Libraries are often the heartbeat of the communities they serve — and Parsippany Public Library in New Jersey is no exception, offering much more than just reading materials.
Head of Information Services Nicholas Jackson has been using Constant Contact for several years, both to distribute the library’s newsletter and to text workshop registrants.
Before Constant Contact, the library had a problem: People would sign up for workshops and then forget to actually attend. So the library enabled attendee text messages to send reminders the night before and the day of the event. While not everyone checks their email constantly, most people check their texts immediately. Attendance problem solved.
Above all else, Nicholas’s top marketing tip is to stay consistent. That consistency applies to the look and feel of your graphics — like fonts and color schemes — as well as to your marketing plan and analysis of what’s working and what’s not.
On this episode of Constant Contact’s podcast, Be a Marketer, Nicholas and host Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, discuss all the ways that Constant Contact has helped spread awareness and drive foot traffic into Parsippany’s libraries.
Meet Today’s Guest: Nicholas Jackson of Parsippany Public Library
☕ What he does: Nicholas is the Head of Information Services at Parsippany Public Library in New Jersey. Nicholas oversees marketing and PR, plus programming, technology, collections, books, ebooks, and media. He also manages the the Library of Things program where people can borrow items like hotspots, Chromebooks, tabletop games, sewing machines, and more.
💡 Key quote: “Our newsletter is the most powerful advertising-marketing-PR tool. We noticed this when we did an author talk back in 2022. We asked when people signed up, How’d you find out about this? And over 40% said, In the newsletter. We realized that we need to make the newsletter, inviting, helpful, and friendly.”
If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions.
Chapters
Libraries are often the heartbeat of the communities they serve — and Parsippany Public Library in New Jersey is no exception, offering much more than just reading materials.
Head of Information Services Nicholas Jackson has been using Constant Contact for several years, both to distribute the library’s newsletter and to text workshop registrants.
Before Constant Contact, the library had a problem: People would sign up for workshops and then forget to actually attend. So the library enabled attendee text messages to send reminders the night before and the day of the event. While not everyone checks their email constantly, most people check their texts immediately. Attendance problem solved.
Above all else, Nicholas’s top marketing tip is to stay consistent. That consistency applies to the look and feel of your graphics — like fonts and color schemes — as well as to your marketing plan and analysis of what’s working and what’s not.
On this episode of Constant Contact’s podcast, Be a Marketer, Nicholas and host Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, discuss all the ways that Constant Contact has helped spread awareness and drive foot traffic into Parsippany’s libraries.
Meet Today’s Guest: Nicholas Jackson of Parsippany Public Library
☕ What he does: Nicholas is the Head of Information Services at Parsippany Public Library in New Jersey. Nicholas oversees marketing and PR, plus programming, technology, collections, books, ebooks, and media. He also manages the the Library of Things program where people can borrow items like hotspots, Chromebooks, tabletop games, sewing machines, and more.
💡 Key quote: “Our newsletter is the most powerful advertising-marketing-PR tool. We noticed this when we did an author talk back in 2022. We asked when people signed up, How’d you find out about this? And over 40% said, In the newsletter. We realized that we need to make the newsletter, inviting, helpful, and friendly.”
If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions.
What is Be a Marketer with Dave Charest?
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 Be a Marketer podcast! New episodes every Thursday!
Dave:
Today on episode 58 of the Be A Marketer podcast, you'll hear from someone who's found a simple way to increase event attendance. And I'm sharing why SMS marketing is more powerful than you think. This is the Be A Marketer podcast. I'm your host, Dave Charest, director of small business success at Constant Contact, and I help small business owners like you make sense of online marketing.
Dave:
And on this podcast, we'll explore how to find the time to be a marketer. Remember friend, you can be a marketer. And at Constant Contact, we're here to help. Well, hello friend, and thanks for joining me for another episode of the Be A Marketer podcast. Hey, what if I told you that you could send a message to someone and they'd look at it right away.
Dave:
Would that sound like something you'd be interested in? Well, that's exactly the power of SMS marketing. And yet, many business owners and organizational leaders aren't interested. Why? Well, many times the answer is because they don't like getting text messages.
Dave:
And hey, that's fair enough, especially when so many businesses are just sending those promotional SMS messages that want you to buy something. But that's just one way to use SMS marketing. Those businesses aren't really leaning into the power of being able to send timely and relevant information to the receiver. And it's when you step away from just those buy now style messages as your only option that you really start to see the other opportunities that SMS marketing can offer you. So for example, pay attention to how our guest today loves using SMS marketing to increase attendance to his events.
Dave:
And if you've been unsure about SMS marketing, maybe this conversation will open you up to its potential. Well friend, today's guest is Nicholas Jackson. He's the head of information services at the main library of the Parsippany Library System in New Jersey. Now for Nicholas, information services is an all encompassing term that has to do with the adult population. That means things like programming, technology, collections, books, ebooks, media, and the library of things program where people can borrow things such as tools, hotspots, Chromebooks, tabletop games, sewing machines, and more.
Dave:
Additionally, Nicholas also oversees marketing and PR. Now the challenge, of course, is getting the word out about all the great things the Parsippany Library has to offer their community, particularly as people's habits have shifted. Let's pick up the conversation there.
Nicholas:
The library has always been a space and a place for people to congregate and do a myriad of things and activities. But when people don't feel comfortable spending a lot of time or coming out anymore, that changes how they use the library. And, there's so manylike one of your previous podcasts, there are so many high quality, free events and programs out there, especially everybody pivoted online, so you can Google so many things, which is fine and dandy. I mean, I do that myself. But to make people aware that, yes, the library is here.
Nicholas:
The library is for everyone. The library does have a library of things. A lot of people who even come in on a daily basis, when somehow that comes up in conversation, they're like, I didn't know that. Or people come and study, and they, oh, I didn't know that. Or, when I speak to members of the community, business or otherwise, a lot of people say, I didn't know that.
Nicholas:
So how do we communicate that to people? And so that's where marketing is really important.
Dave:
Do you have a background in marketing at all?
Nicholas:
I do not. You know, libraries and librarians do many things very well. You know, I think this is changing in the education of librarians, but that has not been stressed in the education of a librarian And that's what my director and I, we've learned that we have been learning on the job, and Constant Contact, among other tools, have been very helpful in helping us do marketing better.
Dave:
Yeah. Well, what would you say then iswhat do you find most challenging about marketing then?
Nicholas:
Creating the right graphic or, I'm gonna say, advertisement. How much information demographics and usage, What flyers used to look like is rather overwhelming. It's a lot. It's probably too much, and you're losing people. So wanting to find the optimal amount of information and, you know, get people to stop and pay attention.
Nicholas:
So that is probably one of the stumbling blocks that not having a background in marketing and PR and color theory, etcetera, etcetera.
Dave:
Do you do anything in terms of trying to overcome that challenge then? Like, are there particular avenues that you're looking for in terms of helping you with that?
Nicholas:
Finding things on the Internet.
Dave:
Yeah. Okay.
Nicholas:
You know, your podcast in particular and others, books, of course.
Dave:
I was gonna say, I feel like there's probably somewhere nearby that you could probably
Nicholas:
Yeah. A library. Imagine that. All the free you know, in additional free, high quality resources, the library. So, yes.
Nicholas:
And some of it is, of course, trial and error. We do use Canva. And what's great about Constant Contact does have Canva built in, and we also do have a, subscription to that as well. And so some of it's been trial and error taking what we've learned from the books or, you know, Harvard Business Review or podcasts.
Dave:
Nicholas, I love to hear that you're using the Canva integration. Lots of people are aware of Canva, and I'm always like, hey. Do you know about the integration between and they're like, what? So I love that you're taking advantage of that. Maybe we'll talk a little bit more about that in a little bit.
Dave:
But I wanna know something from you, Nicholas. What do you love most about your role today?
Nicholas:
Connecting with people. Even so one of a customer I've gotten to know, and they came in. They're like, oh, I'm so glad I ran into you. I was hoping to see you. And I helped them find books on stoicism a few weeks ago.
Nicholas:
And, you know, I was a philosophy major and so, and I do have a second master's in literature, so I'm very familiar with this. So I rattled off and they took and they came back and they loved it. And then today, they're like, oh, Virginia Woolf to the lighthouse. I'm like, you're gonna love it. And so we went to the shelf and and we got it and they were just so happy.
Nicholas:
And it's about people. People come to the library to do things, but that's your role to help. Even when I go out into community, connect with people just to share like, Hello. The library is for you. Did you know the library had x, y, and z?
Nicholas:
And, it's wonderful to be like, Woah. You have ebooks. You have all your ebooks. You have streaming. You have museum passes.
Nicholas:
You can go to museum pass for you can go to museum for free. You can borrow a metal detector for free. That's one of the best parts of, what I do on a daily basis.
Dave:
Alright. So I'm gonna have to ask you for a book recommendation here. So my wife is, very much into the stoicism as well. So Oh. What's your, I would say, most recent book recommendation for,
Nicholas:
I mean, of course, I love you go to the masters in that. You go to Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, Epictetus' Discourse, Seneca's Letters, those are good as well. And there's also, fiction. There's also a novel mid-twentieth century. The author's escaping me, but Memoirs of Hadrian.
Nicholas:
And so, that's a novel in the sense of a genre, a fiction approach to, the philosophy.
Dave:
I have to check that one out. Alright. So what does a typical day look like for you at the library?
Nicholas:
Typical. There there is no, you know, it's cliches that there's no typical day. Right? So it's it's interesting. I do a manager, so, you know, I do have staff, full time and part time staff that report to me and they have various, responsibilities in the library.
Nicholas:
We also do have information services desk where people call, come in, email a myriad of questions from as simple as, how do I print this?' tax forms to, notary to, I got a new phone. I got a new smartphone. How do I get some of the library services onto it? Things of that nature or people coming in looking for a book. We have a large format printer.
Nicholas:
I had a local organization, one of the, arboretums come in today to print some large posters for an event they're having. So we have that reviewing requests, buying, purchasing materials, both physical and electronic, being interviewed on podcasts. You know? That's all in the day's work.
Dave:
Well, you mentioned you're a team you manage. Yes. Who's involved? Is it just you in the marketing? Is are there other people taking responsibilities there?
Nicholas:
So myself and my director, and then I also do have a colleague who is programming and PR. So we do part of the information services team is that, and we do work closely, myself and my colleague. We share an office space. You know, my director is always accessible. She's wonderful, and she, you know, is a big believer in outside the box, going beyond the library.
Nicholas:
The library has such high quality, great free resources and just you have to tell people, you know, we just have to shout it from the rooftop, mountainside. So, yes, so there's 2 to 3 of us depending on the day.
Dave:
So how do you I wanna understand your your process and kind of workflow a little bit here. Right? So how do you are you all meeting, and are you setting goals for the library, for example, for the year? Like, how do you think through that process? And then what specifically are you responsible for in that?
Nicholas:
Right. Okay. Thank you. Yes. So we do.
Nicholas:
We look at what we would like to highlight. We do create marketing campaigns for different initiatives. A good example of this is going to be when the Principia Library went fine free. So, for all of our materials, if you return late, there is no fine, and this is based on many different large public libraries across the country going fine free even before the pandemic, New York Public being 1, and they had seen a great surge increase because the fines are barriers to people. We're punishing people for life getting in the way, and maybe, you know, and it adds up if you have to check out you know, I have a little one myself, and so I check out lots of books.
Nicholas:
And you check out lots of books and you're 1, 2 days late, that can rack up in some places. And so, 5, $10 could be a lot. And so why are we standing in people's way like that? And, you know, it's embarrassing. It's To people, you feel shame, and we don't want that.
Nicholas:
The library's not about that. That's not what we're about. We want people to come in. We want people to access it. So, we sat down and for weeks and planned, you know, when we're gonna go find free, what is the graphics gonna look like, what are the marketing gonna look like, what's emails, What's social media posts?
Nicholas:
What's the message, verbal message, as well? So that was a team effort across the board and also communicating that with the managers, different department and staff in person, in meetings, and emails. So that was the big initiative in 2022. Kind of smaller scale, looking at what we have coming up in the next few weeks, what's doing well? Yoga is always popular.
Nicholas:
Arts and crafts programs are popular. But, what may have slipped through the cracks may, so say even just most recently, we sent out an advertisement, or and our newsletter is our power most powerful tool. We have over 17,000 people subscribed to it with a click rate of over 40%, and so a program on cutting the cord. And we looked and the registration was okay, but, you know, this is important information and I think we'd resonate with people. So we crafted a, a graphic and an email, and we sent it out, and it filled up, and then people are asking, Alright.
Nicholas:
I see it's full, and we then we just, you know, we change the parameters because we have the space and, you know, yes, of course, you can come. Not a problem. So that's really excellent. Even another one, we worked with the Woman's Club of Parsippany on a program regarding women and Alzheimer's, and we had 55 people registered and 50 people came, and that tells us what the community is interested in as well. And so that helps us fine tune our events and programming for the future.
Nicholas:
So, it's a combination of, is it large across our local system because we do have the 3 locations? Is it like Parsippany Library Initiative, or is it something that's happening at the main library or the Mount Tabor branch? And we use Constant Contact. We do have the data, so we can parcel out if someone from the main library ZIP code area or somebody from Mount Tabor's ZIP code area. And so, then we can send separate emails to those or those community members.
Nicholas:
And something else is really nice. We have a local artist illustrator, Idel Rodriguez, and he does live in that community and, he's in constant contact to share with constituents that he has his art at that location and this location. He's going to do talks at both, and so that was really rewarding.
Dave:
Are there any specific goals? And when you think about this year, are there any things that are kind of, like, top priorities for you now? So, like, are you, like, we wanna make sure we have x amount of people at events or, like, I guess, what does that look like for you?
Nicholas:
Sure. I mean, of course, we we hope to have, you know, we hope, of course, people will come, but using last year's data and then this year's data, especially seeing what people are interested in and Constant Contact and other tools help us with that. And so, yes, we do have goals for 2024. We're gonna be introducing a movie streaming service that it's called Shamaroon, and it's for mostly films made in India, in Hindi, in Gujarati. Side note, Parsippany does have a very large Indian diaspora population community, Over 30%, according to the census, of our population is Asian, and what that means is primarily Indian descent, And so Hindi and Gujarati are are spoken at home and, well, you hear it in people in the library, etcetera.
Nicholas:
So that is a, initiative we're gonna be working on very soon. We're getting that set up. So, you know, we're working on those goals to send that out. And then, also, one of the reasons we came to Constant Contact is we're seeing people were registering for programs, but not necessarily coming. I understand life gets in the way, but, some presenters do a gratus, but some people do make a living presenting, especially, say, we have local artists who are doing arts and crafts programs or things of that nature, and there's a wait, you know, say in say arts for a painting program, we have 15 people, then then we have a wait list, and if, you know, 15 people said they're gonna come and only 10 show up, that mean we could have let 5 5 people come in, etcetera.
Nicholas:
So, anyway, Constant Contact, we found that you have SMS capabilities and reminders So we were thinking one day, the management team, okay, we sent an email. But, honestly, I mean, are you really looking at your email that much? And what do your doctor's office do? They text you the day of, the night, night before, a few hours before, and we're like, All right. Why can't we do that?
Nicholas:
And so we found Constant Contact. We do. So now, when people sign up, we ask them to share that information if they want to get a reminder, and we use Constant Contact to schedule a text reminder about an event or a program the day of. And so a few hours before, you know, a reminder when you've signed up for x, y, and z, we'll see you at 7 PM. And so that helps that does help drive attendance.
Nicholas:
Either remind people, oh, yeah. I have that, or I can't make it. Let me say I can't make it, and then that opens up spots for other people.
Dave:
I love that. I saw that you were using SMS and, you know, one of my questions, like, well, how are you doing that? And so I love that you're using that for that type of use case because I I think that's the interesting thing about SMS. I think we immediately default to people, particularly if you're in the business world. Right?
Dave:
It might be a little bit different here in your case, but I think you often default to that idea of, like, oh, they're you're just gonna send information about, like, a sale or something like like that happening. But I think the real power that comes in with with SMS is things like you're saying, like the timeliness and the relevance of what's happening in that moment, and you've got somebody that's gonna look at that device right away and and see that message. So I love to hear that you're actually seeing that help get attendance up for you. Are you using it in any other ways, I'm curious?
Nicholas:
Currently, that is the only method we're we're using it as, because that's when people sign up for the newsletter, we do ask that ask information when they sign up for a library card. We do ask them if we can have that and send them, and we're currently just using SMS to remind people about events and programs they signed up for. We floated we floated the idea of potentially doing more, but we wanna because I don't know if it's been a full calendar year, I don't think so, of doing that yet. So we want people to be in the be familiar that the library is sending them text message about something they've set signed up for.
Dave:
I think you got a great use case there. I I I don't think it's necessarily about doing too much with it. I think using it at the right moments is what's really important because then you get people that appreciate it versus being like, ugh. Right? And so I think that's great.
Dave:
So keep up the great work there. I'm curious just in terms of getting through this idea of, like, alright. These are the things that we have to do. These are the things we need to get the word out about, and there's follow-up and all of that. How are you working through the process of just getting things done?
Dave:
Like, are you right. I guess, the question is, like, how do you find time to do the marketing? Right? Are you setting time in your calendar? Do you have regular meetings?
Dave:
Like, what does that look like?
Nicholas:
Thank you for asking clarity. You know, if it's important you make the time, it's a priority. It's been a priority for my director since day 1. She's been here a little over 3 years. I've been here over 2 and a half and that's why we're such a great team and why I think we're both here is that that's goal of the library that the world is different and it's not built that they will come anymore.
Nicholas:
And the library does have so much, which is good, but then also it is daunting. So, you do have to choose wisely what information you want to convey to people, but through the day, yes, to make meetings. Meetings are challenging since we are a public facing organization, and we were only ever working from home in the very, very beginning, 1st 2, 3 months, then after that. Come June of 2020, we're back in the building. I was at a different library at that time, but in our consortium, we were then all back in the building doing curbside and then opened up as we could.
Nicholas:
And so, people have been back in the building for a long time at this point. So, anyway, long story short, So, FaceTime is getting you know, even though I I see, you know, we do when we absolutely, you know, of course, touch base on a daily basis, some emails, but I use Google Calendar to to daily. We also use contact when people sign up for library cards. So you ask, can we, you know, send you an email? And so I pull that information, use constant contact, send a welcome email to everyone who got a library card that past week.
Nicholas:
I do have tasks, and so, some things like meetings happen, you know, when we can. Some things I just, you know, build into my daily schedule and, make sure these things get done.
Dave:
Do you automate that welcome email?
Nicholas:
We have the template that Const contact designed for us and that we use consistently. We use that template for everything. Because I have to pull the data from a separate system, and then I just have to upload it. I I don't really have to do much massaging with it. So I just pull the data and upload it into a new a new list, and then I do, like, automate the schedule.
Nicholas:
But, some of the data needs to be manually put in and but, like, the SMS reminders or other the newsletters say, We'll do a Saturday highlight newsletter. We'll automate that for 9 o'clock in the morning. Same thing for Sunday, a whole library email will be scheduled to go out in the morning and then same thing, highlighting different programs once or so week, choosing times to send those out.
Dave:
So I'm curious. I wanna get into some more specific things with constant Contact or Admit. But I wanna talk a little bit of because it seems like you're doing a good job. Like, who's are you involved with social media at all? And tell me about what you're doing there.
Nicholas:
Yes. So, people like seeing people. So highlighting the staff, customers, public community love seeing members of the staff and they'll comment that like, oh, they're they're so they're so great. They're so nice, which is wonderful. I mean, that's true.
Nicholas:
Our our staff is excellent. Also, programs. So we had, an arts and crafts program, so highlighting that. I mean, that'll also be informing people, Oh, library does that. Okay.
Nicholas:
I want to look for that. I want to do that next time. The women's club, generously donated to the library this week and we did have a photo op with them and so they'll share and then we'll we'll reshare that. And so, we do use some graphics on social media, you know, but I do try to go with the age twenty rule that most people like seeing people and especially images, and sometimes videos are appropriate. Like, we have a cookbook club, and they meet once a month.
Nicholas:
They do bring food that they made, and so somebody was arranging their things on toast, and so I took a short little video with some music and posted that, and, people enjoy that. So, yes.
Dave:
Is there a particular channel that you find works really well for the library at all? Or
Nicholas:
Yeah. It depends. Instagram and Facebook, the demographics of the user are similar, but a certain things, reels, videos are better on Instagram, and Facebook's good for photos and some more information. We do have TikTok as well. I see some of my fellow libraries across the country do really funny, interesting, cool things.
Nicholas:
I'm really glad they're able to. The time, it's always a matter of question of time, as you asked before. How do you get this done? Sometimes you don't want to do it off the cuff. You want to make sure it's high quality because everything the library you want to provide is, you know, high quality information and resources.
Nicholas:
So it's not something you can just do on the fly. So, TikTok, we're there, but not as consistent as I would like to be. That would be cool to have some more fun. Trending now is like a a fight scene
Dave:
Yeah.
Nicholas:
On TikTok, and I see a lot of libraries, you know, one one being, like, ebook, first book, and what have you. So that'd be really cool. It's just, you know, at this moment, a question of time.
Dave:
Yeah. One of the things I like that you're doing is that I know you have, like so your Insta, for example, includes a link within the profile that leads to your newsletter sign up and all of that. And I'm I'm curious, which I think is great. I mean, we're often recommending to people that, like, look. Social is cool.
Dave:
It's great for the engagement and, you know, awareness and things like that. But, ultimately, like, you wanna have control of those contacts. Right, and so that you have the people that you're connecting with directly. I'm curious before we even get into usage, but what brought you to Constant Contact? Was this something that you helped decide on choosing?
Dave:
Or
Nicholas:
Yes. We had a different service, but, at a manager's meeting, we were talking we you know, there was a an example, you know, a painting program that had that was full. And once again, I understand it's relatively free program, and I understand life gets in the way, but say only half the people showed up, and there was a waiting list, and that it's unfortunate that happened because if we knew, maybe we've gotten gotten to those other people. And we're like, how can we remind people in a more timely manner? Because, yes, the system that we use for people to sign up will send an email 24 hours ahead of time.
Nicholas:
But, as you know, we do you one can get a lot of emails and maybe you miss it, but most people do have a smartphone on them at all times, and a text message will come up right then and there, and someone someone suggested, Is there any way to text? And so I was like, All right. Let me look into this. And so I'm doing some research, connected with Constant Contact, and the rest is history. And I was like, alright.
Nicholas:
Wonderful. You have that. And then demoed, really liked the back end so much more, just the flexibility in the templates and what we could do with it and connect it to other things like social media if, need be. And that's how we got there. And, you know, I sort of made the case and presented my director.
Nicholas:
I was, you know, this is the way we should go because of x, y, and z. And that's what we did.
Dave:
Excellent. So what do you like most about Constant Contact now that you're kind of in there using it and doing those things?
Nicholas:
It is easy. It's usable. The support of, your colleagues is excellent. Any questions or concerns? Also, financially, you know, especially prepay, we can, you know, I think we prepaid for 12 months and 30% off, and so that helps.
Nicholas:
The add on of the SMS feature is relatively quite affordable for the amount that we send. You know, it's just we're one of the larger libraries. We do have lots of programs, and, still, what I think we get 500 a month and I don't think we even break a 100 text message per month. And then, importing the data is very easy, then same thing like exporting if, we need to want to pull the information. If I want to send a different, I may have like the emails for all the program in constant contact and say I wanna send a different kind of email, like a more, like, I wanna say more personal.
Nicholas:
I'll pull it out, and I'll, like, I'll use I'll use a work email.
Dave:
So, you know, you mentioned earlier how you were talking about, you know, there's different groups of people interested in different things. And I and one of the things that you seem to be doing really well within your account is thinking through the different lists that you might have. And so talk me through that. Like, how are you managing your contacts while they're in Constant Contact?
Nicholas:
Yeah. So when people are signing us, so really cool, innovative program we're we're doing is, we have a reading party. You know, it's not a book club. Come, you bring your own literature. You're gonna bring your own book, and we do it in, one section of the library.
Nicholas:
We dim the lights. We have music. We have lamps. We have coffee. We move all of our comfy furniture, and people just come and read for over an hour, and then you chat with your neighbor and make a new friend.
Nicholas:
And we've only seen it grow this past week was the 3rd time in the 29 people, which is really cool. So I have that list. So when people sign up for a program, okay, they agree to us to have the information. Okay. So I have our general.
Nicholas:
This is an adult program, so I have an adult list, but then you signed up for the reading party. So, therefore, I have my reading party list. And so for each time, we do ask people to register and what's nice is maybe the person didn't register for the next one because they already registered for past one or they forgot or whatever reason. So now I'm developing this list for 50 contacts. And so then we're able to remind everyone who signed up, who has been interested in that, Alright.
Nicholas:
Guess what? This is coming up again, and so that's really awesome that I have these these segments of like, say, take yoga. Everybody signs up for yoga. Alright? And a reminder, yoga is gonna be x, y, and z.
Nicholas:
And so more often than not, people are like, thank you so much for the reminder. That's great. You know, really appreciated that. So that's really awesome about Constant Contact or different like, look, I'm gonna say ZIP codes of of the township, for lack of a better word. But if there's something going on at Lake Hiawatha branch, there's a program, like one of the local banks we're working with, and they're providing programming on identity theft, say, something coming up.
Nicholas:
So then I'm able to get everyone who lives in that ZIP code area, create a wonderful newsletter with inviting graphic and pertinent information, then link to the website and send it to that segment of population. Because, as I said, when we're a rather large town, and on a good day, it could take up to 15 minutes to travel from where I am to that branch. So people may not you may not want to travel, may not be able to. I mean, you may get off of work and, you know, after dinner then to trek across town. In addition, that's why we still do hybrid or virtual because at the end of the day, you know, you may not wanna get at your PJs, So we understand.
Dave:
You mentioned consistency in relation to TikTok earlier, and I think consistency is just one of those things in marketing in general that's really important. And so talk to me a little bit about when you think about frequency and how you're kind of approaching what you're doing with newsletters and things like do you have, like, a regular newsletter, and then you have more, I guess, one off emails? Like, talk me through that.
Nicholas:
Yes. Absolutely. So, yes, when I joined, and we've been consistent with a Sunday newsletter. And so that's our general newsletter. There's for adults, and then there's a children's teen newsletter.
Nicholas:
And so, fast forward, when we switched to cons of contact and we're thinking about consistency, we wanted all of our graphics for everything to be consistently the same size. And so what's great about using Canva is you can you create a graphic, and so you have your flyer sized dimensions, you have your you have your Instagram size, then you have your banner, you have your website, etc, etc. So creating a graphic, and so the graphic for that program, whatever that is, program, event, service, is the same for every channel you're putting it on, whether you're putting it in your newsletter, you're putting it on Facebook and Instagram, you're putting it on your website. So, using that, having it inviting, that's one of the great things about Canva is you search, you use a template, so creating the templates. And, so it's consistent, the who, what, when, where, when, kind of what, and branding, making sure our logo is on everything as well.
Nicholas:
So flyer, banner, even though it is in our newsletter, Of course, it is the newsletter from Parsippany Library, but our, logo on everything well, so consistent in branding. And so you also asked about one offs, so, gonna rabbit hole on kind of 2 things. So
Dave:
Sure.
Nicholas:
Things that are consistent, say, our monthly book clubs, cookbookclub, evening, sci fi, that has a consistent look. So regardless of the book or the activity you're doing, the flyer, the banner for the newsletter looks the same. It's just different information than who, what, when, and where. The one offs, then that's where, you know, maybe a little more creative or a little different. So, I mentioned cutting the cord.
Nicholas:
So, you know, I found a picture of a, you know, in Canada, a picture of a TV and and retro look. It looked fun. So, using that. So those, but once again, just being consistent in what information you put on it and branding and some things that happen often, having a look to them, branding the book clubs or the reading party that there's the same graphic and information all the time. And then, you know, for things that you're doing intermittently or probably once in a year, you may not do that program again.
Nicholas:
That's okay.
Dave:
Do you have a favorite feature within Constant Contact?
Nicholas:
I mean, the SMS. That's really good. Even in building the newsletter, because then also I realized potentially I'm not sure if it's your part, anyway, where I found the information, but also then realizing accessibility and that I have the, yes, we do have the graphics and the images, but then also there's the widgets for a field or a box where there's an image, but there's also text and that and then where you you put the link here as well. So that's very useful because I I've realized that we need to be more aware of accessibility and that some of our content may not be currently, but using those those widgets, a Constant Contact tab and building the newsletter to do that.
Dave:
You've been using the program for a couple of years now. What would be your number one tip for someone in a similar position as yourself getting started with Constant Contact?
Nicholas:
Because that we find our newsletter is the most powerful advertising, marketing, PR tool. So we started we noticed this when we did an author talk back in 2022 and that over 40% we asked. We asked when people signed up, How'd you find out? And over 40% they said the newsletter. We realized, wow, we need to make the newsletter inviting, helpful, friendly, all those good things.
Nicholas:
And so, it's also on the heels when we pivoted to constant contact but also have the ability for people to subscribe on every point of your website. You know, have it and I'm not saying like screaming on the bottom but have that consistently through all of your pages. Ask when you engage with people, Would you like to sign up for a newsletter? We send it out once, twice a week, and that's what we we hear back from people. People, they're like, oh, you know, somebody was in the other day, and they're like, I haven't been here in years, but I get your newsletter.
Nicholas:
Really need stuff going on. Well, I'm like, well, I hope you come to that. So it's interesting that people subscribe to it, but, they like seeing it, which I thought was funny. But also the SMS, like, ask people for that information because you can also do more with it. You know, yes.
Nicholas:
We are a library, a governmental nonprofit, And at the moment, our focus for that is reminding people that you signed up for this, and we hope to see you and to kind of do have people come to building because that's one way since we're a space and a place to once they're in, it's a little little easier to share all the other good stuff that we have. So, I mean, those those are some great aspects of it. Also, what we do is what's nice is constant contact for the past newsletters. There's a permanent link. So we put those on our website as well where, oh, here's the previous month or two's newsletter as well.
Nicholas:
So that's a nice feature, and that's also what we do on our website for the newsletter.
Dave:
When you think about when you started with us to where you are today, I guess the question would be, what would it be like to do what you do without Constant Contact?
Nicholas:
I don't think we'd be able to do it, especially the SMS feature. That that that was not a that wasn't I I don't think it's an option. Very few other services have that. And or if they do, they don't work with institutions like us, once again, being a nonprofit governmental organization, very different than many other types of institutions looking for these services. Most of them are, of course, businesses.
Nicholas:
At the end of the day, I don't, of course, one doesn't necessarily need to justify, you know, the bottom line. The bottom line is not dollars per se. Of course, we wanna be very cognizant of that, use everything wisely and to the best of our ability. What drives us is a little different, but, anyway, we couldn't do it. Even the way the newsletter looks and feels and the easiness of subscribing, the the landing page, the constant contact offers, Long story short, Dave, we wouldn't be doing what we're doing now.
Dave:
Well, friend, let's recap some items from that discussion. Number 1, take advantage of SMS marketing. When someone receives a text message, you can be pretty sure that they're going to look at it. And that's why Nicholas uses SMS marketing to send event reminders to increase attendance. These messages are timely and relevant to the people receiving them and instrumental in making sure that more people show up.
Dave:
So how can you add SMS to your marketing mix? Number 2, make time for marketing. Now there's a bit of a theme developing when it comes to getting things done in marketing. Nicholas agrees that if it's important to you, you take the time. So remember, consistent marketing keeps your business or organization top of mind and allows you to influence more actions that are impact checking things off the marketing to do list.
Dave:
Number 3, show your people. Social media lends itself to showing people. This includes your staff and your community. As Nicholas has learned, people engage more with images of other people. So don't be afraid to show people having a blast at your events or with your products.
Dave:
Invoke that fear of missing out to inspire people toward taking those next steps with your organization. So here's your action item for today. Set aside 30 minutes for marketing. I want you to mark your calendar for dedicated marketing time. Then I want you to take a look at the resources in the show notes.
Dave:
Find something there that piques your interest and use this time to learn more about how you can implement it for your organization. I hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Be A Marketer podcast. If you have questions or feedback, I'd love to hear from you. You can email me directly at dave.charestconstantcontact.com. If you did enjoy today's episode, please take a moment to leave us a review.
Dave:
Your honest feedback will help other small business marketers like yourself find the show. Well, friend, I hope you enjoy the rest of your day and continued success to you and your business.