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Tag: email newsletter

9 Things I Like about Constant Contact for Email News

8 things that make Constant Contact an excellent tool for communicating with your email list. These features make it fun and effective to build your relationship with your clients, prospects, donors, volunteers and affiliates.

I have been using Constant Contact since 2001 and use it for my own businesses and also do setup and management for clients as a business affiliate. I have seen so many improvements and enhancements over the years. Here are just some of the great features that make it fun to use and a great communication tool.

  1. Pricing: I love the fact that the price is based on the size of your LIST – not on the number of emails you send out. You can send out any number of emails and you have a fixed cost. The price is also very reasonable and with a 60 day free trial anyone can test it out without obligation.
  2. Online Signup: The wizard helps you to setup a signup that will look good on any website. You can also add a signup to your email signature or your blog. This helps you to build your list.
  3. List Import: You can import lists in different formats and there are plugins that you can use to add names and emails from your desktop or integrated with Outlook or other applications. Once these are setup they are very simple to use to add new emails to your list.
  4. List Management: You can setup different types of lists – e.g. volunteers, donors, clients, or any type of category that makes sense for your nonprofit or business.
  5. Email Templates: Hundreds of email templates with different styles and designs. These are very customizable to brand matching your needs. Newsletters, announcements, specials, seasonal greetings, cards, notes and much more.
  6. Links and Tracking: Add links to your website pages, your blog, your facebook page. The administrator reporting will see tracking on each link. This is a real help in seeing which topics and links have the most interest. You can also make sub lists based on link tracking.
  7. Auto Responders. You can setup up to 15 auto responders. These are emails that will be received by people as they sign up on your list. Since an auto responder is based on the timing that you setup – the person would receive an email on a scheduled basis and you can setup the text and links to keep in contact and build a relationship with your list.
  8. Reports. See reports on the emails that were delivered and opened, bounce backs and undeliverable emails, links and history. Reports on your auto responders tracks number of auto responder emails sent and results.
  9. Help.  Online webinars, recorded tutorials, and a searchable knowledge base all provide excellent tools.  Customer support is very responsive by phone or by email.

Constant Contact

These are a few of the key features for email newsletters – there are many more for the image gallery, event management and survey tools. Try out Constant Contact for yourself with the 60 day free trial.

Aleph Consulting offers services on setup and managing Constant Contact emails for businesses and nonprofits if you choose to outsource that service instead of doing it yourself.  Contact me for details davies@alephinc.com

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Author DenisePosted on December 29, 2009Categories email, toolsTags auto responders, communications, constant contact, email newsletter, link tracking, list building, list management, marketing, reporting2 Comments on 9 Things I Like about Constant Contact for Email News

Email List Building and Autoresponders

Build your relationship with people on your email through thank you gifts and use of autoresponders. Example of Constant Contact.

People sign up to receive your email newsletters if they feel you have information that is useful to them and they want to receive your emails and stay in contact with you. The initial sign up indicates that they have made this first expression of interest.  There are a few things that will help you to build the relationship with this person

  • Send them an email thanking them for joining your mailing list. You can give them a link in the email to download a report or tips or an article that new subscribers receive as their thank you.
  • Send out an email 1 week after their initial signup with some additional information of value – and additional emails on a specific schedule.  Remember that people will be signing up at any time.

This sounds like a lot of work – but there are some excellent tools to help you do this easily and efficiently and have your list responses happen automatically.

I have found Constant Contact to be an excellent system for managing the list building process:

  • You can create your WELCOME message – and include in it a link to a special document that you give to new subscribers.  Upload your document to your web server – and know the link URL. Then setup your message and test it.  The welcome message will be sent out directly from your email address via Constant Contact as soon as a person signs up.
  • You can create multiple auto responders in Constant Contact (this is a new feature).  For example you can setup an email that will be sent out to the person 1 week after they sign up. This email will have some useful information, thank them for being on the list and some links back to your website or your special services.
  • You can setup up to 15 auto responders.
  • There are reports in your admin area that show you who signed up on the list and how many of them have received auto responder 1, 2 etc. You will also be able to see who clicked on links and this gives you additional indication of level of interest.

The beauty of this system is that after the initial time required to craft the content of your welcome email and auto responders – the process takes place automatically and works to build the relationship and interest of people on your list even while you are asleep or getting on with your business.

Constant Contact has a free trial period of 60 days for you to see and use all the features.  Try it out now.

Contact me with any questions as we are an affiliate and have used Constant Contact for many years.

Constant Contact(R)

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Author DenisePosted on January 19, 2009Categories call to action, email, toolsTags autoresponders, constant contact, email, email newsletter, list building4 Comments on Email List Building and Autoresponders

Email Newsletters – Content Ideas

Content ideas for nonprofit email newsletters

One of the comments I often hear from nonprofits is that they have too much that they want to include in their newsletter and are not sure how best to use it.  The other issue is not enough time.  Here are a few suggestions that should help.

Make your plan
Make your plan

First of all make a plan for the year.  Take your calendar and mark in the major holidays and yearly themes.  Then on the calendar mark in any special events or activities that your organization has already planned – this could be your fundraising events, seminars, special program dates.

Then make a list of your program areas, target audiences and calls to action that you want to include.  Look at the content sources that you already have –  print newsletter, website, program guides, tutorials and seminars that you offer, stories from your clients, volunteers and staff.

Look at the calendar and pick the topics and calls to action that you want to feature in each month. Don’t try and include everything in the newsletter. Instead think of this as hitting the main topic, a story from a client or volunteer, and use the newsletter to bring people to the website to read the full article or details and to respond.

For more ideas sign up for my email newsletter “Internet Strategies and Tips“: Signup for our Email Newsletter

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Author DenisePosted on December 26, 2008Categories email, internet marketing, nonprofit, toolsTags constant contact, content, email newsletter, nonprofit, planning1 Comment on Email Newsletters – Content Ideas

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