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  May is Small Business Month. All month long we’re celebrating the success and achievements of small businesses like you that inspire us. We’re celebrating with learning resources, stories of small businesses achieving big things, opportunities to get rewarded, and more.   Here are a few ways that you can get in on the action: Join us for the National Small Business Week Virtual Summit! The Small Business Administration and SCORE partnered up to host a free virtual summit just for small businesses. Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, is giving a presentation during this event where he’ll share tips to help you optimize your marketing plan for continued success!    Title: Building a Foundation for Online Marketing Success: Review, Plan, and Execute. Date:  Tuesday, 4/30 Time: 2:40 pm EDT   Register Now!   Keep the celebration going Live at Small Business Expo - Boston! Meet us live, in-person in Boston to continue our celebration of National Small Business Month! Next week, on Wednesday May 8th, we’ll be in-person hosting a lunch and learn with Dave Charest and the Constant Contact team at the Small Business Expo in our home city of Boston. Click here to learn more and register to join us at the expo! Don’t live in Boston? Keep an eye out on for upcoming events in your area.   Complete the Small Business Month Challenge The whole month of May is 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. *This promotion begins on Monday, April 29th, 2024 at 12:01 a.m., Eastern Time ("ET") and ends on Sunday, May 5th, 2024 at 11:59 p.m., ET. Eligible Constant Contact customers who become a registered MyRewards user and complete the Refer a Friend activity during the promotion period will be eligible to receive 60 MyRewards points. Referred customers must have an account in good standing for 30 days for referring customers to receive their MyRewards points. ... View more

  Today G2 announced their 2024 Best Software awards and our amazing community, YOU, named us one of the Best Digital Marketing and Advertising Software and Best Global Software Companies. In fact, you made us the highest ranked Email Marketing platform on both lists!   Throughout 2023, we’ve worked tirelessly to improve our tools and deliver best-in-class marketing software to small businesses around the world. Thanks to your reviews and feedback on G2, our hard work has been recognized! But we’re not stopping any time soon.   Here’s to another great year together! ... View more

We’ve got exciting news! Our customers have spoken, and you have rated us the #1 Email Marketing software on G2!   It’s your voice that got us the top spot. Sharing your perspective on the product and your experience makes it easier for other small business marketers to find the email marketing platform they can trust to help realize their goals!   Thank you for your continued trust and support. ... View more

With the recent rapid development of generative AI tools and the expansion of their capabilities, it’s hard to know what to do with AI tools and the best way to go about doing it!   With the AI Content Generator tool, our goal is to make your marketing easier and more efficient by leveraging the power of AI to make writer’s block a thing of the past.    To help you take the right approach when using the AI Content Generator tool, we put together this AI Best Practices Guide for help along the way.   Download the guide ... View more

A recent email sent by Flavorman. Click to view full version! Founded in 1992 by “super taster” and 2023 SBA Small Business Person of the Year award winner David Dafoe, Flavorman is a beverage development company that works with their customers to build the flavor profiles that power your favorite beverages. On top of Flavorman’s flavor consulting work, David had also been sharing his flavor knowledge at conferences across the country, teaching craft distillers about flavored vodkas and gins. But it was a special request by the mayor of Louisville that spurred the idea to provide his teachings with members of the hospitality industry.   So by the mid-2010’s, Flavorman expanded and added two additional brands: Moonshine University and Stave and Thief Society, all of which now employ over 60 people and operate a multi-building campus in Louisville, Kentucky.    New brands, new challenges ​​It takes a lot of work to keep order for one brand, let alone multiple. The addition of two new brands came with its own set of challenges and according to David, their previous method of marketing organization was not helping matters.     “[Our previous method of marketing] was more random, less thought-out, very time-consuming and inefficient ways in which we would get content out to folks … I would say if I had to sum it up in one word it would be spreadsheets.”     The company was managing 3 separate brands, each with its own audience that had specific wants and needs, in spreadsheets. This method was not only time-consuming but extremely error-prone.    That is when they decided to enlist the help of Constant Contact.    Jordan Plappert, marketing manager for Flavorman, uses the software to craft and send internal and external newsletters, as well as create and maintain separate email lists the company uses to organize their multi-brand communications.    "Constant Contact helps us deliver effective communication to several segmented audiences across our network of brands. These campaigns build meaningful touchpoints and educational opportunities for our clients".   Between Flavorman, Moonshine University, and Stave and Thief Society, David and his staff have 29,000 contacts (which include students, vendors, clients, consultants, and leads) to inform and manage. With the help of segmented lists, they can now send targeted emails catered to specific brand and audience needs. This allows them to keep their subscribers informed and easily upsell course offerings and services.  Then, thanks to detailed reporting features, they can adjust their messaging based on the data provided by Constant Contact to ensure their campaigns are successful.    “We get to the right people. Before, when we were sending out emails, we’d miss people,” David said. “...Constant Contact has absolutely, from our perspective, revolutionized how we send things out because we can be very specific on who gets what and how they get the content.”    David and his team work hard everyday to produce flavors that will make your taste buds sing. While their team is off doing science, they use Constant Contact to take care of their email marketing. With carefully curated lists, beautifully designed emails, and detailed reporting, David and his team send the essence of Flavorman directly to the inboxes of intrigued vendors, interested clients, and eager students.    Flavorman’s recipe for success Primary email marketing goal: Class signups, sales, communication with clients and vendors Types of emails they send: Newsletters, class announcements, event reminders Marketing Channels: Email, events, social media Feature they can’t live without: List segmentation Key analytics: Clickthrough rates and open rates Impact: “Constant Contact allows us to have elevated communication with our clients.”   ... View more

Happy Small Business Month! This month is all about celebrating the hard work, perseverance, and determination of small business owners across the nation. To celebrate, we’ve invited a few Constant Contact customers to chat with us who were recently recognized by the U.S. Small Business Administration for their significant impact on their community and the success their businesses have seen over the past year. Candid Conversations give us an opportunity to dig deeper into the stories and experiences of our customers, and in this conversation you’ll hear:    How each founder overcame adversity in their business journey The importance of community-related projects The role Constant Contact plays in their success   Our panelists, David Dafoe, Founder of Flavorman; Jordan Plappert, Marketing Manager at Flavorman; and Mike Bausch, Owner and Co-Founder of Andolini’s Worldwide  joined Dave Charest for a conversation about their small business successes and how to bring your marketing to life with Constant Contact. Watch the recorded webinar.   ... View more

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!    #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.     ... View more

Earlier this year, G2 announced their 2023 Best Software awards and our amazing community, YOU, named us top 10 of Best Digital Marketing and Advertising Software! Thanks to your help, we’ve officially reached 5,000 product reviews on G2 and earned over 60 accolades in their most recent Spring market reports. That is incredible and we’re so thankful to each and every one of our customers who took the time to share their thoughts. Reviews like this are helpful to other small businesses like you looking to find digital marketing tools to grow their small business. Sharing your experience and insights can be invaluable to someone searching for a tool.     So if you haven’t already, leave a review to let us know what you love about Constant Contact and share your experience with other small businesses.    If you have, thank you! Here’s to another great year together! ... View more

For most people, a creative outlet like crafting, drawing, or designing is simply a great way to blow off steam after a hard day’s work. For Dear Handmade Life CEO and Creative Director Nicole Stevenson, creativity became the heart and soul of her business.   We’re thrilled to dive deeper into the story of Dear Handmade Life  and how Nicole leverages the power of list growth tools to reach the thousands of passionate small-business creatives who turn to her team for help growing their businesses. Founded in 2007, Dear Handmade Life’s purpose is to create a community that connects and elevates creatives and crafters who want to take their small-shops to the next level. Through a series of annual live events, educational podcasts and blogs, and a thriving virtual community, Dear Handmade Life has become a go-to resource for all things creative-small-business in the eyes of crafters around the world.   With so many touch points and opportunities to expose the Dear Handmade Life brand and mission to droves of new creatives, how does Nicole make sure to capture (and properly segment) their interest and contact information? The answer: list growth and list segmentation tools.     Here’s an example that Nicole shared on our recent customer panel, You Grow Girl - Candid Conversations with Women-Owned Businesses: Using a cross-channel marketing approach, Nicole and team hosted their series on social media, notified customers via email, and utilized signup form landing pages and list segmentation features to gather RSVPs from attendees. This then enabled them to provide targeted reminders and additional information to the people who had expressed interest in Marketing Mondays.     Using the landing page builder, Nicole was able to quickly put together a branded sign-up form that felt authentic to her business and allowed her contacts to RSVP to attend Marketing Mondays. After including an invitation to the series in her newsletter and social profiles, Nicole had over 150 visitors to the landing page, 76 RSVPs and over 20 new contacts added! Nicole took it a step further and segmented her list when creating this landing page so all signups were added to her “Marketing Mondays” email list.    From there, Nicole’s team sent a targeted day-before reminder email to the Marketing Mondays RSVP list instead of her entire contact database. With that approach, Dear Handmade Life ensured a boost of attendance for the Marketing Mondays series while excluding customers who signaled that they weren’t as interested. By using a smart mix of marketing channels and delivering crucial messages to clearly defined groups, the Dear Handmade Life team grew their list and ensured that the right people received the right message at the right time.     ... View more