How can small businesses conquer the challenges of online marketing? 

Join us on the Conquer Local Podcast as we welcome Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, the trusted online marketing leader for millions of small businesses. An educator and advocate, Dave shares practical marketing advice for small business leaders and nonprofits.

With a passion for simplifying the complex world of online marketing, he’s an award-winning marketer, dynamic speaker, creator, and host of the Be a Marketer podcast. Get ready for insights on email marketing and more!

Conquer Local is presented by Vendasta. We have proudly served 5.5+ million local businesses through 60,000+ channel partners, agencies, and enterprise-level organizations. Learn more about Vendasta, and we can help your organization or learn more about Vendasta’s Affiliate Program and how our listeners (like yourself) make up to $10,000 off referrals.

Are you an entrepreneur, salesperson, or marketer? Then, keep the learning going in the Conquer Local Academy.

Strategies to Overcome Online Marketing Challenges for Small Businesses

Introduction 

Jeff Tomlin: Welcome to the Conquer Local Podcast! Our show features successful sales leaders, marketers, thought leaders and entrepreneurs who will inspire you with their success stories. Each episode is packed with practical strategies, as our guests share their secrets to achieving their dreams. Listen in to learn the highlights of their remarkable accomplishments and get tips to revamp, rework, and reimagine your business. Whether you’re a small business owner, a marketer, or an aspiring entrepreneur, the Conquer Local Podcast is your ultimate guide to dominating your local market. Tune in now to take your business to the next level! 

I’m going to mess up the timeline a little bit here and let you in on a .. Well it’s probably not a huge secret. But we record these intros and the outros separately from the episode =just to be efficient in the way that we put the whole thing together. And you’ll notice at the beginning of the episode I introduced Dave Charest as Charest with my French Canadian accent and I didn’t want to make that mistake in the intro and outro as we record it. And so with the proper Bostonian pronunciation it’s Dave Charest.  

I’m Jeff Tomlin and on this episode, we’re pleased to welcome Dave Charest. Dave is the Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, the online marketing leader trusted by millions of small businesses.  In his role, Dave acts as an educator and an advocate for small business leaders, marketing professionals, and nonprofits by providing practical marketing advice to help them achieve their goals. 

He is a dynamic leader, speaker, creator, and award-winning marketer who strives to inspire small businesses by simplifying the complex world of online marketing. He’s also the host of “Be a Marketer” podcast.

Get ready Conquerors for Dave Charest coming up next on this week’s episode of the Conquer Local Podcast.

Jeff Tomlin: Dave Charest, welcome to the Conquer Local podcast. Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to join us here. How are you doing?

Dave Charest: Good. Good, good. Thanks for having me here. So I have to stop you for a second because I think what you did… First, you’re in Canada, I believe, correct?

Jeff Tomlin: I am.

Dave Charest: You gave me the Charest. So it’s Americanized for me over here, so we say Charest.

Jeff Tomlin: Charest.

Dave Charest: But our CEO at Constant Contact is from Canada as well, and so he’s always jabbing me. He’s like, It’s Charest.

Jeff Tomlin: It’s Charest, Charest.

Dave Charest: So I was like, “Oh, there. Yep. Okay.”

Jeff Tomlin: You Bostonitized the name.

Dave Charest: Yep.

Jeff Tomlin: I won’t make that mistake again. How are you doing, man?

Dave Charest: I’m doing great. Thanks so much for having me. Looking forward to chatting today.

Email Marketing has Evolved but Remains a High ROI Strategy. 

Jeff Tomlin: Hey, Constant Contact’s been a long-time partner of Vendasta and one of our good friends in the industry. You’ve been doing this since the 90s and you’ve seen a lot of things. Maybe just start with your reflection on how email marketing has changed over the past couple decades.

Dave Charest: Yeah, it’s an interesting thing. It’s even a more interesting thing to say that out loud, right?

Jeff Tomlin: Right.

Dave Charest: The past couple of decades. I mean, Constant Contact has been doing this for what, 28 years? I’ve been at the company for 12 of those years and it’s one of those weird things. I think, it’s changed, and it hasn’t. So of course, a lot of technical things have changed. Just the product in general, when you start thinking about a better editing experience for our customers, you start thinking about… Of course, the mobile device came out, so you got to think about mobile responsiveness, those types of things. Then of course, there’s the other things in terms of just like regulations. Making sure that you have implied and expressed consent, all the different things in there with GDPR and all of that other stuff that comes into play. I think changes more recently that are happening just in terms of deliverability where people like Google and Yahoo are asking for authentication and things like that to happen. And then you think just in terms of the advances in automation, things like dynamic content, all of those things have come along to really accentuate what you can do with email marketing. But I think, realistically, at its core, it’s really the same. And it’s just a high ROI, way we see this time and time again that really allows our customers, particularly when I’m thinking about small business customers, folks that don’t have a technical background and folks that aren’t necessarily marketers by trade, they’re marketers by necessity more than anything else. It’s just a really simple way for people to keep their business top of mind and really drive more business for themselves. And so I think that’s the interesting dynamic of it. It’s changed but hasn’t changed at the same time, which is interesting.

Constant Contact has Diversified into a Full Marketing Platform. 

Jeff Tomlin: Yeah. Right there, I wanted you to reflect on that journey that email marketing’s taken. But really, Constant Contact now is, you’re not just an email marketing company, you’re sort of synonymous with email marketing, but you’ve really diversified now, and you’ve got a full marketing platform. And so talk a little bit about the experience that you guys are creating now for the marketer.

Dave Charest: Yeah, it’s interesting. It always comes down to this core thing and how you branch out from there. And for us, it’s always about like, “How do we help the small stand tall and compete against their larger competitors and do those things?” And so email, of course, was that first tool that really allowed people to build those relationships that are important to them. To build those relationships with their customers so they could drive repeat business and raise awareness and do all that. So it started with email, Constant Contact quickly branched out into doing things like surveys, so you could get more feedback. And running events because that was another way that people could, one, either do… Well, back at the time when it started, it was really more about in-person events. So really, start to build those relationships and cement them even more by having in-person events. Then social media comes along and now, you’ve got this whole other way to keep your business top of mind, and communicate, and reach a wider audience. And I think it’s really thinking about pulling those things together and giving people the right tools that allow them to manage that stuff all in one place. And then of course, online marketing gets a little bit more sophisticated, so you start thinking about things like SEO, Facebook and Google Ads, even SMS marketing for that matter. And so it’s really about like, “Yeah. How do we give people a place where they can have everything in one place?” And again, I have to harp on this idea of design for small business owners. And so I think there are so many great tools out there for the enterprise level when you think of things like that and a business that has a team dedicated to doing that specific thing where a small business owner is taking out the trash, dealing with customers and doing the marketing. So doing all of these things on top of it. And so for us, it’s all about how do we put it all in one place and again, how do we design it in a way that’s more intuitive and is simplified for that small business owner?

Jeff Tomlin: Yeah. I mean, you’re so right. You got people taking out the trash and ringing the cash register. And running all aspects of their business and they’re busy. When you look at the analytics behind it, email marketing still has the highest ROI across different marketing activities that you could be doing. I know people always gravitate to the “What’s the new thing that I should be thinking about?” Whether it’s this social platform, or that social platform, or this new thing. But for the length in the period of time that email marketing has been around, it still produces the best ROI that you can get out of the myriad of different activities that you could do. Man, there are probably aren’t many business categories where email marketing isn’t a good idea for them to embrace. But maybe talk about some of the categories where people are really having success. I don’t know if you have any specific stories, but yeah-

Dave Charest: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think I’ve been fortunate in my career at Constant Contact to have a lot of interaction with our customers. I mean, most currently, I host a podcast called “Be A Marketer,” and we talk to our customers who have been in business five-plus years. So they’ve had that longevity, made it past that point where most businesses typically fail. And we talk to them about that journey and how they’ve used marketing in general and then Constant Contact specifically to help them do those things. And so some people come to mind and I think what’s interesting about what you’ll hear as I start to tell some of these stories is that it’s not like they’re doing advanced things, it’s very basic things that I think… Even as you talk about, “Oh, what’s the sexy new tool? What’s the sexy new thing?” I’m always like, “Start with the basics and then build on that as you want to or as you feel you need to.” But if you’re always chasing the sexy thing or the new thing without having that strong foundation, I always say like, “Let’s earn that. Get the foundation in place so you’ve got something working for you, and then you earn the right to try those other things and try to make it better.” But until you’ve got that, you’re just wasting energy because you don’t even have anything working yet. Right?

Jeff Tomlin: Yep.

Consistency and Email Newsletters Drive Success in Businesses. 

Dave Charest: So we have one customer, his name’s Ricky Carruth, and he’s a real estate agent. And he’s been sending a weekly email since 2007. And all he does is share his expertise and his analysis of the housing market. And since 2017, he closes 100 deals a year and he doesn’t do any prospecting. It’s just from keeping in touch with that audience that he’s built over time and whenever they got something to buy or sell, who this the first person they contact, it’s Ricky. And so again, that’s all he’s doing. He’s not using social on top of that, he’s using social for other things now. But in terms of his real estate business, that’s all he’s doing. And so again, simple. I think of folks like Michelle Cummings, she has a team building and she’s a leadership coach. And again, another consistency is something you’ll hear here. A weekly email that has tips in it about some type of leadership activity. And then she has a deal every Wednesday on some of the products that she offers for folks who are in that category. And she says, “Wednesdays are always good sales days.” Because people are getting the value from the newsletter and then they’re finding an offer in there there, that’s helpful to them as well. And then we have a husband-and-wife team, they sell hot sauce, Chris and Mary Ginder of Gindo’s Spice of Life, and this is actually one of my… I like to do for Christmas for folks is get them some of these gift boxes of the hot sauces they have, it’s like a fresh pepper hot sauce. It’s amazing. If you’re in the hot sauce, check them out. But they have a email newsletter that regularly drives sales and details on their limited edition sauces, the recipes that they have in events. And again, just the regularness of it, that consistency, they’re just putting in deals, sharing information. Of course, there’s that element of making sure that the people that are on your list have signed up for it. You’ve gotten that permission, they’ve raised their hand.

And I think that, combined with the consistency, are really the things that drive people’s success with this. Top of mind, keeps your business there. And when somebody is either looking for what you have or somebody is asking them if they know somebody who has that thing that you sell, you’re going to be the first person that comes to mind. Yes, it can get more advanced, but at the core, if you can do that, you’re going to see success with it.

Jeff Tomlin: Oftentimes, when people switch activities and they start doing something new to try to fix the trajectory of something, “Hey, I need some sales. Or I need to fix something.” But those two examples, the hot sauce business or the real estate, two very different in terms of the frequency by which you would engage with those clients. And a really good example, especially in the real estate space, to build that brand. You really have to be consistent and be invested in the long haul. And that’s when you really see the fruits of building that brand, don’t you?

Dave Charest: Yeah. I mean, that’s the big thing. We’ve talked to people that they almost put it as a challenge to themselves. It’s like, “Okay, I have to…” Whatever the consistency is, if it’s once a month, if it’s once a week, if it’s every other week, they have that date in the calendar. They know that that’s when they’re going to send out that newsletter, send out that email. And it’s like a little personal triumph to make sure that like, “Okay. That email got out.” They’re just showing up and that showing up sometimes is more than half the battle a lot of the times, right?

SMS is Popular Due to its Personal and Immediate Nature. 

Jeff Tomlin: Yeah. Yeah. Another method of communication, SMS has become really popular and especially, for its response rates because how much in a more personal it is because our email addresses get out and sometimes our inboxes get junky. But don’t so much have that challenge with SMS, although you might be getting it down the road. But talk a little bit about what you guys are doing with SMS and how people are using it now because people that I talked to that are really leveraging it, have a ton of success.

Dave Charest: Yeah. Yeah. So that’s one of those things that’s interesting because of that fact. That we’ve all got this device with us all the time, and if that thing dings, we’re looking at it right away. And it’s through that, it’s that immediacy that you have that presents that opportunity. And particularly, when you start thinking about even the other channels you have available to you, they each have their kind of strengths and weaknesses. When you start thinking about social, for example, that’s obviously great to engage with people and reach a new audience. But you’re limited by algorithms now, you’re not always in control of that and you don’t own that audience. So that kicks you to email, which again, great, because you own that list. You can contact people on your terms, you can reach people directly. But to your point, everyone is using email now, and so you’re often filled up with these other things that you’re competing with in the inbox, both from a personal perspective, from a work perspective, whatever the case may be. And so that gets challenging.

But the opportunity again, is that immediacy with the SMS channel. And the challenge though, is how do you do it in a way that doesn’t, for lack of a better term, upset people and just make people want to unsubscribe? And so you really got to think through that, and I think, with any of these things when you’re thinking about marketing across any of these channels, it’s how are you providing value and how are you finding that right balance of being promotional and providing that value? And I think there’s a few questions we tell our customers to really think about when it comes to whether or not SMS is the right channel for the message that you’re sending out. One, is it timely? There’s something to that immediacy. So you want to make sure the thing that you’re sending has some type of timeliness to it.

Jeff Tomlin: Right.

Dave Charest: I also think it’s important to think about exclusivity. Because if somebody has given you that text message or that text number and the ability to reach them immediately like that, use that for something special. Treat those people as VIPs, if you will. The other question is really, is it of interest? Is this something that person’s going to get and be like, “Oh, okay. Yeah, I’m happy I received that.” I think the other thing is the nature of the channel is a lot more personal and a lot more conversational. And so you also want to ask that. Is the message you’re sending, is it just like a “Hey, 50% off,” or does it actually feel like it’s coming from somebody and somebody’s writing to you? You would use that text channel because that’s how we’re used to using it. So does it feel personal and does it feel conversational? And I think if you can start to think through those lanes, you’ll start to use that more pointedly rather than just saying, “Okay, I’m going to post about my sale on social. I’m going to post about my sale in an email. I’m going to post about a sale in my SMS.” Right?

Jeff Tomlin: Right.

Dave Charest: You’re just creating noise in those channels that way. And so I think that’s how we start to think about it.

Integrating Different Technologies for a Personalized and Engaging Customer Experience. 

Jeff Tomlin: I love that. And by the way, everything you said there resonated with me. I’ve got a great example, just showed up in my SMS this morning. I got my regular six-month notification from the Great Canadian Oil Change. And so I’m a loyal customer, always go and get my oil change there. Their timing is great because they only SMS me, they text me twice a year and they know that based on the last time I was there that it’s pretty close to needing an oil change. And then the second thing that you mentioned, they make me feel special. I’m a loyal customer, I’m going to go there anyways because it’s convenient for me. But every time they remind me, they give me another 20% off coupon to use. And-

Dave Charest: Yeah, there you go.

Jeff Tomlin: … great example of timing and personalization, making me feel special and using that channel in a responsible way. Yeah, great examples. So we talked about email, we talked about SMS. Those are two different tactics in your toolbox. Oftentimes, creating a great online presence and experience for your customers, it involves integrating different technologies. And so integrating these things is really, really important. Something that you guys do really well. And so wondering if you could just talk a little bit about some of the best practices in integrating different technologies in order to create the ideal experience for your customers.

Dave Charest: Yeah, I think it’s really thinking through how you can use these channels. So if we go back to what we’ve been talking about and thinking about social in terms of, again, giving one place to do those things so you can manage your social channels. You can post, and you can see who’s responding, and doing all that. And obviously, manage your email and SMS, that type of thing. But if we think across those three channels, I mentioned earlier… You’re saying, “Here’s my 20% off here, and 20% off on this channel, 20% off on that channel.” And that’s fine, but if you think about what that really means is if you’re doing the same thing everywhere, somebody doesn’t really have a reason to follow you on all of those things. And I think because we’re spending so much time in each of those channels, you want to be there so you’re constantly top of mind. And in order to do that in a way that keeps it interesting and engaging is to really think about leaning into each of those channels and using what they’re good at to support, let’s say a particular theme of something. So I’ll give you an example. For example, when we were coming up with SMS for our customers, I would use LinkedIn for example, to put up a poll. LinkedIn polls work really well and would ask people, “Hey, are you thinking about adding SMS?” So we get people thinking about this thing that we want them to think about. And in email newsletter, we would have more in-depth articles about SMS, there’d be more things about that topic, and we also highlight a webinar. And then through the text channel, we were sending people an invitation and reminders for an exclusive webinar.

And so it’s not, we’re just saying, “SMS, SMS, SMS.” We’re saying, “Hey, let’s engage on social.” That’s where that engagement stuff happens. Let’s get some conversation around a particular topic. Let’s go more in depth with the email newsletter where we can reach people directly and point them to more resources. And then let’s use that text channel as a way to be exclusive and offer them something that they’re not going to get. And so if you start thinking about it that way, now, yeah, you’re using each of those channels, you’re supporting the goals that you’re setting for yourself and the topics that you want to cover, but you’re doing in a way that if I see that on social, and I get an email, and I get a text, I’m not like, “Ugh, this again?” Right?

Jeff Tomlin: Yeah. Yeah.

Dave Charest: You’re actually like, “Oh, yeah. This is a more in-depth kind of look at it as a whole.” And I think that’s the big opportunity with these things. It’s not about just doing the same thing everywhere, it’s like how do you lean into the strengths of those things, then create a plan that allows you to expand and keep yourself top of mind there without being annoying, I guess, is the way I’m trying what I’m trying to say.

AI Automates Repetitive Tasks for Better Marketing Efficiency and Deliverability. 

Jeff Tomlin: That’s a great insight on how to think about the different channels and how to use them differently because I think a lot of people sort of struggle with that. “Hey, I’ve got half a dozen different channels that I’m posting stuff to, should I be posting the same thing all the time and cutting and pasting over there. Or should we be using these things differently?” And so I think that perspective is super helpful in creating a really good experience because it is annoying if you just post the exact same thing on all the different channels. And probably, not very effective at all.

Dave Charest: Yeah.

Jeff Tomlin: One thing I wanted to get your perspective on, on the podcast here, we ask a lot of questions about AI because clearly, it’s top of mind of everybody and everyone’s thinking about how can I really leverage it in order to create efficiencies no matter what sort of aspect of my business that I’m taking a look at. And particularly in the marketing technologies, we’re finding in Vendasta that it’s really helpful if we think about it, and I’ll use an annoying term, but to help with sort of robotic process automation, which means those things that are really repetitive. That AI is really good at automating to make you more efficient in the things that you’re doing. But I wanted to get your take on the role AI is going to play right now, but into the future in making people better marketers.

Dave Charest: Yeah. So I’ll give you some ways that we kind of think about it and I’ll even share some of the ways we use it internally. And I mean, we’ve been using AI since probably around 2019 or so behind the scenes, and we use that to help us maintain our industry leading 97% deliverability rate. So we have a tool we call the spamminator, internally. And what that does is help us process emails behind the scenes so we can identify potential bad actors. And it allows us to do that at a rate that of course, if you’re sending billions of emails. You have to be able to do that that humanly, we just can’t catch everything. Right?

Jeff Tomlin: Yeah.

AI Aids in Content Creation, Data Processing, and Marketing Efficiency. 

Dave Charest: And so this allows us to flag certain accounts that may be bad actors or somebody mistakenly doing something, but allows us to then take that next step and reach out to stop that from happening before it causes a problem for our customers. And so that’s one way, we’re just using it internally. And I think those things will continue to develop, the tools that you’ll use internally. But when I think of the small business, specifically when it comes to AI, I think of course, there’s the content creation piece of it. I mentioned a majority of our customers aren’t necessarily marketers by trade, they have a marketer hat on. So they’re not necessarily in the place where they have the brain for the marketing or thinking through it that way. And I think we’ve got a content generator within the product that allows people, whether they’re posting on social text, whatever it is, you can put in a few keywords to let it know what you’re trying to do and then we’ll give you some pretty decent copy to start with or even use as is if it meets your needs. But allows you to save time on staring at the blank page and trying to struggle with what it’s I’m supposed to say there. I think the other thing that we’re probably missing in the big conversation with generative AI, particularly right now, because that seems to be the hot button, is the ability to process data. And I think to me, this is actually the most exciting thing, and I hope we get to a place where it becomes even more readily available, particularly to our small business customers. Because the fact that you can just process the data in a way that you wouldn’t humanly be able to. And then recognize patterns and make predictions as to what would be, let’s say, the next best message to send somebody, will help you uncover sales in ways that you just wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. Typically, what we would say is do promotional emails and non-promotional emails. So you’re promoting things at times when people are ready to buy, and you are keeping people, and you’re keeping your business top of mind and engaged when they’re not ready to buy. For example, if you sell coffee, one person drinks 10 cups a day versus somebody else who drinks 2. Knowing when to send the “Hey, is it time to reorder?” email for each of those people is going to get you a better result than not knowing. And treating kind of a group of people as a whole almost. And so that to me, is really exciting because it gets us to that point. As marketers, we always love to say like, “Send the right message to the right person at the right time.” AI actually will get us to those place where we can send the right message to the right person at the right time. Right?

Jeff Tomlin: Yeah.

Dave Charest: And treat people as individuals and I think that’s actually really interesting. The other thing I think is it’s going to help people be able to plan, particularly when you don’t have that marketing knowledge necessarily when you’re first coming in. It’ll give you things to think about, “Okay, here’s what you’re trying to do.” Here’s how will help you build a plan for that and that’s where we’re moving with Constant Contact. The other is just really acting as a coach and an assistant to get stuff done within the marketing realm. I think all of those things are going to be really interesting and exciting. In the marketing world, I think we’ll have some other interesting and exciting things or maybe scary things to talk about in the world at large with AI. But from the marketing perspective, I think it can definitely be beneficial in terms of just helping with what should I do next? How do I build on what I have and how do I save myself time?

AI Analytics, Human Interaction, Customer Support, and Valuable Innovations. 

Jeff Tomlin: Yeah. I like that a lot. And likewise, I’m as excited as you are about the analytics and what we can do with AI in terms of interpreting it. We’ve all got our analytics dashboards and sometimes, we don’t look at them enough. But you look at them, but the question is, “Hey, what is the insight and then what should I do?” And that’s the hard part oftentimes. And so yeah, likewise, I’m super excited about that. Any other big innovations that are coming down the pipe in the future that you think that “Hey, these are the next big changes that you’re going to see in the marketing world?”

Dave Charest: Yeah. It’s an interesting question. I think, definitely, this AI stuff is going to have more and more build on to it. That’s going to be the next kind of wave of things. I think there are two types of people in the world where it comes to innovation, and where things are changing, and moving forward. There’s kind of the folks that are early adopters. And if you’re one of those people, I think it’s really just jump in. Whenever something new comes out, jump in and take a look at it and have an eye toward how can I use this to my advantage? And then if you’re not an early adopter, I think the other thing is really looking for tools you’re using or integrations with tools that you already use that are really just designed to save you time. I think that’s the big thing. So you just take advantage of this technology. And I think as we get further away, I always say we’ve been talking a lot about just the busy season right now. It’s of course, the holiday season and people are shopping and it’s important time for small businesses. When we’re talking about why should someone shop small? I often lean on the fact that when you think of where big businesses these days are really trying to take the human equation out of things, when you think of when you go and you’re scanning your own items at the store and you’re bagging your own groceries, you’re doing all of these things. There’s something special now, which seems strange to say, but there’s something special about having an experience with somebody who knows what they’re talking about. And as a human, in front of you-

Jeff Tomlin: No kidding.

Dave Charest: … or even on the phone or wherever the case may be. And so this is where I think there’s a real opportunity. And so if I’m thinking about it as I’m saying it out loud, the innovation is to go back to a simpler time where you’ve got humans involved in the mix. And you’re talking to your customers and making that feel like a special experience, you’re creating unique experiences for people in a way that, I’m sorry, but robots cannot do that. Right?

Jeff Tomlin: Yeah.

Dave Charest: I mean, actually, when I start to think about that too, it’s like that’s what I love about working at Constant Contact is that our customers can actually pick up the phone and talk to someone if they need help with something. And I think that’s a valuable piece of information or thing to have for people as well, because we know people need that help.

Discussion on Future of Marketing and Customer Experience Innovations. 

Jeff Tomlin: Man, I’ll give you a big amen to that. I remember coming back from a conference and sitting in the, I think it was a Minneapolis airport, and went over to a bar to get a drink. And well, the bartenders really don’t talk to you anymore, you’ve got a little iPad in front of you, and you order on the iPad and then your drink shows up. And I remember putting out on my Facebook page, “Boy, I really liked the old days when people would… We acted like humans and talked to each other.” That’s interesting, your take on looking at the future, bringing back some of the old, and thinking about how to make a great experience and what that is. Hey, David, it’s been an absolute pleasure spending a few minutes with you and chatting about the innovations in marketing and taking a little look at the future here. If people wanted to get ahold of you, how do they reach out and contact you to continue the conversation?

Dave Charest: Yeah, sure. Jeff, also, great chatting with you today. I appreciate the opportunity. Of course, if people want to learn more about Constant Contact, constantcontact.com is the place to go for that. Me, if you want to reach out to me, I’m on LinkedIn, Dave Charest on LinkedIn. And if you want to invite me to your inbox, you can go to my website, davecharest.com, where you can sign up for my newsletter as well. But yeah, love to connect with people wherever they feel they want to.

Jeff Tomlin: Dave, it’s been an absolute pleasure having you in the Conquer Local podcast. Best to you and hope you come back and spend some time with us in the future and we can continue the conversation.

Dave Charest: Thanks, Jeff.

Conclusion

Jeff Tomlin: It’s been an engaging conversation with Dave Charest! We’ve covered a lot, but two key takeaways stand out. Firstly, the evolution of email marketing for small businesses is more crucial than ever. I enjoyed Dave’s testimonials about their client’s success in multiple verticals, as well as personalized content illustrating the lasting impact of mastering the basics and staying consistent. And I couldn’t agree more!

Secondly, Dave mentioned the complexity of multi-channel marketing, emphasizing the need for unique content across different platforms and channels. His insights on the responsible use of SMS, the power of immediacy, and Constant Contact’s AI-driven efficiency offer practical guidance for businesses navigating, you know, a pretty complex marketing landscape. 

If you enjoyed Dave Charest’s episode discussing Email Marketing keep the conversation going and revisit some of the older episodes from the archives: Check out Episode 645: Boost Sales and Monetize Your Online Presence with Effective Strategies with Stefano Colonna or Episode 638: Achieving Agency Success with Direct Mail with Brian Davidson.

Until next time, I’m Jeff Tomlin. Get out there and be awesome!