Rancho Cucamonga Redevelopment Agency Wins
Prestigious "Savvy Award" for its Email Newsletter

The City of Rancho Cucamonga Redevelopment Agency - located in Rancho Cucamonga, California - administers a variety of economic development, redevelopment, and housing-related programs that support businesses and residents in the City of Rancho Cucamonga. Established in 1981, the Agency has assisted in the elimination of blighted conditions resulting in the development of public facilities and affordable housing projects, improved infrastructure, and the creation of a strong local economy through business retention and attraction efforts.

The Agency uses Constant Contact to get its message out to a wide audience that includes the local business community, real estate brokers, developers, retailers, over 200 city employees, local/regional media and the general public. The Agency utilizes a variety of communication types including Business Advisories, Opportunity E-bulletins, and Announcements, each containing information targeted to specific segments of its audience.

"Since launching our e-mail marketing program with Constant Contact, we have received favorable comments from a wide variety of recipients, including local business owners, other public agencies, etc.," said Mike Nelson, Senior Redevelopment Analyst. "The media has also generated several stories based on articles from our FastTrack newsletter and our Business Advisories. This has helped us reach an even broader audience."

With Constant Contact, the Agency easily creates and delivers all of its email marketing publications including its flagship newsletter FastTrack. The FastTrack publication recently won 3CMA's prestigious "Savvy Award," earning the Rancho Cucamonga Redevelopment Agency the highest recognition that a city or county can receive in the area of public sector communications and marketing.

"FastTrack is fun to look at, easy to navigate and clearly aimed at specific markets," said 3CMA Judges. "It is a valuable tool for business in a growing community."

In addition to the "Savvy Award," the judges also selected FastTrack as the most outstanding city or county newsletter for 2003 and awarded it the esteemed "Ray Bancroft Award," recognizing the publication as the best of the best in all newsletter categories.

The Agency selects its email formats from among Constant Contact's more than 50 professional templates, then easily customizes them with their own unique look and graphics using Constant Contact's intuitive email wizard.

"We really like Constant Contact because it allows us to reach our audience quickly and conveniently, and in a medium that allows us to take full advantage of the power of the web including graphics, photos, interactive links, etc.," said Mike Nelson, Senior Redevelopment Analyst.

The Agency's colorful, HTML publications, complete with photos, graphics and short article lead-ins allow readers to swiftly scan the contents and select those items that interest them most.

The Agency doesn't send direct mail often, but when it has - even at bulk rates - they say it can get pretty expensive. "With Constant Contact we can easily send thousands of emails a year for the what it may cost to send a few hundred pieces just once via direct mail. When you think of the process that needs to take place to deliver a product by traditional mail (design, production, mailing, etc.) it can be very time consuming. Constant Contact is much easier and quicker."

"For a small-staffed Agency, utilizing Constant Contact allows us to better leverage our resources - in essence, to get more 'bang for our buck.'

We do print advertising throughout the year in various targeted industry publications, and even though the publications that we advertise in have specific audiences, we never really know who is reading our ads or advertorial content.

"One of the greatest benefits of using Constant Contact is the fact that we can actually "see" the results of our efforts. With Constant Contact's reports, we know how many people have read our e-mails (and when), we can get an idea of the types of information they are interested in most, and we can validate that we are reaching our intended audiences. You just can't do that with traditional advertising outlets such as print publications."

The Agency chose Constant Contact based on two primary considerations: pricing and features. "We liked the pricing structure and really liked the fact that we could take it on a "test drive" first. We also like the fact that we have the ability to fully administrate the process, and at the same time, don't have to worry about getting bogged down with the technical aspect of facilitating our efforts."

"Other companies offered variations of the types of services that Constant Contact provides, all at different prices. But in terms of an "overall package," we felt that Constant Contact delivered the best product for our dollar."

"I think, overall, we've only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to e-mail marketing, and we have found that it is becoming more popular every day. At the recent 3CMA conference - where we received our award - there were quite a few public agencies that were very interested in starting an e-mail program of their own, and wanted to know how we implemented ours."

"The bottom line for us is that Constant Contact is by far the most cost-effective, accountable, reliable, quick and convenient method for disseminating information to our recipients. With Constant Contact, even a small-staffed Agency can take full advantage of current technology and the power of the web to provide a valuable service to the community."