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When Julianna Curtis made the tough call to shut down her yoga and fitness studio in March 2020, she took a day to feel sorry for herself — then she sat down and figured out how to pivot.    Julianna is no stranger to adversity in business. A year after opening The Energy Barre, she ended up in court facing a lawsuit about noise complaints from a neighboring tenant. Although the lawsuit was a setback, she pressed on, using headphones in class, until she and her building manager figured out a path forward.    Today, The Energy Barre offers yoga, barre, and dance classes in three locations in Massachusetts and online. Julianna is candid about the storms she’s had to weather in building her business — and grateful for the lessons she’s learned along the way.    “Once I made my way through the recovery periods, I was able to look back and see how much positive came out of those experiences,” she says.    In this episode of Be a Marketer, Julianna and host Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, discuss the ups and downs of owning a small business in an unpredictable world.    Meet Today’s Guest: Julianna Curtis of The Energy Barre ☕ What she does: Julianna is the founder and CEO of The Energy Barre, an independently owned fitness and yoga studio. Founded in 2013, The Energy Barre has three locations in Massachusetts and offers classes and sells apparel online.    💡 Key quote: “I am so excited and obsessed with the fact that this is what I get to do.”    👋 Where to find her: Instagram | LinkedIn   👋 Where to find The Energy Barre: Website | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions. ... View more

“We’re all just trying to get through this life together,” says Al Yeck. “So let’s help each other.”    As the Executive Director of the Veterans Healing Farm in Hendersonville, North Carolina, Al leads an organization devoted to enhancing the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of U.S. veterans and their families.    A former Marine — and a former marketer — Al juggles many responsibilities in his role as Executive Director. He divides his days between managing the business side of the nonprofit and the farm itself, which doesn’t leave him much time for marketing.    His primary goal for the organization is to achieve financial solvency. That means marketing is especially important for getting the word out to local veterans groups, gardening groups, and others who might be interested in the farm’s mission.    Al leans on Constant Contact to help him spread the farm’s message efficiently. In this episode of Be a Marketer, Al and host Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, dig into the joys and challenges of running a nonprofit and the marketing tactics that are helping the farm grow.    Meet Today’s Guest: Al Yeck of Veterans Healing Farm ☕ What he does: Al is a Marine Corps veteran and the Executive Director of Veterans Healing Farm, a nonprofit with a mission to enhance the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of U.S. veterans and their families.    💡 Key quote: “I just urge you, if you’re hurting, mentally or emotionally, to seek help… There should be no stigma attached to it. If you’re hurting, mentally [or] emotionally, join the club. We’re all broken. And we’re all just trying to get through this life together.”    👋 Where to find him: LinkedIn   👋 Where to find Veterans Healing Farm: Website | Donate | Facebook If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions. ... View more

From an 800-square-foot store to 12,000 square feet of retail and warehouse space in just five years, Lady Black Tie is the picture of small business success.    Owner and founder Marissa Tilley started Lady Black Tie as a brick-and-mortar store after leaving an unfulfilling corporate job. “It came down to the idea of wanting to have fun every day,” she says. “I thought selling dresses would be super fun.”    Over the years, Marissa and her colleague Chelsea Demby, who runs Lady Black Tie’s media and influencer relations, have had to navigate a rapidly changing marketing landscape.    A few years ago, Marissa says, you could get “a nine-to-one return on your ad spend.” Today, with iOS updates impacting the power of ads and search engines taking a bigger cut of ad sales, they’re seeing returns of three-to-four at best. That’s why Marissa and Chelsea are leaning into email marketing to continue growing Lady Black Tie.   In this episode of Be a Marketer, Marissa and Chelsea talk to host Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact. Tune in for their tips on sustainable marketing, from avoiding the pitfalls of algorithm changes to navigating virality.    Meet Today’s Guests: Marissa Tilley and Chelsea Demby of Lady Black Tie   ☕ What Marissa does: Marissa is the owner and founder of Lady Black Tie, a Massachusetts-based fashion company with three lines of business: retail, ecommerce, and wholesale.    ☕ What Chelsea does: Chelsea is Lady Black Tie’s head of media and influencer relations.    💡 Marissa’s key quote: “It really came down to wanting to focus on the lighter side of life every day. Not every day is a joy. However, I do try to sit back and remind myself why I did this… seeing the smile on our customers’ faces when they find that dress.”   💡 Chelsea’s key quote: “My best advice is to really not strive for perfection. Have fun with it.”     👋 Where to find Marissa: LinkedIn   👋 Where to find Chelsea: LinkedIn   👋 Where to find Lady Black Tie: Website | Instagram | Facebook If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions. ... View more

  Quick Video Tutorials On-Demand Courses Live Onboarding Webinars Short-2-minute videos covering everything you might want to know - binge-watch style. Take your time with 60-minute sessions on specific topics for a relaxed learning experience.  Learn in real-time with a friendly trainer. Ask questions and practice alongside your peers.       Watch Now Watch Now Register Now        1:1 Consultation   Schedule a personalized session with one of our onboarding specialists. We're here to address your inquiries and assist you in a smooth start.   Schedule Now       Additional Resources: Knowledge Base | Marketing Advice Blog | Quick Start Guides ... View more

Your email’s journey to the customer’s inbox isn’t magic — it’s intentional. Constant Contact has email deliverability experts working behind the scenes to keep your special message out of the dreaded spam folder. But in addition to our technical crew, you, as the sender, can make certain shifts to increase your email’s deliverability.   Constant Contact’s Jon Marburger, Director of Email Deliverability, and Tara Natanson, Manager of Deliverability for ISP Relations, together have 31 years of experience in the email industry. Their biggest advice? Pay attention.   Metrics and unsubscribe comments can help you understand who’s reading your emails, as well as who’s leaving and why.   “The most underutilized part of our product is the opt-out comments,” says Tara. “People unsubscribe and leave you a message about why. You should really be looking at those. They are super enlightening.”   On this episode of the Be a Marketer Podcast, host Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, talks to Jon and Tara about other Constant Contact features that can help with your email deliverability. They cover the Gmail Promotions tab and its undeserved bad rap, technical ways to get higher open and click rates, and why you should avoid single-image emails.   👉 How to Build an Effective Email List: Best Practices and Strategies 👉 How to Interpret Your Email Marketing Reporting 👉 Do You Know Why People Are Unsubscribing From Your Emails? 👉 Understanding Email Authentication 👉 How to Prepare for Upcoming Google and Yahoo! Changes   Meet Today’s Guests: Jon Marburger and Tara Natanson of Constant Contact ☕ What Jon does: Jon is the Director of Email Deliverability at Constant Contact.   💡 Key quote: “Listening to what your customers are telling you — even if it's a negative data point, giving the opportunity to indicate why they chose to unsubscribe — that's really important.”   👋 Where to find him: LinkedIn   ☕ What Tara does: Tara is the Manager of Deliverability and ISP Relations at Constant Contact.   💡 Key quote: “While it can be hard to see people leave, or to watch your list get smaller, having a smaller, more engaged list is way better for your deliverability than having a huge list that has a very low number of opens and clicks.”    👋 Where to find her: LinkedIn   👋 Where to find Constant Contact: Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions. ... View more

Ed Doherty has achieved something most marketers could only dream of: a 72-78% open rate on his Constant Contact newsletters. His secret? Authenticity.    Ed launched his consulting business, Ambrose Landen, after being furloughed at the pandemic's start. He also launched a newsletter, Wednesday Weblogs, which he sends every Wednesday at 4:30 a.m.    At 70 years old, Ed has plenty of experience under his belt, and he views marketing as an essential tool for showing prospective clients that he knows how to help them. He doesn’t use his newsletter to sell his services, though — he uses it to build his reputation.    “I’m sharing my knowledge, my humor, my toughness,” he says. Three years into sending Wednesday Weblogs, Ed says that many of his current clients started as newsletter subscribers.    On this episode of Be a Marketer, Ed and host Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, discuss how authentic marketing can help you build a community that turns into customers.    Meet Today’s Guest: Ed Doherty of Ambrose Landen   ☕ What he does: Ed owns Ambrose Landen, a consultancy that offers strategic planning and leadership development services. In the past, Ed has been the human resources officer for an 11,000-person company and the president of a franchise company with 22 restaurants. He’s also the oldest of eight children.    💡 Key quote: “Anybody who’s in business by themselves is selling themselves. That’s what you have to do — you have to sell yourself. So I’m selling my knowledge, my humor, my history.”    👋 Where to find him: LinkedIn   👋 Where to find Ambrose Landen: Website   If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions. ... View more

It can be easy for marketers to forget that real people are on the other side of every interaction. But Brian Solis, Head of Global Innovation at ServiceNow, aims to bring humanity back into marketing.    Technology takes humanity out of the equation, he says. As a result, marketers focus too much on metrics like clicks and open rates instead of trying to build relationships. “Once you know more about the people you’re trying to reach,” he says, “the sales or the nurturing or the conversations will happen.”    A self-described futurist and digital anthropologist, Brian believes that AI allows marketers to get closer to people. “Somewhere along the way, we confused technology with transaction,” he says. Marketers should approach AI by thinking about how they want customers to feel rather than what they want customers to do.    “If you think differently about technology as investing in relationships and meaningful outcomes,” he says, you’ll get exponential returns.    On this episode of Be a Marketer, Brian and host Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, discuss how small business owners can put people back in the equation in their digital marketing and AI use.   Meet Today’s Guest: Brian Solis of ServiceNow   ☕ What he does: Brian is the Head of Global Innovation at ServiceNow. He’s also an author, futurist, and digital anthropologist. He helps companies future-proof by looking at how to be more valuable, agile, and innovative as the world evolves.    💡 Key quote: “The thing I really like about my work is the ability to see the things that most of us are just too busy — or maybe distracted or biased — to see in order to bring people together for a greater purpose.”    👋 Where to find him: Website | X, formerly known as Twitter | LinkedIn   👋 Where to find ServiceNow: Website | LinkedIn | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions. ... View more