive online tools take the "technology hassle" out of creating great looking HTML based emails and their attention to compliance helps get your email delivered without being snapped up by email SPAM programs or violating federal law.  Most important, their customer support is based in Waltham, MA and when you are in need, you can simply pick up the phone and get a human on the line with ease.

Visit www.GoConstantContact.com for more information and attend one of their online seminars or in person seminars in your area.  Their 60 day sign-ups are free and will allow you to put your email marketing campaign to the test before you have to spend any money.

* This message was provided by The Efficient Business LLC, a Constant Contact reseller in Dallas, TX.