The sweepstakes is now closed! Thank you to all who participated and we are working on selecting the winner now! And we’re back! The Community is trying something new and our lovely user base reaps the rewards! Every month we plan to keep the Get Advice Sweepstakes rolling, providing different themes to focus the feedback efforts around. With Spring in full swing, we thought we would encourage everyone to review their Contacts and solicit their peers for advice and/or if you happen to be having a successful streak with managing your contacts, then drop us a line and share your insights!   It works like this: First, for your fearless contributions you will be entered for a chance to win a $100 credit on your Constant Contact account!   The sweepstakes will run from April 14, 2021 through May 5, 2021. Once completed we will select one winner at random and notify them!   How to Enter: Visit the thread you are currently in and perform one or more of the following, up to two times maximum:   Sharing advice related to contacts management, either independently or in response to another user's request.   Requesting assistance with your contacts management, by providing some insight into your current contacts situation. ‘Insight’ is defined by providing the audience details on your current or historical Open Rates and other contacts reporting, examples of your subject lines, and/or short URL to an email campaign, so potential advice givers can assess and give appropriate feedback. Please note: Do not provide account sensitive information, such as number of contacts in the account, specific email addresses, or list names.   Additionally, one participant each week of the contest has the chance to win one bonus entry by having their advice chosen by a panel of moderators (i.e. the Community Team) as exceeding expectations. 'Exceeding expectations' is defined by the subjective standards of the moderators, but is judged by clear instruction, attention to detail, and lengthier than one or two sentences.   The bonus entry will be chosen on the Friday of each week during the course of the Sweepstakes by 4:00 P.M. EST. If there are no entries posted in a given week then we will skip the bonus entry selection for that week.   Here is an ‘exceeding expectations’: “Your Open rate has historically been above 20% but dipped to 8% around November and has stayed there. I looked at the short URL of the email campaign you shared for your November campaign and it looks like your template is a single image containing all the information. Generally, you want to have a balanced image-to-text ratio as a single image email is more likely to end up getting caught in spam filters. Constant Contact actually has an article on this. Have you always been using a single image for your emails?”    If you are the winner we will notify you by the contact email address listed on your Constant Contact account, so make sure it is up-to-date! Thank you.   Questions? Let us know below!   ---   *No Purchase Necessary. The Constant Contact Community Get Advice Sweepstakes: Spring Cleaning is open to legal residents of the 50 United States (and D.C), 18 years or older. For Official Rules, visit here. Promotion ends on May 5, 2021 at 11:59 PM ET. The Sweepstakes is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Khoros, Pinterest, or Twitter. ... View more

Did you design a flyer for your business that you also want to share with your online audience? A menu for your restaurant? Whatever the document might be, instead of trying to recreate the graphic from scratch in Constant Contact’s email editor, you can utilize a couple different strategies to save time and get the job done!   Create an Email from a PDF   This strategy is the most straightforward. Constant Contact has a PDF-to-Email function that allows the user to upload a PDF file directly into the body of a new email template. It generates a PNG file of the first page of the PDF and will also generate a clickable button already linked to the PDF beneath the image!   This is a great option if you envision your email being almost entirely the PDF in question. For example, if you are a restaurant trying to promote your new menu, this will keep it front-and-center. Keep in mind that you can still make additional edits if you want to build more of your template around the initial creation.   The PDF file and the newly generated PNG file will both appear in the account Library after the email template is created.   Visit the Knowledge Base to read a step-by-step guide.   Important! Please note that sending an image-only email increases the likelihood of your email ending up in the Spam folder.  A balanced text-to-image ratio can make the difference! Consider adding your hours of business, contact information, or a brief message to your audience, for example!   Create an Image From a PDF While Uploading to the Library   Some Constant Contact users like to reuse the same template they’ve already designed, making small tweaks to fit whatever their needs are for that installment. In the event you already have a template ready to go, but still want to feature a graphic of and/or link to your PDF, you can acquire said assets from the account’s Library.   From the Library page, click on Upload To Library, then My Computer. Drag-and-drop the PDF file or click ‘or browse your computer to upload’ to bring the file into the account ecosystem. The great thing is the upload process will automatically generate a PNG image file for you!   Before leaving the page, click on the thumbnail or title of the PDF file you uploaded. A pop-up overlay will appear with the options to change the title of the file, add Alt Text for the Description, add the file to a specific folder, and most importantly for this overview, to copy the URL for the PDF. Copy that URL!   Return to the email template you are working on and in the top-left corner, click on the Image tab between Build and Design. The PNG version of the PDF file will be available for you to click, drag, and drop wherever it is you want to place it. Click on the image in the template and choose the ‘Link’ option in the pop-up toolbar to paste the URL of the PDF file so the image itself is clickable! Why is it worth doing this? Because when viewing an email, the image can only become so large; by making it clickable to the actual PDF file it gives the audience a chance to see it in its intended state.    You can always generate a button to make it clickable as well.   Visit the Knowledge Base to read a step-by-step guide.   -- Interested in Constant Contact? Try it free! Sign up today. ... View more

Jake and Dave of the Constant Contact Blog break down how suspended bounces work and the impact they can have on your email marketing. Introducing The Inbox.     Other Resources: The Suspended Email Address Bounce Category Managing, Removing, and Preventing Bounced Emails   ... View more

Jake Link returns with some helpful ideas on how to cope with the new challenges many of us are facing with our new working environments. Check out the Constant Contact Blog to see how you can stay productive while working from home.   We'd love to hear what you've been doing to transform a part of your home life into your new work life. Pictures are welcome! ... View more

We had the pleasure of catching up with Dylan von Kleist, the Marketing Manager for RUPES USA, INC. As a 2018 All Star winner, it means Dylan and RUPES USA, INC. are in the top 10% of customers that meet a certain set of criteria . We were excited to get to know Dylan and the work he's been doing with RUPES and how email marketing has impacted their business.    Constant Contact: For our readers not in the know, tell us what RUPES is all about!   RUPES USA, INC: RUPES is a family owned Italian company founded in 1947 that specializes in pneumatic and electric tools and dust extraction systems for a variety of industries. The company, still headquartered globally in Milan, has been innovating for over 70 years and was actually the very first company ever (1961-62) to use plastic polymer housings for their power tools to improve weight and provide better insulation (safety) against electric shock. This is a very common thing today, but at the time no one had ever used a plastic housing for power tools. In more recent years RUPES has become known as the industry leader for polishing systems expanding our manufacturing capability to include polishing pads and even blending our own polishing compounds.   In 2015 RUPES acquired Colorado-based Cyclo Toolmakers and formed RUPES USA, which is the North American headquarters. In 2017 we completed construction of a state of the art 40,000 sq ft facility that now houses our US administrative offices, manufacturing, sales, support, and training center known as the BigFoot Detailing Academy. It is widely recognized as the premier training facility in North America and we conduct multiple classes a month where students travel from around the world to get technical training from our internationally recognized training staff.   At our core, RUPES is an education based company. We firmly believe that if we can teach our customers a better way to do things, either more efficiently or producing a superior result, then the sales will follow. Our polishing systems are easily the most popular for automotive detailers around the world and we continue to innovate and push new technology into the market, but even the best advances in tools are nothing if you don’t show the operators how to use them properly. That is why we place such a huge premium on education as ultimately it is tied to the success of our product and the people who use it.   CTCT: As their Marketing Manager, you’re responsible for bringing attention to the company. What do you feel are the most important principles to convey when marketing the business?   RUPES: I have a delicate balancing act to conduct – respect 70+ years of history in Europe, continue to introduce the brand into the US conscious, and keep the message cutting edge. Luckily we’ve been able to blend those various aspects and have a unique message out there. We have a legacy, but we’re never propping ourselves up on what we have done. We are innovating new products and processes, but we never forget to remember where we came from. Probably most challenging, is to reconcile that at our core we are an Italian company with a long, proud, legacy of family ownership while still presenting a uniquely American spin on our channels here in the USA. What many people may not realize is how differently technicians in our various industries approach and prioritize things in the US vs. Europe. European countries have a much larger priority on health and safety for their operators, so things like vibration and noise levels are key selling features. Here in the states, we tend to care less about the health and safety aspects, wanting things with more power that work faster. Balancing those mentalities and target customer expectations is challenging, but fun!   CTCT: What place do you see email in your marketing efforts?   RUPES: Our communication is 2 fold – we do not sell directly to the public so we maintain a network of over 500 independent distributors in the USA (and growing). We use email to communicate at least once a month to them in a newsletter we call the RUPES Distributor Update. In each edition, we feature product updates, upcoming events, important news, and even short features on some of our distribution partners. It has been wildly successful and we’re regularly told by our distributors that none of the other brands they do business with take that much time to communicate things to them   The second end of the communication is to end users, or the people who buy the products from our distributors. For them, we need to have interesting content about what we’re working on, new and upcoming products, technical tips and tricks, announcements of events, and other things. We even sub-segment those consumers into those seeking general info and those interested in traveling to our facility for training and send the latter regular updates on new training opportunities. Ultimately the goal of these emails is to educate our consumers and then drive them to the authorized distributors for purchasing the product or drive them to our website to sign up for training events.   Email is a very important part of our overall marketing effort and ties in with our social media and live events. We use the other channels to drive email list growth, either by opt-in forms on social media or sign up at live events. Each part of our marketing approach feeds another, but email certainly plays a huge role in that process.   CTCT: How has email communication benefitted your company?   RUPES: When I took over this position in 2015 there was really no structure, consistency, or plan to email communication. We had a constant contact account, but it wasn’t being effectively used. Since structuring the process and using it to a larger degree we have seen a huge improvement in our engagement both with distributors and end users. For communication with distributors, it ensures that they are up to speed on everything we’re doing, when they can start to order a new product, what trends we’re seeing from the consumers, and activities we have going to promote the brand. It really helps them feel connected to us and what we’re doing. For end users, it drives engagement with our classes here at the BigFoot Academy and it steers them to their local authorized distributor if they need to buy the product or get technical help.   CTCT: And of course, what does winning the Constant Contact All Star recognition mean for RUPES? RUPES: It was a huge honor! We have worked really hard to refine our email campaigns to make them as effective as possible and the All Star recognition is great confirmation that our efforts are producing results. Sometimes you are too close to things to realize how far you’ve come. After receiving the notice we were being recognized I went back and sorted through our older campaigns and the contrast of how much things have changed (for the better) is amazing and we certainly wouldn’t have invested as much energy into it if it wasn’t producing results, so it is obvious Constant Contact has been a huge tool for us. ... View more

Back in November, we ran a contest in the Community  highlighting our Third Generation Editor. We garnered a lot of participation and some great feedback! Community VNA ended up being our Grand Prize winner. We thought it would be fun to learn a bit more about what Community VNA does and how email marketing fits in with their organization and communication needs. Without further ado, I catch up with Jeffrey LaValley, their Community Relations and Fund Development Manager, to learn more!   Constant Contact: What is Community VNA and what services does the organization provide?   Community VNA: Community VNA is a private, non-profit family of healthcare services located in southeastern Massachusetts, providing skilled nursing care, social services, and rehabilitative therapies to individuals in their homes living throughout the 13 cities and towns of the greater Attleboro, Massachusetts region.   Since 1911, we have been dedicated to enhancing health, wellness, and quality of life for individuals and their families, providing a range of services, including Home Health Care, Hospice Care, Palliative Care, Private Care, Adult Day Health Care, Alzheimer’s Assistance Program, as well as Lifeline Services and Annual Elder Dental Clinics.   Community VNA has been recognized as a 2017 HomeCare Elite Top 500 (ranked among the top 5% of home health care agencies nationwide). This recognition is based on publicly available performance measures in quality outcomes, best practice implementing patient experience, quality improvement and consistency, and financial performance.   CTCT: Walk me through the general day-to-day as the Community Relations Manager.     Community VNA: As the Community Relations Manager I am responsible for corporate identity programs, marketing, public relations and communications for all affiliates and programs. Additionally, I oversee the agency’s resource development program, including fundraising efforts from individuals, foundations, and corporations.   One of the things I enjoy most about my job is that no day is the same. One minute I could be working on a grant proposal, and the next, implementing a social media campaign or planning an event. I consider myself a “generalist” so I am able to use both my analytical skills and my creative energy.   CTCT: How does Community VNA utilize email marketing?   Community VNA: We use email marketing as one tool in our communications portfolio to keep friends of Community VNA informed about educational opportunities, news, current events, and targeted agency announcements (based on an area of interest).   CTCT: What other marketing channels do you use to reach your audience?   Community VNA: We use a variety of marketing channels from traditional print media (letters, postcards, etc.) to digital/electronic (website, social media – Facebook & Twitter).   CTCT: What advice would you have for others that might operate in a similar industry and are looking to use Constant Contact, or just in general?   Community VNA: At the end of the day, fundraising, regardless of the type of organization you work for, is about your ability to tell a good story. Email marketing gives you an opportunity to do that in a cost-effective way in a place where most people already spend a great deal of their time – on their electronic devices.   Telling your story also involves knowing your audience, how often they want to hear from you, and finding a way to personalize the story for them. Constant Contact allows us to do all of these things based on the information we have gathered.   Keep in mind, there is no “silver bullet” when it comes to communicating with friends and donors. Email marketing will not solve all of your communication problems. You have to use a variety of channels and be certain your branding and messaging are consistent.   CTCT: Has the organization thought about how they would like to spend the grand prize?   Community VNA: We are very grateful for this very generous prize/award and have decided to support clients at each of our three Adult Day Health Centers. We will make purchases for items that fall outside of their (Activities Fund) budgets — such as therapeutic toys, games, fidget and multi-sensory objects, books, and electronics. -- Thank you Jeffrey LaValley for talking with us and providing great insights into how Community VNA serves and communicates with their clients. ... View more

I had the pleasure of speaking with Tracey Johns, the Vice President of Communications for the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. The museum is located in St. Michaels, Maryland and the organization was a 2017 recipient of the Constant Contact All-Star Award. The All-Star Award is granted to the top 10 percent of Constant Contact users who met a set of criteria for email marketing excellence in the previous year.   Constant Contact: For readers who might not be aware of, what is the mission statement of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum?   Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum: The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is dedicated to preserving and exploring the history, environment, and culture of the entire Chesapeake Bay region, and making this resource available to all.    CTCT: How important is marketing for the museum?   CBMM: Marketing is extremely important to CBMM and fulfilling our mission. We are a destination, a history museum, a full shipyard, a wedding venue, a boat donation and sales business, and a retail store, on top of being an educational institution and museum. So we have a lot of goals that must be met. CBMM's earned, owned, and paid media help us to sustain and grow the museum, and its education programs in particular. We have numerous constituents to communicate with.   CTCT: What other channels are important to your marketing efforts?   CBMM: All owned, paid, and earned channels are important, but especially in how we interpret the museum from a photographer, writer, or videographer perspective. Our YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Flickr channels show journalists how we translate into their medium, and goes beyond our forever needs to attracting and retaining members, donors and guests to CBMM. Also, our business listings on Google have seen incredible growth in audience over the past year, and we are dedicating resources to post on these sites and more. Their analytics are awesome also.   CTCT: What is your strategy for email marketing?   CBMM: Email marketing is a critical component of our communications strategy. It's how we launch much of the promotions regarding our programs, festivals, and other important news. Because people can sign up on our website or on their mobile, it's also easy to grow the audience. We send a member newsletter out each Monday through Constant Contact, and monitor our click-thru rates, which are consistently above industry rates, which is another plug for Constant Contact because you help clients benchmark their efforts in this way. We also have several departments with dedicated email communication efforts, specifically for Education, Volunteering, Charity Boat Donation, and Member news. Recently, the most engaging articles in our Navy Point News general newsletter have been earned media stories from major publications that are shared via hyperlinks.   CTCT: How has it benefited your organization?   CBMM: We are able to meet and exceed our earned revenue and donor revenue while growing our education, collections, and Shipyard programs. Also, CC created a template for us that is mobile responsive and matches our website look and feel. A win!   CTCT: What is your advice for someone just starting in email marketing?   CBMM: Make sure you are using a mobile/tablet friendly template, check all your hyperlinks with text and make sure you add descriptions for ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] compliance and monitor your click-thru rates and effectiveness using CC's reporting tools.   CTCT: What does winning a Constant Contact All-Star recognition mean for the museum?   CBMM: We feel this award helps quantify how effectively we are using email marketing and legitimizes excellence in our work in this area. One of our values is Stewardship (see below), and that means being good stewards of our financial resources, which includes our annual investment in using Constant Contact for communications and making sure we leverage that asset to the best of our capabilities. VALUES   Relevance We provide meaningful and accessible experiences to all of our communities and constituencies. Authenticity We seek to represent genuinely the people and cultures whose stories we preserve and tell. Stewardship We value the priceless assets entrusted to us and accept their preservation and enhancement as our paramount responsibility—our collections, our campus and facilities, our financial resources—and we support the volunteers and staff who perform our Mission and make CBMM the rich enterprise it is. -- A big thank you to Tracey for taking the time to talk with us and share their All-Star experience with their fellow Constant Contact customers! If you’re an All-Star and would be interested in being featured on the Constant Contact Community please learn more on how to do so here. ... View more

Let’s start out by facing a tough reality: most small businesses and non-profits — even the most successful ones — aren’t getting the best results they could be from their email list.   Enter Segmentation   Time is scarce in the small business and non-profit worlds, so we’ve been working on a feature that can help you achieve your goals and do it quickly.   Segmentation is the process of organizing your contacts into different groups with the goal of targeting them with content or offers that are relevant to their needs or interests.     How does segmentation help?   Well, one of the biggest reasons people ignore emails or unsubscribe from email lists is because the content they receive isn’t relevant to them. By ensuring that the right people receive the right message you’re more likely to keep them engaged.   Introducing Segmentation   Segmentation allows you to segment your contact lists right from the Schedule Page. You can choose to send your email across all of your contact lists, or to those who have recently been added to your account, only to people who open your emails, or to people who haven’t opened your email at all. You can specify the period of time for these segments, too.   For more information on using Segmentation look here! ... View more