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How honesty helped Gail Goodman to grow Constant Contact
How honesty helped Gail Goodman to grow Constant Contact
1. What is your business? Gail Goodman is President and CEO of e-mail marketing solutions company Constant Contact.
2. What prompted the start up? The company was founded in 1995 with the goal of developing an affordable, easy-to-use email marketing tool to help small businesses build successful, lasting customer relationships. The company has since grown from a small start-up to a leading provider of email marketing and online survey tools. In 2007, Constant Contact completed its initial public offering and shares of its common stock began trading on the NASDAQ Global Market.
3. What do you think is important in business? Considering what your customers need. I think the reason we stand out is because, very early on, we paid a lot of attention to what our customers needed to be successful. We learned it isn’t just about the features and functions of the software; most of the small businesses and nonprofits we serve need a little extra help along the way. They need to be able to call somebody. They want to understand best practices. Sending e-mail to your customers is a little scary because you do not want to be perceived as a spammer.
4. What was the biggest obstacle you had to overcome and how did you do it? We survived the summer of 2001, when the Internet bubble burst and it seemed likely that Constant Contact would be just one more casualty. But we were able to raise enough capital to keep the company afloat and thanks to intelligent hiring and an unwavering focus on customer satisfaction, we have continued to grow the business ever since. Constant Contact added 100 new employees last year alone and now serves more than 185,000 customers.
5. What has been your most rewarding moment? Reaching 100,000 customers and having a really fun party.
6. And your scariest moment? It happened in summer 2001 with less than one payroll in the bank, writing the shutdown plan. It was just a very dark week or two.
7. What are your personal qualities that have that have helped you to succeed in business?
Being Decisive. I remember the first time we had to pick a payroll company to pay people, and I had no idea how to make that decision. But I talked to five other people who were running small businesses, got a pretty good sense very quickly—much quicker than I would have if I had done the research myself—narrowed it down to two vendors, and made a choice. So you can’t agonize over every decision. You need to make sure you focus on the decisions that are really meaningful to the business.
Networking. I developed a network of people in the same situation, or better yet, just ahead of me on the curve. I used a mix of my current contacts, going to networking events with groups that were entrepreneurially focused, and I also used the opportunity, when I was speaking to venture capitalists, to ask who they knew that I should be talking to.”
8. How do you keep going when things get tough? Admit to what you don’t know. I think I built a more collaborative relationship with my venture capitalists because I wasn’t afraid to admit what I didn’t know. We funded the company before the Internet bubble burst, and then it burst. I needed the investors to keep the faith through the dark days, and I believe the lack of bravado, my willingness to show them what was working and what wasn’t working, and what we were doing to fix what wasn’t working, helped them feel confident that they knew what was going on in the business. And that helped them stick with us. And I think that my willingness to show my weakness was probably something that is a little driven by being female, although I know plenty of women who can’t admit their weaknesses, too.
9. How do you measure success? Success to me means … happy customers, happy team.
10. What advice do you have for women in business?
Get lots of advice - But don’t feel like you’re a slave to every piece of advice you get. I networked like crazy. I had never raised venture capital, so I talked to lot of people who had done that. Some of the advice I got was on target. Some of it wasn’t.
Recognise when you need help - In the beginning you can’t afford to hire too many people, so you’re wearing a lot of hats. But it’s important to recognize when you need help, and to know that you can get a lot of part-time help. For the first five years, we had a part-time CFO. That was really valuable because I didn’t have financial expertise, but we couldn’t have afforded, or kept busy, a full-time CFO.
Be careful that you don’t hire in your own image. You really need a team with very complementary skills. And then you need to build a culture among that team that encourages challenge, discourse, and debate, so that you drive to a shared vision together as a team, as opposed to the shared vision being imposed from the top.
11. What tips have you got for people who want to create successful email newsletters? Be as targeted and relevant as possible. Make it useful. Give your recipients a reason to read your newsletter. Fill it with useful information that they can use to ensure that your newsletter doesn’t get deleted. Make it interesting. Your newsletter doesn’t have to be dry and serious. Be yourself. Have fun and keep the language conversational and entertaining. Simplicity is best. Your readers are busy, so keep your newsletters short and simple. Less is more. Avoid including too much information that will make your readers lose interest or run out of time.
12. What will help us get our email newsletters opened?
Keep it short and sweet. Do your best to keep your subject lines under 50 characters, including spaces, as most e-mail clients display 50 characters or less.
Be specific. A vague subject line is a waste. A great example is monthly newsletters with subject lines like, ‘The Green Thumb Newsletter: June 2007.’ This tells the receiver nothing about what they will find when they open the e-mail and gives them very little reason to do so. A better approach is, ‘The Green Thumb: Three Tips for Summer Gardening.’
Write the subject line last. It’s important to determine all the elements of your e-mail first and then look for the most compelling topic to highlight in the subject line. Don’t just dash off your subject lines. Take some time to think about them and write three or four before choosing which one to use. Run them by a friend or colleague and see which they think is most compelling. When you have two strong, yet different, subject lines then test them. Split your list in half and use a different subject line for each group. After a number of tests like this, you will have a very good idea of what works for those on your list. And, as always, the better you know your audience, the more effectively you can communicate with them!
Excerpts from this feature were taken from a Ladies that Launch interview which was conducted by Sarah Tomlinson in April 2008.
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Sue Stockdale
(Visit Sue's Website)
Sue Stockdale founded Mission Possible, www.miss
ionpossible.co.uk to help women to
achieve their goals in business, using the
same principles that led to her success in
becoming the first British woman to ski to
the Magnetic North Pole. Since 1997, the
company has worked with 1000s of women
worldwide. Services include an
award-winning businesswomen’s network, and
peer support groups for growing
businesses.
A fitness fanatic, Sue has represented
Scotland in athletics, and in 2004
finished runner-up in TV’s Superhuman. Her
academic achievements include an MBA in
Entrepreneurship and an MSc in Quality
Management. She lectures at several
Universities on leadership and
entrepreneurship and her advice on
motivation regularly appears in the media.
She is author of Kickstart Your Motivation
and Secrets of Successful Women
Entrepreneurs. For further information www.suestockd
ale.com
Sue Stockdale Video - Polar adventurer and motivational speaker Sue Stockdale speaking at Millionaire Mind Event in London about building trust in your team on an expedition and setting up systems to make expeditions and business easier.
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