Over the years I have found that the line between my sales responsibilities and those of marketing have become blurred and in several memorable cases-invisible. I have also realized that in the majority of small and many medium-sized businesses, sales and marketing responsibilities are assigned to one person. I have worn that dual-role hat in several positions myself. So if you are a purest, I apologize in advance for sharing what most would call a marketing WebTool in a series that is focused on sales WebTools. It is the second most commonly recommended and installed WebTool in our portfolio, behind only the WebTool that I will wrap up this series with on September 30th.
Email is an easy, effective, and highly affordable way to get your message out to your customers, clients, or prospects. You now have the ability to create high-impact, professional-looking emails—quickly and with no technical expertise. And, most importantly, you have the promise of building strong connections with your audience that lead to referrals, repeat business and loyalty. Or, you can screw it up big time!
It is because of that last sentence that I have tried, tested and used at least six Email solutions in the last four or five years. Some of them I have tried more than once. Each has its own special twist, feature or niche. They also all have flaws, including the WebTool that is the focus of this post- Constant Contact. And let me get this on the table now, I sell their Tools to my customers when appropriate. I also sell AWeber in specific situations. The following is why I have ended up back with and recommend Constant Contact® to most clients.
With Email Marketing by Constant Contact, you can:
- Choose from more than 300 easily customized email templates—or create your own from scratch.
- Create highly visual, professional-looking email newsletters and promotions in just minutes.
- Drive more traffic to your website with focused, targeted email communications.
- Build and manage your email list: import existing customer lists, add names individually, or capture contact information from website visitors.
- Measure your email campaign results instantly-check click-through rates, review new subscribers, and see who opened and clicked on each link so you can tailor your follow-up communications.
- Send automated communications to new sign-ups via an autoresponder tool.
- Communicate with your audience with confidence, knowing that Constant Contact will take care of getting your email delivered and keep you CAN-SPAM compliant.
For the majority of the time that I have been a Constant Contact fan, this is all they did-Email. They realized that the communication with customers, clients, or prospects could be enhanced with a survey capability. Now, my clients are able to manage their outgoing Email communications but also receive input, feedback and suggestions back from those same contacts, all within the same dashboard via a Surveys.
Online Survey by Constant Contact makes conducting online surveys and polls simple, fast, and highly affordable. You’ll get the insight, new ideas and the knowledge to help meet your customers’ needs. Keep them happy and coming back to do business with you—and grow your organization as a result. You’ll make more informed decisions—with the broader, more insightful view that Online Survey gives you about what your customers and members really think about your products, services, and communications.
With Online Survey by Constant Contact, you can:
- Create online surveys or polls fast with just a few clicks.
- Choose from more than 60 professionally-written survey templates—from member satisfaction to customer service follow-up, to testing new products, to website feedback, and more.
- Save time with popular, pre-written surveys—so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
- Invite participants with an email invitation, or post a survey link on your website.
- Manage your survey contacts with email list management tools.
- Add online polls to your website to keep your content fresh and exciting—and your visitors involved!
With your online survey results, you can:
- View summary results, or drill down to individual survey responses.
- See revealing trends and patterns with Survey’s filtering option.
- Respond quickly to key issues or suggestions based on survey responses.
- Then, follow up with relevant email communications.
Constant Contact, Inc. serves over 300,000 organizations worldwide. Their customer support has enough staff and contact options to always provide a speedy reply including phone, email, chat and the support forum-all at no cost. And I have never had a problem with getting my email delivered due to their high deliverability rates. They are the Gorilla in this arena, maintaining strong ISP relationships, no-tolerance spam policy and participation in anti-spam industry groups. They create professional-looking email communications and online surveys to inform their audience and get feedback that ultimately result in closer relationships and tangible business growth.
There are other terrific providers in this space, but for me when the dust settles, Constant Contact is the way to go.
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