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constant contact-lee starshineI’ll come right out and say that I don’t use Constant Contact, but a friend and colleague of mine, Lee Starshine, does and she has been representing them for several years. This is a guest blog post by Lee.

Constant Contact has updated its service to include more than just email and I think you’ll find this type of bundled service interesting. Integrating email with other aspects of a marketing campaign can help streamline your operation and give you more control.

What is an “online marketing campaign toolkit?”

That’s the name of Constant Contact’s new service. It allows you to run a marketing campaign across all forms of online media. After all, when you send out an email to promote a webinar, course, or even a blog post, at the same time, you need to promote the item on social media.

The familiar newsletters, emails and contact lists are still at the heart of a Constant Contact campaign. These features are now bolstered by 4 additional features,  linked directly to the big social sites like Facebook and Instagram.They are:

  • Events: Create a landing page about your event and sell tickets
  • Promotions: Create trackable coupons, run a donation campaign, promote products and services
  • Surveys: Get feedback, gather more information about your subscribers, and use this information to segment your lists.
  • Deals: Similar to Groupon, creates a special offer

Moreover, each campaign:

  • Is simple to plan, launch and track.
  • Is easily shareable,
  • Has a much higher chance of being visible to more eyes
  • Lets you take advantage of the viral nature of social sharing works

A scenario

How does this work?

Let’s say that you want to host a series of seminars. They could be live in-person or webinars. The first in the series is free, but the others cost $20 each. Simply make a registration page in Constant Contact for each seminar, and attach it to your PayPal account or credit card processor to receive the money. Then, send it to your email list and promote it on Facebook. Link to it from your website and LinkedIn, and put the link in the newspaper and your Chamber of Commerce email newsletter. You will be able to easily track registrations. You can also quickly segment your list to filter out everyone who has already signed up, so you can send a last-minute email to everyone else urging them to sign up before the deadline.

After any event, such as a seminar, a purchase, or a support call, send out a survey link to everyone involved. For ongoing surveys, just add these people to a special list that has a couple of autoresponders with embedded survey links. This is an excellent way to get the feedback your business needs.

And you can brand and monitor your campaign

You can now quickly create and tailor a Constant Contact campaign to fit your business with its built-in templates. By modeling templates off of your business’ color scheme, logo and website, Constant Contact can create a multichannel communication pipeline that is clearly yours. The matching landing pages personalize your calls to action to get customers moving and working with you.

You can monitor the whole process with the integrated reporting tools. Keep track of what your subscribers are looking and and whether they are successfully sharing your content with others. Built-in contact management keeps the conversation relevant to the contacts you interact with. After all, any good marketing campaign should give you usable feedback.

Do you work from the road?

The mobile toolkit app means that you can keep up with your valuable customers when you are on-the-go. You can manage and creae campaigns using your smartphone or tablet. You can stay in touch while you scout locations for an upcoming promotion or travel to an important meeting. Many of your subscribers are mobile, too, and that’s why Constant Contact campaigns can be  optimized for mobile access.

Training is available

If all these changes seem overwhelming, Constant Contact has provided marketing coaching and support for those who need it. Helpful US-based support technicians are available 7 days a week. Personal Marketing Coaches (available at the “Ultimate” level of subscription) will keep your campaign on track and moving in a beneficial direction.

The days of bland and unchanging email solicitations are far gone, replaced by a colorful and powerful conversation tool to get your message to your people.

The message and purpose of Constant Contact still remains true to its name. Constantly bridging the gap between business and customer creates a working relationship beyond a simple consumer model. Optimized for small and medium-sized businesses, Constant Contact’s toolkit is on the cutting edge of Internet marketing. You can try out the Constant Contact Toolkit for free for up to 60 days for 100 contacts or fewer..Discover for yourself if Constant Contact is the right solution for your business.

(This post contains an affiliate link.)

What tools do you use to integrate email with surveys, events, and so on? Leave a comment!

lee-sLee Starshine owns Web Marketing Star LLC, an Internet marketing company that specializes in blogging and email marketing. She has a Master of Arts degree in Professional Writing and a decade of experience in internet marketing. Lee is currently a certified Gold Partner with Constant Contact Partner and has been a partner since 2007.

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