Social media marketing has become the top priority for retail small businesses according to a survey cited by Doug Thompson.  52% of businesses indicated that social media was a very high or extremely high marketing priority, more than any other media channel.

Small businesses do have a competitive advantage in local marketing from their presence in the community and personal relationships with customers. Consumers view local businesses favorably and broadly believe that local businesses offer greater quality and customer service.

Constant Contact is helping small businesses leverage these traits and their existing email assets to reach both existing and new customers through social media. No additional work is needed and the choice to buy is made at the time the small business sends out an email to its customer list.

Constant Contact exports the email list to Facebook via Facebook Custom Audience and a post is generated using content from the email.  Facebook Custom Audience matches the email contacts with Facebook users so that existing customers are retargeted on Facebook.  Facebook can also take that audience list and find “lookalike” users that match the Custom Audience so that reach can be extended to potential new customers.

About 10,000 customers so far have elected to try the service and results have been good.  Constant Contact reports a click through rate for these local ads of 2.5% compared to a national average of 1.12% for all Facebook ads.

Simple and easy sells well and Constant Contact’s Automated Facebook Ads reach an area that is valued by small businesses and that should have broad appeal for its automation.