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Constant Contact Moves into Mobile with Acquisition of CardStar

Jan 19th

Posted by Home Wealth Project in Business Trends

Today, online marketing tool provider Constant Contact announced its acquisition of mobile loyalty application CardStar. CardStar is the mobile version of the loyalty cards we all carry around in our wallets…only condensed into a single app.

cardstar

CardStar, which is available as an application for Android, iPhone, Nokia, BlackBerry and Windows phones, currently has more than 2 million users. Consumers can keep track of multiple membership and rewards cards, such as what you would scan at a CVS or Best Buy. Merchants can send geotargeted offers to customers, as well as track consumer behavior with the application, according to CardStar’s site.

As to why Constant Contact decided to get into the mobile loyalty space, CEO Gail Goodman said:

“We have had our eye on two tech trends: mobile and loyalty. What we found with CardStar is the convergence of these two.”

Will We See an Increase in Small Business Loyalty Programs?

In the past, loyalty programs have been most popular with big-box retailers. Small businesses haven’t jumped in to the same degree, maybe due to the fact that loyalty programs have been, in Goodman’s words, too “administratively cumbersome.” Most small businesses don’t have the bandwidth to manage the analytics and track coupon redemption of their individual loyalty programs.

According to Goodman, to date “nobody has brought to market a simple, powerful solution” to small business loyalty programs. With CardStar, Constant Contact aims to make loyalty programs more within reach of small businesses.

Constant Contact’s Strategy

Constant Contact’s announcement today mentioned this as being a milestone in its “evolution from an email marketing company to the leading provider of online marketing tools that help small businesses create and grow customer relationships.” Over the past couple of years, the company has acquired NutshellMail, Bantam Live, and Social CRM, all of which have added to its shift away from solely email-based services. Moving into mobile marketing fits further broadens its offerings.

As small businesses tie in their social media, email and mobile marketing strategies together, we’re seeing more companies offering more all-inclusive services. Constant Contact seems to be following the same strategy. ”We think small businesses shouldn’t rely on any one channel as a way to stay connected to customers. They need to use every tool available,”said Goodman.

Goodman says that Constant Contact has focused on helping small businesses create and grow their customer relationships, and that CardStar is another tool to help them do so.

CardStar is available as a free mobile download for consumers. Constant Contact will eventually wrap up CardStar into its offerings to clients through its site.

From Small Business Trends

Constant Contact Moves into Mobile with Acquisition of CardStar

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Constant Contact Introduces Facebook Campaign Tool

Dec 13th

Posted by Home Wealth Project in Business Trends

3 comments

Today, email marketing company Constant Contact announced its newest social media marketing product, Social Campaigns. Designed with the small business owner in mind, Social Campaigns will help companies grow their fan base on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as drive engagement.

The Problem Constant Contact Wants to Solve

I’m not sure why, but a lot of small business owners are intimidated by the “technical factor” of social media. (It’s not really all that complicated, but it’s perceived that way) More small businesses would use the more advanced features of Facebook if they knew how. And then knowing what to do with followers and fans also presents a conundrum.

Their Proposed Solution

Constant Contact, which serves an estimated 450,000 small businesses according to SeekingAlpha, intends this product for small businesses that are frustrated by the return on investment of their social media efforts. This is from Constant Contact’s recent press release:

“Constant Contact’s Fall 2011 Attitudes and Outlook Survey showed a significant increase in social media adoption as more and more small businesses find it to be low cost and easy to use. However, few can point to real business success from their investment.”

What The Product Does

The core of the offering is a tool to create Facebook customized landing pages, that are integrated with other social media and the Constant Contact email system. Using the tool you can run “Liked-gated” Facebook campaigns.

If you’ve ever been jealous of customized Facebook tabs you see other businesses using, but don’t feel tech-savvy enough to create one, this product will help you. There are different campaign templates you can customize, including Coupon, Product Showcase, Downloadable Content, Video, Event, and Fundraiser. When a visitor goes to your company’s Facebook page, she’ll land on this page.

Mark Schmulen, General Manager of Social Media at Constant Contact explains:

“The user can choose to “like-gate” their campaign, an option that requires the participants to first “like” the user’s Facebook page before being able to participant in the campaign.”

Once your campaign is set up, you can post updates to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter directly from your Constant Contact account (a feature that sounds similar HootSuite, SocialOomph or other social media aggregators). You can also send email invites to drive traffic to your social media campaign. There’s also a reporting feature that helps business owners see how many fans they connected to, and how many participated in the campaign.

Let’s Talk Pricing

I’m sure you’re all wondering what this will cost. Constant Contact says more details on pricing will be available in the new year, but to start, every user gets one free campaign. And any campaign with 100 or fewer fans will be free forever. (Although, I guess if the program is worth its salt, you should have many more fans, right? So you will end up paying if Constant Contact does its job!) After 100 fans, pricing will be tier-based, depending on your number of fans.

More Information

Social Campaigns will have free, live customer coaching and technical support to all users (even the free accounts).

Right now, Social Campaigns is only available by private invitation, but it will be rolled out to the general public early in 2012. Be one of the first to use it by going here.

From Small Business Trends

Constant Contact Introduces Facebook Campaign Tool

View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends

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One on One: Gail Goodman of Constant Contact

Feb 25th

Posted by Home Wealth Project in Business Trends

1 comment

Welcome to another in our One on One series of conversations with some of the most thought-provoking entrepreneurs, authors and experts in business today. Gail Goodman, CEO of Constant Contact, spoke with Brent Leary in this interview, which has been edited for publication. To hear audio of the full interview, page down to the loudspeaker icon at the end of the post.

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One on One: Gail Goodman of Constant Contact

Small Business Trends: Constant Contact has been around for a number of years, but just recently, you acquired a company called Bantam Live, which is well known for social CRM, particularly at the small business end. Before we discuss that news, can you tell me a bit about Constant Contact?

Gail Goodman: Constant Contact helps small businesses, nonprofits and associations stay connected to their customers using great-looking email campaigns, running events, online surveys and, increasingly, social media. It’s all about staying connected with the customer.

Small Business Trends: Why did Constant Contact make the move to buy a social CRM company?

Gail Goodman: We have over 400,000 small business customers who use our products to communicate with customers. That communication is increasingly extending from email to social media. Those conversations are staying alive longer because they move to social. We like to say, “Email lights the fire and social fans the flame.”

As [small businesses] move over to social, we were hearing, “I want to be able to remember which customers were engaged with me and what those conversations were about and have a more comprehensive view of where my contacts are connecting with me.” Social CRM is the answer. Bantam Live has a small business and social CRM focus–it was a perfect fit.

Small Business Trends: What will Constant Contact and Bantam Live customers gain from the acquisition?

Gail Goodman: For current Constant Contact customers, as we integrate this technology, they will have a more comprehensive view of their engagement with their contact database. Their contact database will become a living platform where they can see who is most engaged and least engaged, which audiences like which kinds of content, and which kinds of content drive the most conversation and the most viral social reach.

For the Bantam Live folks, on top of the great social CRM platform they already have, we will be bringing them a suite of applications to drive further engagement. Social CRM gives you a great view, but how do you engage, how do you start dialogues? Being able to drive email campaigns, surveys or invitations to targeted groups gives them a powerful set of tools to take advantage of the social CRM insights they’re already getting.

Small Business Trends: You speak a lot about contact, content and insights. Can you talk a little bit about that mix and how the move you just made helps small businesses get that triad together?

Gail Goodman: We all know what contacts are, right? I think most small businesses [understand] that making the most out of every connection, whether it starts with a purchase or a conversation, is the beginning of a relationship. If you do it right, that turns into repeat sales, word-of-mouth referrals and advocacy. The only way that happens is if you connect with them with information and content. If it’s all about what’s in it for you, nothing happens.

Modern marketing is all about using content, typically content that adds value to the audience, thought leadership that engages the audience and establishes you as the expert. That’s where content comes in. What makes content engaging is relevancy. You need to connect the contact information with the content information. Contacts are the people, content is how I connect to the people, and insights are how I learn what worked and what didn’t at both the campaign level and the individual contact level so I can continue to drive better engagement, which drives better business.

Small Business Trends: You’ve said social CRM will be a foundational piece moving forward with Constant Contact. How would you describe that?

Gail Goodman: We believe that no matter what you are doing to stay connected with and engage your customers, you need that social CRM view to do that correctly. Even if you are saying; “Boy, I’m not sure I want to be a social media marketing maven. My email newsletter is continuing to stay connected, and that’s all I want to do,” you still want to take that content for your newsletter and give it social reach. Make sure you’re following the preferences of your audience; they might move from email as their preferred channel to social as their preferred channel.

Whether you are leading with social or leading with email or leading with face-to-face, know the right places to follow up, and track the level of engagement of each individual. We believe that social CRM, from whatever angle you come into that world, is the foundational element on which every [business] should be beginning to build.

Small Business Trends: Where can people learn more about social CRM, Bantam Live and Constant Contact?

Gail Goodman: Start at the Constant Contact website. In particular, Constant Contact/social media is an anchor page to lots of things we’re doing in social, and there is a great link to Bantam Live information from there.

From Small Business Trends

One on One: Gail Goodman of Constant Contact