About Abigail_S

You guys are the experts! Has anyone ever approached you and asked how you started a nonprofit? What's the best advice you ever received before starting? What can you share to those who are thinking about starting a nonprofit?    The best advice I ever received before starting my career was to always be authentically myself, learn how to self-advocate, and do what I do best because I already have the tools to do so!    So, what advice would you give to someone who is considering starting their own nonprofit organization? ... View more

Let's talk numbers!    Personally, data can be a little daunting, but in retrospect, it's incredibly helpful in defining business needs. Data and analytics can help you with your goals of increasing profit and reducing costs. It can also help build your customer retention, manage your sales, and let you see the bigger picture for all things related to your business.     Now that we know the importance of numbers, what are some ways you use data and analytics to effectively run your business?  ... View more

  Whether you’re a small business owner or a frequent customer, we all know how small businesses impact our communities. At Constant Contact, we recognize the unwavering dedication, resilience, and bravery it takes to carve out a unique identity as a small business.    In the spirit of spreading love and appreciation, we invite you to join us in sharing your favorite small businesses. We encourage you to recount a story that captures the essence of what makes these businesses truly exceptional. By doing so, we can collectively shine a spotlight on their remarkable qualities and admire their grit and hardworking spirit.  ... View more

My top three goals for this week are: Write and edit 6 articles Do an article audit Spend some quality time outside What are your top 3 goals for the week? They can be work related or some goals you want to achieve in your personal life!   If you're feeling stuck, check out this thread for some ideas. ... View more

Although it’s not Thursday and #TBT isn’t acceptable for a Tuesday, I figured we can still talk about how trends repeat themselves over time. If you haven’t heard, layering your tank tops, boat shoes, and skorts are the next biggest fashion trend to wear this spring- separately of course. Although, if you can pull off all three, more power to you!    These items are being recycled and revamped by the next generation. Worst part is, they’re calling it a new “invention” to double layer shirts and calling Sperry’s “vintage”. Although comical, this is a great example of how we can see trends repeat themselves not only in fashion, but in marketing as well.    Let’s take tacos for example. We all know tacos to be a classic staple food item paired with margaritas (or your drink of choice). Tacos are trending now as a Tuesday necessity #tacotuesday. If you feel like this is a recent trend in the last 5 years, you’d sadly be mistaken. The coined term originated in the 1980’s as a way to market buying 2 tacos for 99 cents on the slowest day of the week- “Taco Twosday.”     Marketing, like fashion, will constantly evolve but heavily rely on trends. Restaurants that serve tacos have taken this day and ran with it in their marketing- offering specials, deals, and even promoting events.    What are some trends that you’ve seen in your marketing style from when you first started your business that have come back around to better serve you and your customers now?  ... View more

We’re proud to announce that our best-in-class support team has been recognized for their commitment to quality customer care with two awards for excellence in customer service: Excellence in Customer Service Award from Business Intelligence Bronze Stevie Award for Customer Service Department of the Year Our team has always prided ourselves on our ability to help customers achieve marketing success for their businesses. We’re relentlessly committed to delivering the very best customer support so that you can deliver the very best experience to your customers. If you’d like to join us in celebrating our support team’s great work, you can submit a review of your customer support experience on Trustpilot. Thank you for continuing to choose Constant Contact. ... View more

I am Batman!   Okay, not really, but May 1st is Batman Day. While not an official May holiday, Batman Day is just one of many fun and zany reasons to celebrate this month. With holidays like Intergalactic Star Wars Day (May 4th), Eat What You Want Day (May 11th), and Frog Jumping Day (May 13th), there’s no reason to feel jumpy about your marketing this month.   May has a plethora of occasions to share with your customers — from public holidays like International Workers’ Day (May 1st), VE Day (May 8th), and Memorial Day (May 27th) to “weird” holidays like National Cellophane Tape Day (the 27th). Yep, that’s a thing.   Seriously though, May is definitely a month to celebrate.   From May Day (May 1st) to National Smile Day (May 31st), May is a month about… well, creation, fresh starts, and new beginnings. The transition from dark to light, from winter to summer, from nothing to something.   As a matter of fact, the month of May is National Creative Beginnings Month and National Inventors Month. So, now is the time to be creative and inventive in your marketing.   Get started by taking a look at some May holidays, newsletter ideas, and subject lines that you can use to share the hope, excitement, and promise of the month of May.   May holidays — 2024 April 28th – May 4th — National Small Business Week. May 1st — National Loyalty Day. For the patriot in all of us. May 2nd — International Harry Potter Day. Remember the battle of Hogwarts! May 3rd — National Space Day. May 11th — National Twilight Zone Day. Dare to enter. May 11th — World Fair Trade Day. Support your fellow small business owners around the world. May 12th — National Fibromyalgia Awareness Day. May 12th — Mother’s Day. May 16th — National Do Something Good for Your Neighbor Day. Large or small, do good. May 17th — National Endangered Species Day. May 19th — National Devil’s Food Cake Day. I couldn’t help myself. Can you? May 21st — National Talk Like Yoda Day. Hard it is not. Do it, you can. May 22nd — Harvey Milk Day. Keep the hope going. May 24th — National Scavenger Hunt Day. May 26th — National Paper Airplane Day. It’s not origami, but it flies! May 29th — Learn About Composting Day. Why not compost your business’s waste? May 31st — Autonomous Vehicle Day. Are you ready for this? Of course, there are a lot more holidays in May, but let’s move on to some May newsletter ideas.   May newsletter ideas With all the holidays there are to celebrate in May, it seems that Mother’s Day always seems to dominate. So let’s start there.   Mother’s Day newsletter ideas Mother’s Day is a time to appreciate all kinds of mothers — from birth mothers to foster mothers, from godmothers to grandmothers, and even mothers whose only children are covered in fur and walk on paws (or fly, or swim…). To me, Mother’s Day is a celebration of unconditional love, incredible strength and fortitude, and seemingly endless patience. This Mother’s Day, create an email campaign that makes a positive impact on you and your subscribers with these newsletter ideas: Make sales. It doesn’t matter if your demographic is filled with moms or single men. Share a discount code or special offer your readers can use or share with the moms in their lives. Build relationships. Tell a story about something great your mom did for you. Then share it on Facebook and encourage your readers and followers to do the same. Build trust. If it fits your brand and your audience, share some “mom hacks” that you’ve learned or seen used over the years. *Bonus if you saw a mom use it when visiting your business and you tell the story. Be a reliable resource. If you’re a mom, share an article, website, or social media channel that you’ve found particularly helpful over the years. Be sure to let your readers know why you like it and why you’re sharing it with them, then link to the source. Remember, any of these ideas are good for both moms of human children and moms with furbabies. So do what’s right for your brand.   Tip: Make your Mother’s Day newsletters really count by segmenting your audience and personalizing your newsletters and offers to fit the segment. Start with segmenting by gender, parental and pet ownership status, and even age. If you haven’t done a demographic survey of your subscribers yet, get a jump on it now.   May newsletters for fun and fantasy While they may seem a little niche, holidays like Batman Day, International Harry Potter Day, and Star Wars Day can be a lot of fun while still being effective.   Movie-themed newsletter ideas Build relationships by entertaining your readers. If your brand allows, create a themed newsletter. Think image overlays, trivia that you can take to social media, and quotes or sentence structure to match the theme. Do it, you can. Drive traffic to your website. Ask your team members their thoughts on Star Wars (or Batman or Harry Potter…) and share a quick snippet of a “get to know the team” story with the full story posted on your website blog or landing page. Gather more information. Use a themed survey to obtain more information about your subscribers for better segmentation. For example, if I wanted to do a Batman theme, I might ask a basic demographic question using a multiple-choice, single-answer question like:   Okay, I know that Wolf Spider is really associated with Batwoman, but unless you’re in the comic business, odds are your subscribers probably won’t know that. And here’s a bonus: If several readers reach out to correct you on one of your themed questions, add them to a new segment for niche targeting fans of that theme.   National Limerick Day newsletter ideas If you’re feeling creative and bold And your goal is for more than just gold Then give it a try And if you are spry Your readers’ attention you’ll hold - River Cartie   Create a buzz. Create a limerick challenge by starting the limerick in your email campaign and then challenging your readers to add a line or finish it on your preferred social media channel Engage your readers while making sales. Offer an exclusive discount to readers who come into your business and recite a limerick at checkout. Bring in donations. A month-long variant of the aforementioned limerick challenge. The challenge is to write an original limerick and submit it with an entry fee. The winner(s) will receive a prize and be featured in your next newsletter and on your social media pages. Proceeds go to your nonprofit.  As always, if you run a contest or challenge where money and/or prizes will change hands, make sure you follow all local and state regulations.   TIP: Whatever holiday you highlight in your newsletter this month, whether you issue a challenge, offer advice, or ask your readers to share, include a branded hashtag and a custom hashtag — along with a corresponding post on social media — so you can easily find and like what they post!   May newsletter subject lines “Here’s your password for savings” — World Password Day (May 2nd). This is perfect for sharing a discount code. “Orange you glad to hear from us?” — Preheader: “You will be!” National Orange Juice Day (May 4th). This one is great for sharing good news or sales and discounts. “May the fourth be with you” — Star Wars Day (May 4th). It’s the required greeting for the day. “Fresh Squeezed… ” — National Lemonade Day (May 5th) Tack on whatever matches your newsletter content. “Eat what you want” — International No Diet Day (May 6th) and National Eat What You Want Day (May 11th). If you run a restaurant or cafe, don’t miss out on this. “Embrace your inner glutton” — International No Diet Day (May 6th) and National Eat What You Want Day (May 11th). If you own a bakery, this is a great opportunity to make some extra sales by offering a “baker’s dozen” deal. “In remembrance of all lost socks” — National Lost Sock Memorial Day (May 9th). This may be fairly niche, but it could be a lot of fun. “How many times do I have to tell you?” — National Clean Your Room Day (May 10th). Create your preheader based on your business. This would be great for cleaning services or supply stores, professional organizers, or parent bloggers. “Feeling jumpy?” — National Frog Jumping Day (May 13th). This is a good start for any business that specializes in relaxing its customers. “Jump on in” — National Frog Jumping Day (May 13th). Perfect for a newsletter that wants to encourage customers to come into a brick-and-mortar location OR for suggesting your readers start something new. “Let’s get this  party started!” — National Pizza Party Day (May 17th). Whether you own a pizza shop or want to invite your readers to a pizza party, this line will definitely get your email opened. “Open this you will. ” — National Talk Like Yoda Day (May 21st). Use ‘The Force’ to create your subject line. “You won’t have to hunt for these savings” — National Scavenger Hunt Day (May 24th). Perfect for offering a discount or announcing a sale. “There’s a hole in our bucket” — Preheader: “Help us plug the leaks!” National Hole In My Bucket Day (May 30th). Use this to explain where your money is going and to solicit donations. For more May holidays and ideas on what you can do to share them with your customers, download the graphic below. Or, plan out the rest of your year with our Online Marketing Calendar, complete with a free template and a list of holidays you can use to plan a successful year.   May 2024 Marketing and Holiday Planning infographic   ... View more

Who doesn’t love saving time, especially when it comes to marketing your business? Our integration with Zoho allows you to auto-sync contact and lead data into Constant Contact to not only save you time, but now you can send more targeted emails.    There are three methods available for import: by Contacts List, Leads List, or Campaign List. What are you waiting for? Let's connect!   How to connect to Zoho Like other Constant Contact integrations, you can find Zoho under the Tools > Apps & Integrations section under your account. Locate the Zoho app and click Connect.     To get more in-depth steps on how to link your account to Zoho visit this Knowledge Base article. Once the import is complete, the status will update to Success.   Boost your marketing Once you've set up your imports and your Zoho contacts are successfully syncing into Constant Contact, there are a variety of ways to target those contacts with customized messaging.   When importing from Zoho, you have the flexibility to choose which contact, lead, or campaign list you'd like to sync into a Constant Contact list. But perhaps you want to segment these contacts even further, to send specific, targeted messaging. You can do so by creating a custom segment of contacts.   You can create personalized automated communications via email and SMS for your customers based on their actions, including welcome emails, thank you series, requests for review, and more.     ... View more

What is Stripe? Stripe is an online payment platform. This integration helps If you're selling tickets or add-ons for an event. You can connect a Stripe account and let your registrants pay the fee with a credit or debit card or 1-click checkouts. The merchant onboarding flow with Stripe is simple, allowing you to collect payments faster. You can even choose how your charges display for your registrants on their bank statements.   Connect Stripe to your Constant Contact account    Seamlessly sync your Stripe customers into segmented contact lists Before you can begin syncing you contacts from Stripe to Constant Contact, your Stripe customers need to grant permission that will allow you to email them. Once you receive their permission, you can automatically sync your Stripe contacts into segmented lists based on payment activity within your account.    Constant Contact and Stripe require that you have prior consent from your contacts before you can begin marketing to them. Read through our policy and Stripe's policy to learn more.    How to get your contacts permission   Important: Stripe customers do not grant you permission to email them when they make a payment. Therefore, before you can begin marketing to them from Constant Contact, you need to get permission. Please see Stripe's policies regarding privacy and protecting personal information to learn more.   By using our integration, you can set up an "opt-in" email to automatically get permission from your past and future Stripe customers. Those contacts will then be imported.    Note: If you choose not to send an opt-in email, new Stripe contacts will be imported directly and you will need to get permission to market to them on your own.   Boost your marketing Now that all the nitty gritty permissions are settled, you can level up your marketing with the Stripe integration to create a customized contact segment and send automated communications.    When importing contacts from Stripe, your Stripe contacts will be segmented into contact lists based on their payment activity. But perhaps you want to segment these contacts even further, in order to send specific, targeted messaging. You can do so by creating a custom segment of contacts.   Create personalized automated communications via email and SMS for your customers based on their actions, including welcome emails, thank you series, requests for review, and more.   Link Stripe to an event to collect payments When linking an existing Stripe account to Constant Contact for Event payments, Stripe will create a sub-account that allows you to keep your Stripe-direct payments and other third-party payments separate from your Stripe event payments.    This helps you manage your payments by provider since website, e-commerce, and event payment data, which is collected from different sources, are not merged under one main account. Within the Stripe dashboard, you'll notice a dropdown in the top-left. Select this dropdown in order to switch between each of these sub-accounts. Navigate to the "Payments" step of the Events builder, click Connect in the PayPal box to link a new account or + Add another to connect an additional account.   Follow the sequential steps to properly link your Stripe payment.    Once complete, you will see that you successfully connected your account with a blue banner. You also have the option to add another, if needed.        ... View more

Wondering how ‌nonprofit organizations can use email marketing effectively? In this episode, Dave Charest, director of small business success at Constant Contact, welcomes Kelsi Carter, the team’s new brand production coordinator. They go on to discuss the importance of storytelling, segmentation, and frequency in email marketing.    Listen in to hear how why:  Storytelling and inclusivity are crucial in nonprofit marketing and why you must focus on the impact of donors' support. Segmentation and automation are vital for sending relevant content and improving engagement. You should optimize emails for mobile viewing, as many people check emails on their phones. Sending emails at least twice a month with limited content (three sections beyond the intro) for easy scanning, may be best for you. Prioritizing and acting on one thing at a time are key to getting things done. Resources: Top 7 Nonprofit Marketing Integrations to Increase Engagement Achieve your marketing goals with Constant Contact's integrations _zapier Constant Contact Integrations   Are you a Constant Contact customer with a burning marketing question? Go here for a chance to have your question featured in an upcoming episode.  If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions. ... View more

  For Corissa Saint Laurent, building relationships, understanding your audience, and leveraging email marketing are key ingredients for success.   And when it comes to growing along with your business, it’s all about focusing on activities that align with your skills and passions while delegating tasks that fall outside your expertise.   "The goal should be to get to a place where you use your time doing the things you should be doing. Avoid the things that aren't in your skillset or that you're not passionate about," says Corissa.    On this episode, Corissa and host Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, delve into the art of building relationships, understanding your audience, and the significance of marketing in connecting with customers.    👉 Are you a Constant Contact customer with a burning marketing question? Go here for a chance to have your question featured in an upcoming episode.   Resources: 2024 Online Marketing Calendar: Template and Marketing Holidays Meet Today’s Guest: Corissa Saint Laurent, speaker, podcaster, and retreat leader   🎧  What she does: Corissa is a professional speaker, podcaster, and retreat leader. She not only helps businesses grow, but she also helps its people grow along with it. As host of The Everyday Mystic, she delivers practical spiritual guidance for a life of greater meaning, higher purpose, and true joy.   💡 Key quote: “The more you can provide value to your customers, build those relationships, and ultimately build loyalty. Those people become promotional agents for you. They're talking about you to others.”   👋 Where to find her: Website | Podcast | LinkedIn | Instagram   If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to ratethispodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions. ... View more

The process of setting goals can be fun, motivating, and rewarding.    I personally find it helpful to write my goals down in the form of a checklist. That way, once I finish them, I get the satisfaction of checking things off my list. This feeds my need for daily accomplishment and lowers my stress levels at the same time.  I am most inspired when I set daily and weekly goals as I look ahead on deadlines and progress throughout my work week. This process makes me hone in on what’s important and shows where I will be spending my time.    It’s also important to remember goals aren’t linear. You can adjust them whenever needed, and if you don’t finish them that day, there’s always tomorrow. Don’t be afraid to adjust your goals as time goes on. And remember, everything is editable. So find your groove, get your list of goals populated, and get after it!   As we kick off a new week, what are your top three goals you want to accomplish? ... View more

Technology is all around us these days. We want to know how you've been able to use technology for your organization. Do you use it for automation and streamlining processes? Do you use it for social media, emails on-the-go, or SMS? The possibilities seem endless for how we can begin using technology to aid us not only in our daily lives, but to make our lives easier in maintaining an organization and being able to market directly from our finger tips.   What role do you think technology and digital tools play in the future of nonprofit organizations? How are you using technology in your work?    How to Share Your Story: Comment below: Share your challenges, your mindset while dealing with them, and what strategies helped overcome them? Include Visuals: A picture is worth a thousand words! If you have any images, videos, or other visuals that accompany your story, feel free to share them. They add a personal touch to your narrative. ... View more

In today’s world, building your brand involves engaging with your customers both online and offline. You want to cultivate customer loyalty and trust. How can you do this? Provide exceptional experiences and encourage customers to keep coming back! Satisfied customers are more likely to spread positive word-of-mouth recommendations, which amplifies your brand's reach and attracts new customers.    Additionally, building a strong brand connection can inspire customers to buy more of your products or services. By creating an emotional relationship with your customers, you can foster a deeper connection that goes beyond transactional interactions, resulting in long-term brand advocacy and customer loyalty.   What are some strategies you have implemented to increase your customer engagement and promote loyalty?    How to Share Your Story: Comment below: Share your challenges, your mindset while dealing with them, and what strategies helped overcome them? Include Visuals: A picture is worth a thousand words! If you have any images, videos, or other visuals that accompany your story, feel free to share them. They add a personal touch to your narrative. ... View more

  Wondering how to better market new in-person events/classes? In this episode, Dave Charest, director of small business success at Constant Contact, shares how understanding your audience, utilizing integrations, creating a clear progression path, building urgency, and leveraging different platforms can help you reach and engage your target market more effectively.    Listen in to hear how to:  Understand your buying audience and segment lists by age groups for targeted marketing. Use integrations between management software and marketing tools for more efficient marketing. Create a clear progression path for customers and get feedback from VIP customers. Build urgency with registration deadlines and focus on one call-to-action per email. Leverage different platforms like Facebook events to extend your reach. Resources:   Achieve your marketing goals with Constant Contact integrations Create and manage tags with Constant Contact Create a segment of contacts in Constant Contact by choosing specific criteria Create a ​​Constant Contact Survey Page DaySmart Recreation Constant Contact Integration   Are you a Constant Contact customer with a burning marketing question? Go here for a chance to have your question featured in an upcoming episode.  If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions. ... View more

Wondering how many follow-ups you should send after an initial email outreach? What about the timeframe in which to do so?    🎧 Listen to our latest podcast episode where Dave Charest, director of small business success at Constant Contact, shares his insights on email follow-ups and provides a suggested timeline.    Key Takeaways:  Multiple follow-ups after initial email outreach are crucial as one email is often insufficient due to recipients' busy lives. Factors affecting follow-up email effectiveness include existing relationships, size of the ask, and urgency of the action. Suggested timeline for follow-ups: announcement three weeks before deadline; reminder two weeks before deadline; last chance on/before deadline. Timing and urgency are important to spur people to action. Schedule at least three email touches to increase chances of a response. Resources:   Why you need to send more email than you think   Are you a Constant Contact customer with a burning marketing question? Go here for a chance to have your question featured in an upcoming episode.  If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions. ... View more

Whether you’ve been using social media for a while or you’re just getting started, it’s important to utilize Constant Contact’s reporting tools to better understand your audience to enhance your social media marketing strategy.   You can check your analytics to see how your social friends and followers are growing over time and get an idea of the age, gender, and location demographics of your audience. Understanding your audience helps you create better content for them. After you've created and shared a post on Facebook and Instagram, you can check your reporting to see how your social reach and audience are responding.   Note: Gender and age demographics are only available for Instagram accounts with 100+ followers.      The Summary and Audience sections show you the size of your audience, your reach, and the growth of your audience over time, so that you can see how your social posts are helping to retain and grow your audience. The Demographics of gender, age, and location sections allow you to picture what your audience looks like. You can use the information to draft social posts that will have more meaning for the largest portion of your audience.     Under the Social posts & monitoring tab you can view these analytics. Review your performance summary for the last 7, 30, or 90 days:   Reach: This is the total number of Facebook and Instagram users who have seen your posts. Audience: This is the total number of people who have liked your Facebook Business Page or Instagram Business Profile. Audience Growth: This tracks how many new people have liked your Facebook Business Page or Instagram Business Profile over time.   See where your followers live by reviewing the Top Locations:   By Map: This shows you where your audience is physically located. Use the + and - to zoom in and out of the map. Click See United States or See World to refocus the map. By City: This shows you a list of all the cities, from greatest population to least, where your audience can be found. Click Show more to review the full list. By Country: This shows you a list of all the countries, from greatest population to least, where your audience can be found. Click Show more to review the full list. Now that you've got a better sense of your audience, check the results of your individual social posts to see what kind of content is receiving the most engagement. Monitor the conversations that happen on your social media pages and respond to comments to help your engagement and improve your reach! Not seeing the results you were hoping for? Don't worry! It can take a little bit of time to grow an engaged audience.  Keep posting and make sure to check out our best practices for creating posts on Facebook and Instagram.   We’re always curious to hear how your marketing is performing! Feel free to let us know in the comments about what metrics and demographics are most important to you and any insights you can share! ... View more

It’s the time of year where Boston becomes a magical snow globe, we begin romanticizing the frigid New England air, and we have Mariah Carey waiting in queue. It’s also when Boston’s Seaport transforms into Snowport with endless vendors, twinkly lights, and holiday cheer. Snowport brings together a diverse group of small businesses and gives them a platform to market their products, make connections, and allows you to shop locally.    “Boston creates a great community for people who just have a lot of spirit and pride for the city,” says Albert Feldman, owner of Sky Candle Co.    The Holiday Market at Snowport in Partnership with Constant Contact features more than 120 small businesses, 66 percent of which are local to Boston and the New England area, and 76 percent are minority and/or female owned.   Three of our Constant Contact customers participating in this year's Holiday Market share their story on how they use marketing to communicate exciting updates, stay connected with their audience, and capture new emails. Whether you’re an aspiring holiday market vendor, a seasoned veteran, or a small business looking for holiday ideas, learn how these customers are making the most of the holiday season through Constant Contact.       Rosaline Hansen is the owner of Pet Wants Newton. With a background in Sales and Marketing, she was in the wine industry for 15 years but it was no longer fulfilling her. With a passion for animals, she and her husband created Pet Wants Newton with the help of Constant Contact.    “Constant Contact has been really helpful for me being able to have the opportunity to expose all of the people who follow me to different products.”   As a way to engage with her customers, Rosaline writes nutrition based articles for the company newsletters. She is able to do this through Constant Contact’s customization tools.    “The customization ability that we can do with Constant Contact allows me to be able to put a new product and an article and any important information going on with the business [in one place].”   If you’re a small business and you’ve been at this for a while you may have a pretty robust contact list and a good understanding of your audience. If that’s the case, it may be time to grow your list and consolidate your contacts through our list growth tools and integrations. We know your time is also even more precious and we have tools to help you consolidate all of your contacts in one place so you can better segment your entire audience and engage with it through automated content. List Growth      Elaina Holm is the owner of Simple Sips, a fresh cocktail mixer. With fresh fruit purees, fresh juice, and herbal syrups made in-house– all you need to complete the fresh mixer is your favorite beverage.   Elaina had just quit her full-time job and only had enough money to apply to Snowport when her business first launched.    “The Snowport Holiday Market is the single event that set my business on the trajectory that it’s been on now for the past few years,” says Elaina.      Post-Holiday Market, her sales were off the charts and the increase in revenue allowed her to reinvest in her business. This year at Snowport, every customer who purchases a product has the opportunity to subscribe to Simple Sips mailing list with the help of a QR Code provided by Constant Contact.   This allows vendors to gain a better following and communicate with customers who want to engage with their products. This also allows business owners to potentially send new members coupons, encourage them to sign up for texts and SMS Marketing, and allows them to cater personalized offers to different lists.   Getting more people to read your email can only help you build your list and spread the word about the services or products you offer. We make it easy to get your content onto the major social networking sites with our Social Posts and Monitoring tools by Sharing an email or share an event on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. You can schedule a series of posts in advance, view engagement activity with your posts, and view and respond to comments. If you're trying to drive some traffic to your social media pages to engage with your customers and supporters, start by promoting your social page in your email.  Albert Feldman is the owner of Sky Candle Co whose mission is to create nontoxic, paraben free, cruelty free, clean burning candles.    “We wouldn’t be here today without the Snowport market,” says Albert.   Every candle is touched by him and his partner: they pour, wick, label, package, and ship all of their candles by hand.   Boston and the Holiday Market is a melting pot to meet other communities. Last year, as a way to capture leads, Albert and his partner gave matches to customers who signed up for their mailing list and created a way to engage with customers beyond Snowport.   “We make these connections at markets. We meet people we've never met before and probably wouldn't have ever met before”   Constant Contact helps them reach their consumers in a smart and thoughtful way. Growing a contact list is one of the most important ways to boost your marketing efforts.    “We use Email Marketing to promote what has proven success? What is really popular out there? What are people really enjoying?”   Constant Contact has a variety of tools to help you capture new contacts in ways that make the most sense for your organization. Use one or use them in combination so you're capturing new contacts from different sources: Collect sign-ups through a website or blog, Social Media , or from a physical location.    What are you waiting for?   Now is the time to use marketing to build your brand and start growing your business. After listening to so many stories about how other customers are growing their businesses with Constant Contact, we want to know how you are sharing your #smallbizstory. Hop on Instagram, post a story, and tell us how you're attracting new customers by tagging @ConstantContact and using #smallbizstory. ... View more

It’s the time of year where Boston becomes a magical snow globe, we begin romanticizing the frigid New England air, and we have Mariah Carey waiting in queue. It’s also when Boston’s Seaport transforms into Snowport with endless vendors, twinkly lights, and holiday cheer. Snowport brings together a diverse group of small businesses and gives them a platform to market their products, make connections, and allows you to shop locally.    The Holiday Market at Snowport in Partnership with Constant Contact features more than 120 small businesses, 66 percent of which are local to Boston and the New England area, and 76 percent are minority and/or female owned.   Three of our Constant Contact customers participating in this year's Holiday Market share their story on how they use marketing to communicate exciting updates, stay connected with their audience, and capture new emails. Whether you’re an aspiring holiday market vendor, a seasoned veteran, or a small business looking for holiday ideas, learn how these customers are making the most of the holiday season through Constant Contact.   John Dykes is a Freelance illustrator and artist. He has been living in Boston for the last 5 years and has been capturing city life through his artwork and illustrations. As an artist, it’s important to get feedback and Snowport provides the opportunity for his work to be seen and have people respond to his work.    By engaging with people at Snowport, John can market more directly to art buyers as “Constant Contact will help with this pivot in doing more fine art and marketing more directly to individual art buyers,” says John.    Being a small business owner, it is just as important to cultivate relationships  with those interested in your work as it is to create products to sell.   “It’s just wonderful to have people be drawn in and take a closer look.”      Through Constant Contact, John has a QR code at Snowport where visitors can scan and instantly join his mailing list. When you send an email to your contacts, you never know who they'll share it with. Making sure your email is shareable beyond your contact list increases the chance you'll get new subscribers and potentially fall in the right hands of new buyers.      Kinnari Sanghavi is the founder, artist, and creator of her products at Kinnari Sanghavi Studio. As an artist all her life, she found that her handcrafted and hand painted work was admired at global galleries. She has been in business since 2021 and has expanded her business into one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces.   “Snowport is a huge stepping stone for my business, and I think it will be a massive push we need to pivot in the right direction to grow to scale,” says Kinnari.    Kinnairi is the perfect example of a small business owner who had a passion, created a following, and took the leap. She says “people are loving what I’m doing, they are appreciating my work.”   Keep in mind, you don't just have to rely on your friends and social media followers to spread the word about your organization. Beyond an event like Snowport, advertising on social media is a great way to continue to market your business. This helps you get your content in front of the right audience so you have a better chance of finding new customers and supporters from the vast sea of social media users. Through Constant Contact, you can drive traffic to your webpage, customize the target audience for your ad, and target your ad to Facebook and Instagram users who look like your current contact list.   Lizzie Johnson is the owner of Lizzie’s Bakery. Lizzie moved to Boston in 2017 and started Lizzie’s Bakery in March 2018. Coming from a conservative college, Lizzie began baking and throwing dessert parties for her friends. Once she graduated college, she began making custom cakes and her business was born.    Lizzie “moved [to Boston] with only 2,000 Instagram followers, [and] now Lizzie’s Bakery has over 36,000 followers”    Lizzie is a great example of how when you connect with your followers on social media, you get to remind them of what you have to offer, who you are as a brand, and how you're keeping relevant. Growing your contact list is important, if you can fill your list with people who really want and value your content, your emails are going to perform better. You can Create ads on Facebook and Instagram to collect new subscribers, customize the target audience for your ad based on the demographics that are most important for your organization, target your ad to Facebook and Instagram users who look like your current contact list, and follow-up with your new leads by sending them targeted email content.   Constant Contact allowed Lizzie to promote her business in ways she never thought possible and allowed Lizzie to see “this is what we can do, we can create forms for you, we can create messaging for you to promote on social media.”    What are you waiting for?   Now is the time to use marketing to build your brand and start growing your business. After listening to so many stories about how other customers are growing their businesses with Constant Contact, we want to know how you are sharing your #smallbizstory. Hop on Instagram, post a story, and tell us how you're attracting new customers by tagging @ConstantContact and using #smallbizstory. ... View more

Wellington Brewery has upheld an unwavering commitment to high-quality craft beer, sustainability, creativity, their customers, and the community. For the last 14 years, Wellington Brewery has relied on Constant Contact to make connections to ensure their customers go beyond just sipping and become loyal advocates of their business.   By adopting new marketing technologies such as automation, segmentation, and ecommerce, Wellington Brewery has experienced remarkable growth. With segmented and automated emails, they have made every email count. Now, they have the opportunity to meaningfully connect with their customers at the right moment with the right messaging.    “Connecting with people who want great beer, and really building a community around that, has been a big part of how we’ve grown over the years,” said Brad McInerney, Marketing Director at Wellington Brewery.    Staying relevant in a crowded industry As one of the first independently owned craft breweries in Ontario, Wellington has always prioritized communication with their customers. As the craft beer industry began to explode in popularity, they realized they needed to adjust and adapt their marketing efforts to remain relevant. To date, Wellington has grown their email list to more than 10,000 subscribers. Wellington incorporated newsletter marketing into its overall marketing strategy. As they have evolved their marketing, the foundation of their customer communications has remained consistent. Their commitment to email newsletters led them to prioritize growing their email subscriber base, frequently using sign-up forms and special promotions to entice customers or prospects to join their list.   Wellington Brewery “[Our email list] is definitely a really important focus for building a deeper relationship with the customer. If somebody goes and buys one of your products, that’s great, but if you get the opportunity to actually speak to them in more detail, share a bit more about your brand, that’s where you get to build something special.”    Through their email campaigns, Wellington has boosted their ecommerce sales by utilizing the Shopify integration within Constant Contact. This integration provides a seamless connection between their online store and email communications, streamlining the purchase process directly from an email. Integrating with Shopify has helped the brewery to average more than $2,300 in sales through their weekly email newsletter over the past six months, and to drive 50 times their return on investment with Constant Contact.    List segmentation allows Wellington to divide their email subscriber list based on purchase behavior within their Shopify integration. This integration allows them to pinpoint their most loyal customers, re-engage those who haven’t made a recent purchase, and address abandoned online shopping carts. They have succeeded in delivering content that connects with their audience on a personal level, drives sales, and increases engagement.     Automating Success The brewery has continued to elevate their email campaigns by introducing automated emails, allowing them to cut down on manual email outreach. By incorporating automation, they have increased their engagement and sales successfully. Their abandoned cart automation, in particular, has helped them to achieve an additional $36,000 in orders.   Automating your email and SMS communications helps you save time and keep your contacts and customers engaged through a predetermined series of messages. You select the trigger, choose the timing between messages, and customize your message content. Constant Contact’s pre-built templates help you get messages out the door quickly, but are flexible — send a simple message or a complex series to meet your needs.   The Automation Path Builder lets you drag in different actions and rules, then you just have to customize them a bit. If you need to change things, steps can be dragged to different locations or even deleted. Once your path is activated and your messages start sending, you begin to gather reporting data to help you understand how it's performing.    Each of their automations serves a specific purpose: The welcome series automatically greets new subscribers, sets expectations, and makes subscribers feel important and valued.  Their hops sparkling water automation (for their nonalcoholic product line) provides new subscribers with a coupon code, igniting their interest and driving immediate conversions.  Finally, their abandoned cart automation works to re-engage customers to ensure no sale is left behind.    A toast to Wellington Brewery “We’ve seen an increase in conversions based around the automation for following up with customers on their carts,” said Brad. “So if we haven’t seen a purchase in a few weeks, sending them a discount code … [has] been really helpful in terms of driving ecommerce sales.”   This personal touch has not only fostered the strong connections Wellington currently has with their customer base, but it has helped to increase their sales and overall engagement rates. With the help of Constant Contact, Wellington continues to cultivate a vibrant community of craft beer enthusiasts eager to explore their newly crafted products and brews.   “Now we spend a lot less time for a lot more impact.” ... View more

Sometimes all you need to develop a good idea is a bowl of pasta and a couple of bottles of wine. That’s the story behind how Marc Iacona, Executive Director, and John Nugent, Artistic Director, decided to team up to produce the first CGI Rochester International Jazz Festival in 2002.    What started as a six-day festival with 50 artists is now a nine-day event with multiple venues. This year, It included 1,750 artists from 14 countries to provide entertainment and instruction to event attendees with a lineup of 300 shows. An event as massive as the CGI Rochester International Jazz Festival requires a ton of communication and marketing to coordinate and publicize the event. To ensure the festival team is reaching each of their target audiences effectively, they use Constant Contact to centralize their efforts.   Click to enlargeConsistency is key Putting together a successful event means an email list has to be grown, segmented, and managed. Emails have to be drafted, designed, scheduled, and sent. Outside of marketing and publicizing the event, there are many additional items that need to fall into place— venue booking, artist coordination, ticket sales, merchandising, and sponsorship deals are also top priorities.   The festival team relies on Constant Contact to centralize their efforts and promote consistency. “I’ve used other email marketing tools, and I just don’t think that there’s anything that exists that is as user-friendly and reliable as Constant Contact,” said Amanda Antinore, CGI Rochester International Jazz Festival’s communications director. “The fact that my entire job– and almost every single one of my clients– uses it is a testament to how great it is.”    This centralization is proof of the platform’s power and positive impact on the festival team’s communication efforts. “The ease of use and the fact that we can preview an email and send it off to get approved. Share it with the right people and be able to schedule something in advance — that is really important to us,” said Amanda.   Informing their audience One of the features the festival team uses to keep their email marketing organized is list segmentation. The more you grow your list, the more necessary segmentation is to create more targeted emails. The larger your list, the more complex you can make your segments.    Within Constant Contact, whenever you create a list segment, it's saved so that you can send it again and again. It will also automatically update relevant contacts for you, so you know you're always sending to the right ones. Creating different sign-up forms lets you add your contacts onto a list of your choosing, or allows your contacts to choose the lists they want to be a part of based on their own interests.    A band (including festival founder Marc Iacona – third from the left) plays at the jazz festival. Communicating with multiple groups can be difficult when they require different messages from your business. The festival team creates individual lists to cater to their audiences, whether they are event attendees or people working behind the scenes. “We’ve just been able to use all of those different lists to target exactly what message we need to get out to the right people, and that’s extremely useful,” said Amanda.    CGI Rochester International Jazz Festival is no stranger to building up its community through the power of good music — that’s how they have continued to host and grow their festival for the last 20 years. To ensure they communicate successfully with event attendees, vendors, sponsors, and everyone else on their email list, they use Constant Contact to segment their audiences, schedule communications, access reporting, and collect registration information. One centralized platform helps them keep everything about pre- and post-festival as smooth as jazz.   ... View more

Tamika Catchings is a top-tier athlete, having played in the WNBA for 16 seasons and earning four Olympic gold medals over an illustrious professional basketball career. So what did the hall-of-famer choose to do in retirement? The answer just might surprise you; she became the proud owner of a tea shop.   Originally set to close in 2017, Tamika decided to buy the local Indianapolis favorite, Tea's Me Cafe. Since then, she has continued to rally around the local community, expanding to a second and third location in Tarkington Park and at Ivy Tech Community College.     Starting as a humble in-person cafe experience, Tea's Me Cafe soon became a cultural center point for the community by hosting regular events. Nothing brings people together like a warm beverage and a cozy space. "I think the thing that people love when they come here is the culture," Tamika said.    To capture the cafe’s community efforts and radiate its culture beyond its four walls, Tamika has thoroughly invested in e-commerce and has been marketing the business through virtual and in-person events, email marketing, and social media; which has helped the company move past sustainability and into profitable expansion.   An email newsletter from Tea’s Me promotes their Community Conversations.She began using Constant Contact to help market her business in April 2022 to house her marketing efforts in one centralized location and ensure there was consistency in branding. Tamika and her team collaboratively craft email newsletters, create event registrations, and design and schedule social media posts.    It’s no secret that streamlining processes like creating behavior-triggered emails and managing social media platforms is no easy feat. Constant Contact is helping Tea’s Me achieve one of their biggest goals; automating their business. The  Automation Path Builder tools help them trigger emails when an order is placed and when thank you emails need to be sent.    “I just love that — the ease and automation [of Constant Contact],” said Tamika.    One of Tamika's goals for marketing her business is to continue growing her email list. Tamika uses the text-to-join and QR code features to gather sign ups at events. A healthy list of contacts means that Tamika has more room to segment her list and hone in on the particular interests of her dynamic audience. She has also built a landing page to help capture audience interests and further segment her lists.   Additionally, the Surveys tool allows Tamika to ask her audience what they want to know about her business. Respondents get to say 'I want to know about your events,' 'I want to know about your tea,' and Tamika uses the results of her surveys to better segment her email lists. She can also gauge audience interest using reporting tools, like a heat map. The information from the heat map helps Tamika craft better email content that is more likely to engage her audience.    With the help of digital marketing tools like Constant Contact, Tamika has grown an audience of loyal customers big enough to support and expand her business. ... View more