iContact Expands Capabilities of iContact Social Tools

RALEIGH, N.C., July 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- iContact Corp., a leading email marketing and social media marketing company, today announced the latest version of their powerful Social Tools solution. iContact Social Tools give small- and medium-sized businesses a powerful and effective means to reach existing and new customers through social media channels – including Facebook and Twitter.

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"iContact empowers businesses to easily use social media marketing, get actionable and relevant information and continually improve their marketing campaigns for long-term business success," said Jeff Revoy, chief marketing and product officer at iContact.  "We strive to provide the right solutions so that small- and medium-sized businesses can grow and succeed."

"iContact's solutions have always been so user-friendly, and its Social Tools are no exception," said Vanessa Keyser, theater administrator, El Paso Playhouse.  "We have promoted every email sent this year with Social Tools, and it has helped increase our publicity and broaden our patron base. Thank you iContact for creating tools that help our business continue to grow."

According to the 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, social media is a primary tool for marketers, with 88 percent surveyed viewing it as critical for increasing their exposure.  iContact Social Tools allows businesses to capitalize on this opportunity by integrating emerging social media channels into any email campaign. Continually monitoring and measuring performance and impact helps identify the most effective channels.

iContact's Hub for Social Media and E-Mail Integration

The upgraded version of iContact Social Tools significantly builds upon the foundation iContact established earlier this year, when the company started blending email marketing and social media marketing into a single conversation focused on small business success.

While social media is focused on sharing content and engaging customers in interactive discussions, email marketing helps convert the results of those initial engagements and conversations into targeted campaigns and long-term customers. Marketers must learn the nuances of how to synch the two approaches to achieve a higher ROI. They also need to outline objectives and goals, and have quantitative tools on hand to gauge whether a campaign is yielding the desired results.

Following are a few of the expanded features and functionality for iContact Social Tools:

• Social Tools Tracking – Users can insert, edit and track Like and Tweet buttons in every message, for recipients to easily share with their friends, colleagues or followers on Facebook or Twitter. This feature splits up the tracking of Likes and Tweets by source so marketers can see how the numbers break down across viewers coming in from Facebook posts, Twitter posts, direct email recipients and other third-party sources.
• Facebook Like Buttons – Contacts can now "like" a vendor's emails from their inboxes to further extend their reach.
• Tweet Buttons – Users can add a tweet button and contacts can tweet from anywhere in the message.

Miami's Beacon Hotel has seen great success from using iContact Social Tools.  Chris Regalado, revenue manager, and his team use Facebook to encourage fans and previous guests to sign-up for its email list and take advantage of promotions for future visits.

"It is easy to share information with 'friends' on Facebook; we have found that people are more likely to click on a link if it comes from a trusted source, so our customers can help us extend our reach," said Regalado. "We have found that incorporating social media with email makes each approach more powerful, and helps us expand our marketing efforts and grow our brand awareness. iContact's Social Media tools are very straightforward to use, we can see great results in a short period of time."

About iContact

iContact is a purpose-driven company based in Raleigh, NC, working to make email marketing and social marketing easy so that small and midsized companies and causes can grow and succeed. Founded in 2003, iContact has more than 700,000 users of its leading email marketing software. iContact also provides the event marketing platform Ettend. As a B Corporation, iContact utilizes the 4-1s Corporate Social Responsibility Model, donating 1% of employee time to community volunteering, 1% of payroll, 1% of equity, and 1% of product to its local and global community as part of its social mission. iContact works hard to maintain a fun, creative, energetic, challenging, and community-oriented company culture. Visit us on online at iContact.com, on Twitter @iContact, at iContact LinkedIn Group and on our Facebook Fan page.

For media inquiries, contact Davida Dinerman or Michael McDonough, Schwartz Communications, at 781-684-0770, or [email protected].

SOURCE iContact Corp.