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As a small business owner, you need to be a lot of things to make your business go—but you don't have to be a marketer alone. Join host Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, and Kelsi Carter, Brand Production Coordinator, as they explore what it really takes to market your business. Even if marketing's not your thing! You'll hear from small business leaders just like you along with industry experts as they share their stories, challenges, and best advice to get real results. This is the 2x Webby Award Honoree Be A Marketer podcast! New episodes coming in July!
On today's episode, you'll hear from two college students juggling school, sports, and racing. All while building a NASCAR brand from scratch using smart marketing and some serious hustle. This is the Be A Marketer podcast.
Dave Charest:My name is Dave Sherest, director of small business success at Constant Contact, and I help small business owners like you make sense of online marketing. And on this podcast, we'll explore what it really takes to market your business, even if marketing's not your thing. No jargon, no hype, just real stories to inspire you and practical advice you can act on. So remember, friend, you can be a marketer. And at Constant Contact, we're here to help.
Dave Charest:Well, hello, friend, and thanks for joining us for another episode of the Be A Marketer podcast. Can't do it without her. Kelsi Carter is here behind the mic. Hi, Kelsi.
Kelsi Carter:Hi, Dave.
Dave Charest:Good to see you as always.
Kelsi Carter:So good to see you.
Dave Charest:You know, we've been having all of these amazing conversations, of course. We're up over a 100 of these episodes now. And time and time again, often a term that gets thrown around with small business owners is resilience. But I think there's something else that I've noticed that it's a special breed of people, and they're also very driven. And that means you have to you know, I always say to my girl sometimes, I'm like, you know, sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.
Dave Charest:It's not the thing that you're gonna be doing forever, but it's the thing that gets you to that next step. And sometimes, you know what? It might be something you don't like, it might be something you don't wanna do, but you do it because you know and you see through the other side of that that a goal is going to be accomplished if you do do the thing. One of the things that we see with small business owners, I mean, even just thinking of, the things that we do day to day, right, I think we we do it devoid of some of that pressure bearing the responsibility of paying employees and and doing things like that. But, really, there's so many things to juggle when you think about what you gotta do, particularly as a business owner.
Dave Charest:Right? And then particularly in your role. Right? You've gotta do all of these things that actually make, you know, just these episodes happen, for example. You ever have one of those days, I'm sure you have them, right, where you're just like, oh my god.
Dave Charest:How am I gonna get all of this stuff done?
Kelsi Carter:Oh, yeah. Sometimes my to do list looks a little too long where I'm just like, I don't think there's enough hours in this day.
Dave Charest:But what do you do? Right? You figure out, you prioritize, we connect. Right? What hey.
Dave Charest:What do you really need me to do right now? Like, it's just the the things that you do to get it done. And I often look at this, you know, I'm excited about our conversation here today because one of the things that did strike me and you're gonna, you know, of course, you'll get the the tie into this word here a little bit as we start to talk about it. But driven, imagine trying to do all those things while you're trying to build a a brand in a really competitive space. And it's a good reminder that when you're really driven, you find a way to make it happen even with your marketing.
Dave Charest:And so, Kelsi, what can you tell us about our guests today?
Kelsi Carter:Today's guests are Jayson Alexander and Shane DiMantova. Jayson Alexander Racing, which is based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Jason is the founder and driver. Yes. He's actually the driver and races NASCAR, and he proudly serves as the director of the left turns.
Kelsi Carter:Shane is the director of PR and social media, so he helps manage everything from content calendars to email campaigns. So together, they're building a NASCAR brand that stands out by staying consistent, connected, and fan focused even while balancing school, lacrosse, and military service.
Dave Charest:Yeah. This is an episode about more than just race cars. It's about that determination, focus, and really the will to succeed. Jayson and Shane's journey into NASCAR shows how being driven, both literally and figuratively, can really power a small brand into a nationally recognized name. On our episode today, you're gonna hear how two college students turned a racing dream into a thriving business using smart segmentation and content planning, the surprising ways they use Constant Contact to grow fan loyalty, drive merch sales, and keep sponsors engaged even during off weeks, and then why consistency and planning, especially with limited time, I'm sure we can all relate there, are really the keys to standing out in a crowded market.
Dave Charest:We'll also hear, Kelsi, that video games seem to be the gateway to NASCAR.
Kelsi Carter:Hey, listen. I saw a little glimmer of hope in my eye where I just like, Kelsi Carter, NASCAR?
Dave Charest:I know. I was like, all those years of Mario Kart are finally gonna pay off maybe if I if I shift my focus a little bit. But let's go to Jayson to hear more about how he got his start in professional racing.
Jayson Alexander:The usual way to get into racing and specifically in NASCAR is you start as a young kid and you do what's called go karts and, you know, you run go karts until you get old enough, till you start moving up to bigger and bigger cars, till you start, you know, eventually working your way through the pipeline. So I know a lot of people that started, you know, four, five, six years old started racing. Well, for me, I wasn't doing any of that type of racing. The most racing experience I had growing up was just playing some racing video games. Know, I had a little makeshift wheel back on the PlayStation two.
Jayson Alexander:That's where I got my first start, just, you know, running old racing games like Gran Turismo and stuff like that. And I wasn't like necessarily good or anything, but it was just something that I really, really enjoyed to do. Then, you know, as I got older and kind of got into more computer style games, I discovered a service called iRacing, just kind of where all the NASCAR teams and professional racers use to practice when they're not at the track. So, you know, I discovered that program and I started racing in that throughout, you know, high school. And as I got into college, I decided that maybe something could be happening with racing.
Jayson Alexander:Maybe it's still a career I could pursue. There was a couple of different drivers who started later on in life and then went into racing. So I knew it wasn't impossible. It would just be kind of a harder challenge to get into. I just didn't necessarily knew the pathway to get into racing.
Jayson Alexander:So when I ended up choosing to go to school at Queens University of Charlotte to play lacrosse there, Charlotte is the capital of all things NASCAR. That's where every pretty much 90% of the teams are based. It's right in that area. That's where, you know, NASCAR, the whole of NASCAR is. So kind of in the back of my mind, I knew that if I could get to Charlotte, I could try and figure out a way how I could at least get into the NASCAR industry.
Jayson Alexander:You know, I always wanted to be a driver, but I didn't know if that would specifically be the most feasible thing to happen. So when I got to school as a freshman, ended up reaching out to a bunch of different teams just to see if I can come and intern inside the race shop. Just kind of learn how a race team works and the inner workings of it. So I started working and interning with a team. I interned with them for about a year.
Jayson Alexander:And basically my job was to sweep floors or clean up the cars, take out the trash, clean the bathrooms. All the grunt work that you could do as an intern, I was doing it. But I would be able to listen in on business meetings and meet drivers and kind of learn more the inner working of some business till, you know, I finally got to the point where I really wanted to drive and I really wanted to see if this is something that I could do. I was very successful on the sim side, sim racing side. So I thought, you know, why not give give myself a chance and see if I could do this once and for all.
Jayson Alexander:So I, again, I went through and I reached out to as many teams as I could think of, begging for them just to give me a shot. And finally, one got back to me and, you know, they said they could take a race car out to a to a local track and see if we could do a test day there. So eventually, I did was I did a test day by myself at a place called Hickory Motor Speedway, which is the birthplace of the NASCAR Stars. It's a super rough, all original surface in Hickory, North Carolina. That's where, you know, the legends have made their names.
Jayson Alexander:So thrown right into the ring right away, went there, and I hopped right into a car, what's called a pro late model. So I mentioned, you know, a lot of kids start their careers, you know, racing go karts. Eventually, when they're, you know, 18, 19, 20 years old, the pro late models and the late model stocks is kind of that last stepping stone before they hop into NASCAR. These are big, full size race cars, lots of horsepower, very little grip, very, very competitive series. So you usually never see someone jump straight from the semen to a pro late model.
Jayson Alexander:It's kind of like a crazy thing to do. It's like becoming a football fan and then just hopping off the couch and joining a professional team. It's not usually how it works, but, you know, I decided we're just gonna go out there and send it and see if we it'll stick. So I did my test day at Hickory. It went really well to the point where I ended up getting offered a NASCAR developmental contract with that team to where I ended up driving with that team for the next two seasons.
Jayson Alexander:But again, racing is super expensive. I didn't necessarily have, you know, all the money myself. So to pay for my racing and to pay for myself to get into the sea, I used kind of a lot of the skills that I had in business and marketing with me being, you know, a business marketing student in college. And I had originally started for this team where I would sell sponsorship for the team, and I would use commission from from sponsorship selling for them. Then I'd use it to put myself in the car.
Jayson Alexander:Eventually, I got good up to that to where I ended up breaking off and forming my own business called the Femur Performance Group, which is something else I do besides Chase Alexander racing, where we represent NASCAR drivers all the way from the top series down to the bottom. Or we negotiate team deals with them, find them sponsors, help them throughout their careers. And I started that when I was lower down in racing to where, you know, the return on investment wasn't necessarily there for a lot of companies. So I'd sell for a lot of these big drivers and then take my commissions to continue, put myself in the seat, and then got to raise the bunch. Got really, really good.
Jayson Alexander:Had some great opportunities. Deployed when NASCAR teams started calling, and now I am. Here I am racing at NASCAR, long story short.
Dave Charest:Love it. Shane, you know, I'm curious from you. You're also a student athlete at at Queen's University of Charlotte. You're studying sports management. You've got a freelance design business.
Dave Charest:How'd you get involved with Jason Alexander racing?
Shane DiMantova:Yeah. So meeting Jason was definitely a really interesting experience. So I guess kinda going back, getting myself into racing, my family wasn't a racing fan or, like, a racing family growing up. Like, my dad would occasionally have on the TV, but I'd be like as a kid, I'd be like, like, what is this? Like, this is boring.
Shane DiMantova:Like, can we please just change to the channel and put something else on? And so I think it was around fifth grade I was at GameStop. Remember it was my family. I don't know why I remember this so clearly. And I'm looking at the games, and I just see NASCAR on the shelf.
Shane DiMantova:And I was like, man, that looks awesome. So I get my mom to buy it for me and go home, and I just start playing it twenty four seven and end up just getting myself absolutely, like, in love with racing. I'd watch the races every week weekend. And so I kinda got my interest in racing started. And by the time it came around, getting into college and kinda choosing a major, I mean, I couldn't think of anything else to do.
Shane DiMantova:I've been around sports my whole life. I played ice hockey and obviously just my passion for racing. So I'm like, why don't I just go to school in Charlotte, North Carolina, like Jason said, the hub of everything NASCAR, and try to get into racing with that? So when it's my freshman year at Queens University of Charlotte, and I just remember them posting on Instagram the school's account about some guy really tall guy on the lacrosse team for some reason racing in NASCAR. And I was like, man, like, that's really interesting.
Shane DiMantova:I wonder who this guy is. So I remember I I followed Jason on Instagram. And then a few months later, I kinda made, like, a design, kinda like a paint scheme with, like, the school and the stuff like that. Be like, hey. Like, I remember I tweeted out being like, hey.
Shane DiMantova:Like, wouldn't it be cool to, like, see a car that a Queen's student made that a Queen's student could drive that Queen's is sponsoring? And I Jason messaged me back, like, minutes later. Like, dude, this is awesome. Who are you? Like, I'd I'd love to get connected with you and kinda start working with you together.
Shane DiMantova:And so I remember we went to lunch and kinda talked through everything, like talked about our lives and how we got into racing, and we've just hit it off ever since. And we're a great duo. It's a little like Shaq and Kobe out there. So I'm I'm really glad this guy, and it's just it's it's really, really awesome being a part of of him. And he's he's introduced so many different doors for me, and I've met so many different people.
Shane DiMantova:So, I mean, I wanted to get into racing, getting to school, and going to Queens University of Charlotte, and I definitely got in the right in the middle of it.
Dave Charest:Awesome. So, Jason, I'm curious from you. Like, what do you love most about the business side of Jason Alexander racing?
Jayson Alexander:I think it's really unique seeing how everything comes together. Because I started out racing and learning the business side is how I got my my way into racing. All the behind the scenes that happens just to get a car to the track is what is super, super exciting for me. You know, starting off from, you know, first getting an offer from a team and getting a chance saying, Hey, you know, we wanted you to come drive our car. Like, that's an awesome opportunity.
Jayson Alexander:Then going out there and finding a partner and sponsor that wants to come on board for that race. And then going out and figuring out, you know, what's the plan to activate that sponsorship and how, you know, how can we both make it benefit both sides of the party. And then figuring out, you know, with this sponsorship, what are we able to do? And now I have, you know, I have my team. I have Shane as a bunch of other members part of Jason Alexander Racing.
Jayson Alexander:And all these people that come together to try and make one cohesive unit, whether it's booking flights last second or sprinting across the airport because, you know, you you you've had to miss that flight. Last second deals, it's, you know, getting a call, whether it's you're stepping out and you're gonna be out for the next couple months and someone else has to step in and kinda run the business for you. There's over the past, you know, month and a half, Shane has had to take over and run all of Jason Alexander racing, basically, from managing the staff that works there to managing, you know, the deals that we have coming up in the races to then, you know, negotiating with the team and making sure, you know, every have everything we have is going to be at the track. There's so much more than just showing up and driving. We have everything from we have the social media side.
Jayson Alexander:We have the sponsorship side. We have the marketing side. All these cohesive units come together to kind of, you know, create I would say I'm just one small part of it, but we have a whole team that kind of works with us to to kind of make sure everything we do is very seamless from off the track to the track.
Dave Charest:Shane, how about you? What are you finding most enjoyable about your role?
Shane DiMantova:Yeah. I definitely like, when I met Jason, he was still racing in late models. So we're kinda just watching, like, him kinda rise up and, like, gain popularity and race against better competition. That's been really cool and just getting his overall name out there. Racing at local tracks, obviously, it's it's not the most doesn't get the most attention.
Shane DiMantova:It's not on national television compared to, like, ARCA where we are now. And hopefully getting into trucks and stuff like that into the future. So trying to see see him start that local level, and then now, like, over thousands of people, many more knowing him and watching him race on national television just is is really, really cool. And just being a part of that experience of watching our success happen firsthand.
Dave Charest:I wanna transition a little bit into the kinda just thinking about the marketing stuff that you guys are doing and and thinking about marketing the business. And so the question is, like, in regards to marketing, particularly since you both are in school, I'm curious as to, like, what are you learning in school? What are you learning there that you're starting to apply in the real world? How is that transition? Right?
Dave Charest:There's a difference between kind of learning about it and then actually doing it. So whoever wants to jump in first on that.
Jayson Alexander:I would say I've you know, being you know, I'm a business administration student with a concentration of marketing. So I've had the the lucky chance to take a lot of marketing classes through my time at Queen's. I would say a lot of it has translated over to what I'm seeing now, to market when it comes to inside of our business and everything that we do. One of the immediate things, first things that I learned about, you know, was segmentation. I never understood how I could segment a market when it came into racing until I started trying to do it myself.
Jayson Alexander:Though I haven't talked about it too much, but through like the help of Constant Contact, like, now with a lot of tools that are there available, you kind of can understand how you can segment who you're reaching out to, why you're reaching out to them, what you're doing. Because inside of Jason Alexander Racing, we have two different things. We have the brand side and connecting with the fans, and the supporters of NASCAR. And then you have the sponsorship side and working with the businesses and trying to activate it that way. So being able to actually understand, like, who you're speaking to, who you're segmenting to in that moment is that, you know, are you talking to the fans?
Jayson Alexander:Are you trying to look out and reach for more partners? And be able to kind of separate those and create separate plans and campaigns for those to excel, has been one of the biggest things that I've seen within marketing that has translated. As well as how to use marketing dollars, and how to make sure what you're doing instead of marketing is following the plan and building it out. It can't just be, you know, I'll just throw something out there and hope it sticks. No, it's now it's like building out for the exact dollar value.
Jayson Alexander:Like, what are we going to do with this marketing plan? Like, what is our goal for the outreach? What is this? What are we planning for? That's something that without taking my marketing classes, I wouldn't really understand.
Jayson Alexander:A lot of things in marketing, you only think of as impressions. But now I'm kind of realizing is like, where are we placing those impressions? How are we searching for these people? What is our actual goal for this outreach? And that's something that I found is really helpful from the classes I've had back at school.
Dave Charest:Yeah. Shane, how about you? What are you what are you kinda taking into this?
Shane DiMantova:Yeah. Definitely as a sports management student, I feel like most people think of sports as like stick and ball, that kind of stuff. But I'm definitely can apply some of that into racing. I guess one kind of big thing is, like, obviously, they teach you, like, not to burn a bridge, and I think that's definitely really apparent in the sports industry. And so just kind of building these connections and, like, especially racing.
Shane DiMantova:It's a really tight knit community, and everybody knows everybody. So that's that's really been something I've really applied to that, and I've learned a lot. Another thing that I've learned is kinda just like the consumer aspect of it and fan outreach. Making sure fans like get to experience what they wanna experience like with your brand. So like with us specifically, we want them to know who Jason is, like kinda know his story, and like kinda make that connection with him.
Shane DiMantova:So I feel like that's really huge. And then also, one big thing is marketing. Jason kinda talked about that already. But like learning marketing, I guess in school, I'm learning specifically about like sports teams and stuff like that. But I can definitely apply some of the lessons into racing and kinda with the outreach and media and fans and just the overall community with that.
Dave Charest:Yeah. You know, I like one of the things you just said that I think really kinda sums it up for whatever industry that you're in. Right? Is a a lot of times, it really just boils down to those relationships, whether that's relationships you build with your sponsors, the relationships you build with your fans, and the relations you build within the industry. Right?
Dave Charest:Because that those all of those things and and keeping up with those relationships are the things that are gonna really propel you and get you to that next level. I wanna talk through some of the goals that as we've been meeting you and working with you guys, like, of the goals that you have. And I so I wanna talk through some of these marketing objectives. And so I'll list them here first, and then we can kinda think about and talk a little bit more about them. But the four that I think have been important to you you all for Jason Alexander Racing has been, one, building brand awareness for Jason Alexander Racing, growing the Jar fan base and following, securing additional sponsors for Jar, and generating revenue for with Jar merchandise.
Dave Charest:So maybe if we start with building brand awareness and Jason for Jason Alexander Mason, like, are you guys thinking there just in terms of, like, what it is that you're trying to do there?
Shane DiMantova:I definitely think that's something huge we've I we've kinda implemented on social media. Themes and colors, like like constant contact blue, the same hashtags, tags, stuff like that. So keeping it consistent there so when people see it right away, they know it's Jason Alexander racing constant contact. So kinda building that connection there.
Dave Charest:Jason, for you, so what are you thinking there when you're thinking about building that brand awareness?
Jayson Alexander:For us, a big thing is we don't race on on a full time schedule. You know, we have a lot of playing lacrosse. Being in the military means that we have a really small and condensed schedule, and sometimes we don't have the funding to go to every single track. So for us, a lot of our brand awareness is making sure even though if we're not at a track, doesn't mean we still can't engage with the fans, doesn't mean we still can't grow that fan base. So like what Shane has said, like, way we've tried to integrate, you know, again, the constant contact Blue and Jason Alexander racing and make that one of the same.
Jayson Alexander:It's something goes back to me is really successful drivers and really successful teams are known in conjunction with their sponsors. So I think back to a really big driver by the name of Kyle Busch. He his big sponsor was M and M's. He was the M and M's car for years. That's what a lot of people remember him by.
Jayson Alexander:That's something that we try and do one and the same. So all of our posts all revolve around that. So where, you know, when fans are talking to me, they remember me as the constant contact guy. Oh, yeah, you're the constant contact guy. You're that I want to make sure that's one of the same, especially that if we're not to track every single weekend, that brand awareness doesn't fall off.
Jayson Alexander:So you can see that in our weekly posts or our weekly newsletters, putting out videos, engaging with fans, doing giveaways. So, you know, even when we're not at the track, we still try and build it up as much as possible. So that's been kind of the biggest thing is I see a lot of drivers that if they're at the track, great. They're posting. If they're not, they're just gone.
Jayson Alexander:Know, for us, we want to make sure there's no falloff. We want to make you realize you think we're racing every single weekend, or we're doing something every single weekend when, you know, we may be off for a month. But we don't want there to be any falloff in, you know, how we're getting our brand out there. Then it goes back to, you know, like, what is our plan for getting? You know, what's our brand what's our plan for this awareness?
Jayson Alexander:So whether it's one post a week, we're gonna put it out, we're gonna sponsor it to make sure, you know, it reaches a higher audience. Or we're gonna go specifically into our advertisements, and we're pick a specific market that we want to go into, especially if there's upcoming races, or we're just leaving that market, whatever it may be. But it's all about being really intentional about everything you do, especially when you have to do it at a part time basis. So that's kind of been one of the challenges as well that we had to go overcome, that we've, you know, done a really, really good job at this year, especially with times when, you know, I haven't been here at all. I've been in a congregate up and gone with the military.
Jayson Alexander:There there was never a drop off or a lapse in that brand engagement. So that's what we've really prided ourselves on, how we can make sure that excels.
Dave Charest:So a couple of things. I love how you're, I think, looking to other successful people and think and looking at what they've done and and thinking about how you can emulate that, right, to hopefully, like, achieve the same levels of success. I think that's a really smart thing to do. You mentioned some challenges, right, obviously, with time. And so I'm wondering between everything that you both have to do, right, with all of the other things that you're involved in while still being in school, how do you find time for marketing?
Dave Charest:And and, Shay, maybe I'll go to you first. Like, how do you guys, like, divvy up the work? Are you both doing like, how does this all come together for you?
Shane DiMantova:I think the biggest thing is obviously staying up with at least on a social media side, staying up with trends. I feel like that's a definitely great way to build popularity. But then overall, just kinda just planning ahead, like, talking through, like, what we're gonna do. So, like, me and Jay Jason talk almost every single day. And so, like, I'll shoot ideas by him.
Shane DiMantova:Be like, hey. Like, what do think about this, like, next week or later in the week? And he'll be like, yeah. I love it, or we'll change it in some sort of way in a successful manner. So kinda just planning ahead is our biggest thing, and just staying on top of what we have to do.
Jayson Alexander:I'd say that Shane and I, pretty much every month, we'll sit down and Shane will print out full calendar of, you know, every single day that's gonna happen that month. And we'll go through, we'll mark it up, and we'll say, we'll post this day, this day, this day, this is what we're trying to aim for. Okay, we'll shoot content on this day. It'll make sure that both of our schedules are on the same page. Because, you know, we're both student athletes, we're both in school, we both have very, very busy schedules.
Jayson Alexander:So we have to make sure that when we sit down and do something, like, we're actually at time to make sure to do it, and we'll budget it out. So whether it's recording content two months in advance, or something else can come out months later, that's okay. But we have to make sure that's on the schedule. And we have plenty of stores filled up to where if we feel like we need to post more, we already have content ready. We're not reusing anything.
Jayson Alexander:A lot of it comes in the planning and time management, and we weren't always great at that. There have been times where we've been, Oh my god, we have to post today. Or we're like, We need to throw something out. Or, Man, we haven't done something. So like, just learning from those experiences has been really key.
Jayson Alexander:And Shane mentioned, like, we're on the phone every single day. We're texting. He's bouncing ideas off me. I'm bouncing ideas off him. I'm like, Shane, we need to do this.
Jayson Alexander:Like, Jason, you need to do this. Like, we hold each other accountable when it comes to, you know. Again, Jason Alexander Racing has Jason Alexander in it, but it doesn't work without Shane. And it doesn't work without all the other people that that help inside of it. It's truly a whole effort that gets it going, and it can't just be a one person show.
Dave Charest:Yeah. Yeah. Can you guys walk me through some of the things that you're doing to to market the business then? What are you doing on social? How are you moving those people to email?
Dave Charest:Like, what is what does that kinda look like for you?
Jayson Alexander:So some of the stuff that we do, a lot of it is is advertising certain posts. So we won't we won't we won't put an advertisement on every single post. We have a big post that week. We will first figure out what market we wanna segment that into. So whether it's a post specifically aimed at fans and to drive fan engagement, we'll we'll figure out people that follow similar accounts or we'll go through our our ad process, and then we'll blast that out there for, you know, a number a couple of days.
Jayson Alexander:So we have when it comes to marketing, we have the marketing to fan side, which is a lot of our social media. So like our Instagram, our Twitters, and our Facebooks. And then we want to market to different companies or different potential partners, we look over to our LinkedIn side. So on the LinkedIn side of things, we'll be able to run, again, we can run all this stuff through our amazing Constant Contact software. But then we go through and we figure out, okay, what are we looking to do in these LinkedIn posts?
Jayson Alexander:You know, we have a great LinkedIn network full of so many different amazing companies that we're able to go through and advertise through. So then we'll sit down, we'll figure out, okay, we want put up a LinkedIn post. Alright, this post is aimed at We put up a post yesterday. It was aimed at an upcoming race that we're looking to fill a few more partners for. So we sat down, we figured out, what is that post going to look like?
Jayson Alexander:What are we looking to share in that post? And then, okay, great. Now we'll post it out, and who in our network that we have is going to help us reshare it? So we work a lot with other people that they work for companies, or they have big followings, and we do a lot, and they'll help reshare a lot of our stuff. Or we'll put an advertisement on something.
Jayson Alexander:So the marketing is really key, and a lot of it comes as well with getting sign ups for our mailing list that we have as well. So a lot of stuff we try to do, we want to drive that engagement. Maybe we have a race coming up, so we'll do giveaways for upcoming races to get people to sign up to get them engaged. Or we'll throw, And then we will, you know, throw sales out there for people to sign up to, and the success that we get through our mailing list. We also are able to segment our mailing list between, you know, those that sign up for fan engagement side, versus those who sign up more on the business side.
Jayson Alexander:We have, you know, all of our sponsors, people that we've talked to, they all sign up through our mailing list. So we're able to segment that list down to where, know, hey, we have a race coming up. We're looking for partners. We could exclusively send out that email to just potential partners versus sending it out to, you know, the fans on the other side. So all that, a lot of lot of talking.
Jayson Alexander:But a lot of that comes into, you know, how we segment out our marketing. Gotcha. Gotcha.
Shane DiMantova:Shane, anything to add to that? I I mean, I think Jason said it really, really well. I I definitely think having the tools of Constant Contact has taken Jason Alexander to the next level because of those segments or information that we can specifically get from our social media posts, our our engagement with that, or our mailing list and like seeing like the hot traces from that where people are clicking what they're clicking on and kinda what they're interested in. So I definitely think having Constant Contact has really helped a lot with our marketing for sure.
Jayson Alexander:What we've done with a lot a lot on social media, people try and stare at, you know, follower counts or stare at, know, oh, they only have so many followers so that they can't get that much engagement out of it. We see it for our account, whereas, you know, we may have less followers than a lot of people around us, is we see a lot of other drivers go through and they try and, you know, buy followers or they try and, know, fake their social media engagement. Well, when you go through and you actually look at their impressions and look at who's actually viewing their stuff, they may have 50,000 followers, but they're getting 10 likes on a post. That doesn't make sense. We have, you know, one fiftieth of that sometimes, but we have so much engagement through all of our posts.
Jayson Alexander:We have so many impressions that are coming through. All of our followers are engaged. They're activated in everything that we do, which I think is so different from a lot of other drivers that just throw up a post and they hope it goes well when we are so specific about how we post, where we post, and what we do to drive engagement, especially on those off weeks when we're not racing.
Dave Charest:Gotcha. So Shane, I wanna I wanna go to you for a second. So, you know, I wanna get into some of the constant contact stuff here. So, like, at a general level, like, what has that constant contact experience been like for you as a as a user?
Shane DiMantova:Yeah. I I definitely like, people might think I come on here and obviously, I'll be like, oh my gosh. I love Constant Contact because you guys are, like, kinda sponsoring us and working with us. But I really, really have had a really good experience with Constant Contact. I I really do think that their tools are like, your guys' tools are amazing, and it's it's really easy to use.
Shane DiMantova:Like, I can type out an email, social media post, and whatnot, and it takes, like, a few steps just to send it. I definitely think, like, I was very intimidated coming in, just kinda thinking about like, how does one send out marketing email to hundreds of people? But Constant Contact has definitely simplified that with all the templates they have. We've had made preset templates that we use on our weekly emails and and important emails and stuff like that. There's also a really nice tool.
Shane DiMantova:I like using the AI. Every once in a while, like if I keep repeating myself or repeat wording, like AI can definitely be useful and within Constant Contact help me change around the wording and make it sound super exciting. I I definitely have enjoyed using that and then just kinda seeing the outreach that gets with Constant Contact. Like seeing how many people are impressions and going back to, like I said, the heat traces on emails and just overall seeing our page start up from absolutely nothing to almost hundreds of people now.
Dave Charest:Yeah. Jason, from your perspective, are there any notable results that you've been starting to see since using Constant Contact?
Jayson Alexander:Let's say, absolutely. Again, we went back to, you know, engagement and brand awareness. Having something like Constant Contact at your disposal is massive for growing a fan base. We're able to connect with them on such a smaller level than just throwing out, you know, a social media post. We're able to actually send them emails, follow-up with them.
Jayson Alexander:Something big that seemed really daunting at first was kind of like the integrations and the automation side of Constant Contact. I didn't understand how any of that worked when I started. It just took sitting down, and just started to use it. We're able to, you know, send welcome emails to people who just sign up to to the mailing list. That people are at our website, and they have something in their cart.
Jayson Alexander:We're able to send them like, hey, you're still in the cart. You can check out. We're able to send out discounts through theirs, follow-up emails. All the stuff is just automated and it goes immediately. All it took was sitting down for ten, fifteen minutes, setting up the pipeline that you wanted to go through, and then it happened.
Jayson Alexander:So I've been able to see I've been able to engage with a lot of fans. You know? Going to the racetrack, you get to meet fans from all over, and all the reviews have been so positive. They love following on and following our journey, especially for, you know, those weeks that we're not racing. We're able to give them like, hey.
Jayson Alexander:What are we doing behind the scenes at Jason Alexander Racing that maybe they don't get to see with an average NASCAR driver? So I find that, you know, the fan engagement and the brand awareness has just grown so much more than when we were just out there just throwing out social media posts. Again, like, we get to run all of our social media through the Constant Contact software. We get to plan out our posts, we get to blast it out simultaneously across our programs, we're able to actually figure out the advertisement, and figure out what are our goals for this inside of all the software. So, my first thing going into Constant Contact was like, Oh, it's email marketing.
Jayson Alexander:Great. Okay, we'll send out, we'll have a mailing list. Awesome. But yeah, it's so much more than that. I would say, you know, sending up emails is a massive part, but if you truly just open up to see how much is available at your fingertips, it's been really awesome to see.
Jayson Alexander:Like, Shane and I have it wasn't easy. I always learned it at first, but we we figured it out. And it's been awesome seeing all the stuff we're able to do is just run it all through the program.
Dave Charest:Shane, how often are you sending emails now? And what's the content that's in those emails?
Shane DiMantova:So our our goal right now is trying to send out weekly emails. It's been a little tough because I've kind of been away for the last few weeks. I'm doing schoolwork. I've been on a trip with that. But, I mean, otherwise, other than that, like, our goal is send out weekly emails, kinda let people know who Jason is, and kinda, like, connect with him personally.
Shane DiMantova:I know we talked about that on marketing side and fan base side of that. But, like, specifically what we're doing is, like, taking them into Jason's personal life. Like, we we've talked about his military and what he's doing with that, which is absolutely amazing. And I couldn't be more proud of him and really thank him for all that. But kinda talking about what's his his journey through that.
Shane DiMantova:We're getting ready to go send out another weekly email here soon talking about his lacrosse and being a student athlete at the same time. So, I mean, our our main goal with emails is obviously keep people up to date with everything going on in Jason Alexander racing, but get make them connected and then just overall, like, make them seem like they're a part of one big Jason Alexander racing family.
Dave Charest:I think you're using polls in your emails. How how have you been using those?
Shane DiMantova:Yeah. Definitely. I think one main tool I've used polls for is, like, seeing what the people want. So specifically, remember putting out a poll for merchandise. So kinda seeing what the people want and what they really desire is really important because that'll help drive our merchandise sales, which is in one of our manuals here at Jason Alexander Racing.
Dave Charest:Would either of you say do you have a a favorite feature so far that you've been exposed to? Jason, I'll go to you.
Jayson Alexander:Really love being able to run all our social media through it. I do. Shane has been really big in kind of running a lot of our social media and being able to make a post on Constant Contact and make it replicate across all these different forms, instead of having to go post online, then go post on the other, then go post another. I think that's been, you know, really key for us to really we're able to track x amount of people signed up to the booth there. We send out an email, we can track who signed up through there.
Jayson Alexander:We put out a social media post doing giveaway, we can track who signed up through there. We have our LinkedIn, who signed up through there. So, when it comes to us sending out specific emails or trying to market ourselves to specific groups, we now have all this information from our fingertips. We can just pick our segment and send the email out to it send the post out to it. So that's why it's, you know, just it's just super easy, those tools.
Dave Charest:Shane, how about you on your side? Anything stand out to you?
Shane DiMantova:Oh, yeah. Definitely. I mean, those are definitely two great things that I really appreciate. I love the aspect of being able to save templates for like our weekly emails. I know we talked about this, but I don't have to go through every single week and kinda replicate what we made it look like the previous week.
Shane DiMantova:I can go in and just start typing away and adding our new weekly email. And so that kind of also goes back to marketing and making Jason Alexander Racing set itself apart from others. So seeing that consistency is really, really key for us. I can go through and it will look the same every single week and people like know what to look for and where they can find certain information is really, really key. And then also, like I talked about the AI tool is really useful.
Shane DiMantova:Like I can use several different tones. I can be excited or they can make announcements or like try to inform people with different voices with AI. And like, I'll tell what I want to say. It's it's really, really awesome. Kind of seeing how we started.
Shane DiMantova:Like like we me and Jason talked about, we we had no clue what it was coming in, and it's now become this huge big thing that has just been really, really successful.
Jayson Alexander:One of the coolest tools that actually like you get to you know, you don't have to use too often, but is really awesome is there's kind of the brand kit tool. Like for us, kind of when we were like launching our partnership with Constant Contact, at the same time we were making a website. We were able to pull all of that content in from the website super easily, just putting in the URL. Then we had all the pictures, the medias, the colors, everything that we could then use right back into our emails with Constant Contact. So that's one of the coolest things possible, to keep everything the same across the whole board.
Jayson Alexander:It's just It takes two clicks, super easy, copy paste, and then you have all your amazing, your library of new content in front of you. So that's been something that was really cool, and super helpful for us to get off the ground and start making these emails and templates.
Shane DiMantova:I also like the reporting. I enjoy looking back through that every single week, kinda just seeing a brief overview of how we're doing in certain segments like emails or social media and just overall engagement in different areas is also really awesome.
Dave Charest:Are you guys thinking about incorporating SMS into things?
Shane DiMantova:That's definitely something really, really big. I think that really help will help our brand come to the next level. SMS is definitely one way to, like, personally connect with people because peep you think about it. People are always on their phones. Like, emails are are really, really great, but they might not get to people right away.
Shane DiMantova:Like, people might have junk email accounts and stuff like that. So SMS goes directly to people's home screens, and they can see it right away. So me and Jason, when we sat down at the start of the season and we talked about what we wanna do with Constant Contact, we think that SMS would be a great tool to kinda keep people notified about races or important announcements. So we could be like, hey, Jason is racing on this date and make sure to tune in at this time. Or you can keep him updated right before the race.
Shane DiMantova:Like, hey, Jason's starting in tenth position and he's starting here about thirty minutes. Like, tune in to Fox Sports one. And just keeping people, like, even more up to date with, like, real world notifications.
Jayson Alexander:Super easy with SMS to go ahead and shoot out a link to the merchandise store. Like, hey, we got a sale going on. 10% off. Summer sale. Boom.
Jayson Alexander:Here's the link. Or great. Hey. You wanna come to the race? Here's the link to buy tickets.
Jayson Alexander:Super easy stuff. Like, that happens, like when I get SMS texts all the time through, you know, different things, I bought from different companies that you have SMS through them as well. Like, it's been several times where I've gotten a text. I'm like, oh, yeah, they got a sale going on. Why?
Jayson Alexander:I'll go check it out. It's right to my phone. So, using stuff like that is really, really key, again, to just grow your engagement with your fans. That's one of the easy way. Because, you know, sometimes it takes, you know, a while for them to go through their emails and check their emails.
Jayson Alexander:They're not always getting every single notification, but they always get the text. The text always comes first. So that's something that can be used to really help grow out that engagement.
Dave Charest:As you're starting to get more and more into this and you're starting to see the things that you're able to accomplish by using Constant Contact, what do you think it would be like trying to run the business without Constant Contact?
Jayson Alexander:I'll go to you, Jason. I don't think it would I don't think it'd be very fun. We have so much stuff now put in the Constant Contact, and we run all of our stuff through it. And it's become, like I mentioned, like a part of our identity. Know?
Jayson Alexander:Okay. Jason, now I'm saying Constant Contact, that's one and the same, you know, for either through brand awareness or just what we run all of our business through. I think it's just been a massive help. And I think without Constant Contact at the start of this year, even if we would have done the same amount of races, I don't think our brand engagement would be anywhere near what it is now. I think it's just added a completely different layer to us, you know, as a team and as a driver that most fans don't ever get to see.
Jayson Alexander:So it's been really awesome just seeing, like, giving them pull the curtains back and give them kind of a view behind the door of how we operate, as well as just being able to continue to keep the content going, continue to keep up engagement. I think it's been absolutely wonderful. And I think if we had to go without it, I don't think think it's just going be so much work to try and replicate all the stuff that Constant Contact does for us. To try and do that ourselves just wouldn't be feasible.
Shane DiMantova:Shane, anything to add to that? No. Definitely. I think without Constant Contact, we'd be two bunch of people with our chicken or like with their head chickens with their head cut off. We'd be running around all over the place not knowing what to do, trying to build up our brand.
Shane DiMantova:So I I think that constant contact has really allowed us to elevate our game for sure and just kinda making us stand out from the others, especially at the ARCA level, which is certainly not as popular as the cup series. But with Constant Contact, I think that our marketing and the tools with that has allowed us to basically stand with those top tier drivers in NASCAR.
Dave Charest:Based on everything that you've kind of learned and have started to to figure out now, if there was let's say there was somebody else at school, like, thinking about starting their own business, like, what would be the number one thing that you would say to them now? Jason, I'll start with you.
Jayson Alexander:I would say to sit down and make a plan of what you're actually trying to do. Something I've heard a lot is, you know, visualize your end goal. Where are you trying to get to? Okay. Great.
Jayson Alexander:Now you gotta backtrack and and figure out the steps that it takes to get there. And I would say, you know, finding out what you actually need in each of those steps to be successful is huge. So like like for us, like, okay, we wanna grow well, if our goal is to grow brand engagement, okay, how do we do that? Okay. We have to get fans to sign up here, or we need to, you know, put advertisements here, or figure out our social media here.
Jayson Alexander:Like, you have to actually put a plan in place. And I'd say, like, that's something I highly recommend, like, is actually use, you know, a program like Constant Contact. Like, that could be massive for getting your business out there. A lot of companies are able to sell, especially when you're, you know, selling stuff and putting stuff through Constant Contact. It's so easy.
Jayson Alexander:From people that I know that also use Constant Contact, especially on, you know, on the store side, they're able to import all of their customers easily into Constant Contact with one click of a button. Then great. They can send out emails to them from there, and they can do all this stuff through the program that allows it. So especially for startup businesses, they're like, you really gotta figure out what your plan is going to be, what your end goal is going to be, and you must figure out the steps along the way, and what tools do you need to accomplish your goals. Because you wanna make sure you do it right and you don't rush through it.
Shane DiMantova:Shane, anything from your perspective? Yeah. I definitely think that people need to one of the first steps is just building a brand. I I definitely think that, like, you can go out there and you're gonna be like, this is my company. This is my logo.
Shane DiMantova:But, like, what else are you gonna do other than that? You gotta have a plan for like Jason said, have a plan for everything and have an identity out there that sets you apart from others is really, really key. And so people know who you are and what you do.
Dave Charest:Well, friend, let's recap some items from that discussion. Number one, build credibility through consistency, especially when you're not always on. Jason and Shane don't race every week, but their audience never forgets about them. By mapping out a content calendar and sticking to a consistent posting and email schedule, they maintain visibility and engagement even during gaps. So even if you are seasonal, consistency becomes your secret weapon.
Dave Charest:Number two, segment your audiences to create more meaningful outreach. Jason and Shane separate fans from sponsors in their email list, so each audience gets content tailored to their interests. Whether it's announcing a new race or offering a merch discount, it's relevant to the recipient. This segmentation has helped increase conversions and engagement, so think through your most important audiences. Number three, use planning to overcome limited time.
Dave Charest:Between school and sports, time is tight, but they've found success by batching content creation, setting goals for each month, and assigning clear responsibilities. Planning allows them to stay ahead even when life gets busy. The lesson is simple. You've got to plan the work you care about. So here's your action item for today.
Dave Charest:Use Constant Contact segmentation tools to separate your list into at least two meaningful groups, like customers and prospects or fans and partners. Then create one email tailored to each group. Doesn't have to be complicated, just relevant. Doing this helps your audience feel like you're speaking directly to them, and that leads to stronger results. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Be a Marketer podcast.
Dave Charest:Please take a moment to leave us a review. Just go to ratethispodcast.com/bam. Your honest feedback will help other small business marketers like yourself find the show. That's ratethispodcast.com/bam. Well, friend, I hope you enjoy the rest of your day and continued success to you and your business.