Be a Marketer with Dave Charest – Details, episodes & analysis

Building a successful business takes grit, determination, and a commitment to your vision. 

For Maria Miranda, founder and creative director of Miranda Creative, that journey began in 1988 with a simple yet powerful belief: work should be about respect, creativity, and client value.

In this episode of the Be a Marketer podcast, Maria and host Dave Charest pull back the curtain on 35 years of experience, sharing the lessons learned and strategies honed along the way. Maria discusses how she built a thriving agency by focusing on authentic connections, organic content, and the enduring power of email marketing. "Little effort, little impact, big effort, big impact," she shares, emphasizing the importance of meaningful engagement and a long-term perspective.

Tune in to hear how Maria empowers her team, embraces a community-driven approach, and navigates the dynamic world of marketing with intention and purpose.

Additional Resources:

• Help overview: The Email Details page in Constant Contact
• Create and manage contact lists in Constant Contact 
• Professional Services from Constant Contact 
• Constant Contact Partner Agency Directory

Meet Today’s Guest: Maria Miranda of Miranda Creative

☕ What she does: Maria is the founder and creative director of Miranda Creative, a brand management firm based in Norwich, Connecticut. For over 35 years, she has provided comprehensive marketing services to businesses. Maria was named the 2024 Small Business Person of the Year: Connecticut by the Small Business Administration. She holds a B.F.A. in graphic design/marketing from the University of Connecticut.

💡 Key quote: "Your email list is the only audience you actually own."

👋 Where to find her: LinkedIn

👋 Where to find Miranda Creative: Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube |  LinkedIn 

If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions.

Want to grow your community and attract more subscribers on social media or LinkedIn?💡

In episode 68 of the Be a Marketer podcast, Dave Charest, director of small business success at Constant Contact, and Kelsi Carter, the team’s brand production coordinator, share their insights on how storytelling can help you capture your audience's attention. 

They also answer a question from the marketing and artist manager of the Gregangelo Museum, a Constant Contact customer since 2005, about key highlights and perks that can attract subscribers and grow their community. 

Tune in wherever you get your podcasts to hear how storytelling and personal experiences can set your marketing apart in the age of AI.

👉 Are you a Constant Contact customer with a burning marketing question? Go here for a chance to have your question featured in an upcoming episode.

Resources:

• Check out the New Customer Hub 
• Listen to #45 - Building Trust Through Stories with Brad Sundberg 

If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions.

Are you part of a nonprofit and want to use SMS but aren’t sure how or even if it would be beneficial for your organization? On this episode, Dave Charest, director of small business success at Constant Contact, and Kelsi Carter, the team’s brand production coordinator, talk you through it.

Listen in to hear how to: 

• Maximize Event Attendance: Learn how you can boost event attendance through SMS reminders, like Nicholas at the Parsippany Library.
• Provide Timely Updates for All Audiences:  Delivering timely and relevant information via SMS to various stakeholders such as volunteers, donors, the community, vendors, etc. is a powerful tool.
• Engage with SMS: Delve into the different strategies for using SMS marketing, from recruiting volunteers, coordinating volunteer activities, engaging members, and sending renewal reminders to educational outreach. 

Resources:

• How to Use SMS for Nonprofits
• Get Started with SMS
• Add the SMS marketing add-on to your Constant Contact email plan

👉 Are you a Constant Contact customer with a burning marketing question? Go here for a chance to have your question featured in an upcoming episode.

If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions

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.  

👉 Get started with SMS marketing in Constant Contact.  

Additional Resources:

• Insert Canva images into your Constant Contact campaigns
• Get started with SMS marketing in Constant Contact
• Creating accessible emails with Constant Contact

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.”

👋 Where to find him: LinkedIn

👋 Where to find Parsippany Public Library: Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | TikTok

If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions.

Do you want to know when someone signs up for your email list? On this episode, Dave Charest, director of small business success at Constant Contact, and Kelsi Carter, the team’s brand production coordinator, talk you through it.

This week on the Be A Marketer podcast, learn how to be notified when someone subscribes to your email list so you can keep track of your list's growth. Also, Kelsi shares some exciting news about how she’s going to be a duck mom of three. 

Listen in to hear how to: 

• Use the Constant Contact mobile app to create emails, social posts, manage your contacts, and track new subscribers.
• Check your Constant Contact reports to see how well your list is growing and where people are coming from, providing insight as to how you can make improvements moving forward.
• Set up email notifications for new contacts and unsubscribes to focus on your contact list growth. 

Resources:

• Receive email updates when contacts opt-in or unsubscribe in Constant Contact
• An overview of Constant Contact's mobile app
• Creative Ways to Grow Your Email List

Are you a Constant Contact customer with a burning marketing question? Go here for a chance to have your question featured in an upcoming episode. 

If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions

Despite being a newspaper, the Osprey Observer effectively utilizes digital tools like email marketing and social media. The key to running a successful local paper, for Marie, is being deeply involved in and committed to the local community. Her team focuses on covering local good news and events, and the relationships they build with local advertisers and readers.

"We laser focus on what we do. We provide customer service. We try to provide all the best services for our small businesses, and we just have to stay laser-focused," Marie explains. 

Being a part of the community and engaging in local events has helped create a strong brand for the Osprey Observer.

Listen to Marie share valuable insights on embracing the local community, the power of good news, and leveraging digital tools for better engagement, with host Dave Charest, director of small business success at Constant Contact.

👉 Are you a Constant Contact customer with a burning marketing question? Go here for a chance to have your question featured in an upcoming episode.

Resources:

• Get Marie Gilmore’s FREE Kindle book: Open for Business! Now what? 
• Find your local chamber of commerce 
• A/B test an email subject line with Constant Contact

Meet Today’s Guest: Marie Gilmore from Osprey Observer

📰 What she does: Marie is the Managing Editor and Publisher for Osprey Observer, which started as a newsletter and now has grown into four local editions, covering the areas of southeast Hillsborough County.

💡 Key quote: “We all live and work in this community. That’s who we need to support.” - Marie

👋 Where to find her: LinkedIn 

👋 Where to find Osprey Observer: Website | Instagram | Facebook

If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions.

Thinking about importing purchased contacts into your Constant Contact account? In this episode, Dave Charest, director of small business success at Constant Contact, and Kelsi Carter, the team’s brand production coordinator, discuss why you should avoid importing purchased contacts into your account and how to grow your email list organically.

Listen in to hear how/why: 

• Email marketing is permission-based and importing purchased contacts is not recommended due to regulations, ethics, and effectiveness.
• Purchased contact lists can damage a business's reputation and sender status, and are against Constant Contact's terms of service.
• Organic list building is the best approach to email marketing, using sign-up tools and offering incentives to attract subscribers.
• The success of email marketing depends on the quality of the contact list and the relevance of the content.
• Constant Contact provides various tools to collect email addresses and grow lists organically.

Resources:

• Why Your Business Can’t Afford to Use Purchased Email Lists
• Constant Contact’s email permission policy
• Email Sign-Up Tools to Help You Grow Your List and Your Business

Are you a Constant Contact customer with a burning marketing question? Go here for a chance to have your question featured in an upcoming episode. 

If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions.

Identifying and understanding who your key customers are is a crucial part of marketing for Clif Johnson, especially if you’re targeting diverse audiences like professionals and consumers. 

"You really have to put on kind of two marketing hats. You have to understand the needs of both of those customers and really be able to cater to them in order to effectively market to them,” says Clif.

Once you know your audience, you can start providing them with targeted content with the help of segmentation to enhance marketing efforts.

And while initial sales are important, repeat sales indicate effective relationship management.

On this episode, Clif and host Dave Charest, director of small business success at Constant Contact, dive into the importance of understanding key customers, repeat business, and the role of Constant Contact in their marketing.

👉 Are you a Constant Contact customer with a burning marketing question? Go here for a chance to have your question featured in an upcoming episode.

Resources:

• Top Ecommerce Integrations to Help You Sell More
• Create and manage contact lists
• Create a segment of contact by choosing specific criteria

Meet Today’s Guest: Clif Johnson from Pablo Designs

⚡What he does: Clif is the Director of Global Sales and Marketing at Pablo Designs. Pablo Designs is a manufacturer and distributor of interior lighting that challenges traditional design metaphors. Their mission is to create designs that deepen the relationship between objects, their users, and their environment.

💡 Key quote: “Storytelling sells and engages far better than numbers on a spreadsheet. You can have the best product in the world, but if you're not telling a story around it…you're going to not only lose people's attention, but in many cases, you're probably going to bore them to tears.”

👋 Where to find him: LinkedIn 

👋 Where to find Pablo Designs: Website | Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn

If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions.

Wondering how ‌nonprofit organizations can use email marketing effectively? In this episode, Dave Charest, director of small business success at Constant Contact, welcomes Kelsi Carter, the team’s new brand production coordinator. They go on to discuss the importance of storytelling, segmentation, and frequency in email marketing. 

Listen in to hear how why: 

• Storytelling and inclusivity are crucial in nonprofit marketing and why you must focus on the impact of donors' support.
• Segmentation and automation are vital for sending relevant content and improving engagement.
• You should optimize emails for mobile viewing, as many people check emails on their phones.
• Sending emails at least twice a month with limited content (three sections beyond the intro) for easy scanning, may be best for you.
• Prioritizing and acting on one thing at a time is key to getting things done.

Resources:

• Top 7 Nonprofit Marketing Integrations to Increase Engagement
• Achieve your marketing goals with Constant Contact's integrations
• _zapier Constant Contact Integrations

Are you a Constant Contact customer with a burning marketing question? Go here for a chance to have your question featured in an upcoming episode. 

If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions.

For Corissa Saint Laurent, building relationships, understanding your audience, and leveraging email marketing are key ingredients for success.

And when it comes to growing along with your business, it’s all about focusing on activities that align with your skills and passions while delegating tasks that fall outside your expertise.

"The goal should be to get to a place where you use your time doing the things you should be doing. Avoid the things that aren't in your skillset or that you're not passionate about," says Corissa. 

On this episode, Corissa and host Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, delve into the art of building relationships, understanding your audience, and the significance of marketing in connecting with customers. 

👉 Are you a Constant Contact customer with a burning marketing question? Go here for a chance to have your question featured in an upcoming episode.

Resources:

• 2024 Online Marketing Calendar: Template and Marketing Holidays

Meet Today’s Guest: Corissa Saint Laurent, speaker, podcaster, and retreat leader

🎧  What she does: Corissa is a professional speaker, podcaster, and retreat leader. She not only helps businesses grow, but she also helps its people grow along with it. As host of The Everyday Mystic, she delivers practical spiritual guidance for a life of greater meaning, higher purpose, and true joy.

💡 Key quote: “The more you can provide value to your customers, build those relationships, and ultimately build loyalty. Those people become promotional agents for you. They're talking about you to others.”

👋 Where to find her: Website | Podcast | LinkedIn | Instagram

If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to ratethispodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions.