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iContact
SaaS B2B & B2C

iContact is an email marketing tool designed for small businesses.

icontact.com · Founded 2003 · 51 public sources · Updated about 2 months ago

Researched profile. Starter Story's AI research system compiled this page from 51 public sources — the founder didn't write it. Automated research can misread or misattribute a source, so treat figures as best-effort. How this works →

How iContact Grew

Email marketing platform for small businesses

How did iContact grow?

Summary of the sourced claims below

iContact grew through a combination of online advertising, search engine optimization, paid search, banner advertising, trade shows, and promotions. They also utilized a network of affiliates and resellers to add new users each month. Email marketing, including newsletters and autoresponders, helped scale sales rapidly due to having a good product. Additionally, offline methods such as distributing flyers and business cards contributed to acquiring their first customers.

Channels

18 channels · grouped by how iContact grows

  • Existing Tik Tok Content

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “As frequently as often as you can, put it at the point of sale. Put it at trade shows, figure out how to get the e-mail address for your prospects. Once you get that, then simply upload that list of contacts or automatically sync it through your sign up form list, and send a newsletter...”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “Search engine optimization”
    high

  • Word of mouth

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “And that’s word-of-mouth marketing is the best type of marketing you can get because it’s trusted, and it’s free.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “Word-of-mouth marketing is the best type of marketing you can get because it’s trusted, and it’s free.”
    high

  • Email marketing

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “… a little bit of email marketing, and you know, newsletters to follow up, some auto responder work, built a system, that because of having a good product that worked, enabled us to scale sales very rapidly.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “A little bit of email marketing, and you know, newsletters to follow up, some auto responder work, built a system, that because of having a good product that worked, enabled us to scale sales very rapidly.”
    high

  • Affiliate program

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “We certainly did a lot of work with affiliate marketing, paying a commission on each bottle to people that would promote them.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “We certainly did a lot of work with affiliate marketing, paying a commission on each bottle to people that would promote them.”
    high

  • Referral Program

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “We certainly did a lot of work with refer a friend programs, did a lot of work with a little bit of paid search, back when Overature was big, back in the day.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “We certainly did a lot of work with refer a friend programs.”
    high

  • Pay Per Click Advertising

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “We certainly did a lot of work with refer a friend programs, did a lot of work with a little bit of paid search, back when Overature was big, back in the day.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “Online advertising, search engine optimization, paid search, banner advertising, trade shows, promotions.”
    high

  • Search engine marketing

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “We certainly did a lot of work with refer a friend programs, did a lot of work with a little bit of paid search, back when Overature was big, back in the day.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “Did a lot of work with a little bit of paid search, back when Overature was big, back in the day.”
    high

  • Paid social ads

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “Well, we spend about a million and a half dollars a month on advertising, mainly through online advertising.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “Online advertising, search engine optimization, paid search, banner advertising, trade shows, promotions.”
    high

  • Offline advertising

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “Fliers at the laundromat and the City Hall, and putting them in mailboxes, and getting my first call on my own private landline that I got, from the Postmaster General, who asked for my mom, and told me off for putting these fliers in mailboxes, without putting the 29 cent stamps on them.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “Fliers at the laundromat and the City Hall, and putting them in mailboxes, and getting my first call on my own private landline that I got, from the Postmaster General, who asked for my mom, and told me off for putting these fliers in mailboxes, without putting the 29 cent stamps on them.”
    high

  • SEO

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “It was organic search engine optimization. This was 2001. It was extremely easy to get a website number one in Google, for really competitive terms, in 2001. And that was my specialty back then.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “It was organic search engine optimization. This was 2001. It was extremely easy to get a website number one in Google, for really competitive terms, in 2001. And that was my specialty back then.”
    high

  • SEO

    · 1 mention
    “It was organic search engine optimization. This was 2001. It was extremely easy to get a website number one in Google, for really competitive terms, in 2001. And that was my specialty back then.”
    high

  • Strategic partnerships

    · 1 mention
    “We got a network of 7,000 affiliates, 700 resellers, and we’re adding 20,000 new trials, new users a month...”
    high

  • Event marketing

    · 1 mention
    “Once you’ve already spent the dollar to get the person to visit your web site, it’s a great way to convert them into a customer, and a great way to turn that customer into a lifetime evangelizer.”
    high

  • Business cards

    · 1 mention
    “Fliers at the laundromat and the City Hall, and putting them in mailboxes, and getting my first call on my own private landline...That was how I got my first customer.”
    high

  • Facebook Community

    · 1 mention
    “Online advertising, search engine optimization, paid search, banner advertising, trade shows, promotions. It’s marketing, it’s advertising, you, e-mail is not a great way to get people to come, it’s not a great way to do acquisition marketing.”
    high

  • Twitter

    · 1 mention
    “Online advertising, search engine optimization, paid search, banner advertising, trade shows, promotions. It’s marketing, it’s advertising...”
    medium

  • Events

    · 1 mention
    “Online advertising, search engine optimization, paid search, banner advertising, trade shows, promotions.”
    high

  • Bubble community

    · 1 mention
    “Part of the initial growth was a mathematical model around customer acquisition, figuring out how much it costs to acquire a customer, on average, figuring out how much a customer pays us per month, figuring how many months they stayed with us, figuring out their lifetime value, and then doing a ...”
    high

How 3,222 businesses grow

Of businesses with mapped growth channels, the share using each — iContact’s highlighted.
  • Referral/Word-of-mouth
    64% ◀
  • Social media
    63% ◀
  • Search/SEO
    58% ◀
  • Email
    47% ◀
  • Community
    37% ◀
  • Content/Inbound
    35% ◀
  • Partnerships
    32% ◀
  • Events
    24% ◀
  • Paid ads
    23% ◀
  • Outbound/Sales
    19% ◀
  • Press/PR
    17%
  • Marketplaces/App stores
    12%
  • Podcasting
    4%
  • Influencer partnerships
    3%
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