Constant Contact Email Marketing Customers and Success Stories

Constant Contact Email Marketing Customers and Success Stories

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Constant Contact Customer Since: 2002
List size: 10,000
Open rate: 36%
Favorite feature: Interest Categories
Website: www.girlslearntoride.com

Constant Contact customer Girls Learn to Ride offers snowboarding, skateboarding, and surfing clinics (just to name a few) for women and girls of all ages. Founded by owner, Mark Sperling, Girls Learn to Ride (GLTR) was born out of a frustrating snowboard lesson between Mark and his then-girlfriend. He talked to friends who were having the same experience—the girls wanted to learn, but were in need of a neutral instructor. Now, seven years later, GLTR holds more than 150 clinics and camps throughout the United States each year and has annual revenues of $500,000.

All this activity means that Mark has a large, ever-growing customer base, and email marketing is the number one way he stays in touch with them. Three years ago, Mark did his homework on the email marketing services available. He chose Constant Contact because it was affordable and easy to use. He is more than pleased with the results.

"We've done radio, TV, direct mail, and national ads, including full-page ads in Teen Vogue and YM, but, by far, Constant Contact has had better results every time. We track all of our participants, and have found that more than 53% of them found out about us through the Internet or our email newsletter. Email marketing is only a fraction of the cost of print ads. It brings in a phenomenal ROI."

In order to send his customers information that is relevant to them and their interests, Mark segments his list into groups based on age, region, and sport. He collects this information when an individual joins the list through his website or when they register for a clinic or camp. Segmenting his list allows Mark to easily and effectively communicate with each group.

"The Interest Categories feature is great because we can select either a certain region or a particular sport to send an email to. It also helps us determine where we should have events. We look at how many girls we have in a particular region and decide whether or not to have an event there."

In addition to sending out announcements about upcoming events, Mark also sends an email newsletter that goes out to his entire list. The newsletter directs readers back to the website, which recently had a change in format. Now, in addition to highlighting upcoming GLTR events, it serves as an online magazine with information that his core audience, young women ages 14 - 25, is interested in.

"The newsletter offers teasers about info on the website. They can click on a link to find out about their sport and upcoming events, but we also include links to articles about music, popular female athletes, health and other areas of interest."

Mark also sends out last minute reminders to fill clinics that have low enrollment numbers.

"We send out the email and, 'boom!', the event is sold out. Last week we sent out a snowboarding announcement in New Jersey and within the next two days, 60 people signed up."

Mark's list started at 250 a little over three years ago and is currently 10,000 strong. He grows it by asking event participants for their information, but he also gets a large amount of sign-ups through his website and referrals. Some of his more creative initiatives have also gotten a great response.

"One way we get sign-ups is through a monthly contest we run on the website. Visitors who join our email list are entered to win snowboards, tickets, the chance to meet bands and other great prizes. Also, we give prizes to active members who forward the newsletter to their friends and get them to sign up."

The effort Mark puts into knowing his audience and sending them relevant information helps him to keep a solid open rate of 36%. And every open is an opportunity for GLTR to teach another girl to ride.