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To-do in this article:  Create a social lead ad to grow your audience   Social media is a great place to engage with your audience, but also grow your audience.   If you’re trying to collect contacts, check out social lead ads.   You’re probably wondering what’s the point of a social ad if I can already share my emails and events on my social media accounts? The benefit with a social ad is that it will spread your message/promotion to a wider audience, including people who aren’t already engaging with your content (though might potentially be interested).   It has the benefit of either curating a prospective audience based on data with your existing contact list or a custom audience based on desired demographic details such as gender, age, country, specific location, or interests.   You set a budget that works for you (assuming it is at least $1.00 USD a day) and how long you want to run the ad. Facebook will have to review your ad to make sure it meets their content policy.   Once your ad has been running for a little bit, make sure to review the reporting. Whether your ad is running well or you might want to tweak it to see if the engagement improves, you can always edit an active social ad. On the same wavelength, if you’ve surpassed your goals or aren’t happy with the performance of the ad, you can always unpublish the social ad. ... View more

To-do in this article:  Add social share and social follow to your email campaigns   If you maintain a social media presence, it’s important to represent them in your correspondences with your audience. Constant Contact makes it easy to add some of the popular social platforms to your template so people can find you wherever you may be.             Plus, you can give people the option to spread the word and share your email on their own social media platforms!     And they are both customizable!       ... View more

To-do in this article:  Familiarize yourself with the Social Post page  Optimize your text and images to work for the social channels of your choice  Schedule your social posts   Emails, events, and landing pages can all be shared on your preferred social media platforms.   You can also create your own social posts and customize it to work with different platforms.   When using social posts, it’s important to keep in mind that while your audience probably overlaps between your email endeavors and social media ambitions, it’s a whole different ball game. If you need some inspiration, we have a wonderful guide on how to Own the Social Sphere.   First, you want to make sure that the image(s) you are using are optimized for the social media platform you’re going to post to. Images on Facebook and Instagram scale differently and if you’re posting to both you wouldn’t want the image to look worse for wear or cropped.   Every platform also has their own character limits for the text associated with the post. Most are pretty generous, but if you’re also posting to Twitter then make sure to keep the 280 character limit in mind. That said, during the creation stage you can opt to make different posts for each platform all on the same page! ... View more

To-do in this article:  Create your social media accounts (Optional)  Connect your social media accounts with Constant Contact   Constant Contact integrates with multiple social media platforms, making it easier than ever to share your email campaigns, generate lead ads, or simply post to all of your social accounts at once.   Don’t have a social media presence yet? Start with creating accounts with your preferred platforms:   Set up your Facebook Page Set up your Instagram Business Profile and Connect an Instagram Business Profile to a Facebook Page Set up your Twitter page Set up your LinkedIn personal page and Create a LinkedIn Company Page   Before social media platforms and Constant Contact can integrate, there are permissions you have to accept to make the connection possible. Once you’ve connected and started sharing social posts you can review the reporting to make adjustments for future endeavors! ... View more

To-do in this article:  Familiarize yourself with the Reporting page  Review, export, and study your reporting data   Your first email is out the door! Congratulations! I wish I could say this was it, but marketing never sleeps! No no, now that your email is in the wild you’ll want to give your audience time to engage with it and review the reporting metrics to help adjust your goals for the next campaign.   First, it’s good to get a general overview of email reporting. For example, what is actually tracked after an email is sent? What do these graphs and numbers mean? What the heck is a bounce?   If you’re part of an organization and need to share your reporting with others, you can export a campaign as a CSV file or a range of campaigns if you want to share trends over time.   Sometimes, you might want to consider resending an email to those who didn’t open it the first time and compare the performance with the original email. Once you know what to look for and how to navigate it, it’s time to interpret what the email reporting actually means for your marketing agenda! ... View more

To-do in this article:  Schedule your first email  Breathe and pat yourself on the back   Arguably, the most important step! You’re at the top of the first mountain in the seemingly endless range that is marketing and it’s nice to see you up here (it was getting a little cold and lonely).   Scheduling an email is pretty straightforward though. If you follow these step-by-step instructions you’ll be sending your first email in no time!   Related: When is the Best Time to Send Your Email Marketing Campaign?   That said, here are some things to keep in mind before you schedule:   Is your campaign ready? Check for errors and send a test version of your email. When is the best time to send? It can be hard to deduce this if you’re just getting started, but still worth considering. Chances are you have some idea of the audience you’re communicating with. For example, if your audience is heavily corporate, scheduling the email to be delivered before or around 9 AM is ideal as it is more likely to be near the top of their inbox, thus more visible. Who are you sending to? Depending on the size and diversity of your audience, you might want to segment the recipients or narrow down a specific tag within a contact list. What about the subject line? If you can’t settle on a subject line, try the A/B Testing tool to send two different subject lines to smaller samples of contacts and then use the winning subject line to send to the rest. Once you hit that Schedule or Send Now button, that’s it! You did it! What do you think? How would you rank your first campaign experience? Let us know below! That said, we’re not done just yet. After you wait patiently for the email to reach their inbox and give your audience time to open and engage with it, you will want to review the reporting information for the campaign! You can also connect your social media accounts to Constant Contact and share your hard work on your social channels! ... View more

To-do in this article:  Read up on email design best practices (Optional)  Customize your email template   There is a lot of flexibility with creating an email template, in terms of design and structure. It’s all based on what you want to represent and which audience you want to target. However, we recommend some email design best practices such as a visual design hierarchy (i.e. most important elements are at the top).   Once you understand what design elements are most important to you, consider your audience, and what you want to achieve with your email, it’s time to get to work. Thankfully, the Constant Contact email editor is easy and intuitive to use!   We recommend creating a reusable template.    We can’t tell you what to write, but our AI Content Generator can! Whether you're writing yourself or having AI do the heavy lifting, here’s a recommended workflow to get your template in a good place for you to start dropping in your content!   After selecting a template, make sure to edit the campaign name. This is just for your eyes only and keeping your Campaigns page organized. Edit the header and footer to make sure all your pertinent information is correct. Some of this might auto-populate based on what you added to your Account Details, but you’ll want to make sure the subject line is effective and personalized. If you decide you’re not sure until after you create the rest of your email, that’s cool, too! It can be edited later or at the scheduling page. Review the Design tab and make sure the fonts and colors represent your branding or desired look. Now that all the technical stuff is out of the way, it’s time to add, arrange, or delete some blocks to fill the template with content! These blocks include text, image, customizable buttons, and social media options.  Once your email is lookin’ spiffy, make sure to check for errors and preview the email. You can also send a test email to yourself or others for additional feedback! Once you're comfortable with the final result, let's get that campaign scheduled! Speaking of, we would love to see what you came up with! We encourage you to share a screenshot or short URL of your campaign in the comments! ... View more

To-do in this article:  Review the available templates  Select the template you think will work best for your goals   It is now time to create your first email. Choosing the right template might seem like a daunting task, but it helps to break it down to what your goals are with this particular template. Is it a promotion for an upcoming sale or new product? Is it to introduce your audience to your new email marketing initiative and what to expect? Or maybe it’s the start of a weekly/monthly newsletter! Whatever the goal is, keep it in mind as you scroll through the plethora of templates.   Constant Contact has templates for different industries like retail, real estate, or non-profit. We also have a ton of templates to celebrate different holidays! Chances are, there is a predesigned template already waiting for you.     However, it’s important to know that some visual elements might be hard coded in by our template designers. For example:   Borders Backgrounds Gifs Colors   If being able to edit/change any of these is important to you, we recommend starting with a basic template and building it out.   It wouldn’t hurt to create a reusable template that is consistent with your brand, but we’ll get to that as we walk through creating your first template.   Here are a list of articles that will give you some best practices on how to design a template that is right for your goals:   The Perfect Email Template: What You Need to Know 4 Essential Templates to Jumpstart Your Email Marketing How to Create a Modern Newsletter Email Template 5 Types of Email Templates Specialized for Nonprofits 14 Top Real Estate Email Templates 8 Retail Email Examples You Can Use to Increase Ecommerce Sales ... View more

To-do in this article:  Decide how you want to upload your images and other files  Upload your images and files   Why you should upload images to your account   Humans can be visual creatures. We like to look at things. The same goes for the emails we read. You don’t want to overwhelm your audience with too much visual stimulation, but adding some eye-popping graphics or engaging photos from an event will make your email stand out!   Constant Contact has a few different avenues for uploading images and documents to your account Library, such as from social networks or your computer. The process is the same for PDFs. Heck, you can convert the first page of a PDF to an image file while uploading, too!   You can also upload images in the email editor while working!   You just want to make sure your files are formatted correctly so the upload succeeds. In the event your files are too big for Constant Contact, there are other options. There isn’t unlimited storage in the Library and if you’re running low on space or just want to clean up, you can remove and delete files. ... View more

To-do in this article:  Familiarize yourself with what conditions make the best images  Study design principles that will help make your images pop! (Optional)   If you want to avoid blurry and unattractive images in your email campaigns, you’ll want to make sure the files you’re using cater to the specifications required by Constant Contact (and the Internet, in general).   If you’re new to formatting images, both major operating systems have built-in tools you can use to edit and manipulate images.   When you prepare images for upload you’ll have to consider the size of the image, its resolution, file size, and what type of file it is. For example, most Constant Contact emails are 600px (pixels) wide. If your image is too small and you want to fit the width of the email, it’s going to diminish the quality. If your image is 600px or larger, it can more easily be resized down to fit the space.   When crafting an appealing email, it’s helpful to keep some design principles in mind so you can attract the right attention from your audience. Try to avoid common mistakes when you can.   After your images are ready, it’s time to upload them to Constant Contact! As far as graphics are concerned, you can connect your Constant Contact account with Canva and utilize the images created in Canva right in the email editor! ... View more

To-do in this article:  Create a Canva account (if you haven't already)  Connect Canva to your Constant Contact account   To-do in this article:  Create a Canva account (if you haven’t already) Connect Canva to your Constant Contact account   Why you should connect Canva to your Constant Contact account.   Canva is a great program for designing graphics for promotional assets (among other things). Constant Contact and Canva integrate seamlessly so you can drop your Canva-created image files right into your email campaign while you work!   Connect your Canva account and you’ll be able to add images right to your library or even directly into the email campaign you’re working on. If you decide to discontinue using Canva, you can always disconnect it from your account.   Canva isn't the only way to create and upload images to your account, but it's important to know what conditions make for the best images. ... View more

To-do in this article:   Get an idea of what helps create an engaging welcome email   Create the welcome email   Setting a good first impression with your audience is key to keeping them engaged with your content. Welcome emails help take the legwork out of this initial step, so you can focus on other endeavors. Whether you set it up as a simple thank you and confirmation, include pertinent info, or offer something as part of the sign up, these automated emails are an excellent way to start your relationship with new audience members.   When creating your automated welcome email, an important element to keep in mind is whether you want this to apply to a specific list or every list. If you’re offering something specific to signees that go through a sign-up form/invitation, then you might want to stick to a specific list. If you’re wanting to have your welcome email’s contents available to all who sign up through your connected lead ads and forms, then keeping it open would be best.   Once you’ve completed your welcome email, you can publish it. It will trigger when new contacts sign up, then you’ll be able to view its reporting info - including sends, opens, and clicks. Welcome emails can also be edited and deactivated at any time. If you’ve deactivated your welcome email, you’ll need to either create a brand new one or copy the deactivated one to get it active again.   An important aspect of welcome emails is that only one can be active at any given time. If you want to have multiple automated welcome emails, with additional trigger options and setups, then check if your current plan allows you to use the full suite of automation tools!   For additional insight, learn How to Create a Winning Welcome Email!   Now that you have a welcome email, you already have a pretty good idea of how to use our email editor, but we still want to walk you through creating and sending your first email campaign ! ... View more

To-do in this article:  Review the available list growth tools  Select the list growth tool that will work best for you   Starting out with no contacts, or wanting to grow an already established base? It is important to bring in new customers or donors, as well as keep in touch with existing audiences. That’s why we have a variety of options for growing and managing your contact base.   To start off, you may want to consider the most used options for growing contact lists - including integrated forms, manual imports, and other methods. Keep in mind what kind of information you’re wishing to collect from your contacts beyond their email address. For example, if you want to send more personalized emails, you may want to collect basic info like their name. You could also collect information such as their location or product preferences.   If you have experience with coding, you can install pop-up, banner, flyout, and/or inline forms on your website. These forms adopt styling from your site, so it meshes well with your overall layout, collects a variety of contact info, and allows contacts the ability to select which lists they want to be on (if you allow the option).   If coding isn’t your jam, or you need to add a direct sign up form link to web pages meant for redirecting or social engagement, then our landing page forms will be just what you need. Once published, they are granted their own unique URLs, which you can customize to a degree, and can be shared anywhere.   If you’re looking to expand your reach to social media, then you want to consider social lead ads as a means of growing your contacts. You can set preferred audiences for the platform to target, so you’re advertising to demographics more likely to be interested in seeing more material from you.   For those with physical storefronts and offices that your audience can visit, or if you’re attending conferences, you’ll want to consider offering a way for them to sign up in-person, such as through the ListBuilder app for tablets.    Some people prefer the classic method of simple pen-and-paper, too!   Now that you've started growing your audience, we recommend creating a welcome email to greet them, but you can also jump to creating your first email campaign, as well! ... View more

To-do in this article:  Choose the right option to upload your contacts  Upload your contacts to a list   Why is it important to know which method of uploading is best for you?   Your contacts are most likely the most valuable part of your account. Of course, you’ll need a way to get them in there. We have multiple options available for importing contacts.    If you are importing a spreadsheet, take a moment to ensure the contact file is formatted correctly and in an acceptable format. We accept .XLS, .XLSX, .CSV, .VCF, and .TXT files.   Using an integration? We’ve got you covered. There are integrations available with multiple business softwares and eCommerce platforms that automatically sync your contacts.    What if you have them stored in your personal or business address book from an email client? Use our tools to bring over your contacts from Gmail, Outlook, or other various email providers. See them all here.   No matter what method you’re using, you will need to agree with our email permission policy. In short, these contacts have given you either express or implied consent to contact them through email. We also do not permit the upload of purchased lists.   If you have previously used another email marketing provider, you can upload a list of unsubscribed contacts. Even though you are contacting them through a different provider, these contacts have stated they no longer want to receive emails and you still have to respect their request.   However you decide to upload your contacts, once it’s done, it’s time to create your first email! ... View more

To-do in this article:  Familiarize yourself with the Contacts page  Decide if you are ready to upload contacts or need to grow your lists   There’s a chance you’ll spend a lot of time on the Contacts page so it’s important to familiarize yourself with the different components. It might seem self-explanatory in parts, but we still want to touch on everything the page has to offer so you will feel set up for success!   When you first visit the Contacts page the default view will be on “Contacts.” You can change the view to Lists, Segments, or Tags, as well. Insights provides data on how many contacts are subscribed (this number is connected to your Billing plan, too). How many new subscribers have joined in the last 30 days, the growth percentage in the last 30 days, and how many Unsubscribed contacts. All available contacts are listed here. You can change the view based on their subscription status or whether they are on a list or not.  Up to seven columns can be displayed at once and you can modify which columns are visible (for example, if you could switch out “Source” for “State/Province.” Similarly, the search function allows you to search by their name or email address, as well as any other important contact fields. Click the blue “Add Contacts” button to choose from several import options or click the three dots to view and/or export your contacts.   If you already have a list of contacts, then you will want to decide which method you will use to upload them to your account.   If you still need to grow your list of contacts, it’s time to consider which list growth tools will work best for you. ... View more

To-do in this article:  Create additional users for your account   Why you should create additional users   If your business or organization needs multiple people to access your account, you may be tempted to share your login credentials (we definitely don’t do this for streaming services…right?). This is strongly discouraged with Constant Contact accounts. Think of the password as the key to your kingdom. The more keys that are out there, the higher the possibility of them falling into the wrong hands.   Please note that the number of users your account can have depends on your billing plan. For more information on what is allowed in your particular plan, visit the Plans and Pricing page within your account.   Instead of having to share your password, you can set up additional account users and give them a role based on the amount of access needed. There are three types of users:   Account Owner - This is the only role that has access to billing information, adding additional users and changing their roles. There is only one Account Owner role allowed. Account Manager - This role can create and send campaigns, manage and grow your contact lists, and keep an eye on reporting. Account Managers cannot access billing information. Campaign Creator - This role is more limited. Campaign Creators can create and customize all types of campaigns, but cannot send them. They won't be able to access any of your contact details, account settings, or billing information. ... View more

To-do in this article:   Set or update your password   Set your security question  Set up Multi-Factor Authentication   Your account contains a lot of sensitive information and it’s important to keep it all secure so it doesn’t get in the wrong hands. We have multiple security measures in place to keep your account safe.    There are three things we use to ensure the right people are accessing your account: a password, a security question, and multi-factor authentication. Let’s break them down:    Password   A secure password is the primary key used to access your account. Just like many other sites, we have requirements in place when setting or changing your password. Basic best practices include: Don’t use the same password for other logins. Avoid common passwords (like Password!) Change your password on a regular basis.    Security Question   When setting the security question, you will provide the answer to one of several questions that you can choose from. The answer should be unique and not easily guessable. If you accidentally lock yourself out of your account and need to send an important email, please contact our support team. An agent will ask the security question on your account to ensure we are unlocking the door to let the right person in. Just like a password, this security question should be changed if an unauthorized user accesses your account.   Did you know we have an article on what steps should be taken if you need to transfer ownership of your Constant Contact account? Multi-Factor Authentication   In order to keep your account safe, we add an additional layer of security called multi-factor authentication (MFA). MFA is an effective and standard security technology used by many online services to protect their customer’s data from unauthorized access. By using an additional means to confirm you’re the one attempting to access your account, MFA can help prevent attacks, reduce the risk of other cyber security threats, and protect your personal information from hackers.   Once you enroll in multi-factor authentication, you will need to select a secondary factor of authentication. This includes: Okta Verify Google Authenticator SMS Authentication Voice Call Authentication   If you log in from a new or unfamiliar source, a prompt will appear and ask for a verification code from the secondary factor selected. This is especially common if you use multiple networks or VPNs, or clear your cookies often.   We highly recommend creating additional user profiles if more than one person needs access to the account. Creating additional user profiles allows them to select their own secondary authentication factors and not need to go through the account owner each time. Make sure to check the Plans & Pricing page in your account to see how many additional users are available in your account.   Your account is secured! You are welcome to start exploring your account (we suggest heading over Contacts Overview) but it's important to note that if you have multiple people using your account, it would be worth it to set up additional user profiles for them. ... View more

To-do in this article:  Complete your business profile  Upload your logo  Save your brand colors   Why do your business profile and brand assets matter?   There are a number of ways that completing your brand profile and including your brand assets can benefit your business and boost your digital marketing.   First, filling out your business profile gives us a better idea of your business’s industry and area of focus so we can provide you with more accurate campaign reporting metrics benchmarked against others in your industry.    Every industry has its own set of average rates for opens, clicks, and bounces. We provide updated average industry rates frequently so you can keep an eye on trends.    This also allows us to suggest templates that may fit emails typical for your industry. A retail business has different needs than a nonprofit (though you probably knew that already)!     Your brand assets are important because they help provide a consistent, identifiable visual connection to your business. When a contact opens your email, they should be able to recognize who you are right away.    Uploading a logo and saving your brand colors are quick and easy ways to do this at the account level, ensuring your logo and colors are pulled in each time you select a new template. This saves time and creates a better experience for your subscribers for each email you create and send.   Did you know the Constant Contact blog has a ton of articles covering many different industries and topics related to them? We are more than just email marketing, anyways. Search for your industry and get ready to learn!   Now that your business details are correct, you will want to make sure you have established the right security protocols for your account. ... View more

To-do in this article:   Assign your main contact email address   Assign your billing email address  Change or update your payment method  Confirm your organization details   Why it is important to confirm your account information   After you have verified an email address, you can set it as your main contact email address and account billing email address. If desired, you can set them up to have different email addresses to ensure the communications are going to the right person.   Speaking of billing, this is also the best time to change or update your payment method. This information can be updated at any time, but it’s important to have it correct right from the start to avoid having your account put on hold. Of course, if you’re still in the trial period, you’ll complete this step when you pick which plan is best for you.   Before sending your first email, you’ll want to confirm your organization details, including your company name and physical address. These appear in the footer of your email and are required under the CAN-SPAM ACT for all commercial emails.   You’ll want to make sure your profile details are accurate and easy to remember since these are used when contacting our Support team as an added level of security.   After your account details are set, you can get to some of the fun stuff like filling out your business details! ... View more

To-do in this article:  Verify your email address   Why you should verify your email address   Email addresses must be verified in your account before using them in your account for things like the From: address on any outgoing email or to receive important communications from us. After signing up for your account, you should receive an email from us for verification. Simply click the link to confirm and you’re good to go!   There are no limits on the number of addresses you can verify and they can be switched out as needed. Verified addresses can be used as the main account email, as the billing contact, as the From: and Reply-to: addresses for a campaign, to receive Early Results notifications, and to receive the Subscriber Activity report.   Some things to keep in mind: We strongly recommend not verifying a role or group address (such as admin@email.com). When the verification email is sent to a role address, there can be difficulty with completing the verification process. If a role address is used as the contact or billing email, you run the risk of a recipient seeing information they may not be privy to view.  We recommend you use an address that represents your business domain or a personal email address. This helps with deliverability and appears more professional in the inbox.   Once your email is verified, it’s time to build out the rest of your account! ... View more

  Event Marketing Best Practices   Event marketing is more than just organizing an event; it's also about crafting a journey that captivates attendees, builds brand loyalty, and leaves a lasting impact. Utilize these best practices to elevate your event marketing — before, during, and after your event.   Do you want to generate leads, build brand awareness, or engage with your audience? Having a clear set of goals will help guide your decision-making process, identify key metrics to monitor, and stay focused.   Define who your ideal attendees are and tailor your event to their interests, needs, and preferences. This will help guide your marketing strategy, allowing you to select the right channels to reach them and craft messaging that resonates.   Meet potential attendees where they are by utilizing a variety of marketing channels to maximize your event’s visibility. Leverage social media, email marketing, website promotion, blogs, online ads, and traditional media to create buzz and attract attention.   Event management software can help you manage registration, ticketing, and attendee tracking. This will make the planning process more efficient, saving you time so you can focus on other aspects of event planning.   Provide a way for your website visitors to subscribe to event updates and newsletters. Regularly communicate with your subscribers by sharing updates, sneak peeks, and exclusive offers to keep them engaged and excited about attending.   Collaborate with small businesses, industry experts, or organizations that align with your brand values. Co-marketing initiatives, cross-promotions, and shared resources will help expand your event’s reach.   Encourage attendees and participants to share their thoughts and photos on social media using event-specific hashtags. This increases your event’s exposure and creates a sense of community and engagement.   Create buzz before your event by sharing teasers, photos, and exclusive content. During the event, encourage attendees to share their own content. After, follow up with attendees and sponsors to express your gratitude and gather feedback — use this to improve future events and maintain relationships.   Gauge the success of your event marketing efforts by tracking key metrics and analyzing the data collected such as registrations, engagement, social media reach, and post-event surveys. This will help you identify ways to improve future events.   Whether you’re organizing an online webinar or an in-person event, nailing down some best practices can make all the difference in creating a successful and memorable event.   Learn more about events: constantcontact.com/event-marketing ... View more

Taking an omni-channel approach to your marketing is so important to make sure you’re delivering the right message to the right person at the right time. With the help of automation, you can attract, engage, and grow your customer list through timely marketing messages across the channels that resonate best with your customers. We're taking the most popular questions from our latest New & Next webinar and expanding upon them so you can better understand how to automate your marketing in a way that is impactful for both your business and your customers. If you missed the session with our Chief Product Officer, Russ, and SVP of User Experience, Jerry, watch the full recorded webinar below.     Need some help setting up your own automation paths? Have a question left over from the webinar? Leave your questions or automated path examples on our Automation Help page so our team can help you out!   New & Next, Easier Automation for Your Marketing: Questions and Answers are below!   Automation   Q: Is automation part of the Constant Contact subscription or an additional cost? How do I know if our account level includes Automated Path Builder? A: Automation is part of each plan (Lite, Standard, Premium) with varying levels of capability. Check out our feature comparison page for specifics.   Q: I need help setting up paths with the automated path builder for my business. Do you have any examples or use cases that I can reference? A: Visit our Community to get help with your automation! Our team is ready to help you out, and we’ve provided some helpful best practices and use cases that might inspire your work.   Q: If someone subscribed for both text and email, can you get them to receive both in an automated path? A: Yes! You can set up an automation path to send both a text and email message.    Q: Does this Nurture chain start all at the same time for every contact OR will it be contact specific so that it starts whenever they get added to a group or list to start that trigger? A: Automation events are contact-specific. As a contact performs an action, like joining a list, the automation would then kickoff for that contact individually.    Q: Can you set an end date for an automation (for example, set the automation end to be the date the grand opening event happens)? A: While you can’t set an end date, you can set up time delays to ensure that your messaging starts and stops within a certain time period after a contact enters the automation. Otherwise, we recommend deactivating the automation on the desired end date.   Q: When you set a time delay on your automation, is that delay automatically applied to new subscribers?  A: The time delay will be applied to the contacts who have not passed that point in your workflow. If others join the automation further down your funnel, they will not be affected.    Q: When you create a new automation -  do all of your existing customers that meet the criteria get engaged immediately? A: Existing and new contacts will be added to the automation when they meet the trigger criteria. Let’s say that the automation trigger is "contact added to List A". When an existing or new contact is added to List A, they will enter the automation path.   Q: How can I automatically move a contact from one list (say a welcome series) to another list (like a general newsletter subscriber list) after they finish the welcome series path? A: A contact enters an automation when they meet the trigger criteria. At this time, automation paths do not have the ability to update a contact’s list membership.   Q: I've only seen conditional branching for contact activity as click - will there be updates soon for if a contact opens an email? A: Conditional splits evaluate for email and sms clicks, SMS subscription, and shopping activity such as number of orders placed or total amount spent to date.   Q: In the automated workflow, there was a time delay option. Does that include the option to send out emails at a specified date/time from sign-up, as opposed to hours/days after the action is taken? A: Time delays are relative to the moment the contact enters the automation path and are not set to a specific date/time.   Events   Q: When can I access the new Events tool? A: We’re excited to provide all of our customers with access to the latest Event marketing tool before the end of August!    Q: How does the new Events tool improve on the old one? What does the Events tool allow me to do? A: The new events tool improves your experience for everything you need to create, manage, and promote your event. Check out this knowledge base article for more details.   Q: Does the event tool also have a way to keep track of attendance during a live event? Is there a way I can check people in? A: Coming soon, we will offer the ability to:  View the Registrants report under the “Reporting” tab to view all of your event’s registered guests  Manage an individual or multiple registrants’ order status (Canceled, Registered, Checked-in)  Check-in support using QR code scanner in the CTCT Mobile App Export your reports to see who registered versus who attended an event    Q: How does Constant Contact’s new Events tool compare to Eventbrite? A: Constant Contact’s Event marketing tool is comparable to Eventbrite in the use cases we support and features that are offered that help you Create > Manage > and Promote your event. Use Constant Contact as your all-in-one marketing tool (without the need to pay for and manage multiple platforms) for collecting, managing, growing and connecting with your contact lists. Unlike Eventbrite who charges for every ticket that is purchased, our Event platform and payment processing fees are charged at an order-level, resulting in more revenue for you!    Q: What is the cost to use event payment through Constant Contact? A: Constant Contact charges a usage/platform fee for Event marketing at a competitive 2.9% per paid order transacted using our system. We offer digital payment processing with PayPal and WePay, both of which have their own separate transaction fees that are charged at an order level.   Q: Does the event platform handle USD and CAD currency? A: WePay supports USD payments while our PayPal integration offers support for 20+ currencies, including USD & CAD!    AI   Q: How careful do you need to be when using the AI tool and entering information about your organization to build out a newsletter? Are there any security/safety measures set up with the AI in Constant Contact? A: We have security measures built into how we generate content, but it's still best practice to make sure you don’t include any information in your email content that you don’t want out in the public.   Q: Is the AI content generator available for all users? Is there an additional charge to use the AI content generator? A: AI content Generator is available in all packages at no additional charge.   Q: Using the AI, can it create emails based on templates we have used in the past? A: While we don’t currently offer that feature, we are exploring the best ways to improve our AI technology for email templates.   Q: Can the AI content generator obtain a tone from a previously made content? A: At the moment, our AI content tool only offers the ability to create content using pre-defined tones.   Q: When using the AI Content creator, how can a Constant Contact user ensure a uniquely worded message? A: While we can’t guarantee a completely unique message, the content is generated against billions of other messages so the likelihood of ever seeing a duplicate message is extremely low. Plus, you can always use the AI content generator as a starting point from which to further edit and personalize your content. Q: I am just starting to build lists. How do I send emails asking people to subscribe without their upfront permission to be sent emails? A: Great question! Check out our guide on the best ways to  get permission to email your contacts.   Q: Does Constant Contact integrate with my CRM? A: Check out the Integrations tab on your Constant Contact dashboard to see what software currently integrates with our platform. ... View more

Evolve Your Marketing   Because digital marketing is constantly evolving and developing, small business marketers are presented with a unique opportunity — the opportunity to level up their marketing game and add new, impactful strategies to the mix. Solid, ongoing email, social, and text messaging strategies can help build relationships and create success — but what’s out there to help you understand your customers, personalize your messaging even further, and reach them in their preferred online locations?   In this three-part series, we’ll be hitting on three big ways small business marketers can take their marketing efforts from status quo to something truly spectacular through automation, personalization, and more.       Make it Easy and Scalable   The work of optimizing and fine-tuning your marketing is never done — after all, your audience is unique and constantly changing. But as a small business owner or marketer, your time is in short supply, making it a challenge to get to all the things you know can make a difference in your marketing.   Digital marketing automation can help take some of the sting (and the time commitment) out of your marketing, of course. But how can you automate something that’s different for each and every customer? The answer is the perfect combo of customization and automation: custom automations for your marketing.   Custom Automated Marketing Paths   What are custom automations and how do they work?   A welcome series is a basic marketing automation that you are likely familiar with — when a contact opts in to hear from a business, they then receive a series of emails, spaced out over a period of time, welcoming them to the mailing or text messaging list and educating them about the company and its goods or services.   With custom automations, automated email flows can be crafted to be more sophisticated and tailored to the customer by using delays, triggers, and conditional splits.   A trigger is a behavior or action a customer takes that kicks off a messaging workflow, such as subscribing to a list, having a birthday, clicking on an email link, or placing an order. A delay is the time between the trigger and when the message is sent. This can be any time period from minutes all the way up to months after the initial trigger. Conditional splits are moments in your digital marketing automation where a contact’s next communications are determined by their actions and information. Based on these splits, your users are segmented and sent down different messaging paths tailored to their activity. Splits can be based on things such as contact details, engagement activity, location, and interests.   When combined, triggers, delays, and splits determine when an email or text messaging series starts, how much time passes before they receive a communication, and how those communications change and personalize in response to their activity.   How does this help me?   Custom automations can help you achieve the best of all worlds, customizing your outreach for your business and its needs while also providing timely, relevant, and personalized content for your customers. This provides a number of benefits, including:   ✓ Time savings ✓ Consistent messaging ✓ Increased engagement ✓ Relationship building   Even in the most finely-tuned marketing plan, there is always room for marketers to improve by paying careful attention to their customers and nurturing those important relationships through evolving, personalized communications.   However, as all small business owners and marketers know, time is the hardest thing to come by when operating your business — which means constantly streamlining, automating, and improving your marketing efforts in order to run efficiently.   Adopting new tools and technologies that allow you to foster your valuable relationships across hundreds or even thousands of customers, prospects, and other supporters can take your current marketing from “good” to “great,” all while delighting your customers and saving you time. ... View more

Evolve Your Marketing   Because digital marketing is constantly evolving and developing, small business marketers are presented with a unique opportunity — the opportunity to level up their marketing game and add new, impactful strategies to the mix. Solid, ongoing email, social, and text messaging strategies can help build relationships and create success — but what’s out there to help you understand your customers, personalize your messaging even further, and reach them in their preferred online locations?   In this three-part series, we’ll be hitting on three big ways small business marketers can take their marketing efforts from status quo to something truly spectacular through automation, personalization, and more.     Get on Your Customers' Level   So once you know and understand your customers, what’s next? Understanding them doesn’t matter if you don’t communicate with them in a way that demonstrates that understanding. One-size-fits-all marketing can feel inauthentic and fall flat, but by adding personal touches to your email and text messages, you can build relationships at scale — quickly, easily, and without having to create dozens of custom emails each time you reach out to your audience.   Here are ways to take what you know about your customers and turn it into something that speaks to them personally.   Dynamic Content   What is dynamic content and how does it work in email?   Every business wants its content to be dynamic — that is, energetic, stimulating, and progressive. But in digital marketing, dynamic content is content that changes based on the user before they ever interact with it at all.   This means you can create and send all your contacts a single email, but by adding dynamic content blocks, you can include content that changes based on your contacts’ information stored in standard and custom fields within your database. Depending on what information you set out to gather from your contacts, you can use dynamic content to personalize your email in more refined, more specific ways. Dynamic information can be simple things like name and geographical location all the way up to complex things like product preferences and donor status, depending on your database.   A great example of this would be a gardening center asking users about their preferences when they sign up: Do they plant more flowers or food plants? Do they like houseplants or luscious landscaping? Then they can use a dynamic content block in their newsletter to display a coupon targeted exactly to their users’ preferences. One on-sale orchid, coming right up!   How does this help me take my marketing to the next level?   Ultimately, the success or failure of your marketing hinges on a single factor: whether your audience responds to it. Personalizing your outreach is one way to ensure you’re reaching the right people with the right message, and that they feel the message was fully intended for them.   Search Engine Optimization (SEO)   What is search engine optimization (SEO) and how does it work?   For instance, this could mean the difference between saying “American pub-style restaurant” on your website and sa   ying “Modern pub serving American cuisine, with an expansive menu including burgers, hot wings, steak dinners, and homemade desserts.”   How does this help me take my marketing to the next level?   If you’re not an SEO expert, then it can be difficult to look at your website and see where you can make improvements. But using tools that can assess the copy and content of your website as a whole and create scoring, insights, and recommendations can be a quick, easy way to make certain you see where improvements can be made — and where you can provide your customers the exact information they need to make a decision.   Unlike other forms of content personalization, SEO efforts work to make sure you’re speaking to the right audience before they reach your website, and help you deliver the experience they expect, boosting both their knowledge and their perception of your business.   Ecommerce Segmentation   What is custom segmentation and how does it work?   Custom segmentation is the practice of creating more advanced groups of customers based on their interactions with your business. For ecommerce businesses in particular, this segmentation is based on buyer behavior.   This segmentation works hand-in-hand with your online store provider (like Shopify, WooCommerce, and others), utilizing information generated during the shopping process to create customer segments. These can be basic criteria (like whether a customer has placed an order) or more advanced (like how much a customer has spent, or what specific products they purchased). Some providers even provide individual spending projections, allowing you to segment your digital marketing to that, as well.   Ultimately, how you segment your audience as an ecommerce business is dependent on the amount of information you get — so the more thoroughly you can integrate your shop into your digital marketing (and vice versa), the more sophisticated and impactful your outreach can become.   How does this help me?   Loyal customers are the backbone of any retail business, and ecommerce is no different. By talking to your customers about how they buy, what they want, and what they need not only ensures engagement and future purchases, but also lets your customers know you’re paying attention to their relationship with you, and that how they shop with you matters.   This type of segmentation can help you to create personalized product recommendations, impactful win-back campaigns, and long-lived loyalty programs. Get on your customers’ level and you’ll find they’ll want to stay on yours, too!   Have questions? Let us know below! If you have any experience with dynamic content, SEO, and ecommerce segmentation we'd love to hear your success stories! ... View more

Evolve Your Marketing   Because digital marketing is constantly evolving and developing, small business marketers are presented with a unique opportunity — the opportunity to level up their marketing game and add new, impactful strategies to the mix. Solid, ongoing email, social, and text messaging strategies can help build relationships and create success — but what’s out there to help you understand your customers, personalize your messaging even further, and reach them in their preferred online locations?   In this three-part series, we’ll be hitting on three big ways small business marketers can take their marketing efforts from status quo to something truly spectacular through automation, personalization, and more.     Understand Your Audience   Business owners of all experience levels have one key thing in common: it’s absolutely critical that they understand their audience in order to attract them, engage them, and nurture a valuable relationship with them. Reporting and analytics tools that provide insight into metrics like opens, sends, and clicks allowed marketers to see how their outreach was working, and to improve when it wasn’t.   But understanding the customer has come a long way since then, allowing for deeper insights into customer engagement and behavior. You might be keeping an eye out on basic metrics, but here are helpful tools to dig deeper that you should be using to give your campaigns (and your business) that extra edge.   Heat Map Reporting   What is heat map and how does it work?   Just like a meteorological heat map that shows "hot spots" in the hottest part of the area, a heat map for web or email will show you where users clicked the most.   For emails, this means seeing at a glance the top links that your readers engaged with. With a quick scroll, you can follow your readers' footsteps and see where they stopped to click into your images, calls to action (CTAs), and even footer links.   How does this help me?   Obviously, if you put links in your email, they’re there for your readers to click, right? But not all links are created equally, and understanding what your readers gravitate toward can tell you a lot about your email content and how to improve it.   Are the majority of your clicks somewhere other than where you really wanted them? Your CTAs may not be clear enough or compelling enough. Is there no clear pattern of clicks? You may have too many links in your email, creating confusion, or too few links, driving no action at all. Are all your clicks occurring too early in the email, well above where the real content is? Your copy and design may be too long, making your readers stop scrolling. Are most of your clicks in the footer, on links like “unsubscribe” or “privacy policy”? The content you are sending may not be what your customers expect, or your emails may be occurring too frequently.   Checking these often and comparing them from email to email (in addition to using features like email comparison reporting and A/B testing) can help you to fine-tune your approach to fit what truly delights and engages your customers.   Revenue Reporting   What is revenue reporting and how does it work?   If you run an ecommerce business, you already closely monitor your sales and revenue. But do you know where your sales are coming from? This can be key to understanding customer behavior. With revenue reporting tied to your digital marketing, sales that can be attributed to your campaigns are automatically reflected in your analytics with their respective emails. This attribution accounts for activities like direct clicks to your storefront from a campaign, or purchases in a set time period after communications are opened.   How does this help me?   Greater visibility into your revenue streams is always a good thing for a retailer. But by looking at which campaigns generate revenue, and comparing them to one another, you can begin to see a bigger picture about what communications are effective and how to expand on that success.   By evaluating your campaigns through a revenue reporting lens, you can begin to take a closer look at things like:   Content. Evaluating your copy, photo links, coupons and other content from a revenue lens can help you determine efficacy and improve for the future. Timing. Everything from time of day to time of year can influence shoppers and their wallets. Template and design. As you experiment with templates and designs, you may start to see emergent trends in the revenue generation tied to these aesthetic changes.   Regardless of where you see positive or negative trends, these things can and should inform how you craft and send your sales-driving communications to your customers. Lean into what’s working and try something new for what’s not!   We want to hear from you! What are some takeaways you've gotten from reviewing your reporting? ... View more