Click to download!It's Small Business Month, a time to celebrate small business success, resilience and innovation. As we reflect on achievements it’s also a great time to reflect and refocus on new ways to fuel your business’ success. This challenge is designed to help inspire your success with one activity per day aimed at helping you become a better marketer.
So download the pdf, follow along with this post and share your experience below.
Week 1: Connect & Converse with Your Community
#1: Share your story and get inspired by others in our community.
The Constant Contact community is the best place to learn new marketing skills and connect with like-minded peers. Introduce your business and tell us what inspired you to take that leap of faith and pursue entrepreneurship.
#2: Join us at the National Small Business Week Virtual Summit.
Each year, the U.S. Small Business Administration hosts the National Small Business Week Virtual Summit to celebrate our nation’s millions of small businesses. During the two-day summit, the Small Business Administration provides access to educational sessions, online business resources, and expert speakers. It’s a great way to learn new strategies for your small business and network with other like minded entrepreneurs! Join Constant Contact at the virtual summit on May 2nd at 3:20pm EST for a special presentation, “Unlock the Power of AI in Email Marketing to Sell More”.
#3 Ask us anything: our marketing experts are here to help.
Connect with peers and our team of experts in the Community and ask for marketing advice and recommendations. Share what you’re working on for your small business and learn from the experience of other small businesses like you.
#4 Follow our Be a Marketer podcast for practical advice and success stories.
Spend some time today listening to a new marketing podcast. If you’d like to listen to a show focused on small businesses, follow our Be a Marketer podcast to hear from Constant Constant customers about the lessons they’ve learned as an entrepreneur.
#5 Tag us AND a small business that you love and support on social media. This one is pretty simple: show some love to your favorite small business on social media and let us know why you love them!
#6 Watch our customer panel to learn marketing strategies from other Constant Contact customers. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed trying to figure out the best ways to market your business, know that there are hundreds of thousands of Constant Contact users just like you. Here from a few Constant Contact customers on the struggles they faced in growing their brands and how they’re using our tools to maximize their reach while minimizing effort.
#7 Time Saver: Post and respond quickly across social platforms with your Social Inbox.
Make posting easier on yourself by syncing your social media and Constant Contact accounts. Save time by logging in and managing your communications from one dashboard instead of logging into multiple different platforms.
Week 2: Grow & Manage Your Contacts
#8 Create a sign-up form or lead generation landing page to build your list online.
Turning website visitors into contacts through a website sign up form is an impactful way to get interested subscribers into your campaign list in no time! But why stop at just your website? A lead generation landing page will give you a link to a sign-up form that you can use across several communications. Add it to your email signature, share it on social media, and spread the word!
#9 Create a new list segment of your most engaged contacts.
Getting the right message to the right audience is crucial. Try creating a segment to understand and get to know your contact list better, particularly your most engaged members who keep coming back for more! Try out some new subject lines with a segment of folks who haven't opened your last 5 emails, or thank a segment of your most engaged audience members by emailing them a special promotional offer.
#10 Clean your contact list for the best email engagement & deliverability.
List hygiene is often overlooked, but couldn’t be more important. If you’re noticing high bounce rates or low click through rates, those are signs that it’s probably time to clean your list. Creating segments and removing contacts that are disengaged are simple ways to improve your engagement.
#11 Upload 20 new contacts to your Constant Contact account.
Did you make any networking connections at the NSBW Virtual Summit? Any new contacts that you haven’t had the time to add to your list? Take the time to add your new contacts to your Constant Contact account. Save yourself time in the future by connecting an integration that can sync your contacts automatically.
#12 Create a lead ad for Facebook & Instagram to reach and capture new contacts.
Did you know that you can easily grow your contact list with the help of social media? Connect your Facebook account to your Constant Contact account and run targeted ads to grow your list with an integrated sign-up form.
#13 Time Saver: Sync contacts fast by integrating with Salesforce, Shopify or other business tools.
Leverage the tools and resources you’re already using. Connect your tech so it can do the work for you and automatically import new contacts as they engage with your brand.
#14 Check your contact growth report to see what’s working & areas to improve.
We’ve spent the week focused on contacts, let’s check the numbers. The Contact Growth report can give you valuable insights on trends in your list growth. If you see your contact growth going down month over month, it’s worth digging in further to make sure you aren’t sending too often or if your content needs adjusting.
Week 3: Engage Your Audience
#15 Create a welcome email for new contacts.
Take the opportunity to build a connection when someone is most interested in your brand. Introduce your brand to your new contacts and share relevant products or services they might not know about.
#16 Personalize your email subject lines or add emojis to increase opens.
Add dynamic content like names, interests or emojis to show customers that you know them.
#17 Use subject line A/B testing to improve your open and engagement rates.
Use every send as a learning opportunity by testing your subject lines. Let your tech work for you by creating an automated test that sends the email to a small group of your contacts to try different subject lines. Then, choose the subject line that resonated most with your test group to boost your engagement for that email send.
#18 Create more engaging graphics with a Canva integration.
Canva is a one-stop shop for crafting beautiful graphics for your communications. Try it out! The program makes it quick and intuitive to design aesthetically pleasing images, including different templates already scaled for different social media platforms or communications you might be using. And when you’re done, they’ll sync right with your Constant Contact Library.
#19 Time Saver: Set up automatic re-sends to contacts who don’t open your original email.
We all get busy. Maybe some of your audience just overlooked your latest send. It doesn’t hurt to send them a reminder. You can schedule the resend when you first send the email. It’s recommended you schedule the email a few days after the initial send as not everyone opens the email in the first hour they receive it.
#20 Use an automated path to reach customers at the right time with the right message.
Bring your audience along for the journey - one message at a time. Plan your messages ahead of time and create an automated email flow. Help your contacts get to the right product, service or information you want to share by setting emails to send automatically when they take specific actions.
#21: Review your reporting dashboard to identify trends and learn from your top performing emails.
See what’s working and what’s not. Check your campaign performance to see what messages, content, products, and offers your audience is engaging with the most. Pay attention to what’s catching their attention, then apply those learnings to future emails.
Week 4: Think Outside the Inbox
#22: Plan your month with the marketing calendar.
Stay organized and get ahead by creating a marketing calendar. Think about upcoming moments for your business like an event, open house, sale or announcement to build your marketing calendar.
#23: Link your accounts to post on social or share an email.
Try extending your message across other platforms to see where your message resonates the most. Create it once and share it across all of your accounts.
#24: Add Text Message Marketing to your mix to reach your customers via text.
Reach customers where they are - on their smartphones. Use text message marketing with your email and social campaigns to maximize your engagement. Use these best practices to craft a great campaign.
#25: Poll or survey your customers using social, email, or text.
Trying to decide what to do next with your business or looking for feedback from your audience? Create a campaign with a poll or survey and collect those insights - straight from the source.
#26: Link your Shopify, Etsy, Stripe or other ecommerce tools for maximum
impact.
Use ecommerce tools to sync your marketing with your storefront. Capture contacts, share product details, run a sale or send an abandoned cart email to maximize your sales.
#27: Make an event, manage registration, RSVPs, payment & promotion from one place.
Simplify your event by managing everything from promotion, to guest lists and ticket sales in one place. Create a landing page with important event details then spread the word through using campaigns to collect your RSVP’s.
#28: Time Saver: Let the AI Content Generator write your content for you.
Sometimes it’s hard to find the right words. AI can help you create a great email in no time so you can spend time on things you love. Here’s a few tips on how to use it.
Week 5: Take Time for Yourself
Your business’ success depends on your personal success and wellbeing too! Be sure to prioritize yourself and make time to regroup and recharge.
#29: Enjoy the company of friends, family or peers who support and motivate you.
#30: Take a walk, hit the gym or exercise your mind with a hobby or fun activity.
#31: Dedicate an hour to unplug, rest and reset for the month ahead.
We get it; life as a business owner means you’re on 24/7. But, if you don’t stop to smell the roses every once in a while, then you’ll just let all of your accomplishments pass you by. Take some time today to log off, check out, and give yourself a much deserved break before tackling the month ahead.
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