Jason Meserve, an associate for Constant Contact wrote a spotlight article on A Red Bench and how we use Constant Contact to reach our audience.  Read on to find out how we use this e-mail tool to help us with marketing and reaching our clients.

A Red Bench Effectively Uses Email Marketing by Jason Meserve, Constant Contact

A Red Bench is a continuing education and resource organization that targets service-based businesses, such as designers, wardrobe consultants, professional organizers, and interior decorators. Founders Christa Wagner and Angela Ploetz started the company in 2007 after recognizing that small business owners don’t have a place to turn for continuing education and business development tools. (Christa herself owns another consultancy, called Savvy Solutions, and has experienced these challenges personally.) The duo host fee-based teleseminars featuring interviews with topic experts, and they also publish a monthly newsletter and an ongoing blog on topics ranging from work/life balance to pricing your business.

For the A Red Bench team, since the entire business is online, being able to promote their various e-books, live seminars, audio recordings and membership offerings — while cutting through the inbox clutter — is a challenge. “Everyone is overloaded with information,” Christa says. “We’re trying to communicate to them and do so effectively.”

As little as four years ago, that communication took the form of a PDF newsletter that was emailed around to customers. That is, until someone pointed Christa in the direction of Constant Contact Email Marketing. Now, the monthly communications go out as professionally-designed HTML newsletters. Christa and Angela also send out weekly email reminders about upcoming seminars and send customers directly to 1Shoppingcart for payment.

Christa and Angela continue to build A Red Bench’s database by collecting email addresses when clients register for their free audio magazine and other information available from the company’s Web site and blog. “They receive free, valuable tips in exchange for giving us their info,” Christa explains.

In an effort to save time and be more efficient, the duo also combines their blog writing with their newsletter production to ensure the content that gets mailed out is fresh and well thought out. “This way, I don’t have to sit at the computer and come up with a topic right then and there,” Christa says. “I blog on a frequent basis and always have relevant content available making the newsletter easy to get out the door.”

Christa loves Constant Contact’s reporting features, which allow her to track what customers opened in the newsletter or clicked to. They use the tracking information to better target those interested in a seminar offering, sometimes following up with a phone call. “Plus, it allows us to see what posts and articles are of most interest to our clients – that is extremely helpful.”

A Red Bench saves money and increases its reach by using Email Marketing, as opposed to another advertising media. “Our list is large — to advertise to that many people six times a month, I’m not sure how we would do that affordably,” Christa says. “That’s a huge cost savings. Our entire business is advertised through Constant Contact.”

If you would like to use Constant Contact, e-mail us at info@aredbench.com and get a $30 credit for your account with them!