Booksellers' E-Newsletter Success a Testament to Constant Contact

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version

Since March, when the American Booksellers Association announced its partnership with Constant Contact, a leading service provider for the management of e-mail marketing campaigns, a growing number of member bookstores have been taking advantage of Constant Contact's suite of tools that make it easy to create and send compelling e-mail newsletters and announcements, which get immediate and measurable results.

"Before we used Constant Contact, our newsletter conveyed the information we wanted to get to our customers, but it wasn't a pretty sight," said Gayle Shanks of Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona. "I was always trying to make it look better. Constant Contact's website is easy to use, [it's] easy to change information, and we get tons of responses from our customers about how much they love our e-mail newsletter."

Constant Contact not only allows a bookseller to create professional looking e-mail newsletters, but also to collect site visitor e-mail addresses and interests; import in-house permission-based e-mail addresses; target e-mails to specific audiences; manage lists and track results, such as the number of e-mails opened; and more. In addition, the program complies with all laws established to regulate commercial e-mails.

ABA member bookstores that sign up through the ABA reseller program earn rebates for their participation. The annual rebate for an ABA member store is equal to the average of one month's Constant Contact fees. (For example, if over a 12-month period you pay an average of $30/month to Constant Contact, you'll get a $30 rebate from ABA.) BookSense.com participants earn an annual rebate equal to two months' Constant Contact fees. Bookstores who wish to participate can try it free for 60 days.

Pete Mulvihill of Green Apple books and Music in San Francisco commented, "I am thrilled with Constant Contact (to my surprise -- I was skeptical). It's very easy to use, very intuitive, and the price is right. A nearly free way to remind our customers that we're here? Priceless."

"Outwrite Books has been using Constant Contact for four months and has seen the effectiveness of our e-mail newsletters increase dramatically," said Philip Rafshoon of Outwrite Books in Atlanta. "Our customers love the clarity of the newsletter, our staff loves how easy it is to use, and our web orders increased as soon as we began sending out our e-newsletters through Constant Contact."

Constant Contact's monthly fee is based on how many unique addresses are on a participant's list. For example, for a bookseller with a list that has between one and 50 e-mail addresses, there is no monthly fee; for 51 to 500 names, the cost is $15 per month; and for a large list with between 10,001 and 25,000 names, the monthly fee would be $150.

For more information on Constant Contact, click here or contact ABA's Meg Smith at [email protected] or (800) 637-0037, ext. 6641.