Small businesses thrive when they can reach their customers effectively, and that’s exactly what Constant Contact makes possible. As a leader in the digital marketing space, Constant Contact has long been known for pioneering email marketing, and two years ago it expanded its offerings to help small business customers succeed with SMS marketing. 

We sat down with Russ Morton, Chief Product Officer at Constant Contact, to discuss the company’s latest advancements and how its partnership with Telgorithm has unlocked even more SMS opportunities for‌ small businesses.

“Our mission is to help small businesses excel and compete with their larger rivals. While we've played a significant role in creating and shaping the email marketing landscape, we've also expanded to help customers in various marketing channels, including text messaging. With the digital landscape evolving, SMS marketing has emerged as a crucial tool, offering high engagement rates and real-time communication value.”

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The Power of SMS Marketing 🚀

Morton highlights the benefits of SMS marketing as part of an integrated, multi-channel strategy: “It allows businesses to reach customers where they are. Email remains highly effective, but in today’s fast-moving world, SMS provides an additional channel with unparalleled engagement and time-sensitive impact.”

Key advantages of SMS marketing include:

• Instant Reach: Messages are delivered directly to a customer’s phone, ensuring they are seen quickly.
• High Engagement: SMS boasts significantly higher open and response rates compared to email.
• Time Sensitivity: Whether reminding customers of an abandoned cart or alerting them to a limited-time offer, SMS ensures timely action.

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Choosing Telgorithm for Expanding SMS Opportunities 

To bring SMS marketing to its sole-proprietor customers, Constant Contact partnered with Telgorithm, an advanced 10-digit long code (10DLC) messaging API provider. Morton pointed to two key differentiators that made Telgorithm stand out: 

Unlocking SMS for Sole Proprietors: Due to regulatory requirements, most sole proprietors have historically been locked out of using SMS to market themselves to customers. To solve this challenge, Telgorithm collaborated with Constant Contact to pair its 10DLC messaging technology with Constant Contact's powerful digital marketing platform to  get sole proprietors in on the action. By integrating with Telgorithm's technology, Constant Contact was able to give soloprenuers, a valuable segment of their customer base who don't typically have a federal EIN or tax ID, the ability to leverage SMS marketing. Sole proprietors using Constant Contact can now include text messaging in their campaigns to increase customer engagement, boost sales and grow. Thanks to its partnership with Telgorithm, Constant Contact is currently the only omnichannel digital marketing platform to support SMS marketing for sole proprietorships.

Advanced Message Tracking: Telgorithm’s unique conversation metadata feature enables seamless matching of outbound messages with inbound responses, which ensures high deliverability and an enterprise-grade experience for even the smallest businesses.

Seamless Implementation and Top-Tier Customer Support

Integrating Telgorithm’s API was a smooth process for Constant Contact, thanks to their strong customer support ethos. Morton shared an example of how their collaboration quickly solved a critical issue: “One of our brand ambassadors needed to activate their SMS marketing in just a few hours before a major business event. With Telgorithm’s support, we resolved the issue in no time.”

Immediate Results and Business Impact

The partnership between Telgorithm and Constant Contact has successfully enabled sole proprietors to quickly grow their audiences and boost message engagement. Constant Contact signed up customers to use the SMS marketing feature the same week the capability was launched. “But more importantly, these businesses saw real ongoing results and savings, thanks to Telgorithm’s Smart Queueing capabilities, which ensures high SMS deliverability rates”, Morton says.

Constant Contact continues to leverage Telgorithm’s industry-leading SMS technology in its mission to empower entrepreneurs and small business owners to amplify their reach, improve customer engagement and achieve their business goals.

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