Selecting the Appropriate Email Marketing Software: A Challenging Task Made Easier. How to Begin? Which One to Choose?
These are the most common queries that cross our minds while selecting email marketing software, and our answer is: it depends on your business's particular requirements. To narrow your search, you must know the features you require. Therefore, we've created a series of reviews for different email marketing software, starting with our Constant Contact review.
You may have encountered Constant Contact if you've been actively searching for email marketing software. Constant Contact intends to equip small business owners with the necessary tools to expand and dominate their industry, with over 650,000 users and numerous outstanding features.
We believe Constant Contact is an excellent email marketing software and deserves a 4 out of 5 stars rating. However, do you need further persuading? Our Constant Contact review delves into its features, updates, pricing, pros, and cons, assisting you in determining whether Constant Contact lives up to the hype.
What is Constant Contact?
A well-known email marketing software, Constant Contact, enables you to design and distribute personalized newsletters to your email list. Its primary objective is to assist businesses in engaging and maintaining communication with their customers. Read our Email Marketing to see our top list and have more options.
Background History
Constant Contact, initially named Roving Software, has been in existence for 25 years, established in 1995, and rebranded as Constant Contact in 2004. The company equips its users with tools to support their email marketing, social advertising, and event management campaigns, along with other resources required for successful campaigning.
Over time, Constant Contact has evolved and integrated new features such as a landing page creator, online survey conducting tools, and donation collecting tools. Constant Contact also aids businesses in acquiring new customers while retaining their existing ones. The software employs a drag and drop editor that streamlines the email creation process and offers modern, clean, mobile-friendly templates for added convenience.
Users can add their website URL and let the program incorporate the company's branding identity, such as their logo and color palette, into their newsletters. Additionally, users can store and segment their subscribers' contact information. The software's autoresponders are another excellent feature, triggered by a recipient's actions.
We have briefly discussed some of Constant Contact's features, but the best part is that it provides users with a plethora of personalized features that are unavailable elsewhere.
Who can Benefit from Using Constant Contact for their Email Marketing Needs?
Constant Contact is a user-friendly software that can be easily learned, even without any prior experience in email marketing. Users can easily dive into this program and take advantage of its numerous features.
Although anyone can use Constant Contact, we highly recommend it for Podcasters and Bloggers as it is the ideal email marketing software for their needs.
Offered Key Features
Let's now focus on the core of this Constant Contact review – its features. These features will play a vital role in deciding if Constant Contact is the perfect email marketing software for your needs.
Subscriber list
Constant Contact offers a variety of easy-to-use methods for adding contacts. You can copy and paste, manually enter addresses into a form, or upload CSV, TXT, XLS, or XLSX files. In addition, you can import from Gmail, Microsoft programs, and other CRM tools.
One great feature of Constant Contact is its ability to manage duplicate contacts. The software can merge duplicate contacts automatically, saving you time and hassle. Furthermore, Constant Contact can detect and remove disposable or “burner” email addresses like Mailinator.
To simplify tracking, users can assign tags to contacts and create segments based on location, preferences, and other data gathered from their contacts.
Creating of Campaign
Creating an email campaign with Constant Contact is effortless. Simply choose from Email, Email Automation, Event, or Survey, and you're good to go. You can sort campaigns by date or keywords and revisit them at any time in the Recents tab.
Additionally, Constant Contact's integrated campaign calendar allows you to schedule emails in advance based on holidays or other events.
Customizing your emails with Constant Contact's user-friendly drag and drop editor is a breeze. Simply choose a template and start editing! There's an abundance of templates to choose from, and you can edit text with Google fonts, colors, and images. You can also incorporate blog post previews and import PDFs, which are converted into interactive emails. Constant Contact's branded template builder enables you to add your brand's logo, color scheme, and social media links to all of your emails.
Moreover, you can store images in the media library, which has a 2GB storage limit and a maximum file size of 5MB. Additionally, users can access both free and paid stock images directly within the software.
Reporting and Tracking
Constant Contact's Reporting tab allows you to track the success of your emails or newsletters after they have been sent. The dashboard displays key metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, and unsubscribe rates. You can also see which subject lines generated the most engagement and how many people opened your email on desktop.
Constant Contact offers video tutorials to guide you through the tracking and reporting process, as well as provide helpful tips to understand your reports.
Additionally, Constant Contact has a mobile application that lets you view your campaign's performance on-the-go.
Email and Newsletters
Constant Contact offers various tools to help you gather and manage email subscribers. This includes creating forms for emails and newsletters, as well as landing pages and integrations with third-party services like OptinMonster, Facebook Lead Advertising, and Facebook Join My List App. With these tools, you can segment your customers based on how they signed up for your list.
It's important to note that Constant Contact requires verification that you have obtained consent from your subscribers before adding them to your list. Purchased lists and group addresses such as [email protected] or [email protected] are not allowed, as there is no way to guarantee that you have permission to send messages to those addresses.
Scheduling and Automation
Constant Contact offers a plethora of resources for email marketing, making it an exceptional service. It enables users to promptly contact their subscribers, and scheduled emails or newsletters can be sent once they have signed up. Additionally, follow-up actions can be taken at a later stage.
Constant Contact provides valuable insights into the recipients' behavior towards your emails through reports that specify whether the email was bounced, opened, or forwarded. This helps you plan your future emails and newsletters in a way that encourages more clicks and shares.
Segmentation
Unlike other email marketing tools that allow you to segment clients based on factors such as their purchasing history or the last time they opened an email, Constant Contact only allows you to create segments based on whether your email has been received, opened, or clicked by a recipient.
However, Constant Contact offers helpful segmentation features, such as the ability to interact with Shopify and use data directly from your online shop to create segments. This enables you to reach customers with suitable promotions throughout the entire consumer lifecycle and increases the likelihood that they will purchase your goods or services or re-engage with your company.
Basic automation is also available in Constant Contact with three trigger options:
- Opening an email
- Clicking a link
- Joining a list as a subscriber
Series of Automation
Creating an automated series or an “autoresponder” on Constant Contact is a breeze. To get started, select Email Automation from the campaign options and choose an email trigger. You can create a new email or use an existing one. Next, specify the time you want to wait before sending the follow-up email, and add as many follow-ups as you want. Moreover, you can send a sequence of emails to a specific group of contacts by segmenting them into folders and matching them to the automated sequence.
Signup Forms
If your aim is to increase and maintain your email list, then you should gather user contact information using signup forms on your website. Constant Contact offers a variety of options, such as popups, embedded forms, and customized landing pages, depending on your company's requirements.
The signup and landing pages are highly customizable, allowing you to modify style assets and background images to reflect your company's brand.
Integrations
Integrating with Shopify or WooCommerce enables you to automatically trigger emails to your site visitors depending on their activities. For instance, you can set up a shopping cart abandonment email that gets sent when a customer adds a product to their cart but fails to complete the purchase. This feature can enhance user experience and boost conversion rates over time.
Support Options
Constant Contact offers a user-friendly platform with multiple support options readily available. Information Icons are strategically located beside the Options and fields, providing helpful guidance. In addition, their comprehensive Knowledge Base (KB) provides extensive posts for each dashboard, and coaches are available via a toll-free contact for qualitative support.
While they do not offer 24/7 phone service, their customer service hours are quite generous. Moreover, customers can still connect with support through chat and Twitter interactions.
Constant Contact Pricing Plans
Constant Contact provides users with a choice of two plans based on the size of their mailing list. The plans include Email or Email Plus, and both come with a 30-day free trial. Users can store up to 50,000 contacts at $335 per month on either plan.
Constant Contact's first plan is priced at $20 per month, based on the number of active contacts you have. It offers 1GB of file storage and allows for an unlimited number of emails to be sent.
Furthermore, users on this plan will have access to all the essential features, including tracking and reporting, email scheduling, integrations, contact management, and list building. They can also select from numerous mobile-optimized email templates that can be customized to their liking.
In addition, users will receive PPC advertising support for Facebook and Instagram.
Email Plus
Constant Contact's second plan is available at a price of $45 per month, and its features depend on the number of subscribers. Like the first plan, you have the ability to send an unlimited number of emails, but with an increased file storage of 2GB.
Additionally, the Email Plus plan offers access to extra features like Email Automation, Surveys & Pools, Split Testing, Coupons, Donations, and Event Marketing. The Email Plus Plan also includes multi-user features, allowing up to 10 users to operate with different roles and permissions.
If you are starting a company and want simple marketing tools with all the significant features, go for the Email Plan. But if you want to expand your business and need more powerful features, the Email Plus Plan is the better choice.
Constant Contact offers a 30-day free trial for both of its plans, which is a great feature. You can try out their service during the free trial and explore all the features mentioned in this review.
New Updates
In order to enhance their customer experience, Constant Contact has made updates in October 2020 and January 2021. In this Constant Contact review, we will take a closer look at these updates. Among them are:
Landing Pages
Constant Contact recently introduced a new feature called custom landing pages, which enables you to create landing pages tailored to your specific requirements. You can choose from new design templates, including portfolio, event, or a blank slate. This feature allows you to promptly convert leads into customers and boost sales.
The drag-and-drop editor is incredibly versatile, providing endless possibilities. By creating, publishing, and promoting your page via email, website, and social media, you can generate new leads and sales for your business in no time. You can use Landing Pages for Affiliate Marketing, read our Top Landing Pages to learn more.
Automation for Shopify
With your Constant Contact account, you can now automatically send targeted emails to first-time buyers or establish a sequence of emails to express gratitude, recommend a product, or ask for a review to stay top of mind with your customers.
Google My Business
Appearing on the first page of search results is an excellent method to attract new clients and visitors to your business. To ensure your business receives the desired visibility, it's crucial to claim your profile on Google My Business.
To make it easy for businesses to build and maintain their Google My Business listing, Constant Contact has added a new feature. You can now edit your profile, post updates, log interactions, and respond to feedback through this feature.
New Integrations
Constant Contact has expanded its integration capabilities by adding new integrations for Etsy and SurveyMonkey, as well as marketplace integrations for WiseAgent and Repeat Rewards.
The Etsy integration synchronizes your contacts regularly and segments them into different lists, allowing you to connect with them more effectively through customized messages. The
SurveyMonkey integration allows for easy connection and synchronization of contacts, and you can even include your survey in your newsletter, landing page, or social media posts to increase your reach and obtain more responses.
WiseAgent users can utilize Constant Contact to send out automatic email promotions until all their contacts are added to a list.
RepeatRewards offers an affordable loyalty program specifically designed for small businesses. With personalized and automated loyalty programs, you can connect with your most loyal customers, provide them with e-Gift cards, use refer-a-friend templates, leverage push updates, geo-fencing alerts, and seasonal rewards emails via Continuous Communication convergence to keep these valuable connections returning and helping you grow.
Website Builder
Constant Contact's Website Builder has been updated to accommodate up to three distinct websites. You can now oversee both your business website and side projects using a single account.
Additionally, they have included new website tools, such as a fundraiser section, a podcasting section, and a section specifically for artists seeking to share their music with the public.
Mobile App
With the new mobile app, you can easily advertise your email or share other notifications directly from the app to your followers on Facebook and Instagram. You can also view important metrics such as impressions, reach, and engagement through the mobile app.
Pros
- Ideal for event hosting purposes
- Wide selection of templates
- Free access to stock images
- Intuitive user interface
- Robust image editing tools
- Event-specific email scheduling
- Comprehensive reporting and analytics
- Detailed social sharing statistics
- Outstanding delivery rate Efficient list building support
Cons
- The email may resize incorrectly for Outlook users
- Manual removal of un-subscribers
- Difficult to import legacy HTML templates
Bottom-line
Constant Contact delivers on its commitment to aid small businesses in their growth by offering a top-notch email marketing service. Their advanced contact management and email builder tools enable users to create and distribute professionally designed newsletters. The app also includes a range of unique features like the event scheduling tool. Register now for a complimentary one-month trial.
With an impressive 4 out of 5 stars overall rating, Constant Contact is a great choice for any business. Have you used Constant Contact for your email marketing campaigns? Share your experience and feedback in the comments section below.
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