Constant Contact offers a wide range of templates, you can choose by color, layout, purpose, or industry samples.  Once you choose your starting point, you can modify the template to match your brand (colors, logo, fonts and layout).

When you have a template you are happy with, make a copy of it and use the copy for your next email.  Always make a copy of the template, so that if you accidentally make a change you can’t un-do you can go back to the original.

It can take some time to create a template that you are happy with.  Here are some tips on making this easier:

Look at your website layout – and choose a template with a similar layout.  Modify the template to match your website look and feel.  This will give you a more consistent image to present to your customers and prospects.

• Consider the BYOL: Get Started with Constant Contact.  You’ll create your template step by step with my help, and get feedback from others in the workshop.

Review your overall marketing plan – and align your newsletter content with your marketing goals.  If you don’t have a marketing plan, consider a content plan for your newsletters as the first step to an overall plan.

• If you are struggling with what to put into your newsletters, consider a consultation with me.  We will review what you already have and come up with a content plan you can follow (and expand on) for an entire year.

If you struggle with creating your own template, don’t like what you come up with on your own – get help! 

• Constant Contact offers custom services from a basic website match template for about $100 to fully customized templates that start at about $400+ depending on the complexity.  If you are interested in custom services, ask me for more details.

Imagine the next time you want to send a newsletter.  Make a copy, drop in the new content, hit send.  It really does make email marketing easier!

But now what?  Do you have time to learn to use the program?  Do you know what you want the template to look like?  Will you send a monthly newsletter, or promotions whenever you have a sale?  Who will you send it to?  Yikes!

Don’t panic.  Instead, invest in this full day workshop and learn how to set up your new Constant Contact account the right way!  Quickly.  Easily.

Register here.

At the end of this workshop you will have:

• Welcome emails set up so new subscribers get the kind of welcome they deserve
• Contact lists that make sending targeted messages to the RIGHT people easy
• A branded template that looks professional in your subscribers’ InBox
• An email that’s ready to send – TODAY!

Stop wasting your time – join Bonnie in this workshop and zip through the details.  Once you have this part set up, it’s easy to send the next email…and the next…and the next.

Bonnie Taylor Wachowicz has helped countless business owners get started with email marketing.  The most common obstacle to just getting the first newsletter out is that people sign up for an email service and then don’t have the time to read through the guides, watch the videos and webinars, or poke around until they figure it out.  Instead, they get frustrated, irritated, and demoralized because it was supposed to be easy…and it isn’t!  They pay for their account month after month…and nothing is sent out to their readers, so there are NO RESULTS.  People rarely have the time to do this on their own, and if they do – well, they probably should be spending more time with potential clients than messing with the computer!

Bonnie developed this workshop so you get what you really need from your Constant Contact account – RESULTS.  The workshop fee includes a branded template created by Constant Contact “techie-geeky designers” – that’s a $99 value! 

Register here.

When someone mentions something that triggers an instant internal response of “oh, I’ve already heard about that”, I immediately counter it with another thought of “what does this person like about that?”.  Or something along that line.  Every person has a slightly different perspective – and you just never know when a tiny change in perspective can change everything else.

Here’s an example. I presented The Power of Email Marketing seminar for the first time last week.  I didn’t write this presentation, it was provided to me by Constant Contact and I spent quite a bit of time reviewing the content before I was willing to present it.  The information wasn’t new to me, I’ve been working with email marketing for nearly a decade.  But I wanted to understand the writer’s perspective because there were a few slides that at first glance didn’t make sense to me.  There was one in particular that didn’t make sense to me, and it wasn’t until I actually was presenting it to a group of people that the writer’s meaning finally dawned on me.

What made the difference?  My audience!  The questions they asked, the ideas they offered, the experiences they shared…all of these gave me a little different perspective with each bit of information in the entire presentation.  I would not have gained that perspective no matter how many times I had read over or studied or researched the content of that presentation!

My intention in presenting the Power of Email Marketing seminar is to help people understand the best practices of email marketing.  I’m there to provide information and help and support – and I can do that in a lot of ways.  But it is really a two-way street.  The real reward for me in these seminars is that I have a great opportunity to learn something new, to gain a different perspective, or see different applications of similar ideas.

Did I learn in this one?  You bet!  I learned quite a bit about the technical side of actually presenting it (new technology, new location, and a few other “new” experiences).  While that is all valuable to me, the part I appreciate most is learning more about the people who attended.  That’s the part I’ll incorporate into the next seminar, the next workshop I offer, etc. Just like I incorporated it into this article.

The next Power of Email Marketing is on May 1st.  If you haven’t attended one of these seminars, I hope you will attend this one.  Partly because I have a lot of solid information to share that will help you get better results with your email marketing – but also because of all I gain with each attendee’s participation!  I‘ve always known there are a lot of interesting people in the world…now I get an opportunity to connect with a few more!

The short answer is…one contact at a time!

It really does not matter how large your list is when you start using email marketing.  Starting your list at 5 (including your spouse, your Mom, and your dog) is fine. Granted, you likely won’t get a lot of sales out of your email marketing with a list that is small, but the point is to just get started!

Building your list a contact at a time is a really good way to ensure that you have a high quality list.

A high quality list will provide much better results than a large list that has been hastily gathered.  Taking the time to learn more about a person will make it easier to determine just which list (or lists) that person should be added to.  And paying attention to the needs of your clients and potential clients is what can set you apart from your competition – resulting in higher sales for you.

Listening to your clients and potential clients really is the key to improving your results – in any area of your business!  As you are talking with them, pay attention to what they need and want, and consider if you can provide them with some of that through your email marketing.  If you can, create contact lists that are targeted to specific areas of what you offer.  Segment your current and new contacts into those specific areas (and they may fit into more than one area).  That way you can keep them up to date with information that you know will be helpful to them.

So, take another look at your contact list.  If there are people on it that you haven’t spoken to or communicated with in some way over the past three months, think about re-establishing communication with them BEFORE you send your next e-newsletter.  It may change what you planned to write about!

When should you upgrade?  If your subscribers are unlikely to go back to old emails you have sent, and you don’t need many images in your newsletter, then the basic Library will probably do just fine.  However, if you have a very visual product or service to sell, and your newsletters are timeless, you may want to upgrade.

Using the Library+ is similar to using the basic Library.  From within your email, place your cursor where you want to put an image, click the “image” icon, and choose the image to use. Once you have selected the image, you can add a link to the image, adjust the size, and select whether the image will appear on the left or right side of the column.  The difference is that there are more images to choose from in the Library+.  Select the Stock Images tab to choose from hundreds of images, or use your own.  You can also organize images (your own as well as stock images you have moved to your Library+) into folders.

Uploading new images is also easy – simply click on the Library and click on the “upload new image” button, browse to the location on your computer where you store your images, and click on insert.

PDF documents are handled in a similar manner, except that you are uploading and inserting a document instead of an image.  A PDF document can be inserted in to your email as a link.  When a reader clicks on the link they are taken to the PDF document online.

If you are considering upgrading to the Library+ and want to discuss the options, contact me.

Most of us are aware that there are anti-spam regulations in Canada and the US, and that it is important to stay within the regulations with our e-newsletters and other email marketing.    What happens if you violate the regulations with your e-newsletter?

Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation is being revised but currently business owners can fined as much as $1 million per violation, and up to $10 million per violation for corporations.  It’s definitely worth paying attention to your email marketing processes!

What do you need to know to stay within the guidelines?

Use these best practices to protect your business and your subscribers.

• Ensure you have explicit permission to add an email address to your newsletter/mailing list.  That means it’s not enough to collect a business card, or an attendee list at an event.  Future regulations may also require that you keep a record of where, when and how you obtained permission, so start collecting this information now and be a step ahead.
• Ensure that your e-newsletter or other email marketing has an easy unsubscribe process.  Best practices advise using a one-step unsubscribe process – the subscriber simply clicks on an unsubscribe link and removes their email address from any/all mailing lists from your business.  If you currently have a process where the subscriber has to send you an email with “unsubscribe” in the subject line, you will most likely end up with an unhappy subscriber.  And, you’ll have to manually unsubscribe their address too – it’s time intensive, and less professional than an automated process.  Most people I’ve spoken to will NOT unsubscribe if they have to send an email, instead they may just block the email.  The more people who block your email address, the higher the potential for your email address to be flagged as a spammer!
• Do not share your mailing list with anyone!  Do not accept mailing lists from anyone else!  If you decide to do a joint venture with another business in order to market to both mailing lists, share your marketing.  You send to your list with an offer for them to subscribe to your partner in the venture, and your partner does the same with their list.  Now each subscriber has the option to subscribe to the other list.

For me, the bottom line is to make things easy.  Easy for subscribers (they can choose to subscribe or unsubscribe without having to contact you), easy for mailing list managers (automation means less time on administration), and easy for the business owner (happy customers mean happy sales).  Funny thing about “easy”, it often results in higher satisfaction for everyone!

• What social media marketing really is and why it’s important;
• Various social media networks and tools: how they interact, ways to leverage their strengths,
  and how to evaluate them for best use for your business or organization;
• How other businesses are using these low-cost tools to gain visibility, develop relationships,
  and drive sales and engagement;
• How to incorporate it into your business life without losing productivity.

You’ll have plenty of time to ask questions… share your experiences… and network with your peers. And you’ll leave this high-powered seminar with real-world insights and knowledge that you can put to work immediately, to help your business succeed.

Don’t miss this revealing, exciting program that will change the way you market your business.

Check the calendar for the next scheduled presentation in your area.  If you would like to bring this presentation to your business or professional organization, contact Bonnie.

Presented by Bonnie Taylor Wachowicz, Constant Contact Expert Presenter

Yvonne Witzaney, Virtual Executive Assistant

Mary-Lou Ashton, Master Virtual Assistant
Virtual Assistant Training Program
“Making Dreams Reality”