Constant Contact Series:

We’re in the midst of a Blog Series regarding our use of Constant Contact (CC).  Check out the 3 blogs we’ve done already:

Series Link:

1. Constant Contact Email Marketing Series – Begininng of series launched upon our first fruits using Constant Contact (CC)
2. Constant Contact Email Managment Solution – Jim’s quick take on a Constant Contact (CC) Special
3. Email Managment and E-Letters – Why YOU should use Email Marketing and 10 Ideas for Newsletter Content

Blog Focus – List Importing and Initial Lessons Learned

Today, I’m focusing on what we learned in our beginning stages of using Constant Contact.  Real quick – Why use Constant Contact? As you start your business you have to stay focused and keep things cost effective.  If you’re building a business to sell widgets then you don’t want to waste time trying to figure out Email Maketing and you don’t want to waste money hiring someone to do it.  Therefore, we say go with Constant Contact – It’s easy, quick, effective, and affordable.  (Also, note that we are in no way affiliated with Constant Contact; we just like their product and company!)

The first thing we did was create a list of addresses for those who had expressed interest in the Entrepreneur School.  Each of us had groups of people who wanted to receive more information so we compiled these addresses using Excel for an easy import into Constant Contact. One of the great features of CC is the ability to import into specific lists or multiple.  I’ve added a few screenshots to show you just how easy the importing element is (my comments are in bold):

Step 1 – Click the Contacts Button to View Contacts

Step 2 – Examine Lists of Contacts

Step 3 – Hit the Add/Import List to Add or Import Contacts

Step 4 – Choose one list, multiple lists or create a new list

Important Things/Lessons Learned:

We found it effective to keep our lists separated  (grouped by the person’s contacts) so that we could do email campaigns personally targeted to each of our groups.  Jim Beach, one of our head faculty, has a taught hundreds of people and thus his email to them had a different makeup than the email Erik and I sent to our contacts.  So the list component was very effective for targeting and organizing.   The lists also allowed us to do reporting on each of our contact groups.  This was very effective.  I’ll save the reporting details for another blog.

Part of the challenge we had was simply in the mere gathering of the contact info of those who have expressed interest in your business.  Lesson Learned:  Just find a system that works for you and stay diligent with it, especially if you have a large contact group.  I did a ton of research so if  you have any questions on the gathering, organizing, etc… feel free to ask me.

Erik and I got into a little debate about the overall effectiveness of email marketing and whether he should send an email out to his contacts.  We gave my group a test run and the results were amazing.  I had friends, family, colleagues contacting me about The Entrepreneur School.  It was exciting.  I think this compelled Erik (along with his wife’s marketing genius) to get an email out to his contacts.

Results:

• We got a great series of messages out to our target market about The Entrepreneur School – branding, awareness, and user interaction all were achieved
• Our feedback was very strong from our contacts:  friends, family, colleagues, and others enjoyed getting our update and contacted us back for more information.
• The email drove measurable traffic to The Entrepreneur School and the Blog
• We made a believer out of Erik
• Also, we were contacted by Contact Constant to be featured in one their press releases (more on this to come)
• Overall, it worked and we are anticipating future results.

Conclusion:  Get Started – Its inexpensive compared to the marketing reward.

I’ll be updating the series with a blog on reporting, our upcoming Press Release by Constant Contact, setting up an email program for new subscribers, conversion results once we are live, and other lessons learned.