Constant Contact and MarketMeSuite: a better solution through integration

In the world of software development, integrating with a public API from a well-known, respected company can give you a quick and easy way to add new functionality, build a stronger product, and attract the attention of potential customers.

That was the experience MarketMeSuite had when they integrated their social media engagement suite with the Constant Contact API. MarketMeSuite is the leading social media management dashboard for small and mid-size businesses. Their web-based platform allows businesses to manage and monitor their social media presence, find targeted leads and build engagement with new and existing customers. In addition to providing existing customers a new solution that was greater than the sum of its parts, MarketMeSuite was also able to use its partnership with Constant Contact to introduce this new solution to hundreds of thousands of Constant Contact customers.

Constant Contact and MarketMeSuite: A better solution through integration

The MarketMeSuite integration creates customer value by allowing them to make the most use of their existing marketing assets and messages. While many businesses deploy their email marketing campaigns once and then never use them again, MarketMeSuite’s integrated solution makes it easy for companies to reuse email marketing campaign content multiple times by sharing them with customers on social media.

As a result, the MarketMeSuite solution provides businesses with a readily available source of new content to increase engagement with customers over social media. At the same time, it also lets businesses extend the life of their existing email campaign assets, while extending the reach of that content to a whole new audience.

The solution allows businesses to access and re-share content directly from their Constant Contact accounts , making it easy for them to get the most value possible from their existing assets. By repurposing content across two different platforms—social media and email—businesses are able to drive better marketing results while also saving time and money by cutting down on rework. The MarketMeSuite solution is just one example of how a company can drive better results for its customers by integrating with the Constant Contact API.

Building the solution

Constant Contact strives to offer its integration partners a streamlined development experience through the Constant Contact API, which is free and publicly available. The Constant Contact API offered MarketMeSuite a variety of different API endpoints to help them build a solution that met their goals for the integration.

Here’s a brief overview of the API endpoints MarketMeSuite used to make their Constant Contact integration a success:

• Email Campaign Collections: The MarketMeSuite developers used this endpoint to create a list of email campaigns that could be reused as part of the integration. Since the goal of the new tool was to repurpose campaign assets that had already been used previously, the team benefited from this API’s ability to filter campaigns by status, allowing them to limit their list to the email campaigns that had already been sent out.
• Individual Email Campaign: This API call requests information about a specific email campaign from the list assembled by the Email Campaign Collections API, and then returns the permalink URL of the webpage version of the campaign, which can then be shared over social media, extending its reach beyond the original distribution.
  
• MyLibrary File Collection: The team used this API to access users’ libraries of previously uploaded images used in their various marketing campaigns. The images are then made available for companies to share on social media. Social media content with images is more likely to attract attention, and the MarketMeSuite integration gives companies an easy way to get images for their social media content by reusing the images they already own.
  
• EventSpot Events Collection: This API allowed the team to assemble a list of all upcoming events, and then push the URLs of the event landing and registration pages for selected events to social media, where customers can spot the event and register to attend.
• Promo Code Collection: This API helped the team make event sharing even easier by automatically retrieving coupons associated with a particular event, including information about the overall value of the coupons. Promo codes increase the likelihood that a customer will take notice of an event and choose to attend.
  

The MarketMeSuite team was impressed by the full suite of developer tools and information available on their Developer Portal at developer.constantcontact.com, including easy-to-understand documentation, an integrated API tester, and a responsive support team. All of these factors, combined with high-quality RESTful APIs, helped the team complete the entire integration in less than one month, an amazing feat considering it was the first project of its kind the company had ever attempted.

Support every step of the way

Constant Contact didn’t simply offer MarketMeSuite the API endpoints and then leave them to develop the integrated solution on their own; the Constant Contact API Support team also provided ongoing assistance for the MarketMeSuite team, using their knowledge and experience with the API to offer best practices and warnings about potential issues.

According to Alan Hamlyn, Chief Technology Officer of MarketMeSuite, the collaboration and support offered by the Constant Contact team was a big part of what made the integration such a positive experience.

“Working with Constant Contact’s team continues to be a truly great experience,” said Alan. “In fact, we now consider many of them colleagues and friends. We received support across departments and found the team to be both easy to work with, and incredibly generous with their time and knowledge. Our integration and partnership is a quantum leap forward in fulfilling our mission to ensure small business success on social media.”

Together, the technical ease of use and the hands-on support offered by Constant Contact create an integration experience that is unmatched by any other technology vendor.

After their initial integration with Constant Contact, the MarketMeSuite team hopes to continue connecting with Constant Contact, taking advantage of new additions to the API as they are introduced. Through this ongoing partnership, they hope to make their social engagement solution progressively stronger and more useful for customers.

Customer use case: Snapology

Snapology is an educational resources company that uses the integrated Constant Contact/MarketMeSuite solution to better reach its customers over social media. The company has praised the new solution for the ease and simplicity it brings to the social media marketing process.

“I used to have six windows open at all times, switching back and forth between social media and Constant Contact. With the new solution, I can consolidate everything into one window! Now, I finally feel like I can sleep at night.” – Christine Napierkowski, co-owner, Snapology

About MarketMeSuite

MarketMeSuite, the leading social media management dashboard for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), is a web-based platform that allows businesses to manage and monitor their social media presence, find targeted leads and build engagement with new and existing customers.

Launched in 2009, MarketMeSuite is a unique end-to-end social media solution, providing a platform for SMBs to engage, manage, curate and measure the ROI of their social marketing activity. The company’s proprietary, cloud-based software enables SMBs to harness the power of social media on a scale that rivals larger enterprises by turning Twitter feeds, Facebook and LinkedIn posts into qualified sales leads.

Why integrate with Constant Contact?

If you want to help your company build a stronger solution and attract new customers just like MarketMeSuite did, Constant Contact can help. Becoming an official Constant Contact technology partner allows you to join forces with the leading provider of small business marketing solutions. We understand small businesses and nonprofits, and how to help them succeed with online marketing, including email marketing, event marketing, online surveys, social campaigns, local deals, and digital storefronts.

In addition, we have the unparalleled brand reach to help you get more publicity for your applications and integrations. All completed apps and integrations can be added to our online Marketplace, and all partners have access to our Marketing Resource Center.

Take the next step

To learn more about integrating with the Constant Contact API, or to get started, visit developer.constantcontact.com. Once your integration is complete, apply to become a partner at constantcontact.com/partners/technology.