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  • Digital Marketing Playbook for Community & Sporting Organisations

    In today's crowded digital landscape, community and sporting organisations face a unique set of challenges. The passionate volunteers and dedicated staff who form the backbone of these groups are often stretched thin, juggling countless responsibilities. While their focus remains on nurturing their community and developing their athletes, the need to attract new members, engage existing ones, and secure vital funding becomes increasingly difficult. Many organisations grapple with a number of pain points: Limited reach: Relying on traditional methods like flyers, local newspaper ads, and word-of-mouth can only go so far. Reaching a wider, more diverse audience beyond the immediate local area is a constant struggle. Volunteer burnout: The same handful of committed individuals often shoulder the burden of communication, promotion, and administration - leading to exhaustion and a lack of fresh ideas. Inconsistent communication: Without a clear strategy, communication can be ad hoc and reactive, leading to missed opportunities and a disengaged community. Members, parents, and supporters may feel out of the loop on important news, events, and results. Stagnant membership & participation: Attracting new players, volunteers, and supporters is crucial for growth. Without a proactive approach, membership can plateau or even decline. Difficulty in securing sponsorship: Proving value to potential sponsors is a challenge. Organisations need to demonstrate a strong, engaged audience to justify investment, but often lack the data to do so. This is where digital marketing becomes a powerful ally. It's not about adding more work; it's about working smarter. By leveraging the tools and strategies outlined in this playbook, your organisation can overcome these hurdles and unlock new opportunities. Digital marketing provides the ability to: Expand your reach and visibility: Connect with a broader audience, attract new members from diverse demographics, and build a stronger online presence that makes your organisation easy to find. Streamline communication: Create a consistent, reliable flow of information. Keep your community informed about game times, results, events, and club news in real-time, reducing the administrative burden on volunteers. Boost engagement and loyalty: Foster a vibrant online community where members, families, and fans can interact, share their passion, and feel a deeper connection to your organisation. Drive membership growth: Implement targeted campaigns to attract new participants and volunteers, ensuring the lifeblood of your organisation continues to thrive. Demonstrate value to sponsors: Build a robust and engaged digital following that provides tangible data and a clear return on investment for sponsors, making it easier to secure and retain vital partnerships. This Marketing Playbook is designed to be a practical guide for organisations of all sizes. It's your roadmap to harnessing the power of Constant Contact’s digital marketing tools to not only survive, but thrive, ensuring your community and sporting organisation continues to inspire, connect, and grow for years to come. Get ready to transform your approach to reaching current and prospective members with clear, concise communication that drives action - let's dive in! Part 1: First Things First... KYM This first step is all about WHO you are targeting. Knowing your customer ('KYC' in marketing-speak)... or, in our case, knowing your members (KYM) is key to any marketing activities. If you don't do this vital first step, you could end up wasting precious time and money on something that doesn't work. This process involves understanding who you want to attract. In other words, who are your "ideal members"? What are their key traits & demographics? What does your organisation need to do to attract them? Some people break these down into one or more 'personas' (for example: a persona for club members, one for volunteers, one for sponsors / donors and so on), but we'll keep it fairly high level for now. For example, let's say you help look after a Meals on Wheels Group. Your target audience for members are going to be over a certain age (either 50, or 65), but for volunteers could be anyone over 18 years of age. For sponsors /donors, it could be any company or corporation. This particular example shows just how varied the different target audiences are. Discovering who your audience is and working out what resonates with them means you'll be able to use the right messaging to attract them. After all, it's going to cost you much less (money and time!) if your marketing is targeted correctly. Once you've worked out who you want to attract, the next step is working out how to attract them. In the business world, we would generally look at our competitors and work out the different areas in which they excel vs. where we excel - but it can be a little different for a community or sporting organisation, as we may not be 'competing' with other organisations. Rather, perhaps you might be competing for a volunteers' free time, for a corporate donation or for someone's spare time that they can come and play their favourite sport with you & the other team members (for example). For each of your personas (the member / player volunteer, the corporate donor or sponsor), have a think about the following and use that to form a 'messaging matrix'. This will help you understand more about what appeals to each group - you can then use that in your messaging on your website, on social media and in your emails in order to attract and engage. Why would someone want to be a member of OR donate to OR volunteer for, your club or organisation? What would they get out of it? What do you want them to do? It could be: play for a team OR donate money / time. How would they 'do the thing you want them to do'? Is it by contacting you, or filling in an online form, or buying something from you? 💡 Andy's tip: Try not to attract everyone at once with the same message - it won't work and confuses things. Ensure your emails, social posts, advertising and website have the ability to cater to these different audiences. This could be in the form of different emails or email automation workflows for different groups of people. Different web pages for each type of person (the member, the volunteer, the sponsor, etc) you want to attract. Different ads (with different text & imagery) to attract the various groups... otherwise it'll just confuse the reader. Yes, it takes more time - but you'll be rewarded with the right people because your message is clear. Part 2: Contact Fields & Segmentation Most clubs & organisations will already have a list of contacts to import into Constant Contact - just make sure you have marketing consent first! If you use a member management program, you may be able to setup an automated contact sync between it and Constant Contact using a third-party app called 'Zapier'. Either way, it might pay to think about segmentation first. Doing so will reward you with less unsubscribes, higher engagement (clicks) and more email opens ...and we all want that, right? Who Are They? Think about your contact list for a moment. Are they current players / members or prospective ones? What about volunteers - current, past, prospective - or all of the above? Knowing where they fit is vital for being able to segment your contact data. Remember - we want to send the right message to the right people, so being able to 'split' (segment) your contact list is probably going to be quite important! As you can imagine, not all contacts are equal and, as such, your marketing message needs to change depending on the audience. There's that word again... "audience". It's vital to know who your contacts are because they're likely all at different stages of their 'marketing journey' with you, so a one-size-fits-all approach probably won't work. Get the Timing Right Imagine for a minute that you don't segment your contact list and you send an email to everyone (including past corporate sponsors), reminding players to sign up for the next season & pay their fees. I can almost guarantee you'll get unsubscribes from those who aren't players, because this email would have been completely irrelevant to them. And now, you've just lost the ability to email your past sponsors asking them to renew because they've unsubscribed! Similarly, imagine asking your volunteers about corporate sponsorship. Wrong list, wrong audience. Remember, a one-size-fits-all approach just doesn't work anymore. It’s All About the Data 💡 Andy's tip: When it comes to your spreadsheet of contacts, adding a few extra columns for things like "contact type" (player, volunteer, sponsor / donor) and perhaps even when the person (if a donor) last donated time or money, will do wonders for your open rate - because it means you CAN send the right emails to the right people at the right time. Essentially, you're now 'segmenting' your list and your email sends. Segmented sends have better engagement rates because they're relevant for the audience. Once this data is in Constant Contact, you can easily create segments for these different groups of people - making it super easy to email the right group! You can also get smart when it comes to building your emails - create one email but have the text & imagery change depending on who's getting it (more on this later). Part 3: Website Sign-up Form Great, so you've got your contact list nicely segmented and imported into Constant Contact - but what about new contacts? Growing your list is just as important as marketing to your existing contacts. This is where sign-up forms can help. They're quick and easy to build, they can be embedded onto your website (or linked from your social media accounts) and are a great way to grow your list through new contact subscriptions. 💡 Andy's tip: Remember how we discussed contact segmentation in the previous topic? Just because a new contact is signing up for your eNewsletter through your website, doesn't mean you can't segment them either. Make sure you add any relevant fields to your sign-up forms too... perhaps a question titled "What are you interested in hearing about?" and the options could be 'Players & Members', 'Volunteering' and 'Corporate Sponsorship' ...in other words, exactly reflecting the way you'd segment your list. This means new contacts can choose what they are interested in receiving emails about. What's in it for you: More data from your contacts so you can target & engage them more effectively. What's in it for them: Emails that are more relevant to their interests and thus, a lower likelihood to unsubscribe & a much higher engagement. ...it's win-win in my books! Part 4: Email & Subject Lines Email Structure When building your emails, they should generally always follow this structure; Logo Banner The content (personalised with the recipient's first name, at bare minimum) - with a call to action of some kind Your contact details Social media links Unsubscribe link (we automatically add this for you) Email Design Your emails should also use consistent branding and colours, and generally the same font throughout. Consistency is key when it comes to design. 💡 Andy's tip: Try our Brand Kit tool - it goes and grabs the colours, logo and imagery from your website to make email building a breeze! Use headings to help build 'sections' in longer emails - though generally, 'less is more' when it comes to emails. Putting useful & interesting content online is also a great way to boost your website's SEO - and then you can simply link to it from an email using a read more block. What's Your Call-to-Action? Every email should have a point or desired action. Think of it this way - what do you want the contact to do as a result of getting this email? Should they sign up as a player / member for the next season? Should they donate online? Should they register for an event or purchase a uniform online? Use buttons for your key call to actions, as they stand out. As a general rule of thumb, stick to 1 or 2 clear call-to-actions in your emails and don't confuse the message. If you need different call to actions for different types of contacts, then it might make sense to use our dynamic content function to make the email appear differently for your various contact segments (eg. volunteers might see a section about upcoming events where you need volunteers, whereas members could see information about attending those same events as a player). Subject Lines Shorter subject lines seem to work better, but each industry and audience type (consumer vs. business) is different. The best thing to do is to try a few different variations (short vs. longer email subjects, subjects with vs. without an emoji, etc) by A/B testing your subject lines over time. This will let you see what resonates with your audience & come up with a winning formula. You can also try AI to suggest subject lines for you. One thing that definitely works is personalising the subject line. You should see an increase in your email open rate when compared to a non-personalised subject line. 💡 Andy's tip: It's always a good idea to check your reports after you send an email. That way, you'll know who's engaged and which links they're clicking. You can even trigger automations to run based on whether contacts do (or don't) open your email, or whether they do (or don't) click on certain links. More on that in the next section. Part 5: Automations It's definitely worth considering automations as part of your marketing. After all, they're very good time-savers and just because it's automated doesn't mean it lacks that personal touch. Just like a regular email, an automated one can be personalised with recipient data and can include information specific to whatever your contact is interested in. In many ways, an automated email is often more effective than a manually-sent one, because they automatically get the timing right based on clicks, opens & engagement (or lack thereof). Automations for Community & Sporting Organisations Why Automate? Saves time: Automate repetitive communication tasks & free up time to focus on high-value activities. Improved lead nurturing: Consistent and timely follow-up keeps leads engaged & moves them through the funnel, getting them towards your goal - be it signing up as a member, donating, volunteering, etc. Personalisation at scale: Segmenting your audience and sending targeted content makes communications more relevant and impactful. Increased conversions: Nurtured prospective members, volunteers or corporate sponsors are more likely to convert into active ones. Data and analytics: You'll still get insights into open rates, click-through rates, and engagement, allowing you to refine your strategies. Brand building: Automations help to maintain brand presence in the inbox, positioning you as a knowledgeable, trusted and reliable expert. Automation Ideas Send a thank you email whenever a new contact joins your mailing list from your website, displaying the upcoming events. It's also a great way to introduce your club and show some recent photos - or even videos from your YouTube channel. (⏳ Setup time: 5 minutes or less - view guide) Send a quarterly-recurring email to contacts with all of the upcoming events where players or volunteers are needed. Segment the email based on the contact type - so players see content relating to matches they can attend and volunteers see content about volunteering at said matches. You could also set up an annually-recurring email for corporate sponsors to thank them for previous donations, show them how their donation has helped your club or organisation throughout the year and gauge interest about sponsoring again. Spend less time chasing people - automate it! (⏳ Setup time: 5 minutes or less - view guide) Send educational content (often called a 'nurture series') to new players & another to new volunteers, explaining how everything works - including sharing important material or documents they need to read. This could be an email series over time, eg. 4 emails over 4 weeks. Additionally, you could get super fancy and put a link or button in all of your general & eNews emails which, when clicked, will trigger this series to start automatically for those that click it! (⏳ Setup time: 10 minutes - view guide) Send an automated email once someone signs up as a club member, thanking them for their support and providing details about upcoming matches or events. Trigger a secondary action based on what a contact clicks in your emails. For example, when a contact clicks the "Send me the uniform price list" link in your email nurture series, you can have Constant Contact send them the pricing PDF via email. Tag contacts with additional data automatically, based on what they do / don't do when they receive certain emails from you. 💡 Andy's tip: There's a lot of ideas here, but I recommend starting small with an automated welcome email to begin with ...you can always build out from there over time! Part 6: Social Media Last of all, let's briefly talk about social media. Although you don't "own" the followers on social media (unlike email), it's still a channel worth marketing on. It's a great way to advertise upcoming games / matches, celebrate wins, promote volunteering (and thank existing ones!), and to build your club's brand. With Constant Contact, you can post on social channels whenever you like. You can also schedule posts, as well as share an email on social media - a great way to save time and share already-made content, rather than reinvent the wheel each time. Our AI assistant can also write the post for you - just enter a prompt and off it goes! 💡 Andy's tip: I often get asked how to turn social media followers into email contacts. We have a great tool for this called Lead Magnet. It's a fantastic way to capture lead information and convert social followers into marketable contacts. More on this in the next section... Part 7: Lead Magnet As mentioned above, you don't "own" your social media followers - which poses a bit of a problem if you've put all of your eggs into the one (social media) basket. If the algorithm suddenly changes overnight or you get locked out of your social media account, there goes your entire marketing strategy! Getting help from a human at most social networks is also increasingly difficult. So how do we convert a 'social follower' into a marketable contact on your list? The answer... is a lead magnet! A lead magnet is like a mini survey that sits on a landing page which we host for you. It's a great way to turn a social follower into an email contact that you own and have permission to directly market to - with personalised, trackable emails. It's easy to setup too. Just enter a prompt into our lead magnet's AI builder and it'll create the mini survey with interactive question-pages, answer-buttons & even a nice background image for you in less than a minute. Everything is completely customisable too - including the form at the end (where you ask the contact for their name & email address). Once setup, you'll be provided with a public link to the survey - which you can add to your social media profile as a link in your bio (as shown in the left side of the image above). When someone visits your lead magnet, they can click the buttons to answer your interactive survey & fill in their information at the end. The process of doing so adds them to your desired contact list in Constant Contact. From here, you can setup a welcome email to send to them, or just email them sales emails, newsletters or whatever else you've promised them. Keen to learn more about our Lead Magnet function? Follow our how-to guide. 💡 Andy's tip: Lead magnet's work best when there's an incentive on offer for joining your list. For example, "Help us pick our next doughnut flavours and you'll get a 10% off code to try them when they're released!". Lead Magnet Ideas Stuck for ideas on what you might do with a lead magnet? Here are some ideas you could use as AI prompts when setting up your lead magnet... What sports are you most interested in playing or supporting? What merchandise should we stock in our shop? Tell us about what you'd like to eat and drink in our clubhouse cafe / restaurant? What days and times are you generally available for training and games? How far are you willing to travel to attend games or training sessions? Remember: Lead magnet is fully customisable, so you can ask a range of questions all within the one magnet (across multiple survey 'pages'). Support & Resources New to Constant Contact? Get started with a free trial today! If you get stuck or need a hand with anything, please reach out to our support team, explore the support knowledgebase or chat with others in the Constant Contact Community. Here are some sporting club / community organisation marketing content & blog posts you might enjoy; The Complete Guide to Email Marketing for Nonprofits How to Market a Sports Event Art Gallery Marketing 101: 7 Creative Strategies That Work 9 Trends for Social Media in Sports Marketing 5 Essential Sports Marketing Strategies The Power of Community: How to Grow Your Small Business Through In-Person and Virtual Relationships Sincere Community Outreach Ideas for Nonprofit Engagement Fundraising Marketing: Best Practices and Strategies 10 Proven Strategies to Increase Online Donations for Your Organisation Understanding Goals of a Nonprofit Organisation: A How-To Guide Happy marketing!
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  • Digital Marketing Playbook for Accountants & Bookkeepers

    In the digital age, a strong online presence is no longer a luxury but a necessity for business growth. This is especially true for professionals in the accounting and bookkeeping sectors. While you're busy crunching numbers and balancing books for your clients, who's taking care of your firm's growth? The truth is, even the most skilled accountants need effective marketing to stand out from the crowd, attract new clients, and retain their existing ones. That’s why Constant Contact’s digital marketing tools help you stay front of mind with clients and potential leads at every stage of the journey. This Marketing Playbook is your ultimate guide to mastering marketing in the accounting and bookkeeping world. We'll explore practical tips, clever tricks, innovative ideas, and proven best practices that will help you build a robust marketing strategy. Whether you're a solo practitioner or part of a large firm, these insights will empower you to connect with your target audience, showcase your expertise, and ultimately, drive sustainable business growth. Get ready to transform your approach to client acquisition and retention - let's dive in! Part 1: First Things First... KYC 🍗 This first step is all about WHO you are targeting. Knowing your customer, or KYC (often referred to as knowing your audience in marketing-speak) is key to any marketing activities. If you don't do this vital first step, you could end up wasting precious time and money on something that doesn't work. This process involves understanding who you want to attract. In other words, who is your "ideal client"? What are their key traits & demographics? What does your firm need to do to attract them? Some people break these down into one or more 'customer personas', but we'll keep it fairly high level for now. If you run a bookkeeping firm that tends to specialise in tradies or solo operators, then a big city client is likely not your ideal customer ...so your messaging needs to be designed to attract the right type. After all, it's going to cost you much less if your marketing efforts are more targeted. Once you've worked out who you want to attract, the next step is working out how to attract them. Who are your competitors, what do you do differently and how are you better? This will help you uncover your unique selling proposition (USP). 💡 Andy's tip: To help you find your USP, I like to use the POD / POP / POI principle; this stands for Points of Difference, Points of Parity and Points of Irrelevance. PODs (Points of Difference): PODs are the features that are important to your customers, and are not offered (or not available) from your competitors. POPs (Points of Parity): POPs are the things (features) you offer that are important to your customers - but you also share these with your competitors. POIs (Points of Irrelevance): POIs are the things (features) you offer, but that customers don't really care about. Always focus your marketing efforts on your PODs. Use these on your website, in your sales & marketing emails, brochures, signage, and your Google & Instagram ads. It's what you do well, so if you're being compared against others, you'll likely win that comparison. It will naturally attract the right-fit customers for you. Part 2: Contact Fields & Segmentation Most accountants and bookkeepers will already have a list of contacts to import into Constant Contact - just make sure you have marketing consent first! We also have a handy Xero integration to make this process super seamless - but even if you use a different package to run your firm, you can always import the data manually using a spreadsheet or using a third-party connection through an app called 'Zapier' Either way, it might pay to think about segmentation first. Doing so will reward you with less unsubscribes, higher engagement (clicks) and more email opens ...and we all want that, right? Who Are They? Think about your contact list for a moment. Are they prospective clients, current clients ...and what about services - do they just seek your assistance to do their quarterly BAS, or do they come to you for audit advice, advisory and more? Knowing where they fit is vital for being able to segment your contact data. As you can imagine, not all contacts are equal and, as such, your marketing message needs to change depending on the audience. There's that word again... "audience". It's vital to know who your contacts are because they're likely all at different stages of their 'marketing journey' (or buyers journey) with you, so a one-size-fits-all approach probably won't work. Get the Timing Right An email that reminds a client to submit their information so you can do their BAS will not make sense if you're not supplying this service to a particular client. Similarly, an email advertising your advisory services to someone who already has it might cause confusion. If the message is wrong or doesn't resonate, the contact will leave your list (unsubscribe). It’s All About the Data 💡 Andy's tip: When it comes to your spreadsheet of contacts, adding a few extra columns for things like "contact type" (prospect, client), "services" (BAS, EOFY, Audit, Advisory) will do wonders for your open rate - because it means you CAN send the right emails to the right people at the right time. Essentially, you're now 'segmenting' your list and your email sends. Segmented sends have better engagement rates because they're relevant for the audience. Once this data is in Constant Contact, you can easily create segments for these different groups of people - making it super easy to email the right group! You can also get smart when it comes to building your emails - create one email but have the text & imagery change depending on who's getting it (more on this later). Further, the great thing about our previously-mentioned Xero integration is that you can also create contact segments for things like number of invoices, recency, invoice spend and so on - allowing you to target clients differently based on financial data. Part 3: Website Sign-up Form Great, so you've got your contact list nicely segmented and imported into Constant Contact - but what about new contacts? Growing your list is just as important as marketing to your existing contacts. This is where sign-up forms can help. They're quick and easy to build, they can be embedded onto your website (or linked from your social media accounts) and are a great way to grow your list through new contact subscriptions. 💡 Andy's tip: Remember how we discussed contact segmentation in the previous topic? Just because a new contact is signing up for your eNewsletter through your website, doesn't mean you can't segment them either. Make sure you add your "services" fields to your sign-up forms, too. This means new contacts can choose what they are interested in receiving emails about. Given you can add whatever fields you want to your sign-up form, you might also want to include a drop-down field for selecting their industry, company size and so on. What's in it for you: More data from your contacts so you can target & engage them more effectively. What's in it for them: Emails that are more relevant to their interests and thus, a lower likelihood to unsubscribe. ...it's win-win in my books! Part 4: Email & Subject Lines Email Structure When building your emails, they should generally always follow this structure; Logo Banner The content (personalised with the recipient's first name, at bare minimum) - with a call to action of some kind Your contact details Social media links Unsubscribe link (we automatically add this for you) Email Design Your emails should also use consistent branding and colours, and generally the same font throughout. Consistency is key when it comes to design. 💡 Andy's tip: Try our Brand Kit tool - it goes and grabs the colours, logo and imagery from your website to make email building a breeze! Use headings to help build 'sections' in longer emails - though generally, 'less is more' when it comes to emails. Putting useful & interesting content online is also a great way to boost your website's SEO - and then you can simply link to it from an email using a read more block. What's Your Call-to-Action? Every email should have a point or desired action. Think of it this way - what do you want the contact to do as a result of getting this email? Should they book an appointment with you, should they submit some financial data so you can complete their BAS, download a PDF report? Use buttons for your key call to actions, as they stand out. As a general rule of thumb, stick to 1 or 2 clear call-to-actions in your emails and don't confuse the message. If you need different call to actions for different types of contacts, then it might make sense to use our dynamic content function to make the email appear differently for your various contact segments (eg. renters see different content to buyers). Subject Lines Shorter subject lines seem to work better, but each industry and audience type (consumer vs. business) is different. The best thing to do is to try a few different variations (short vs. longer email subjects, subjects with vs. without an emoji, etc) by A/B testing your subject lines over time. This will let you see what resonates with your audience & come up with a winning formula. You can also try AI to suggest subject lines for you. One thing that definitely works is personalising the subject line. You should see an increase in your email open rate when compared to a non-personalised subject line. 💡 Andy's tip: It's always a good idea to check your reports after you send an email. That way, you'll know who's engaged and which links they're clicking. You can even trigger automations to run based on whether contacts do (or don't) open your email, or whether they do (or don't) click on certain links. More on that in the next section. Part 5: Automations It's definitely worth considering automations as part of your marketing. After all, they're very good time-savers and just because it's automated doesn't mean it lacks that personal touch. Just like a regular email, an automated one can be personalised with recipient data and can include information specific to whatever your contact is interested in. In many ways, an automated email is often more effective than a manually-sent one, because they automatically get the timing right based on clicks, opens & engagement (or lack thereof). Automations for Accountants & Bookkeepers Why Automate? Saves time: Automate repetitive communication tasks & free up time to focus on high-value activities. Improved lead nurturing: Consistent and timely follow-up keeps leads engaged & moves them through the sales funnel. Personalisation at scale: Segmenting your audience and sending targeted content makes communications more relevant and impactful. Increased conversions: Nurtured leads are more likely to convert into clients. Data and analytics: You'll still get insights into open rates, click-through rates, and engagement, allowing you to refine your strategies. Brand building: Automations help to maintain brand presence in the inbox, positioning you as a knowledgeable, trusted and reliable expert. Automation ideas Send a thank you email whenever a new contact joins your mailing list from your website, displaying the latest insights or data for their line of work (you can use AI to help you write & gather the findings for this). It's also a great way to introduce yourself and show some social proof like reviews, awards you've won or testimonials. (⏳ Setup time: 5 minutes or less - view guide) Send an quarterly-recurring email to contacts who have the 'BAS' or 'Tax' service with you, reminding them to submit their documents to you so you can complete this for them. Spend less time chasing clients - automate it! (⏳ Setup time: 5 minutes or less - view guide) Send educational content (often called a 'nurture series') about how you work, what information you need and so on, in order to complete whatever services the client has enquired about (audits, advisory, tax, etc). This could be an email series over time, eg. 4 emails over 4 weeks. Additionally, you could get super fancy and put a link or button in all of your general & eNews emails which, when clicked, will trigger this series to start automatically for those that click it! (⏳ Setup time: 10 minutes - view guide) Send an automated email once someone pays an invoice, requesting a review or testimonial, and / or to refer a friend. Target big spenders (high value clients) with complimentary services - such as a proactive planning session. Trigger a secondary action based on what a contact clicks in your emails. For example, when a contact clicks the "Send me the Tradies Taxation Guide" link in your email nurture series, you can have Constant Contact send them the guide via email. Tag contacts with additional data automatically, based on what they do / don't do when they receive certain emails from you. 💡 Andy's tip: There's a lot of ideas here, but I recommend starting small with an automated welcome email to begin with ...you can always build out from there over time! Part 6: Social Media Last of all, let's briefly talk about social media. Although you don't "own" the followers on social media (unlike email), it's still a channel worth marketing on. It's a great way to advertise services, talk about how much money you may have saved a particular client, announce recent successes and to build your brand. With Constant Contact, you can post on social channels whenever you like. You can also schedule posts, as well as share an email on social media - a great way to save time and share already-made content, rather than reinvent the wheel each time. Our AI assistant can also write the post for you - just enter a prompt and off it goes! 💡 Andy's tip: I often get asked how to turn social media followers into email contacts. We have a great tool for this called Lead Magnet. It's a fantastic way to capture lead information and convert social followers into marketable contacts. More on this in the next section... Part 7: Lead Magnet As mentioned above, you don't "own" your social media followers - which poses a bit of a problem if you've put all of your eggs into the one (social media) basket. If the algorithm suddenly changes overnight or you get locked out of your social media account, there goes your entire marketing strategy! Getting help from a human at most social networks is also increasingly difficult. So how do we convert a 'social follower' into a marketable contact on your list? The answer... is a lead magnet! A lead magnet is like a mini survey that sits on a landing page which we host for you. It's a great way to turn a social follower into an email contact that you own and have permission to directly market to - with personalised, trackable emails. It's easy to setup too. Just enter a prompt into our lead magnet's AI builder and it'll create the mini survey with interactive question-pages, answer-buttons & even a nice background image for you in less than a minute. Everything is completely customisable too - including the form at the end (where you ask the contact for their name & email address). Once setup, you'll be provided with a public link to the survey - which you can add to your social media profile as a link in your bio (as shown in the left side of the image above). When someone visits your lead magnet, they can click the buttons to answer your interactive survey & fill in their information at the end. The process of doing so adds them to your desired contact list in Constant Contact. From here, you can setup a welcome email to send to them, or just email them sales emails, newsletters or whatever else you've promised them. Keen to learn more about our Lead Magnet function? Follow our how-to guide. 💡 Andy's tip: Lead magnet's work best when there's an incentive on offer for joining your list. For example, "Help us pick our next doughnut flavours and you'll get a 10% off code to try them when they're released!". Lead Magnet Ideas Stuck for ideas on what you might do with a lead magnet? Here are some ideas you could use as a lead magnet... What is your business's legal structure? (eg. sole proprietorship, partnership, Pty Ltd, NFP) What industry are you in, and what is the primary service/product you provide? How long has your business been operating? What is your approximate current annual revenue? Do you currently use cash-basis or accrual-basis accounting? Which accounting software are you currently using (if any)? Do you have separate business bank accounts and credit cards? Which payment processors do you use? (eg. Stripe, PayPal, Square) What services are you looking for? Remember: Lead magnet is fully customisable, so you can ask a range of questions all within the one magnet (across multiple survey 'pages'). Support & Resources New to Constant Contact? Get started with a free trial today! If you get stuck or need a hand with anything, please reach out to our support team, explore the support knowledgebase or chat with others in the Constant Contact Community. Here are some accounting & bookkeeper marketing content & blog posts you might enjoy; Social Media for Accountants: Tips and Best Practices Accounting Advertising Ideas to Bring In New Clients How to Get Virtual Bookkeeping Clients Bookkeeping Lead Generation: Tips to Gain More Clients 7 Tips on How to Get Bookkeeping Clients Tips for Coming up With the Best Bookkeeping Business Names Happy marketing! Related Video Using Xero? Learn more about our integration & see how it works below!
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  • Digital Marketing Playbook for Business Teachers

    Marketing is a dynamic and fast-evolving subject within business and media studies that empowers students to explore creativity, strategy, and real-world impact. As the marketing landscape continues to shift with technology and consumer behaviour, it is essential for educators to stay informed about industry trends, tools, and best practices. This playbook is designed to help teachers deliver content that is engaging, curriculum-aligned, and grounded in how marketing works in the real world. By connecting classroom theory with current industry practices such as branding, ethical decision-making, and the use of digital tools like email, social media, and marketing automation, teachers can prepare the next generation of entrepreneurs, marketers, and business leaders for future success. 1: Aligning Digital Marketing Lessons with Learning Goals Begin by identifying the learning goals for your marketing unit, to ensure the content is aligned with student outcomes. Consider: Links to the curriculum: e.g. business innovation, media arts, consumer behaviour, entrepreneurship Student year levels and digital literacy: to determine how complex the tools and concepts can be Depth of coverage: whether you're introducing foundational concepts, guiding students through a structured simulation, or facilitating student-led ventures Learning goals: ranging from written analysis and reflections to campaign planning, creative development, and oral presentations 2: Core Marketing Concepts to Anchor Your Unit While each syllabus may differ slightly, most marketing units benefit from structured coverage of the following: Target Audience Identification Understanding demographics, interests, behaviours and needs. Segmentation How businesses group customers and tailor messaging for different audience types. Unique Selling Proposition (USP) vs. Unique Value Proposition (UVP) What makes a product or service different and desirable. The Marketing Mix (The 7Ps) Classic marketing framework that underpins promotional planning. Marketing Campaign Planning and Customer Journey Mapping Tracking the steps from awareness to purchase and beyond. These concepts provide the basis for deeper discussions on strategy, communication, and digital engagement. 3: Contact Lists, Segmentation & Personalisation Marketers rarely speak to “everyone.” Instead, they segment customers based on shared traits and tailor messages accordingly. Key teaching points: Why segmentation matters (relevance, efficiency, customer retention) Common data points used (e.g. age, location, interests, past behaviour) How personalisation can drive higher engagement 💡Classroom activity idea: Provide a fictional contact list and ask students to create three distinct customer segments. Students then develop tailored messages or offers for each group. 4: Email Marketing in Practice Email marketing remains one of the most cost-effective ways for businesses to communicate, with an average return of $36 for every dollar spent. It also serves as an effective teaching tool, allowing students to practise persuasive writing, refine their messaging, and learn how to tailor content for different audience segments. Suggested content areas: Email structure: subject lines, headers, content blocks, call-to-action Consistency in branding, tone, and design Writing for different objectives (e.g. product promotion vs. customer education) Interpreting performance metrics like open rate and click-through rate 💡Assessment idea: Ask students to write an email for a product launch or customer retention campaign, with justification for language, tone, and layout choices. Resource: How to create the perfect email 5: Social Media as a Marketing Channel Students are familiar with social media in their personal lives. This component helps them explore how it functions as a professional marketing tool, from brand communication to audience engagement and strategic content planning. A. Introduction to Social Media Marketing Explain how brands use platforms to build visibility, connect with audiences, and drive engagement. Highlight the importance of consistency, content planning, and aligning posts to brand values. B. A Brief History of Social Media Provide a short overview of the evolution of platforms, from early blogging sites and MySpace, through Facebook’s rise, to today’s short-form and video-led platforms like TikTok and Instagram. C. The Future of Social Media Encourage students to think critically about: Emerging trends (AI-generated content, ephemeral content, closed communities) Shifting platform demographics Implications for marketing strategy D. Strategies and Growth Tools Introduce concepts like: Content calendars Audience engagement tactics (e.g. polls, Q&As) Post analytics (reach, engagement, conversions) Paid vs. organic growth strategies E. Careers in Social Media Connect classroom learning to real-world careers, including: Content strategist Social media manager Digital campaign coordinator Community engagement officer Influencer marketing specialist Resource: ANZ social calendar 6: Marketing Automation Automation is used across all marketing channels to improve timing, relevance, and efficiency. Topics to explore: What automation means (e.g. triggered messages, drip campaigns, reminders) Why businesses use it (save time, respond to behaviour, scale personalisation) Basic automation workflows (e.g. customer signs up > welcome message > follow-up content) 💡Classroom extension: Have students storyboard an automation workflow for a product or service, explaining what messages would be sent and when. Resource: Marketing automation guide 7: Ethics and Professional Conduct As students explore social media from a business perspective, it’s important to address the broader ethical responsibilities that come with it, both for users and for brands. Key issues to explore include: Digital wellbeing: screen addiction, exposure to harmful content, and the impact of algorithm-driven content Data ethics: data privacy, surveillance, and targeted advertising Emerging risks: cyberbullying, misuse of deepfake technology, and misinformation From a brand and business standpoint, students should also consider how professional marketers are expected to act online: Maintain transparency in advertising and influencer partnerships Respond to customer feedback publicly and professionally Respect intellectual property, privacy laws, and platform guidelines These topics offer opportunities for critical discussion and can be connected to digital citizenship, media literacy, and responsible communication. Resource: Diversity and inclusivity in marketing 8: Project-Based Learning Opportunities Marketing lends itself to creative, collaborative, and real-world tasks. You might consider structuring your unit around one of the following approaches: Campaign Planning Students act as an agency or brand and design a full campaign, including audience research, messaging, sample content, and a strategy for promotion. Brand Case Study Students select a brand and research how it uses different marketing channels. They present findings on segmentation, tone, and strategy. Ethics Debate Students explore ethical dilemmas in marketing (e.g. data collection, influencer transparency) and present arguments for different positions. Marketing Pitch Teams propose a new product and pitch a marketing plan to a panel (teachers, peers, local business owners). 9: Support & Resources If you’re introducing marketing concepts in the classroom, or want to explore how digital marketing tools work in real-world settings, we’ve got you covered. You can browse the Help Centre or APAC Constant Contact Community to ask questions and explore practical advice on topics such as: Email deliverability Email etiquette and the best time to send marketing emails Getting started with templates (email templates, welcome email examples, and effective call-to-action ideas) These resources can support lesson planning, assessment activities, and class discussions, while reinforcing modern, ethical marketing practices. Additional Resources for Educators and School Marketing Teams: Social media marketing guide for schools How to create an engaging school newsletter Email content ideas Own the Social Sphere: Your ultimate guide to social media Empowering Educators and Schools with Purpose-Built Marketing Tools By combining marketing theory with real-world practice, teachers help prepare future entrepreneurs and leaders for success in both business and everyday life. To support this mission, Constant Contact provides teachers with practical, easy-to-use marketing tools that reflect how small businesses operate today. From email marketing, AI, and automation to social media and events, these digital tools show students how real businesses connect with customers and build their brand. For schools and institutions operating in regulated sectors, Vision6 by Constant Contact offers a secure communications platform specifically designed for the compliance needs of government, education, and finance. This includes local Tier IV data storage, WCAG accessibility compliance, ISO 27001:2022 certification, and alignment with Safety4Schools standards. Trusted by educators across Australia and beyond, Constant Contact helps schools support the next generation of business owners. Get started for free
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  • Digital Marketing Playbook for Real Estate

    In real estate, communication is everything, especially in a competitive market like Australia’s! That’s why Constant Contact’s digital marketing tools help you stay front of mind with buyers, sellers and potential leads at every stage of the journey. In this marketing playbook, we'll take you through a bunch of tips, tricks, ideas and best practices to help you get started with real estate marketing. Part 1: First Things First... KYC 🍗 This first step is all about WHO you are targeting. Knowing your customer, or KYC (often referred to as knowing your audience in marketing-speak) is key to any marketing activities. If you don't do this vital first step, you could end up wasting precious time and money on something that doesn't work. This process involves understanding who you want to attract. In other words, who is your "ideal customer"? What are their key traits & demographics? What does your business need to do to attract them? Some people break these down into one or more 'customer personas', but we'll keep it fairly high level for now. If you're a boutique real estate agent that tends to focus on chic inner city apartments, then a commercial property developer who builds transport warehouses is likely not your ideal customer. Once you've worked out who you want to attract, the next step is working out how to attract them. Who are your competitors, what do you do differently and how are you better? This will help you uncover your unique selling proposition (USP). 💡 Andy's tip: To help you find your USP, I like to use the POD / POP / POI principle; this stands for Points of Difference, Points of Parity and Points of Irrelevance. PODs (Points of Difference): PODs are the features that are important to your customers, and are not offered (or not available) from your competitors. POPs (Points of Parity): POPs are the things (features) you offer that are important to your customers - but you also share these with your competitors. POIs (Points of Irrelevance): POIs are the things (features) you offer, but that customers don't really care about. Always focus your marketing efforts on your PODs. Use these on your website, in your sales & marketing emails, brochures, signage, and your Google & Instagram ads. It's what you do well, so if you're being compared against others, you'll likely win that comparison. It will naturally attract the right-fit customers for you. Part 2: Contact Fields & Segmentation Most real estate agents will already have a list of contacts to import into Constant Contact - just make sure you have marketing consent first! Importing contacts is super easy; literally a couple of clicks and your spreadsheet is in the system - but it might pay to think about segmentation first. Doing so will reward you with less unsubscribes, higher engagement (clicks) and more email opens ...and we all want that, right? Who Are They? Think about your contact list for a moment. Are they prospective buyers, prospective renters, past buyers ...a mixture of all? And what are they looking to buy or rent ...a townhouse? Acreage property? An inner city apartment? If they're someone who's purchased a home with you already, how long ago did they do so? As you can imagine, not all contacts are equal and, as such, your marketing message needs to change depending on the audience. There's that word again... "audience". It's vital to know who your contacts are because they're likely all at different stages of their 'marketing journey' (or buyers journey) with you, so a one-size-fits-all approach probably won't work. Get the Timing Right An email that wishes a young couple well on their 2nd year home purchase anniversary will likely result in an unsubscribe if it's sent to someone who's just started renting a property. Similarly, so will an email advertising the latest acreage land deals that's sent to someone who's signed up to your email list to see what inner city apartments are for sale. If the message is wrong or doesn't resonate, the contact will leave your list (unsubscribe). It’s All About the Data 💡 Andy's tip: When it comes to your spreadsheet of contacts, adding a few extra columns for things like "buyer type" (renter, buyer), "property type" (apartment, acreage, townhouse, house, etc), "contact type" (prospect, customer) will do wonders for your open rate - because it means you CAN send the right emails to the right people at the right time. Essentially, you're now 'segmenting' your list and your email sends. Segmented sends have better engagement rates because they're relevant for the audience. Once this data is in Constant Contact, you can easily create segments for these different groups of people - making it super easy to email the right group! You can also get smart when it comes to building your emails - create one email but have the text & imagery change depending on who's getting it (more on this later). Part 3: Website Sign-up Form Great, so you've got your contact list nicely segmented and imported into Constant Contact - but what about new contacts? Growing your list is just as important as marketing to your existing contacts. This is where sign-up forms can help. They're quick and easy to build, they can be embedded onto your website (or linked from your social media accounts) and are a great way to grow your list through new contact subscriptions. 💡 Andy's tip: Remember how we discussed contact segmentation in the previous topic? Just because a new contact is signing up for your property eNewsletter through your website, doesn't mean you can't segment them either. Make sure you add your "buyer type" and "property type" fields to your sign-up forms, too. This means new contacts can choose what they are interested in receiving emails about. Given you can add whatever fields you want to your sign-up form, you might also want to include a field for suburbs, price range - and so on. What's in it for you: More data from your contacts so you can target & engage them more effectively. What's in it for them: Emails that are more relevant to their interests and thus, a lower likelihood to unsubscribe. ...it's win-win in my books! Part 4: Email & Subject Lines Email Structure When building your emails, they should generally always follow this structure; Logo Banner The content (personalised with the recipient's first name, at bare minimum) - with a call to action of some kind Your contact details Social media links Unsubscribe link (we automatically add this for you) Email Design Your emails should also use consistent branding and colours, and generally the same font throughout. Consistency is key when it comes to design. 💡 Andy's tip: Try our Brand Kit tool - it goes and grabs the colours, logo and imagery from your website to make email building a breeze! Use headings to help build 'sections' in longer emails - though generally, 'less is more' when it comes to emails. Putting useful & interesting content online is also a great way to boost your website's SEO - and then you can simply link to it from an email using a read more block. What's Your Call-to-Action? Every email should have a point or desired action. Think of it this way - what do you want the contact to do as a result of getting this email? Should they book an appointment with you, should they fill in a survey, download a PDF, view a property? Use buttons for your key call to actions, as they stand out. As a general rule of thumb, stick to 1 or 2 clear call-to-actions in your emails and don't confuse the message. If you need different call to actions for different types of contacts, then it might make sense to use our dynamic content function to make the email appear differently for your various contact segments (eg. renters see different content to buyers). Subject Lines Shorter subject lines seem to work better, but each industry and audience type (consumer vs. business) is different. The best thing to do is to try a few different variations (short vs. longer email subjects, subjects with vs. without an emoji, etc) by A/B testing your subject lines over time. This will let you see what resonates with your audience & come up with a winning formula. You can also try AI to suggest subject lines for you. One thing that definitely works is personalising the subject line. You should see an increase in your email open rate when compared to a non-personalised subject line. 💡 Andy's tip: It's always a good idea to check your reports after you send an email. That way, you'll know who's engaged and which links they're clicking. You can even trigger automations to run based on whether contacts do (or don't) open your email, or whether they do (or don't) click on certain links. More on that in the next section. Part 5: Automations It's definitely worth considering automations as part of your marketing. After all, they're very good time-savers and just because it's automated doesn't mean it lacks that personal touch. Just like a regular email, an automated one can be personalised with recipient data and can include information specific to whatever your contact is interested in. In many ways, an automated email is often more effective than a manually-sent one, because they automatically get the timing right based on clicks, opens & engagement (or lack thereof). Automations for Real Estate Why Automate? Saves time: Automate repetitive communication tasks & free up time to focus on high-value activities like showing properties and negotiating deals. Improved lead nurturing: Consistent and timely follow-up keeps leads engaged & moves them through the sales funnel. Personalisation at scale: Segmenting your audience and sending targeted content makes communications more relevant and impactful. Increased conversions: Nurtured leads are more likely to convert into clients. Data and analytics: You'll still get insights into open rates, click-through rates, and engagement, allowing you to refine your strategies. Brand building: Many real estate agents have a personal brand; often it's about the individual agent more than the company they work for. Automations help to maintain brand presence in the inbox, positioning you as a knowledgeable and reliable expert. Automation ideas Send a thank you email whenever a new contact joins your list, displaying the latest properties that match their interests. It's also a great way to introduce yourself and show some social proof like reviews, awards you've won or testimonials. (⏳ Setup time: 5 minutes or less - view guide) Send an annually-recurring anniversary email to contacts that have purchased a property through you. Even though most home buyers re-engage after about 7 years, it keeps you top of mind during that time. (⏳ Setup time: 5 minutes or less - view guide) Send educational content (often called a 'nurture series') about the home buying process - this could be an email series over time, eg. 4 emails over 4 weeks. Additionally, you could get super fancy and put a link or button in all of your general & eNews emails which, when clicked, will trigger this series to start automatically for those that click it! (⏳ Setup time: 10 minutes - view guide) For those looking to sell, send a nurture series of emails over time with selling tips. Immediately follow-up open home attendees with some further information or actions. Send an automated email once someone successfully purchases a property through you, requesting a review or testimonial, and / or to refer a friend. Trigger a secondary action based on what a contact clicks in your emails. For example, when a contact clicks the "Send me the buyers guide" link in your email nurture series, you can have Constant Contact send them the guide via email. Tag contacts with additional data automatically, based on what they do / don't do when they receive certain emails from you. 💡 Andy's tip: There's a lot of ideas here, but I recommend starting small with an automated welcome email to begin with ...you can always build out from there over time! Part 6: Social Media Last of all, let's briefly talk about social media. Although you don't "own" the followers on social media (unlike email), it's still a channel worth marketing on. It's a great way to advertise new properties, announce recent sales successes and to build your personal brand. With Constant Contact, you can post on social channels whenever you like. You can also schedule posts, as well as share an email on social media - a great way to save time and share already-made content, rather than reinvent the wheel each time. Our AI assistant can also write the post for you - just enter a prompt and off it goes! 💡 Andy's tip: I often get asked how to turn social media followers into email contacts. We have a great tool for this called Lead Magnet. It's a fantastic way to capture lead information and convert social followers into marketable contacts. More on this in the next section... Part 7: Lead Magnet As mentioned above, you don't "own" your social media followers - which poses a bit of a problem if you've put all of your eggs into the one (social media) basket. If the algorithm suddenly changes overnight or you get locked out of your social media account, there goes your entire marketing strategy! Getting help from a human at most social networks is also increasingly difficult. So how do we convert a 'social follower' into a marketable contact on your list? The answer... is a lead magnet! A lead magnet is like a mini survey that sits on a landing page which we host for you. It's a great way to turn a social follower into an email contact that you own and have permission to directly market to - with personalised, trackable emails. It's easy to setup too. Just enter a prompt into our lead magnet's AI builder and it'll create the mini survey with interactive question-pages, answer-buttons & even a nice background image for you in less than a minute. Everything is completely customisable too - including the form at the end (where you ask the contact for their name & email address). Once setup, you'll be provided with a public link to the survey - which you can add to your social media profile as a link in your bio (as shown in the left side of the image above). When someone visits your lead magnet, they can click the buttons to answer your interactive survey & fill in their information at the end. The process of doing so adds them to your desired contact list in Constant Contact. From here, you can setup a welcome email to send to them, or just email them sales emails, newsletters or whatever else you've promised them. Keen to learn more about our Lead Magnet function? Follow our how-to guide. 💡 Andy's tip: Lead magnet's work best when there's an incentive on offer for joining your list. For example, "Help us pick our next doughnut flavours and you'll get a 10% off code to try them when they're released!". Lead Magnet Ideas Stuck for ideas on what you might do with a lead magnet? Here are some ideas you could try... For buyers: What is the primary reason you are looking to purchase a home at this time? (eg. relocation, upsizing, downsizing, investment, first home buyer) What is your preferred property type? (eg. Single family house, apartment, townhouse, land) How many bedrooms and bathrooms do you ideally require? Which specific neighbourhoods or areas are you targeting? What are your top three must-have features? What are your absolute deal-breaker features (features that would cause you to immediately reject a property)? For sellers: What is your primary motivation for selling your property at this time? What are the three best features or selling points of your home? Are there any known issues, needed repairs, or deferred maintenance we should be aware of? What is the desired date you would like to have the property sold by? Is the property currently occupied by you, tenants, or vacant? Remember: Lead magnet is fully customisable, so you can ask a range of questions all within the one magnet (across multiple survey 'pages'). Support & Resources New to Constant Contact? Get started with a free trial today! If you get stuck or need a hand with anything, please reach out to our support team, explore the support knowledgebase or chat with others in the Constant Contact Community. Here are some real estate marketing content & blog posts you might enjoy; Master the Art of AI Prompts: Real Estate 'State of Real Estate Marketing' Report Real Estate Content Ideas to Get More Clients Real Estate Client Appreciation Ideas: Events, Gifts, and More Real Estate Lead Conversion: Nurture Leads and Increase Sales Content Marketing for Real Estate 14 Top Real Estate Email Templates You might also be interested in these real estate episodes from our various podcasts; Small Business Growth Podcast: Growth Marketing for Real Estate with Antonia Mercorella (CEO of Real Estate Institute of Queensland - REIQ) Be a Marketer Podcast - Building Multiple Revenue Streams in Real Estate with Jacqui Luberto Be a Marketer Podcast - The Art of Real Estate Branding with Christine George Be a Marketer Podcast - Your Real Estate Marketing Playbook: Recap with Stephanie, Dave, and Kelsi Happy marketing!
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