 Company: Constant Contact, Waltham, MA
Company Description: Constant Contact®, Inc. is a leading provider of on-demand email marketing and interactive communications services for small businesses, associations, and nonprofits. Through customizable, easy-to-use tools, including email marketing and online surveys, Constant Contact helps all types of small organizations build stronger customer relationships, drive sales, and achieve success.
Nomination Category: Company / Organization Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Overall Company of the Year - Up to 2,500 Employees
Nomination Title: Constant Contact - a “Customer-Centric Company”
1. Tell the story about what this nominated company achieved since January 1 2009 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
Over the last 10 years Constant Contact has grown from a typical start-up
company scratching for seed capital — with its world headquarters and all four
team members crammed into our founder’s attic — to a publicly traded market
leader with more than 350,000 customers, 650 employees and over $100m in
revenue. Great products, a smart team, collaboration, hard work, and a lot of
luck were some of the raw materials that helped to build the company, but the
most fundamental driver to the company’s success has been a fixation on its
customers.
From day one, Constant Contact has put the customer’s wants, needs, point of
view and daily reality at the center of all business decisions. To Constant
Contact, being a customer-centric company means much more than the saying: the
customer is always right. Constant Contact has built their entire company
around the needs of their small business customers, “from the customer in.”
Constant Contact builds and manages their business from its customer’s point-of
view first-understands its customer’s needs, what’s important to them, how they
work and what types of information they need. Because of this, the company can
now proudly boast that over 90% of Constant Contact’s revenue is driven by
repeat sales from existing customers and literally half of its new business is
driven by word of mouth referrals.
2009 Accomplishments:
• Constant Contact surpassed 350,000 customers, making it 4x the size of
its nearest competitor
• The Company increased revenue 47.9% over 2008
• The Company hired 189 new employees in 2009
• Gail Goodman, CEO won a Stevie’s award for “Executive of the Year”
• The Constant Contact Guide to Email Marketing was named as Top 10 Book
in the “2009 Small Business Book Awards”
• Constant Contact became a three product company with the introduction
of their Event Marketing product for small businesses, in addition to their
industry leading email marketing and online survey products.
• Constant Contact had several other product innovations, such as the
QuickView for the iPhone - a mobile email marketing application; and
InfoTransfer for Salesforce.com integration
• Constant Contact won the Gold Award at the New England Direct Marketing
Association Award Show for its franchise recruitment campaign “Email Marketing.
It's Time.”
• Constant Contact was ranked the 153rd Fastest Growing Company in North
America on Deloitte's 2009 Technology Fast 500
• Constant Contact earned the Customer Satisfaction Award from WSI, the
world's leading Internet consulting franchise organization
2009 Outcomes:
• Industry recognition: Constant Contact has received industry
recognition for its business model and products from publications such as
USAToday, The Boston Globe, Fast Company, The Wall Street Journal,
Entrepreneur, Inc. and more.
• Referrals: The top source of new customers for Constant Contact
continues to be word of mouth, showing how much customers value our services.
The lifetime value of our customers is 45 months on average.
• Company growth: The company now has offices in Massachusetts, Florida
and Colorado, along with regional development directors in 19 major
metropolitan areas.
2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/columnist/strauss/2009-03-30-email-marketing_N.htm
http://www.entrepreneur.com/columnists/gailgoodman/archive77684.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/eric-groves/innovation-technology-and-customer/acquiring-connecting-nurturing-and-growing-custo
http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/2009/10/26/event-marketing-just-got-a-bit-easier/
http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_US/us/Industries/Technology/technologyfast500/index.htm
http://www.constantcontact.com/about-constant-contact/press/press_2009_1218.jsp
http://www.constantcontact.com/about-constant-contact/press/press_2009_1102.jsp
http://www.constantcontact.com/about-constant-contact/press/press_2009_1109.jsp
http://www.constantcontact.com/about-constant-contact/press/press_2009_1026.jsp
http://www.constantcontact.com/about-constant-contact/press/press_2009_1023a.jsp
http://www.constantcontact.com/about-constant-contact/press/press_2009_0918.jsp
http://www.constantcontact.com/about-constant-contact/press/press_2009_0630a.jsp
http://www.constantcontact.com/about-constant-contact/press/press_2009_0402.jsp
3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader of this nominated company:
A small business expert and visionary, Gail has revolutionized the way that
small businesses and organizations can communicate with their customers. Since
taking leadership of Constant Contact in April 1999, she has led the company to
more than 350,000 customers worldwide and its initial public offering in
October 2007. Gail was named "Executive of the Year" at the 2009 American
Business Awards, and was the 2008 New England Regional winner of Ernst & Young
Entrepreneur of the Year. A frequent speaker at industry events, Gail develops
and tracks best practices in small business success, email marketing, customer
communications, and entrepreneurship.
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