I've had the privilege of working with the National Propane Gas Association for the past 10 months. NPGA hired Brady Lutsko Consulting to help market their annual conference and expo and build excitement about the event's move to a new host city. Scope included a new exhibitor prospectus, revamped conference brochure, and a series of 12 promotional email blasts. 

I'm thrilled to report record growth in attendance and exhibitor participation, per the below press release issued today.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Washington, D.C. (April 27, 2016) – The National Propane Gas Association today released figures for its 69th Southeastern Convention & International Propane Expo, which took place April 8–10, at Music City Center in Nashville. More than 4,100 individuals attended—breaking a previous record set in 2006 and resulting in the ninth consecutive increase. Attendance by propane marketers grew by more than 35 percent, while supplier participation increased by 22 percent, and the size of the exhibit hall expanded by 11 percent to 71,100 net sq. ft. Officials attribute the growth to the overall health of the propane fuels market, combined with the event taking place in a new host city, and an increased focus on marketing.
 
The annual event attracted participants from all 50 U.S. states, except Idaho, along with the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and 37 foreign countries and territories. Programing included a keynote presentation by Charles Esten, star of ABC’s Nashville, along with more than 40 education sessions, various networking events, and a new Leadership Forum presented by the Women in Propane Council.
 
The exhibit hall featured more than 240 exhibiting organizations—including over 50 vehicle/transporter displays. Highlights of the Expo included an Autogas Pavilion, focused on manufacturing products, processes, education tools, and services specific to the rapidly growing autogas market; as well as a New Products Showcase, presented in partnership with the Propane Education & Research Council, featuring emerging trends, new products, and cutting-edge technologies.
 
“We attended with the goal of educating ourselves on a few products,” said Adam Bluhm of Bluhm’s Gas Sales in Wyalusing, Pa. “We left the show with the knowledge of many more products and businesses, which we never knew existed, and networked with many wonderful people.”
 
“The 2016 NPGA conference in Nashville exceeded our expectations in every way,” added exhibitor Alexandra Hale, director of marketing for BASE Engineering in Saint John, New Brunswick. “As a long time exhibitor, we can safely say this was one of our best years at the show.”
 
Next year, NPGA’s Southeastern Convention & International Propane Expo returns to Nashville from April 21–23, 2017. The event moves back to its previous home of Atlanta in 2018 and 2019.
 
About NPGA
The National Propane Gas Association is the national trade association representing the U.S. propane industry. Our membership includes small businesses and large corporations engaged in the retail marketing of propane gas and appliances, producers and wholesalers of propane equipment, manufacturers and distributors of propane gas appliances and equipment, fabricators of propane gas cylinders and tanks, and propane transporters.
 
With a membership of approximately 2,800 companies in all 50 states, 38 affiliated state or regional associations, and members in 19 foreign countries, NPGA represents every segment of the propane industry. Find additional information at www.NPGA.org.

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By Brady Lutsko - Marketing Communications, Exhibit Management, and Trade Show Strategy Consultant

In my last post, I outlined "Three Shortcomings of Using Constant Contact for Email Marketing." Today, I offer a list of alternative email marketing services you may want to consider—including four rated as "excellent" by PC Magazine (in bold)—along with links to available reviews from PC Magazine and  Reviews.com:

1. Active Campaign (Reviews.com)
2. Benchmark (PCMag.com: good | Reviews.com)
3. Campaign Monitor (PCMag.com: good| Reviews.com)
4. Campaigner (PCMag.com: editor's choice)
5. Contactology
6. EmailBrain
7. FreshMail
8. GetResponse (PCMag.com: excellent | Reviews.com)
9. iContact (PCMag.com: excellent | Reviews.com)
10. MailChimp (PCMag.com: editor's choice | Reviews.com)

For more information, PC Magazine offers a roundup of the "The Best Email Marketing Software of 2015"--complete with a handy chart comparing 10 options. Reviews.com also offers a summary of "The Best Email Marketing Services", while CheapRevolution.com lists pros and cons, as well as pricing summaries for their "Top 7 Constant Contact Competitors"--both posts from November 2015.

BTW, PC Magazine's review of Constant Contact puts the ESP in the "good" category.

What is your preferred email service provider and why? Tell us in the comments section.

When considering which platform to use for sending and managing email marketing campaigns, there are seemingly unlimited options to consider. Although, based on my own inbox, I find that one of the most popular is Constant Contact.

Constant Contact certainly offers some nice features. It has a user-friendly interface, offers a variety of responsive templates that are mobile friendly, and has a flexible list management feature designed with small business marketing in mind. However, despite its popularity, I've found that Constant Contact lacks a few really important features--especially once your subscriber counts and message frequency begin to increase.

So, if the developers at Constant Contact are reading, here are some opportunities that I hope they'll soon address:
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1. No built-in A/B split testing feature.

A good marketer knows that testing email subject lines, design, and the call to action helps increase response rates. Unfortunately, this isn't a feature of Constant Contact and a manual workaround is required if you want to do A/B split testing on your campaigns.

Nobody's got time for that! This essential function needs to be an option in all email marketing software.

2. No subject line personalization.

Even without A/B testing, numerous statistics and my own experience show that incorporating the recipient's name or company name into your subject line increases open rates. However, Constant Contact considers this a practice of spammers and does not offer a feature to insert contact details into an email's subject line.

That's strike two against Constant Contact's ability to help improve open and click-thru rates.

3. Limited subscription management feature.

I advise all clients to follow the best practice of using a subscription management page to give those who opt-in an opportunity to control the types and/or frequency of messages they receive. For example, it's fairly common for industry associations to regularly send a member newsletter, monthly legislative updates, and occasional event information. Some subscribers may be interested in receiving the newsletter and legislative updates, but not the event information. Others may only be interested in event information, while a portion of your subscribers may want to receive all of your messages. Allowing subscribers to choose from categories of information will reduce the number of folks who unsubscribe because they're receiving too many or irrelevant emails.

Be sure to include a description of each content category, as well as the frequency you plan to send those types of messages (daily, weekly, monthly, no more than six times per year, etc.) on your subscription management page. Then, once you have your form in place, you can include a "manage subscriptions" link that precedes the "unsubscribe" option on each of your email messages.

Now here's the rub with Constant Contact: they use a subscription management form like I've described above for managing their own marketing list, but don't offer this as a feature that paying customers can incorporate into their own email marketing. Yes, you can use a subscription management form, but you cannot add descriptions or links to examples of the subscriptions options.

For those who only send one type of newsletter on a monthly or even weekly basis, this shouldn't be an issue. However, your subscriber base and message frequency increase, it may be time to start shopping for a new email service provider that offers the key features Constant Contact is missing.

Alternatives

Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh, as Constant Contact does offer many great features compared to the three I've found it's lacking. However, with so many providers to choose from, I'd rather start with one that has the functionality to grow as your needs do. Luckily, there are lots of other options out there.

I've had good experience using MailChimp, but I'll provide a list of more alternatives you may want to consider in my next post. In the meantime, feel free to use the comments section to me and your fellow email marketers who your preferred email service provider is and why.