Two weeks ago, Dana Pethia of Constant Contact presented a
workshop about the use of email as a marketing tool for entrepreneurs and small
business owners. Attendees commented that the information she presented was "very informative," "a
great resource," and "practical, up to date marketing."
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The course presented information comparing what Dana
referred to as "ISP email" such as Outlook, Gmail, and so forth, with
email delivery services such as Constant Contact (and there are others) that do
more than just send and receive email, but also include tracking of how many
messages are opened, archiving past email newsletters on the web so they can be
linked to later, and other statistics that help you to understand how your
subscribers are interacting with your communication.
One of the big things that she stressed throughout the
workshop was the idea of permission. It's important to be sure you have
permission to send your messages to the people on your list. Not doing so
is spam. Not having that permission (and not reminding people that they gave
you permission) can get you reported, leading to a dramatic increase in the
number of your emails that go strait into the junk mail folder.
The other general topics covered included tips for
increasing responses, statistics about what is common or average (including the
most common times and days of the week that email newsletters get opened), best
practices, good and ethical ways of building your list of subscribers, content
that can be used for your messages, designing both the look and the delivery
information of your emails, and additional resources for things like finding
good colors and writing subject lines.
Full Disclosure: Constant Contact allows Community
Capital Development and the Washington Women's Business Center to use their
services at below the regular rate as an in-kind contribution.
