Folks, it's now 2016. It's officially time to stop using "password" as your password. Last month, SplashData released its list of the worst passwords of 2015. "Password" and "123456" continue to top the list. The Force Awakens saw the inclusion of "starwars" and "solo" on the list. View the detailed breakdown on the press release over at
News
What and How Often Should You Post on Social Media? [Infographic]
by Azure Collier, Constant ContactWhen I’m hosting Constant Contact’s social media webinars, I get a lot of questions from small businesses and nonprofits on social media best practices.One of the things I hear most often is “What should I post on social media and when should I post it?”That’s why we created this cheat sheet.In this cheat sheet,
Five Facebook Advertising Features You Haven’t Tried Yet
As 2016 marches on, now is the perfect time to re-strategize your social media campaigns. You've probably tried Facebook advertising already, but have you tried video ads? Did you know you can pinpoint-target a specific market (say, women in their 40s who drive a Prius and watch detective shows)? Mike Bird and Webbiquity highlight five Facebook
12 Warning Signs Your Website Redesign Could End In Catastrophe
It's a story we hear too often from our clients: they spent thousands of dollars on a brand-new website only to find out that they can't edit it, or it's not mobile-responsive or Google has flagged it as malware. That money is gone, and now they're left with an unusable website and the prospect of wasting even more money trying to make it
Email Design Best Practices: How to Design the Perfect Email in 2016 [Guide]
by Ryan Pinkham, Constant ContactFirst impressions matter. And when someone opens your email, what they see is going to determine what they do next.Following email design best practices ensures your email looks good and delivers real results.If you’re using an email marketing service like Constant Contact to do your email marketing, you’re in
The What, When, and Who of Successful Emails [Infographic]
Jason Fidler, Constant ContactHere at Constant Contact, we’re always uncovering new data to help you create effective email campaigns.Whether it’s providing the best time to send emails based on the industry you’re in, or taking a look at what types of content result in the best click-through rates, we work hard to ensure that small businesses and
15 Last-Minute Holiday Email Ideas to End 2015 with a Bang
by Ryan Pinkham, Constant ContactLet’s face it.No matter how hard you try, it’s difficult to ever be completely prepared for the holiday season.Hopefully you’ve prepared your store or office to make sure you’re providing the best experience to customers.But what about your marketing?A tool like email marketing makes it quick and easy to promote
3 Ways to Automate Your Email Marketing this Holiday Season
Bria Sullivan, Constant ContactThe holidays are a busy time for your business.And with so much to do, you may be wondering how you’re going to keep up with your growing list of marketing responsibilities, while also keeping your business running smoothly.When it comes to your email marketing, one of the best ways to save time while still driving
5 Ideas to Make This Your Most Profitable Holiday Season Yet
Ryan Pinkham, Constant ContactIf the holidays are a busy time for your small business, you know how important the next few months will be.Consumers are expected to spend big this holiday season. If you want them to shop small, you need to plan ahead.Luckily, there are simple steps you can take to set your business up for success.Here are five
How a Small Business Made $67,000 from One Cyber Monday Email
Miranda Paquet, Constant ContactWhen Heath Bowman, owner of Southeastern Underdeck Systems, sent out an email last year on Cyber Monday, he wasn’t expecting anything groundbreaking. “Our Cyber Monday offer was our first email with Constant Contact,” Heath explains. “To be honest, I really wasn’t expecting anything from it. I had never run a
The Best Time to Send Black Friday Special Offers
Black Friday is one of the most profitable shopping holidays, and retailers are busy planning their social media and email strategy. To help retailers make informed decisions about last-minute social media and email campaigns, Yesmail analyzed the performance of 50 top retailers’ email and social promotions in the week leading up to Black
28 Ideas to Jumpstart Your Holiday Email Marketing
Ryan Pinkham | Constant ContactIs email marketing part of your holiday marketing plans? If not, you could be missing out. Here’s why:Last year, Constant Contact customers sent 1.3 billion emails in the week leading up to Cyber Monday.Email marketing was the #1 driver of online sales on Black Friday 2014.Constant Contact customer Southeastern
10 SEO Mistakes You Can Avoid [Infographic]
Rank Better in Search - Avoid These 10 SEO Mistakes Did you know the top three search results 61% of all clicks? Or that 75% of search engine users never look past page one search results? Search ranking continues to be a vital component of any online marketing strategy. To improve your ranking through organic search, avoid making any of these
Email Marketing Myths and Misconceptions
by Ryan Pinkham, Constant Contact Email has never played a more prevalent role in our day-to-day lives. With today’s mobile technology, most people are never far from their email inbox, which is exciting news for businesses and organization trying to stay in touch with current and potential customers. But even in today’s hyper-connected world,
4 Ways to Make Your Call-to-Action Buttons More Effective
by Dan Shewan, Constant Contact Whether you’re preparing to send an email blast or running a paid search campaign, your calls to action can make or break the success of any digital marketing initiative.A persuasive, compelling call to action (CTA) can convince even the most hesitant prospect to convert, but there’s more to it than just a tempting
Making Sense of Google Analytics: 10 Tips for Small Businesses
by Jeremy Taylor, Constant ContactGoogle Analytics offers a truly extensive range of actionable data. It will show you who’s browsing your website, how they’re using it and how they found you. Without analytics, you rely on guesswork (and guesswork is a terrible business model).The problem is that it can be tricky to identify the metrics that
10 Tips for Handling Unsubscribes
In this informative article, HigherVisibility blogger Amanda DiSilverstro offers a variety of tactics to try to make the most out of "unsubscribe" requests.* * *10 Ways to Optimize Your Blog’s Unsubscribe ProcessFinding new readers to subscribe your newsletter or email marketing campaign is a top goal for any company, but it’s important to remember
Facebook Announces ‘Dislike’ Button In Development
Over the years, Facebook has proven its ability to really understand its audience. While we appreciate Facebook's commitment to our wants and needs, there's one thing that's always been missing: the Dislike button. Because really, we can't like everything all the time, right?After years of refusal, Facebook recently announced that the
Can Your Customers Trust Your Website?
We're hearing more and more frequently about hackers breaking into a company's back end systems and stealing customer information. As a business owner, it is your responsibility to protect and secure customer information and keep hackers at bay. How confident are you that your business's website is protecting your most important asset - your
What’s The Big Deal About a Little Mobile ‘Buy’ Button?
Google recently debuted a new mobile feature called "Purchases on Google," which makes buying products directly from mobile search advertisements easier for consumers. Consumers turning to Google for search on their mobile devices now see a "buy" button in select promoted results. When consumers click on the button, it takes them to a page where
Top Four SEO Trends for 2015
Google is now better able to reward high-quality Web content that is relevant to a search query, and less dependent on traditional signals, such as keywords, according to a recent report from Searchmetrics and detailed in this article by MarketingProf's Ayaz Nanji.Below are four key search engine optimization (SEO) lessons from the report, as
Do You Know the 10 Best (and Worst) Performing Words in Email Subject Lines?
If you want to boost engagement with your email campaigns, it helps to say "thank you" in the subject line. In this new Marketing Prof's article, research writer Ayaz Nanji breaks down a recent report from Adestra on the best and worst performing words to use in your email subject lines.The report was based on data from more than 3 billion
Why Website Visitors Aren’t Joining Your Email List (And What You Can Do About It)
Ryan Pinkham, Constant Contact When it comes to growing your email list, it’s hard to beat the exposure your website can provide.Think about it — why do people visit your website?In most cases, it’s to learn more about you, your business, and the products and services you have to offer.Many of these people will navigate to your website directly,
A Beginner’s Guide to Google Analytics
Natalie Denyse, Constant ContactYou invested time, money, and other resources into setting up a website for your business.It looks great and you’re excited about having a place for people to learn more about your business.But now that it’s setup, are you able to answer these important questions?How many people are visiting your website?What pages
The Ultimate Guide to Growing a Massive Email List
Ryan Pinkham, Constant Contact How many of the people who visit your website or come into your store on a daily basis actually end up joining your email list?What if you could double, triple, or even quadruple that number?What would that mean for your business?Growing a massive email list may seem like a lofty goal, but remember: you already have
9 Expert Ways to Grow Your Email List with Facebook
Miranda Paquet, Constant Contact “We’re finding Facebook to be less and less of interest to us because of the way they changed their algorithms for how our posts work…we found out that without paying for their marketing program, it doesn’t work for us.” Like many small business owners, Chris Iousa is wondering if it’s time to call it
4 Tips for Click-Worthy Emails
Email marketing remains one of the most effective methods of marketing to customers and prospects. In fact, recent studies show that more than 82 billion consumer emails are sent every day! So what can a business owner do to stand out in this virtual tsunami of messages? This recent MarketingProfs article by Emily Konouchi looks at ways to increase
Optimize “Old” Blog Posts to Maximize Search Results
This week we are sharing a unique tactic for increasing blog traffic to your website: optimizing the older blog content on your website. The following information is excerpted from a recent article by Pamela Vaughan, published on HubSpot Blogs. Click here to read the full article. * * * The Blogging Tactic No One Is Talking About: Optimizing the
Now Hiring! Part-Time Bookkeeper
BizzyWeb is currently seeking a part-time bookkeeper to work in our Champlin office. Qualified candidates must have a minimum of two years experience in bookkeeping/accounting and be familiar with Quickbooks. Ideal candidates will be highly organized, action-oriented, and have a strong work ethic. This position is for 20-25 hours per week to begin
Cyberbullying: Protect Yourself, Your Family and Your Business
What You Should Know About Cyberbullying Online, safety is key. You browse the internet with anti-virus programs, avoid suspicious email attachments and guard your personal information. But a quick click away or a program can’t protect you from the greatest online threat: cyberbullying. But what should you do when you encounter it? Here are a few
4 Simple Steps to Creating Landing Pages that Convert
It is easy to get dazzled by latest marketing tools and techniques. You stay current on all the latest innovations from the marketing world and attempt to implement everything you’ve learned on your landing pages at once. This is a huge mistake. Using new techniques is good, but you shouldn’t blindly follow every new trend that surfaces. A recent
10 Simple SEO Mistakes to Avoid
by Jeremy Taylor, Constant Contact You have a website and you want people to see it. The trouble is, you have an awful lot of competition. If the world wide web is a beach, the websites on it are grains of sand. So how do you make sure your grain is the one your target audience finds? Avoiding these ten SEO mistakes is a great start… 1. Focusing
12 Changes That Will Impact Your SEO Strategy
Written by Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), published on HubSpot Blogs SEO is a moving target that can really affect your business. This means that as a startup founder, you need to be prepared to make your strategy work no matter what Google enforces. We asked 12 entrepreneurs what trends they have noticed in the past year and how they have
Is Your Blog Getting Lonely? Eight Tips To Rekindle The Love!
by Susan Solovic for Constant Contact Are you and your blog having relationship problems? I’ve seen it so many times. Here are the common troubles I’ve witnessed: You know you should have a blog, but just haven’t gotten around to it yet, You started a blog, but have lost your motivation and are letting it slip, and You want to love your blog, but
Partner Spotlight: ABCs Foundation
The greatest danger to your children and pets hides in plain sight. It's not any chemical or plant, it's no sharp corner or open socket. It's probably hanging next to your window in a tangled loop right now. Blind cords strangle at least one child a month, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. It's a shocking statistic, but the ABCs
6 Simple and Inexpensive Ways to Use Online Marketing to Reach New Customers
by Ali Hyatt, Constant Contact As a small business, online marketing often provides the most cost-effective methods for attracting new customers. But any form of marketing — whether it’s online, print, television, or direct mail — usually costs something and it can be hard to find the resources needed to spread the word about your