craftsUprint Builds Digital Crafting Shopping Mall Using iContact

LONDON, October 31, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

- Email and Social Media Marketing Solutions Boost Online UK Retailer's Subscriber Size Thirtyfold

iContact, a leading email marketing and social media marketing company, today announced that craftsUprint is using iContact to increase traffic to its website, improve deliverability and increase subscriber list size. craftsUprint leads the UK market as one of the fastest growing arts and crafts websites offering thousands of downloadable craft projects and printables, tutorials, videos and forums to assist customers with crafting projects.  

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110413/CL82281LOGO-b )

With no physical storefront, craftsUprint's success is largely tied to how effectively it uses email marketing to drive traffic to its website. Just a few years ago, email deliverability rates were less than 50 percent, and sales were declining quickly. Looking to create and execute a solid email marketing strategy, craftsUprint heard about iContact's simple and easy-to-use solution for email and social media marketing, and abandoned its poorly performing in-house email marketing software.

Immediately after implementing iContact, craftsUprint noticed positive results, most importantly with better and more precise deliverability rates. craftsUprint has steadily grown its business and lists with iContact, moving from 8,000 to more than 70,000 subscribers in just two years. To continue to effectively reach customers and prospects, the craftsUprint team partnered with its iContact account manager to improve email templates, optimize subject lines and create a diverse email and social media marketing strategy. By integrating Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, craftsUprint has created a surround-sound approach to driving email response and website traffic.

"Prior to iContact we had to do batch emails," said Rob Jackson, managing director, craftsUprint. "Think about having 70,000 customers in the email base and having to send in batches of only 20. Now we can send more than one million emails per month. In two years, we have accumulated 65,000 more subscribers and add 60-70 new subscribers per day."

Over the past year alone, craftsUprint has realized tremendous results by improving its messages and integrating email and social media marketing. Working with its iContact account manager, the company learned to segment lists and establish a staggered sending plan, while expanding its server capacity. By making these changes, the online crafts retailer has secured an even, predictable flow of website traffic and sales. The site averages 2,500-3,000 unique visits each day from customers in the UK and around 1,000 unique visits per day from customers in countries such as the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, which reflects an upsurge of 120 percent in each of those areas.

"iContact takes the pain out of email marketing. As long as we have iContact managing our list, nothing can go wrong," said Jackson. "I know that the time we spend creating and adding new crafts to our website is worth it because our subscribers hear about the great changes we're making for them."

For more information, please visit http://www.icontact.com and follow iContact's blog.

About iContact

Headquartered in the United States with UK offices in London, iContact provides email and social media marketing software and services. More than one million users have signed up for an iContact account.  The company provides email marketing services via iContactPlus and social media marketing services via iConnect.  As part of its ongoing social mission, iContact is a B Corp and applies the 4-1s Corporate Social Responsibility Model, donating 1 percent from each of its payroll, equity, product, and employee time to its local and global communities. Visit us online at iContact.com, on Twitter @iContact, at our LinkedIn Group, and at our Facebook page.

For media inquiries, contact Davida Dinerman or Michael McDonough, Schwartz MSL, +1-781-684-0770, icontact@schwartzmsl.com.