The business value of email marketing is inarguable. Few advertising alternatives can even come close to providing the same value for every dollar invested. Email is not just a generator of new sales either. It also helps keep your business on the minds of consumers and builds brand loyalty. When your targeted messages reach customers’ in-boxes, those messages provide you with opportunities to influence your customers’ behaviors, whether that is to encourage them to click a link, buy a product, or simply to think about your company.
The benefits of email marketing are clear. However, once you have created an email template, crafted the message, and fired it off, you are left with nagging questions. How many of my email messages ended up in spam folders? How many recipients opened the email? Did they click any links contained in the email? How many recipients unsubscribed? Did anyone forward my message to new potential customers?
If you are using a standard CRM system to manage your email marketing, you most likely are not receiving the answers to these questions. CRM systems, such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Salesforce.com, or SugarCRM, typically include some level of email marketing functionality as part of their marketing areas. However, this functionality is relatively limited, and does not include the kind of advanced analytics that you need to make informed decisions about your email campaigns.
Standalone email marketing services handle the task of creating and managing email campaigns better than CRM can, and Constant Contact Email Marketing is one of the best.
Constant Contact Email Marketing Features that Rock
Constant Contact Email Marketing features a user-friendly email editor with customizable templates and drag-and-drop editing that makes it incredibly easy to design professional-looking emails. The email editors that come standard with many CRM applications are usually serviceable but not adequate for companies that are serious about effectively marketing their products and services through email. The Constant Contact email editor and templates make it much easier to craft great looking emails with no HTML knowledge necessary. Constant Contact also makes it easy to integrate your social media into your emails.
The email editor is great, but the metrics that Constant Contact provides make the service a virtual necessity. If you are using the email marketing features in most CRM applications, you can utilize the included HTML editor to create an email, create a marketing list using your contacts, and schedule the email as part of a campaign. Once the emails have been fired off, however, you have very little information that allows you to analyze the effectiveness of your campaigns. Unless the recipient responds via email or calls, it is very difficult for you to make informed decisions about your email marketing.
Constant Contact email metrics include bounces, opt-outs, opens, clicks, and forwards. This information allows you to analyze your email campaigns and make informed decisions. Constant Contact lets you know how well your email messages are being received. Trying to conduct effective email marketing campaigns without this information is virtually impossible.
Constant Contact Integration
Another benefit of Constant Contact Email Marketing is that it can be integrated with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, as well as with several other CRM applications and services.
If you are using Microsoft Dynamics CRM to manage your important relationships and Constant Contact to get your messages into your customers’ inboxes, Microsoft Partner xRM has created an integration tool. This tool allows you to synchronize your CRM contacts to your Constant Contact and push many Constant Contact metrics into the CRM system that you already use to make many of your critical business decisions. xRM Constant Contact Integration saves you time, ensures that your Constant Contact marketing lists are accurate, and eliminates the burden of managing multiple databases. To explore other integrations, visit the Constant Contact Marketplace.
Constant Contact Pricing
Constant Contact Email Marketing pricing begins at $15 per month for companies with 0-500 contacts*. The company offers discounts to organizations that prepay and an even greater discount to non-profit companies that prepay.
This table shows the standard monthly pricing.
Number of Contacts | Monthly Price |
0-500 | $15 |
501-2,500 | $30 |
2,501-5,000 | $50 |
5,001-10,000 | $75 |
10,001-25,000 | $150 |
25,000+ | Call |
*Pricing accurate as of 5/1/2013
Click here to learn more about Constant Contact Email Marketing.