Tillis stays in Constant Contact

State Rep. Thom Tillis has souped up his e-mail newsletter.

In his regular life, the Huntersville Republican is a management consultant for IBM, so he was a little disappointed at the options for a standard legislative newsletter when he was elected last year.

Tillis shopped around, and now uses a program called Constant Contact. It tracks how many people open the e-mail and how many of them clicked to links for more information on certain subjects.

He's learned that about 36 percent of his contacts read the newsletter, and he has a pretty good sense of what topics interest them. It also tracks which e-mail addresses blocked the newsletter, so he can narrow his list down.

Tillis said he's surprised the software isn't more popular among his colleagues.

"The problem is how long people are in office," he said. "They're not necessarily inclined to make the investment in technology the way you might in business."