As the CMO of Constant Contact, what do you believe sets your company apart from other email marketing platforms?
Constant Contact was founded with the goal of giving small businesses the tools they needed to keep up with their larger competitors, and we’ve never wavered that mission – even after 25+ years. Our customers are retailers, restaurants, child care providers, plumbers, universities and all sorts of other businesses and not for profits that power our daily lives. We exist to help them attract the right customers, engage those customers and grow. To achieve that goal, we’ve created a comprehensive marketing platform that provides small businesses with the tools they need to become better marketers.
We started as an email marketing pioneer, but we’re so much more than that now. Small businesses can use Constant Contact to send text messages, dial up their social media strategy, sell products, host events, raise money, manage their contacts and even run ads. Those core features are powered by innovative technologies like artificial intelligence and automation, which enable them to work more efficiently and drive more results.
Constant Contact has been a leader in the email marketing industry for many years. How do you stay innovative and adapt to the evolving needs of businesses and consumers?
We are laser focused on our customers 100 percent of the time, and we ask them for feedback on what their biggest challenges are. I know that sounds pretty basic, but you’d be surprised how often companies stray from that approach. Understanding their pain points and goals helps us shape our product roadmap and ensure we are building solutions that will help them save time and be successful.
We also invest in research and development to ensure our platform incorporates cutting-edge technology, but we always want to do that in a practical and consumable way for our customers. For example, our customers told us that it takes them hours to build email campaigns – so, we built a new content generator that leverages AI and GPT technology to handle the writing for them. Now, they can move faster while still delivering high-quality content to their customers. We also launched new automation campaign flows that enable them to customize the types of messages they send, based on customer preferences and recent behavior.
With the rise of social media and other digital marketing channels, how does Constant Contact integrate and complement these platforms in its marketing strategies?
There’s a good chance that someone’s first experience with a brand will come via social media, so it’s important for small businesses to be active on the appropriate social networks. It can be an effective channel for customer acquisition and brand awareness. However, we often see small businesses rely too heavily on social media to be the primary driver of business results. It works best when it’s incorporated into a bigger marketing strategy, and that’s where a platform like Constant Contact can help.
Our platform allows our customers to deliver their message via email, a social post, sms or a paid digital ad. We believe that helping our small businesses get the right message to the right customer at the right time is paramount of what we deliver..
In your opinion, what are the key elements of an effective email marketing campaign? How does Constant Contact help businesses achieve these elements?
The best email marketing campaigns have defined audiences, engaging content and clear calls to action. Whether you’re creating your first email newsletter, or managing dozens of automated drip campaigns, Constant Contact simplifies the process and makes it easy to build emails that get results.
Small businesses who struggle with writing can take advantage of our new AI Content Generator to craft high-quality marketing messages with clear CTAs in seconds. That allows them to spend less time on marketing while making it easy for their customers to convert. We also offer pre-built audience segments to help ensure those messages are getting to the right people. We also have pre-built automated campaigns and the ability for customer campaigns. These capabilities along with our personalization tools help our customers deliver effective messages in the channels their customers prefer.
Constant Contact has a large customer base. How do you ensure that each customer receives personalized support and attention in their email marketing journey?
A big differentiator for us is our award-winning customer support team. In this age of automated phone trees and AI chatbots, it’s refreshing to be able to talk to a real human. Our customers really appreciate that they can get in touch with us through phone or chat support whenever they have a question. Whether it’s troubleshooting a quirk or getting advice about a specific industry, we have experts ready to assist – and unlike many other companies in our space, our support team is available to every customer free of charge.
Data privacy and security are major concerns for businesses and consumers. How does Constant Contact prioritize and address these concerns to build trust with its users?
We are firm believers that everyone has a right to privacy, and we do everything we can to ensure that our customers’ data remains secure from bad actors. Our platform complies with all major privacy laws, including CCPA and GDPR, and we commission annual SOC2 audits by a third party to regularly evaluate the overall integrity of our security infrastructure. We have 24/7 threat monitoring and take several proactive steps to prevent would-be attacks from outside parties – including advanced endpoint protection, regular penetration testing, and a bug bounty program.
Constant Contact offers various features and tools to help businesses automate their email marketing. Can you discuss the benefits and best practices for using automation in email campaigns?
Automation is a tricky word because it can mean a lot of different things. For example, welcome emails and reminders are automated campaigns that are sent automatically whenever someone completes an action – like signing up for a newsletter. That type of automation eliminates manual work and helps make your brand sticky, and our customers have had access to it for years. But, the real power of automation comes when you combine it with AI to tailor your messages based on the preferences and behavior of each customer.
If I’ve learned over the years that a customer only opens emails every few days – but they’re active on text – I can create an automated campaign that sends themn a text about a new product I just got in stock at my store. Then, if they don’t engage with it after 24 hours, the campaign will automatically follow up with an email offering a discount to encourage them to engage.
That level of automation puts so much power into the hands of small businesses because it allows them to focus on their business with confidence while knowing their emails and texts will be delivered to the right person at the right time, automatically. We launched an automated journey builder earlier this year, and we’re really excited about what our customers are doing with it. It’s game-changing technology that small businesses haven’t had access to before.
What emerging trends or technologies do you see shaping the future of email marketing, and how is Constant Contact preparing to stay ahead in this evolving landscape?
Our goal is to make marketing easier, faster and more intuitive for small businesses. We see a significant opportunity to further integrate technologies like AI and marketing automation into our platform. As a customer-centric organization, our roadmap will always be driven by what our customers need to be successful. So, we will continue to invest in key areas where they are encountering obstacles.
Lastly, what advice would you give to businesses looking to improve their email marketing strategies and maximize their ROI?
A few things:
- Grow, grow, grow your list. Encourage website visitors, social media followers, and customers to subscribe to your emails and texts, then nurture those lists with engaging and helpful content.
- Make it personal. Consumers want to feel like their favorite brands know them and understand what they’re looking for. Tailor your marketing content based on their preferences and behaviors, and segment your audiences to deliver more relevant and targeted messages.
- Embrace technology. We’re living in the golden age of marketing technology, but many small businesses are slow to embrace things like automation and AI. Leverage all the tools at your disposal to save time and improve relationships with your customers so you can spend less time marketing and more time doing what you’re passionate about – running your business.