For those of you who have worked with me, you will know that I am not a procrastinator – if something needs to be done, I do it – usually sooner than later. But recently, work has been hectic and I went on a family vacation so there was a delay in putting together this post on the upcoming Constant Contact changes. Interestingly, this actually turned out to be a GOOD thing as one of the planned changes, the elimination of the CC archive feature, is no longer going to happen!
So, here is a brief overview of the Constant Contact changes they ARE still planning to implement and some advice on what, if anything, you need to do if you are a CC user.
Here is a brief overview of the #ConstantContact changes they are planning to implement. #emailmarketing Click To TweetConstant Contact is referring to the new interface as the ‘integrated product experience’. If you already have a ‘toolkit’ account, one which merges the various features (events, survey, etc) into a single account, the changes you see may be minor. If you opened your Constant Contact account within the past two years (since 2014), you probably have a Toolkit account. Call or email CC or me if you would like to confirm which type of account you have. If you opened your account PRIOR to 2014, and did not previously upgrade to the Toolkit account, you probably have a BASIC account. Those of you with the Basic accounts will see the biggest changes.
Here are some of the changes you may see:
Editor:
They now have a ‘PDF importer’ which allow you to import a PDF brochure or branded document, automatically inserting it into a template and creating a button with a link so that people can download the document themselves as well as seeing it in the mailing. This eliminates the uploading process and streamlines the addition of downloads to your documents – a timesaver!
There are more personalization options in the mailing templates and they have expanded their ‘drag and drop’ functionality.
They have made it easier to create and resize two column formats (even when using the single column templates) and have made it easier to drag and drop photos into your mailings, providing an outline of the various options available as you drag it around.
The scheduler has been updated as well, giving you more clarity on exactly who will receive the mailings and when.
Contacts:
You can now upload VCard formatted Contact content, in addition to the excel, CSV and text files. You can, of course, still upload email addresses and contacts individually and in small groups.
Reporting:
They have made the reporting interface more powerful so you can compare results from various mailings, giving you more ways to see what IS and IS NOT working for you.
Payments:
You can now pay via PayPal and they allow you to connect to your checking account to facilitate automatic withdrawals.
Archive:
For those of you who have the original ‘Basic’ Constant Contact version (the one PRIOR to ‘Toolkit’) you may have been using the Archive feature. This feature was discontinued as of the Toolkit ‘upgrade’ and even those who had not made the change to Toolkit were going to lose this feature as of this change but it seems that enough users complained that Constant Contact reconsidered and they will no longer delete this functionality. Kudos to CC for listening to their users!
That said, they ARE going to change how it works so if you DO use the archive feature, DO NOT upgrade to the new version until you are notified that the new archive option is live. Check with CC for that info or keep an eye out here as I will keep you up to date on all changes – and yes, I will not procrastinate!
If you need help with making any of these changes, want to take this opportunity to design a new (hopefully MOBILE FRIENDLY) template or need help navigating the new CC interface, please email or give me a call – I am happy to help!
Here is a link to the information that CC has shared about the changes: http://blogs.constantcontact.com/whats-new-with-constant-contact-july-2016/
