Constant Contact Do-It-Yourself E-mail Marketing

Roving Software, Inc.

This isn't a product for you to sell, it's a product to help you sell better. If your business has a Web site and you're looking for a new way to stay in touch with customers and prospects while also bringing them back to your site, you might want to check out Roving Software's Constant Contact Do-It-Yourself E-mail Marketing software.

Constant Contact helps you create and send professional-looking, Web-based newsletters, promotions and announcements through e-mail with no "technical" expertise required. This product does not generate spam or unsolicited e-mails. Rather, it offers a permission-based e-mail marketing solution: Subscribers sign up on your Web site to receive information about your business through e-mail such as new product and services offerings.

For those of you who have been sending text-only e-mails to customers, maybe now is a good time to wow them with colorful Web-based messages. These e-mails look just like a Web page, complete with colors and graphics.

The Constant Contact solution is really three products in one. An e-mail List Builder allows you to build a customer list by adding a "join my list" tag to your Web site with a customized sign-up form. Once someone signs up, they will receive the e-mails from you.

The Newsletter and Promotion Builder component helps you build colorful, branded, HTML-based newsletters. You can customize your own newsletter using a variety of colors, fonts and graphics, or you can choose from more than 50 templates.

Constant Contact's Campaign Manager serves as your e-mail "command center" where you track results from your e-mail promotions with reports and stats. Campaign manager allows you to track subscriber count, find out how many subscribers opened your e-mails, see which customers clicked on each link and learn which e-mails result in the most visits to your site.

The software was designed for small to medium-size businesses, so the pricing reflects this. Users pay by the number of subscribers to their e-mail list. For instance, the software is free to those with 0-50 subscriber names. It costs $10 per month for 51-250 subscribers, $25 for 251-2,500; $50 for 2,501-5,000 and so on.

For users and non-users alike, Roving offers free tips on e-mail marketing. Visit the Web site and register to receive hints and tips, including everything from creating a subject line to testing and measuring your success.

You can try out Constant Contact free for 60 days with no obligation. If you decide to purchase it, the software is available at various office supply retailers, online retailers and services companies such as Amazon.com, Intuit, MasterCard, Staples.com and VeriSign.

Roving Software, Inc.

Reservoir Place

1601 Trapelo Road, Suite 246

Waltham, MA 02451

781-444-6160

www.roving.com