Elevating customer onboarding: Constant Contact’s journey with personalized video

"With SundaySky, customers can watch a 60-second personalized video on their phone late at night or on the weekend and take immediate action."

Missie Dunham
Senior Director of Customer Success, Constant Contact

Constant Contact has long been a trusted partner for small businesses and nonprofits looking to simplify their marketing. With tools for email, social media, and automation, the technology platform empowers busy owners to connect with their customers. But for new users, getting started can be daunting.

Missie Dunham,Senior Director of Customer Success, is responsible for ensuring those customers find their footing quickly. Her mission is to help every new user hit what she calls the “aha moment”—the first successful campaign that proves the value of the platform and sets them on the path to long-term engagement.

“Our role is all about helping new customers get started quickly and hit that first ‘aha’ moment so that they can stay engaged with us over time. For us at Constant Contact, that ‘aha’ moment usually comes when a customer creates and sends their very first campaign… that’s the momentum to drive retention. To get them there faster, we partnered with SundaySky.”

The challenge

Constant Contact’s customers largely consist of small business owners. So, their journey begins with limited time and plenty of competing responsibilities. Many are marketing novices, while others have experience but different goals or skill levels. Traditional onboarding resources, while comprehensive, often left customers overwhelmed or disengaged.

“In the SMB onboarding world, we tend to see three major common friction points,” Dunham explained.“That first one is that getting started can be overwhelming. The second one tends to be time scarcity… Then the third one is one-size-fits-all just doesn’t fit when it comes to content.”

These challenges often meant customers stalled before reaching their first time to value. Without early wins, retention suffered.

The turning point

Dunham’s belief in the power of personalized video began years earlier, when she received a tailored video as an E*Trade customer. The video displayed her name, her investment numbers, and growth over time—all visualized in a simple, engaging way.

“If a financial company like E*Trade—one of the most highly regulated industries—could deliver that kind of personal experience in video, then any of us can,” she recalled.“That was the first moment that I realized just how powerful personalized videos could be in transforming the customer experience.”

When she saw SundaySky’s platform, the opportunity was clear: use data-driven video personalization to give each customer a tailored, human-feeling experience at scale.

The solution: SundaySky

SundaySky enabled Constant Contact to create onboarding videos that adapt to each customer’s plan, goals, and behaviors. Rather than producing multiple static tutorials, Dunham’s team could now buildmodular videos that adjust in real time.

Her team started small, focusing only on the most common friction points like logging in, uploading contacts, or sending a first email.“The best tip I have ever been given and I share as well, is don’t boil the ocean. Start with one very specific cohort or ICP and identify the needs for that person… those became our anchor points for personalized video.”

For example, a new user interested in social media might receive a short video walking them through connecting their accounts. Another focused on email marketing would see instructions on uploading contacts and sending their first newsletter.

“With SundaySky, they can watch a 60-second personalized video on their phone late at night or on the weekend and take immediate action,” Dunham said.“Even if you’ve never created video, [SundaySky] has templates… We just added scene rules. If Salesforce says they expressed interest in social and they haven’t set it up yet, play this scene. If they have already set it up, then play the other. Incredibly easy.”

The simplicity of the platform meant her team could produce polished, branded videos in under an hour without video specialists or outside agencies.

Personalized journeys in action

The impact of personalization comes to life in the details. In one onboarding sequence, Constant Contact delivers two nearly identical videos, yet one greets a customer who hasn’t connected their social accounts with clear “how-to” steps, while the other congratulates a user who already has, and nudges them toward integrations. See below:

Version 1

Version 2

This ability toacknowledge prior actions makes customers feel recognized and guided, not just instructed.“We call it different flavors of the same video. And the creation process was kindergarten simple.” Dunham said

Personalization also extended across regions and skill levels. For U.S. customers, narration and tone were tailored to local expectations, while Australian customers received a different voice and pace. Non-technical users were provided calm, clickable guidance to help them log in, while experienced marketers received faster-paced, quick-start tips. See below:

U.S. audience

Australian audience

By layering these dimensions—geography, plan type, goals, device, and behavior—Constant Contact crafted journeys that feel bespoke, yet scalable.

Measuring success

With onboarding, the most important metric for Dunham’s team istime to value: how quickly customers take meaningful action after signing up.

“For us, we want to see it in 24 hours, certainly in seven to ten days… That first time to value is critical.”

But the team tracks more than just speed. They monitor video engagement, for example, are customers watching all the way through, rewinding at tricky steps, or dropping off? They look at retention—are video-engaged customers more likely to remain beyond the high-risk 30, 60, and 90-day marks? They also measure adoption of advanced features such as automation and integrations, and whether video nudges trigger those behaviors.

Building buy-in

Like any innovation, personalized video required convincing others internally. Dunham started small, running pilot programs within her customer success team.

“When we were able to purchase a handful of licenses just for us and get our first two to three videos up and running, and people saw the value… it told this incredible story in a way that every other department went, okay, you have my attention.”

By tying the program directly to retention KPIs and demonstrating early results, Dunham secured support from leadership and sparked interest across product, marketing, and sales.

Surprising outcomes

Beyond the expected improvements in onboarding, Constant Contact discovered two pleasant surprises.

First, completion rates were far higher than anticipated. By keeping videos under three minutes and scenes under 15 seconds, customers not only clicked play but often watched nearly to the end.“By keeping it kindergarten simple, what we found is most of our customers watched it almost all the way through,” Dunham noted.

Second, the videos shaped powerful first impressions.“When their first interaction with us is this personalized video, our customers genuinely feel welcome and guided. They don’t feel like one of thousands of customers. That completely changes how they approach those next steps in their partnership with us.”

Looking ahead

Constant Contact sees personalized video not just as an onboarding tool, but as a foundation for the entire customer journey.

Future plans includefeature adoption campaigns, personalized renewal videos, celebratory milestones, and industry-specific learning paths. Dunham is especially excited about combining SundaySky with AI to create dynamic, one-to-one experiences:

“How incredible would it be if you watched a video that was your mini QBR that talked about your ROI, your stats, instead of being limited to human-led QBRs? What if we sent it to thousands of customers automatically, all the time?”

She also sees potential in SundaySky’sAmplify solution, enabling CSMs to send semi-custom videos to individual accounts.“There are some incredible things there that we haven’t even scratched the surface of,” she said.

Conclusion

For Constant Contact, SundaySky has turned onboarding from a friction-filled hurdle into a welcoming, personalized journey. By guiding customers toward their first win quickly and confidently, the company strengthens retention and deepens loyalty.

What began as a way to simplify tutorials has become a strategic shift in how Constant Contact builds relationships with small businesses, showing that personalization at scale can make even the busiest customers feel seen, supported, and successful.

Take the next step

Constant Contact’s story shows how personalized video can simplify onboarding, accelerate time-to-value, and build stronger customer relationships.

Watch the full on-demand webinar with Constant Contact’s Missie Dunham to hear the complete discussion with all her insights.

Or, if you’re ready to explore what personalized video could do for your own customer journey,schedule a demo with SundaySky today.

“The best tip I have ever been given is ‘don’t boil the ocean.’ Start with one specific cohort… and identify the needs for that person. Those became our anchor points for personalized video.”
Missie Dunham
Senior Director of Customer Success

Personalized videos. Business sized impact.

For Customer Success leaders seeking to elevate their digital engagement, Constant Contact’s video journey offers a compelling blueprint to deliver a personalized and scalable customer experience. Schedule a demo to see how SundaySky can transform your customer experience and your bottom line.

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