Innovative new feature is a direct result of customer feedback and helps small businesses build relationships with customers beyond email

Constant Contact, a digital marketing platform trusted by millions of small businesses and nonprofits, today announced the launch of SMS Marketing, a new feature that enables small businesses to leverage text message campaigns to reach, engage and retain their customers. The new capability was developed to help Constant Contact customers create stronger relationships with their customers by allowing easy communication with them through their preferred channels.

In an increasingly mobile-first world, Constant Contact research shows that over half of consumers would consider making a purchase after receiving a text message from a small business. SMS Marketing helps Constant Contact customers capitalize on that intent by enabling them to quickly create, personalize and send text message campaigns.

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Popular features, such as a character counter and link shortener, are built directly into the SMS capabilities to provide an enjoyable user experience and reduce the friction associated with starting a new campaign. Businesses also receive a unique phone number with a local area code (10DLC) from which to send texts, which builds trust with consumers and significantly increases message deliverability. Constant Contact also helps SMS customers obtain consent before they start sending SMS messages, similar to the process for email marketing.

“Our customers needed a way to reach consumers via text, so we took their feedback and designed an innovative tool that feels like a natural extension of the Constant Contact experience,” said Ben Kaplan, VP of Product at Constant Contact. “SMS Marketing is integrated directly into the platform, making it incredibly easy for customers in all verticals to start leveraging text messages in conjunction with their other marketing. Whether it’s email marketing, posting on social media, hosting an event or selling online, the addition of SMS makes our platform a more robust and reliable place for small businesses to handle all their digital marketing.”

“We are always trying to become more accessible to our customers, and even if they can’t call, or stop by the store, we realized that many of them would be open to communicating with us through text,” said Mary Ginder, co-owner of Gindo’s Spice of Life. “Creating a text campaign with Constant Contact is quick and simple, and we are excited that it gives us another way to build stronger relationships with customers and expand our business.”

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• Automated triggers – Similar to email automation, SMS Marketing leverages behavior-driven triggers to help small businesses automate SMS messages for use cases like welcome texts and drip campaigns.
• Insightful reporting – Essential metrics help SMS Marketing users measure the success of their campaigns by highlighting which text messages were delivered, what type of content generated clicks and which ones prompted a customer to unsubscribe. Additionally, users can access revenue data to understand which messages spurred a customer to make a purchase.
• Lead generation landing page – Users can easily create a custom website landing page designed to help generate new business and encourage customers to sign up for SMS messages.
• SMS sign-up email template – Customers can take advantage of a customizable email template to grow their subscriber lists by encouraging their Constant Contact email subscribers to opt into SMS messages as well.

Constant Contact’s SMS Marketing is immediately available in the U.S. to current customers, and anyone who starts a new free trial, as an add-on to any Constant Contact package. Introductory pricing starts as low as $5 per month for a limited time and includes up to 500 text messages.