Its far more economical than direct mail
Palm, who discovered Constant Contact on the AllBusiness Web site, is so pleased with Constant Contact that he plans to make it an integral part of his marketing in the coming year. He points out Constant Contact is far more economical than direct mail, which he previously relied on to keep in touch with his customers.

Since the Center for International Studies is in the international education market, its customers are college and graduate students planning to study abroad. According to Palm, email is a lot more effective for this target customer base. He notes that college students are frequently changing their addresses while they continue to keep their same email address. He notices far fewer kickbacks with email than with direct mail. Plus, he adds, when he does have an email kickback, or bounce back, the cost to him is far cheaper than when he is using a direct mail marketing campaign.

Plans to increase his newsletter offerings
Currently, Palm uses the Constant Contact newsletter to send quarterly newsletters to his subscribers. He also sends them occasional promotion letters. In the future he expects to send his newsletter more frequently and also offer newsletters to alumni of his programs, the college counselors, and to the international client universities, which his student customers attend during their time abroad.

Palm points out that that Constant Contact is a time saver. He explains that he can easily create a newsletter with Constant Contact in an hour. To develop a newsletter with direct mail would take much more than his three-person company could handle.

Sees an increase in Web site traffic
When asked about the effect of Constant Contact, Palm said that there is an increase on his Web site traffic. He also knows of two students who specifically mentioned receiving his Constant Contact mailings. He adds that when just a single student signs up for an international program abroad, it more than pays for the cost of Constant Contact for an entire year.

Would Palm recommend Constant Contact to other small business owners? "I already have," he responds enthusiastically.