A lot of first-time marketers think that the best way to grow your business is to blast your marketing messaging out in as many places as possible. While that will surely get your brand out there, the frequent messaging won’t necessarily resonate with prospective customers in a meaningful way that convinces them to buy your product. The real secret sauce is in talking directly with your customers to better understand their needs. Take the time to ask them what they’re struggling with, why it’s an issue for them and how you might be able to help. Building relationships with your customers helps you better understand how your product fulfills their needs and allows you to craft your marketing messages in a way that speaks directly to those needs. So, what are you doing to build relationships with your customers? ... View more

As a small business owner, there’s no better feeling than seeing your sales steadily climb as a direct result of your hard work. However, getting to that point isn’t the easiest journey and it takes a lot of trial and error to get your sales and marketing tactics just right.    When talking with our small-business customers, we’ve found time and time again that being authentic when selling yields the best results.   What strategies do you use to build trust with your customers? ... View more

For an uncommon business building a customer base takes time, patience and a little bit of marketing. The House Watchers is a house-sitting business which may not be very common but that hasn’t stopped business from growing steadily since getting started. Owner Frank Fantasia, offered some advice during an interview  with Dave Charest.    Frank’s Advice: Doing is the best method of learning, according to Frank. He’s used many of Constant Contact’s features firsthand, including text marketing, emails, landing pages, and surveys.   What have you found helpful when learning about the tools in your Constant Contact account? ... View more

Segmenting your audience into like-minded groups is key to making your marketing stand-out. Keynote speaker and leader, Scharrell Jackson, harped on the importance of breaking up your business’ audience into separate segments and developing personalized messaging for these different groups.   There are a few different ways to create custom segments using Constant Contact. How do you currently segment your audience to maximize the effectiveness of your marketing? ... View more