Constant Contact is offering a great deal when you sign up for Email Marketing in May!

Your first month can be as low as 99 Cents with 500 or fewer contacts.  If you have more than 500 contacts, you get 94% off the standard rate for the first month.

Yes – not a typo – 94%!

Sign up today and enter the promotion code MAYEMMLE to take advantage of this offer.

The 2012 Get Down To Business event is coming to Minneapolis next Tues. May 22!

There’s so much on tap this year:

• Engagement Marketing
• An Intro to SaveLocal
• Expert Panel: How to Find That Next Great Client or Customer
• Networking
• Partner Pavilion

and much more!

I’m pleased to have been asked to sit on the expert panel this year!  I hope to see you there!

This is a FREE event and designed specifically for YOU, the small business owner and entrepreneur.

Register today!

On Friday, I received the email from Constant Contact notifying me that I earned the 2011 Constant Contact All-Star Award.  This is the third year in a row that Constant Contact has chosen to recognize my work.  I’m excited and humbled at the same time.

Here’s a copy of the press release information:

2011 CTCT All Star PressRelease

Mary Albright, Can Do Virtual Assisting

 Named One of Constant Contact’s 2011 All Stars 

Can Do Virtual Assisting recognized for achieving exemplary marketing results 

Blaine, MN — March 16, 2012 – Mary Albright of Can Do Virtual Assisting has received the 2011 All Star Award from Constant Contact^®, Inc., the trusted marketing advisor to more than half a million small organizations worldwide. Each year, a select group of Constant Contact customers are honored with the All Star Award for their exemplary marketing results. Can Do Virtual Assisting’s results ranked among the top 10% of Constant Contact’s customer base.

“I am happy to be recognized by Constant Contact for achieving strong marketing results. Constant Contact’s tools have helped me help my clients in the following specific ways to better manage customer/ constituent relationships and engagement.”

Constant Contact customers using any combination of the company’s Email Marketing, Event Marketing, and Online Survey tools are eligible for this award. Constant Contact looked at the following criteria to select this year’s All Stars:

• Frequency of campaigns, events, and surveys
• Open, bounce, and click-through rates
• Event registration rates
• Survey completion rates
• Use of social features
• Use of mailing list sign-up tools

“There is nothing we like more than to see our customers finding success. It’s the reason Constant Contact was founded, and it’s a thrill to see the fantastic results that our All Stars are achieving,” said Gail Goodman, CEO of Constant Contact. “This group is really leading the charge when it comes to delivering relevant, engaging content that drives real business results. We salute this year’s All Stars for their success, and are honored to have played a part in their achievements.”

About Mary Albright and Can Do Virtual Assisting
Mary is a virtual assistant and the owner of Can Do Virtual Assisting.  She supports small business owners and entrepreneurs administratively across the board so they can focus on what they love to do and what they do best, so they can grow their businesses.  Mary is also an Authorized Local Expert with Constant Contact, providing free educational workshops in the Twin Cities area on email marketing and social media.

About Constant Contact, Inc.

Constant Contact is revolutionizing the success formula for small organizations through affordable, easy-to-use Engagement Marketing^TM tools that help create and grow customer relationships. More than half a million small businesses, nonprofits, and associations worldwide rely on Constant Contact to drive ongoing customer dialogs through email marketing, social media marketing, event marketing, and online surveys. All Constant Contact products come with unrivaled KnowHow, education, and free coaching with a personal touch, including award-winning customer support.

Constant Contact and the Constant Contact Logo are registered trademarks of Constant Contact, Inc. All Constant Contact product names and other brand names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Constant Contact, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.

Media Contact:

Mary Albright
Can Do Virtual Assisting
763.634.1536

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I had the opportunity to test drive Constant Contact’s new tool, Social Campaigns.

In a nutshell, this is a tool that helps you create a custom landing page for your Facebook Business Page so you can engage more with your existing fans and to help you attract more fans for your business.

Wouldn’t it be great to give a free download, a coupon or something else to your Facebook followers on your Business Page?

Wouldn’t it be great if it looked professionally awesome? And didn’t cost you an arm and a leg to do it?

Wouldn’t it be great if it was customizable with your business colors, logo and branding?

Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to speak HTML or any other web language that you don’t have time to learn because you’re too busy running your business?

Shouldn’t the answer to all of those questions be, “Heck, yeah!”?

Social Campaigns is a fantastic tool that does all of the above for you  - the small business owner.

I gave this tool a trial run for two of my Facebook Business Pages – Can Do Virtual Assisting and a Disney travel one that I’ve since closed down.  For each one, I chose to give away a free download.  (Each was hosted with Constant Contact’s MyLibraryPlus, but you could easily host it on a hidden area of your own website if you chose to.)

For Can Do Virtual Assisting, it was a document on ways virtual assistants can support small business owners.  On the Disney one, it was the Top 10 Ways Adults Can Have Fun At Walt Disney World.

The cool part is that both new and existing fans could access the download.  Fans were also offered the chance to join my newsletter list to receive updates.

Your Social Campaign runs the length that you choose.  Once it’s done, a default landing page is put in its place.  Don’t worry!  You can customize this one as well!

What about reporting?

Well, the cool part if you can see how many new fans you garnered during the promotion as well as how many fans decided to join your email list. It gives you some great metrics to see how well the campaign works for your business.

I’ve already got some great ideas for one of my clients and I need to ponder my own future ideas as well.

As always, you can try out this tool for FREE!

AND, if you sign up for Social Campaigns before April 30, you can lock in future pricing past your trial period at 50% off.  So even if you aren’t sure how much you plan to use Social Campaigns, sign up for it now so you can lock in the introductory deal.

Need more information? 

There are videos for the visual learner and downloads for the reader. Check out all the details and give it a try.

If you decide to give it a try, be sure to post a comment here and share your Facebook Page so we can all look at your Social Campaign!

Can’t wait to see what you decide to do with your Social Campaign!

One of the cool things about being a VA is that you get to use lots of different kinds of tool with different clients.

One of my clients was looking for a way to sign contracts more efficiently with customers.  Our process before was:

• Create contract
• Email to client
• Client prints out contract
• Client signs contract
• Client faxes it back, or scans it in and emails it in
• Client sends in payment

It’s a little cumbersome.

Enter DocuSign.

The cool part is you can upload your contract, decide who is going to get the contract and then you can set up the areas where you and your clients can initial and/or sign wherever you need, in as many places as you need.

Once you are done, DocuSign sends an email in the sequence you choose.  That means if there are multiple signatories and you need to things signed in order (eg John needs to sign before Sally who needs to sign before Fred)…well, you can do that.   Or if it doesn’t matter who signs first, it can do that as well.

When you get the email, DocuSign prompts you to set up your electronic signature.  It gives you several different handwriting choices to select from and assign to yourself.  Then you go through the document, DocuSigning only your areas.

After everyone has signed, DocuSign saves it and then sends everyone an email with a link to the fully signed document, ready to download as a PDF.

It’s slicker than slick.

So if you are looking for a tool that can help you streamline your contract or other document signing, check out DocuSign and see what you think!

I really never was one to pick a word of the year.  I thought, “Should I be doing this? What’s it going to do for me?”

As I read my peers statements on discussion boards and such, they were choosing words like:

Focus
Joy
Direction
Peace
Transform

(There were more, but I won’t make a giant list just for the sake of making a giant list. )

All great words for the people who chose them. Not my thing.  But I’m not going to want to choose a word just because it’s being used by someone else either.

If I’m going to have a word, it has to mean something to me and I know I’m a strange duck.

My word…Vanguard.

Are there a lot of crickets chirping? Or a few of you that went, “Huh?”

Not exactly in the same category as the words I listed above.  Or even words that people use regularly, right?

If you look up the word “Vanguard” in the dictionary, here’s what you get:

van – guard [van-gahrd]

1. the foremost division or the front part of an army; advance guard; van.
2. the forefront in any movement, field, activity, or the like.
3. the leaders of any intellectual or political movement.
4. ( initial capital letter ) Rocketry . a U.S. three-stage,satellite-launching rocket, the first two stages powered by liquid-propellant engines and the third by a solid-propellant engine.

I love this word.

I do want to be in the front of the pack, blazing new trails and trying new things, both in business and in life.  When you are the first, you definitely have more risk, but you also have the first chance at success or reward that comes with it.

I’m totally a risk-taker.

This year, I’m spending more time to build my business as a Local Expert with Constant Contact.  It’s a new program that I already mentioned but if you want a recap, you can check here. But I was selected to be one of the first Local Experts in the program and I can’t wait to ramp this up.  But it is very new.  So new that there’s not a lot out there even from Constant Contact.  It’s on me to make this happen in the time frame I want it to happen.

I’m going to spend more time networking in person. 2011 was a successful year.  But that success came with a price and it was having less time to meet new people.   I’ve  had some success already, making a connection with so many possibilities, it would make my head spin if I thought about it too much.

I’m always looking forward. I like things that work, but if they can work better, let’s do it. I don’t subscribe to, “this is the way we’re going to do it because this is the way we’ve always done it.”

Being the first person to suggest a change, or take that risk, is not foreign to me.  I embrace it.

Vanguard.  Yep.  I can definitely say that is a word I’m on board with.

Most of my readers are familiar with the fact that I’m a Constant Contact Solution Provider.

I’m a big believer in “knowledge is power.” So when I saw I could take advantage of Constant Contact’s Experts Program, I did it. I figured it would be a great way to just reinforce what I know.  But it also gave me the ability to give some of their educational presentations. Kind of an added bonus.

I haven’t done much with it yet, but have had a great time working with their Regional Development Director in Minnesota, Jeff Ferrazzo.

Now in 2012, Constant Contact launched the Local Experts program.  It’s an invitation-only type thing and I’m humbled to have been invited to participate.

At this time, I’m presenting Power of Email Marketing – Leveraging Social Media and Social Media Made Simple workshops and seminars.  I’m super passionate about these topics and am excited to be able to spread the word on these topics and tools.

Stay tuned for further information as I begin to set up a schedule.

Let me know if you have questions!

Tell Me What You Think.

As we close out 2011 and look forward to 2012, I’m thinking about what I’m doing to do differently and what I’m going to strive for.

2011 was definitely successful.  I have a great set of clients with great relationships.  I’m working enough to make a decent income and balance family and community commitments.

I was fortunate enough to be recognized by my AssistU peers.  They nominated me as the 2011 AssistU VA Techie of the Year.  And though I wasn’t selected in the end, it was nice to be recognized.

I was humbled to be invited to the Small Business Day event sponsored by Constant Contact back in May not only to participate, but to be able to personally meet with Gail Goodwin, CEO of Constant Contact. Thanks to Jeff Ferrazzo, Regional Development Director for Constant Contact in Minnesota, for having me there.

I was fortunate to be referred a lot this year.  A big “Thank You!” especially to Mickey Mikeworth for thinking of me this year.  Rich Chicks rock.

But nothing’s perfect.

The last quarter of this year has been crazy busy. It’s challenging when you have two teenagers in all the stuff teenagers do, being active in the Civil Air Patrol and working a business.

Standards and boundaries are things that AssistU taught VAs to hold sacred.  And I’m guilty of breaking my own standards and boundaries.

One of my goals for 2012 is to hold fast to my business hours.  Officially, I work M-Th from 8am-2pm Central Time.  Fridays are days where I work my own business, run errands or just have time to decompress.

I invaded a lot of Fridays in 2011 for client work.   I hate loose ends.  I hate knowing stuff is waiting for me.   I have an excellent work ethic and I have a hard time leaving work for Monday.

But I need my Fridays to be mine so that I stay sane.

So I’m going to toe the line on Fridays going forward.

I’m off to a good start for January 6.  I won’t be in the office all day.  I’m speaking at a Small Business Symposium in Woodbury, MN on Email Marketing.

I’m also thinking about extending my knowledge of WordPress.  I haven’t narrowed down what I’m going to do or how I’m going to do that, but I have time to figure out what will work best.

And I know there will be some more opportunities with the local Constant Contact team.

2012 looks to be a big year for marketing.  One of my clients, Mike Otto from Fair and Square Remodeling, has a growing business and I’m pretty much running the marketing show.  Love love love our marketing plan.

I think the best thing I can do for my business in 2012 is just to stay on top of time management all the way around.  When I manage my time well, my clients will be happy, their businesses will thrive and I will be happy.

What about you?  What are you doing different for 2012?

I know I’ve been away from the blog for the whole 4th quarter so far.  Bad Mary!  Bad Mary!

I’m a big fan of sticking to your routine because once you are there, you are automatic.

So what’s been my problem?

Well, I’m pleased to say that business has been great!  So great that that’s the only reason I can come up with why I haven’t been keeping up with my blog.

My home remodeling client, Mike Otto of Fair and Square Remodeling, has been keeping me super busy.  We’ve been doing all kinds of process creation, process improvement and the usual scheduling, email marketing, social media marketing, etc.  And then there’s the unusual…the website being hacked. Thankfully, I found us a service to clean it quickly and then I was able to fix the rest of the it in short order.

I also have an attorney as a client, but I don’t do legal work for her.  She’s actually in the process of getting her PhD in another field and wants to be a professor in that new field.  So I’m researching for her and helping her with that process.

I still do a little consulting and email marketing for my education consulting client.

It may not sound like much, but it’s been pretty busy over here.

And now I find myself at the end of 2011 and that I need to re-focus and re-energize for 2012.

So…I’ve got some other events on the horizon and should have the details to share with you shortly.

Stick with me…I promise not to fall off the face of the earth again.

I’m SO excited.

Earlier today, I was the first trained Constant Contact Expert to return my paperwork to start presenting Constant Contact Seminars as part of a new pilot program.

My regular readers know that I’m a Constant Contact raving fan.  It’s a tool I’m totally passionate about because it makes such a difference for my business and the businesses of my clients who also use it.

Since I’m a trained Expert and an award winner, I’ve got that unique perspective to share with small business owners and entrepreneurs on how this all works.

I also just read an article that 47% of small business are not using social media. Since email marketing and social media go hand in hand, it means that there’s a knowledge gap that needs to be addressed.

I’m pleased – heck, I’m jazzed – to be able to offer the following topics:

• The Power of Email Marketing
• 3 Keys to Email Marketing
• Social Media Made Simple

Oh, and by the way…these seminars are FREE to attend.  That’s right – it costs you nothing to get this valuable knowledge.

I am based in the north Metro, but am available to give these seminars in the Greater Twin Cities Metro Area.

Are you a member of a networking or small business group?
I’d be happy to present at one of your meetings or set up a special seminar outside your normal meeting schedule.

Just want to attend a seminar?
Watch my blog for announcements.  You can also watch the local seminar page here on my website.  I’d also suggest subscribing to my monthly email newsletter list to stay on top of announcements.

Tell me what you think?

I’d love to hear your questions and comments.