I’ve recently had the opportunity to take Constant Contact for a test drive, and I wanted to report back on what my experience has been.

About a month ago, I started up a new e-newsletter. It’s focus is blogging. Basically, the idea is, I scour the internets for the best possible posts about how to become a better blogger, then share them with you (my list) once a month. It’s called Blogging Mastery, and I’ve just sent out one so far. You can sign up here, if you like.

Constant Contact also recently interviewed me, and you can read my brain pickings here.

I’ve been using a different e-newsletter service for years. I have dabbled with CC a few times, but this is the first time I’ve really had the opportunity to get down and dirty with it.

For me, the thing that surprised me the most about CC was the fact that they really go above and beyond. It’s not just about email marketing. Sure, they allow you to create and send e-newsletters. They have the tools to help you to grow your list. But they have a lot of features that I am not used to with the other e-newsletter program I’ve been using.

1. Their customer service is top-notch. They have an army of customer service peeps that are dying to help you. They will phone you and email you. Alternatively, their customer service number is on every single page of CC. You’ll never be left high and dry.

2. Their blog rocks. Whether or not you’re a CC customer, you have full access to their really fantastic blog. It’s been one of my fave sources of social media tips and tricks for the last year or so. It’s primarily focussed on email marketing, but there’s tons of great tips about content marketing in here as well.

3. The Small Business Toolkit. This is a company that really gets small business, so included with your CC subscription is what’s called “The Small Business Toolkit.” In addition to sending (of course!) e-newsletters, CC also gives you tools to create, for example, a campaign to increase your Facebook fans, by offering some kind of incentive: a coupon, a piece of valuable downloadable content (like a white paper or an e-book), or even a contest. You can create coupons for your business to send to your email list. You can do a survey of your email list. You can even create an event and CC will collect RSVPs and automagically send tickets to registrants. My favourite thing, though, is that you can use CC to create a donation campaign for your not-for-profit or charity (NFPs, by the way, also get a 20-30% discount off of the subscription price).

All in all, I’m finding that Constant Contact is greater than the sum of its parts… I’ll no doubt be back again in while, with an update on how I’m using it for my new e-newsletter. Stay tuned!