"Keeping it simple for the customer; E-mail marketing firm thrives following Intuit model" by Scott Kirsner | November 2, 2008
The company is expected to earn about $86 million this year, a 70 percent increase over 2007. And it may be positioned to handle an economic downturn better than most companies. Analysts expect the company to earn about $125 million next year.
The first few years of Goodman's tenure were tough. Though she knew there was "a huge market of small businesses" that could benefit from using e-mail to keep in touch with their customers, in 2000, very few knew about or were doing e-mail marketing. Venture capitalists she spoke with wondered why the company was charging a very low price for its service (today, the typical customer spends about $35 a month with Constant Contact) instead of selling software to big companies for thousands of dollars, and raising the bill even more with pricey support contracts.
She also discovered that even though it was far more efficient to have customers only interact with Constant Contact through the website and e-mail, a little hand-holding would help increase customers' comfort-level with the product - and cultivate loyalty. One big question for the company is whether e-mail marketing will continue to be as effective as it has been. There's a chance the market could become saturated.
Will Constant Contact expand its services to help small businesses market to customers through those new channels, or others, like blogs? Goodman says the company regularly talks to its customers - but recently found that most are still not even reading blogs, let alone writing them. --more--"
Oh, then I DON'T WANT to HEAR ANYMORE, 'kay?
