LOCAL SURVEY REVEALS WASHINGTON, DC SMALL BUSINESSES POSITIVE ON LOCAL ECONOMY, CUSTOMERS AND REDSKINS' COACH, JOE GIBBS

Regional Small Businesses Rate Various Aspects of Owning and Running a Business in the Washington, DC Area

Waltham, MA. - October 05, 2005

In a recent survey of Washington, DC area small and medium-sized businesses, nearly three-fourths (73 percent) of respondents pointed to the region's strong economy, community support or great customers as the top reason to own and run a business in the area. (See full results below*). The survey of more than 150 DC-area businesses was conducted by Constant Contact (www.constantcontact.com), the leading email marketing service for small businesses, associations and nonprofits.

Asked about their marketing preferences, 86 percent of survey respondents identified email marketing as an extremely or very important tool to help them market their business. When ranked against other marketing methods, email marketing was rated as the most valuable at 61 percent, followed by direct mail (16 percent) and online advertising (12 percent). Respondents viewed print advertising (7 percent) and radio (4 percent) as less valuable tools for marketing their businesses, with yellow page advertisements (1 percent) rated least valuable.

The survey also queried small and medium-sized business owners about the benefits of living in the DC area. Most often cited were educational opportunities (26 percent), local restaurants (23 percent), or community programs (22 percent). The music scene (12 percent), sports teams (9 percent), and theatre (8 percent) were also mentioned as the favorite reason to live and work in the DC area.

When asked which local civic or business leader they would choose to endorse their business, DC business owners gave top honors to Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes-Norton (29 percent) or DC Mayor Anthony Williams (25 percent). Former US Senator Fred Thompson, and the duo Don Geronimo and Mike O'Meara of the DC-based syndicated The Don & Mike Show radio program tied for third place at 18 percent.

DC-area small businesses were also asked which local sports and entertainment celebrities they would ask for an endorsement. Washington Redskins head coach Joe Gibbs was cited by nearly half of all respondents with 48 percent, followed by WRC-TV sports anchor George Michael (13 percent) and DC United soccer star Freddy Adu (12 percent).

For more information about the survey or for additional results, please contact Tom Francoeur at 781-388-7900 ext. 205, or by email at tfrancoeur@topazpartners.com

About Constant Contact
With over 40,000 customers and a recent winner of SmallBusinessComputing.com's "Excellence in Technology Award," Constant Contact® is the leading permission Do-It-Yourself Email Marketing® service for small and medium businesses (SMBs) and associations. Constant Contact is a Web-based email marketing solution that enables small organizations to easily create and send professional HTML email newsletters, promotions, announcements and more with no technical expertise required. Designed and priced for SMBs, Constant Contact is affordable, easy-to-use and includes a free 60-day trial at: www.constantcontact.com. The service is marketed through over 1,500 Business Partners and more than 100 marquee channel partners including American Express OPEN, AOL, Corel, FTD, IBM, Interland, Network Solutions, Register.com, Website Pros and Yahoo Search Marketing. Constant Contact is a founding member of the Email Service Provider Coalition (ESPC), a group formed to fight spam while protecting the delivery of legitimate email. Constant Contact is funded by Morgan Stanley Venture Partners, Commonwealth Capital Ventures, Longworth Venture Partners and Hudson Ventures. For more information, please call 781-472-8100.

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