As a Constant Contact Boot Camp trainer, I meet hundreds of our customers on a monthly basis.

Very rarely is any one of them ONLY the email marketing person, or ONLY in charge of social media marketing. The majority of our customers do everything from sales to marketing to support to taking out the trash.

Here are some time-saving tools that I always make sure to mention in class that usually gets attendees fired up (in a good way of course!).

Taking you too long to create an email? We can help

Navigating around new software can be tricky at first, especially if you haven’t spent a ton of time on a computer. Our one-day Boot Camp class is designed to walk you through creating a branded email template with rich media/content. Most folks that come through class are very excited to get in there and create an email in a fraction of the time they did pre-Boot Camp.

Don’t even have the time for that? Let us build you an Email Marketing Template. Our custom services team can work with you to build your very own template, consistent with your branding and even the look and feel of your website if you like! Either option is sure to save you some valuable time!

Need help updating your contact database? Here are some great tools!

If you collect a lot of your prospects contact information in person, for example via business card at an event or tradeshow, manually entering that contact information directly into Constant Contact or a CRM can be a time-consuming and boring task. With Shoeboxed you simply send them your business cards using postage-paid envelopes and they will scan the cards and allow you to export a file that is upload-able to your Constant Contact account. It has saved many a customer hours of annoying manual data entry.

Also, we find a lot of folks will ask people to write their email address down, and then struggle to read the chicken-scratch as they enter that information into their account. Sound familiar? Instead we have a bunch of free tools that allow you to skip the middle man and have them submit their address directly into Constant Contact

• Constant Contact Capture Tool: a widget for a Mac or PC that connects directly to your Constant Contact account. Just have them enter their information and viola!
• Scan a QR code: If your customers have a smart phone, they can sign themselves up for your email list. Constant Contact has a free Scan-to-Join feature that will link people to a mobile-friendly “join our mailing list” form.
• Text-to-Join: Even if they don’t have a smart phone, your customers probably have a phone that can send a text! Just set up a keyword in Constant Contact and we will assign you a short code (ex: Text PARTY to 22828). Folks walking by your store or viewing some of your print materials will be able to text their email address to your Constant Contact account.

Need help managing your social media presence? Hootsuite and NutshellMaill to the rescue!

• Hootsuite: One big barrier to entry for SMB’s when thinking about marketing on social media is the time commitment, especially if you are on multiple sites. Hootsuite is a social media dashboard that allows you to view and update multiple social media sites at once, instead of having to log into to 3 or 4 (or 5) social media sites individually. The biggest crowd pleasing feature that comes standard in your Hootsuite account is the ability to schedule your posts. Spend an hour on Monday and schedule out all your social media activity for the week. Your boss will think you have an assistant! Hootsuite is free for up to 5 social media accounts.
• NutshellMail: You’ve got your posts scheduled and ready to rock through Hootsuite, but what happens if someone asks you a question on Facebook and you’re not watching that social media network to respond? Enter NutshellMail. Think of NutshellMail as a DVR for your Social Media activity. Just tell NutshellMail what information you want and you will receive an email digest of all the day’s activity whenever you want. You can even respond to consumer interaction directly through the email. Oh and by the way, NutshellMail is 100% Free.

These are all great suggestions, but I want someone to do it all for me!

Lucky for you we have a database of hundreds of other businesses that can help. Whether you’re looking for tools to integrate with your Constant Contact account or you’re looking for someone to actually help you generate content and send out the emails for you. Check out the Constant Contact MarketPlace to find what you are looking for.

What tips do you have for getting it all done? Tell us in the comments below.

Want to get some hands-on training about using Email Marketing from Constant Contact? See if there’s a Boot Camp in your area.

Grow your business with a free Email Marketing trial

You’ll get: Free, award-winning coaching that’s just a call, email, or online chat away. Templates that ensure your emails are beautiful, professional, and sync with your organization’s colors and logo. Real business results with a tool that reaches your customers where they are everyday: their inbox.

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