Our mid-term project is to comprehensively review an assigned multimedia channel. Today, I will be analyzing Constant Contact.
Type of Channel
Constant Contact is a marketing (primarily email marketing) service geared toward small businesses. This service offers its users tools to create marketing campaigns such as email campaigns, event promotions, surveys, and coupons.
Features
They provide customizable email templates, contact management (where a business can easily upload and manage their email list), as well as email tracking tools & analytics.
Constant Contact offers a 60-day free trial to use their services, then the fees are $20/month or $45/month depending on the service chosen.
History
Constant Contact was incorporated under the name Roving Software in 1995 in Massachusetts. In 2004, Roving Software became Constant Contact and they became public in 2007. By 2009, their customer base grew to 250,000 and they had three types of products: Email, Online Survey, and Event Management Tools. By 2012, Constant Contact had offices in Waltham, Massachusetts; Loveland, Colorado; San Francisco, California; and London, England. They also added Social Campaigns, SaveLocal, and SinglePlatform to their products.
In April 2014, Constant Contact announced the launch of Toolkit, an all-in-one online marketing platform that integrates multi-channel marketing options – including email, social, mobile, and Web – to drive customer campaigns of all types. Toolkit offers 15 different campaign types along with real-time reporting metrics. By 2016, Constant Contact was acquired by Endurance International Group, which also includes Bluehost, HostGator, and iPage.
Target Audience
Small/independent business owners who wish to expand their email marketing efforts.
User Numbers
According to Trefis, a stock analysis service, Constant Contact’s customer base stood at 625,000 at the end of the third quarter of 2014 and customer retention stood at approximately 98%.
Growth
Trefis indicates that Constant Contact has evolved from an email marketing service provider to a comprehensive marketing platform for small and medium businesses. Trefis describes, “The three revenue drivers for Constant Contact are: new customer additions, Average Revenue Per User, and customer retention.”
Trefis also explains:
The company is looking forward to global expansion and is using customized approaches to test the demand for its products in different geographies. The biggest test currently is providing end-to-end services in the Spanish language, and that has received positive feedback, so far. The company is currently testing it in Mexico and all the stages including year-over-year gains, substantial gains, and visitors, trialers, customers, retention and revenue, have been successful.
Constant Contact plans to expand its efforts in Mexico towards the second half of 2015, and start its full operations in the country by 2016. It considers Mexico to be a crucial market for growth.
How It Works
Once users create an account, they are able to create and manage contact lists, create campaigns, and once they have active campaigns, they are able to view metrics on these campaigns.
Integration With Other Social Channels
Constant Contact offers services for social media campaigns, which includes Facebook promotions ($50 per use with the $20/month plan, unlimited usage with the $45/month plan). They also offer Facebook and Instagram photo integration (only available with the $45/month plan).
Users can create coupons, downloadable content, and sweepstakes that can be integrated with their company’s Facebook page.
Mobile-Friendly
Constant Contact is mobile friendly and they have an app available for iOS and Android:
Their email templates are also mobile-friendly, which is great for users sending emails to their customers.
Constant Contact explains in their blog that with the popularity of mobile email users, it is important that businesses create emails that display optimally between desktop and mobile displays. The blog then describes five simple things businesses can do to ensure that their emails are mobile-friendly:
- Be as concise as possible in both design and content.
- Use a single column template
- Use a single, clear call to action
- Avoid tiny fonts
- Take it easy on images
You can see here that Constant Contact’s email templates are desktop as well as mobile-friendly:
Major Brands/Companies Using This Channel Effectively
Since Constant Contact is geared toward small businesses, there was not information available about major brands or celebrities using this channel, but here are a couple of success stories from small business owners who use Constant Contact’s services:
In A Pickle – Waltham, MA
Rescued Pets Movement – Houston, TX
Email Marketing is an Important Part of a Business’ Marketing Mix
Since email marketing is important, it’s also crucial that the emails look good too!
You can view my Prezi further detailing Constant Contact and email marketing!
Sources:
About Constant Contact. Constant Contact. Retrieved from http://about.constantcontact.com/company
O’Neill, M. (2014). Survey: Multi-Channel Marketing Leads to Customer Engagement. Small Business Trends. Retrieved from http://smallbiztrends.com/2014/04/constant-contact-survey-multi-channel-marketing.html
Trefis Team. (2015). Constant Contact Performed Better Than The Previous Quarter, Though Customer Growth Yet To Recover. Trefis. Retrieved from http://www.trefis.com/stock/ctct/articles/307212/constant-contact-performed-better-than-the-previous-quarter-though-customer-growth-yet-to-recover/2015-07-24
(2015). Constant Contact Trefis Analysis. Trefis. Retrieved from https://www.trefis.com/stock/CTCT/model/trefis?easyAccessToken=PROVIDER_5560385b7e0610137ff7c5c8ce07da3e7a01d906
Gerhardt, D. (2015). 5 Simple Tips for Mobile-Friendly Emails. Constant Contact Blog. Retrieved from http://blogs.constantcontact.com/mobile-friendly-emails/
Barbara's UF Blog 