My job, especially in the economy, is to know the best and most cost-effective marketing tools to use or refer to my clients. Email marketing is a service I often suggest for any business looking to connect with their customers and prospects. I recommend Constant Contact to encourage business owners to capitalize on your current customers, thus using them as marketing.  How’s that for inexpensive? There’s no better marketing than that of a satisfied customer!

For a recent customer I used the tools in Constant Contact to create professionally branded newsletters and promotional emails that ensured follow-up with every customer who made a purchase, making nearly half of them repeat customers (not to mention- walking advertisements). Within three months my client really began to see the results of his investment of $15 per month for Constant Contact.

I have since became such a fan of the Constant Contact products and customer service that I joined their Experts Program, completed the Constant Contact University and now provide one-on-one coaching, training sessions, and teach seminars about “The Power of E-mail Marketing”.

You, like many of my customers and new business owners, may ask…”How is E-mail marketing different from spam?”
Here’s the difference: Constant Contact is “permission-based” or “opt-in” email marketing, which means that the recipient has given permission to receive email messages from you and given you their email address, in some form whether it’s a business card or a sign-up box on your newsletter. Marketing to an audience that’s genuinely interested in your message will be most productive. And (one of the most important things that make your email compliant with spam laws) there is an option for the recipient to remove themselves (opt-out) from the mailing list at any time.

Constant Contact allows you to manage your email marketing efforts, so you can really see results. When you send email’s from the web-based service, you can view reports that show you how many bounce (and which ones), how many open the message, and unsubscribe, providing tracking tools and information so that you can really evaluate the outcome. The program is easy to use if you are familiar with the features and functionality of any word-processing program. It includes hundreds of templates, tutorials, guides and “step-by-step” screens to create professionally designed messages. You can even include links to web pages, blogs, or even PayPal buttons for direct purchases.

If you sign up for a 60 day free trial (no credit card requirement), give me a call at 904.527.1119 and I can sit down with you or your group to provide one-on-one training and ways to use Constant Contact best for your business.  Constant Contact pricing options work for any small business – starting at just $15 monthly for up to 500 email contacts, the program is web-based so there is no software to purchase or install, and no long-term contract is required.

Constant Contact gets a “high five” for being an affordable, hassle-free solution for email marketing. Its ease-of-use, extensive functionality, variety of templates and helpful learning resources make Constant Contact an excellent answer for small businesses and professional organizations. You can quickly launch and easily manage professional-looking newsletters and other email promotions without a steep learning curve or breaking your wallet.

Here’s a starting point of things you’ll need to gather before creating your e-mail newsletter. My guess is that you already have most of these things in one form or another.  Pulling them together and saving them in one place on your computer will make creating your first e-mail much easier! 

• Figure out what you want to say and to whom. This may sound simplistic but the process of defining your message and target audience will be very helpful. Having an e-newsletter just for the sake of having something to send out to your email list is not worth your time and effort.  If you don’t have a valid message to share, your readers will quickly learn to dismiss your mailings.  Here are some great reasons to send an e-newsletter:

-Introduce yourself
-Introduce a new service or product
-Share your expertise
-Publish a calendar
-Advertise a special offer
-Ask for feedback about your products or services

Using a combination of the ideas above is even better!  Once you are clear on what it is you are trying to say, the format of your e-newsletter will be easier to figure out.

• Write a short description about yourself and/or your company. This can come from your bio, resume or other promotional information you have created.  You can use this as a full section of your first issue to introduce yourself and later, in an abbreviated form, as a closing footer in each publication.  

• Find an image (in a .jpeg or .gif format) of you or your group. This can be used to introduce yourself to your readers in your introductory issue or run continuously depending on your needs. Ideally, find a single image that you can crop into a square and also into a rectangle or find two separate images as there are times when one shape will work better than the other.

• Write a short description about your product or service.  This lets the reader know what you do or sell.  Hopefully, you have a 2 minute, 5 minute and 30 minute version of your presentation that you have done so often that you can do it in your sleep, but take the time to think about how you want to present it in this venue, to this audience.  If you segment your list (something that I can help you do), you can create multiple descriptions with different areas emphasized that you can later send to the different, targeted lists.

• An image (in a .jpeg or .gif format) of the product, if you have a product you sell. Have a separate image for each product you sell and possibly groups of products to tie back to the product blurbs above.  Keep in mind that having a square and a rectangular version of each will give you more flexibility when laying out your documents.

• Make sure that you have a usable version of your company logo (in a .jpeg or .gif format) in your files. If you created it yourself, this should not be a problem but so many people need to contact their graphic artist or their webmaster to track it down that I include this here.  You want to be able to insert this image into your documents to maintain a consistent image across all your materials.  And when setting up a Constant Contact account, you will also use this to brand your welcome letter and sign-up landing page.

• A list of contacts you wish to send your email out to.  If you have an existing list, export and save it in an .xls or .txt format.  If you don’t have a list yet, don’t worry.  From now on, whenever you meet someone, ask for a card and ask them if you can add them to your mailing list.  Collect emails at every event and class you attend and presentation you make. Once you have opened your Constant Contact account, you will be able to create a sign-up box which you should add to your website, blog page and any place else that you have visitors. I also hold advanced classes on how to build your mailing list, call me at 904.527.1119 to set up a one-on-one consultation to discuss ways to grow your list and your business!

 
When you are ready for that group class or one-on-one session. Call me at 904.527.1119, or email me at Kristin@high5productions.com to set up a time to meet so we can get your message online and into your client’s inbox!

Good Luck!

#2 – Want to get a lot of addresses fast? Start a contest for your employees, staff, or volunteers with a prize to the person who’s collected the most email addresses from customers, clients, or members. Reward them with a day off, a gift certificate, a free meal, or a cash bonus!

#3 – Use the Share Button at the bottom of Constant Contact e-mail’s to point to your newsletters on your social media pages like Facebook and Twitter.

#4 – Use Constant Contact Email Archive to turn your email newsletters into website content. You’ll keep your site refreshed easily, and give people a great peek into your organization and all that you offer your customers or members.

#5 – Many businesses send birthday promotions offering customers a discount or gift on their day. Why not offer an anniversary promotion? You’ll attract couples who will be in a celebratory mood to splurge.

My question was this: How the heck can I run my business AND have time to update all those social networking sites I’m supposed to be on? Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc.

Here’s a partial solution: ping.fm. It’s a free service that updates all your social networks at once. Instead of logging into each site to update your status, log into ping.fm, update your message and…”PING”, it updates all of your networks at once…MAJOR timesaver!

So why is that only a partial solution?
Because a large and important part of social media marketing is interacting with your “friends/followers”. Comment on your follower posts; they’re people who have chosen to follow you or your business because they are genuinely interested. Be interested in them too.

Ping is a great tool to send out links (and shortens links for you),  post news about your latest sale, news, or events- most things you would normally post on your status update. There are even mobile apps that allow you to post on the go, a great tool for my clients and myself.

How often do you see e-mails, postcards, flyers, or letters that lack clear writing, correct spelling, and proper punctuation? Some even have outstanding graphics, print quality, and competitive prices, but you rarely get to the end of the ad because it seems as though it’s hollering right into your ear. Too much copy is underlined, highlighted, or put into boldface or capital letters. I hate to see a spectacular offer presented with a lack of clarity. 

Here are some solutions:

• Be sure the person doing the writing is a good writer.
• Write using short words, short sentences, and short paragraphs in a conversational tone rather than a high-pressure selling tone.
• Present short phrases and bullet points.

Quality writing gives you a competitive advantage by establishing yourself as a professional. Proof-reading is essential!