Constant Contact - Email Marketing Tools


Constant Contact is our pick as the best overall email marketing service – it has everything a small business needs to create effective campaigns, with affordable plans and easy-to-use tools. You can send an unlimited number of emails, and prices are based on the number of subscribers on your contact list. Its email editor is very simple to use, and when we sent emails with Constant Contact, they went to the right inboxes, 


Constant Contact Pricing

Constant Contact has two plans, Email and Email Plus, that can fit into the budgets of most small businesses. Additionally, Constant Contact offers a 60-day free trial.

Both plans have everything you need to create professional email campaigns. With each plan, you can send unlimited emails. Each plan comes with customizable templates, contact management and list-building tools, pop-up forms, tracking and reporting features, an image library and a mobile app.


The difference between the two plans is that Email Plus offers dynamic signup forms, 2GB of file storage, access for up to 10 users, email automation, event marketing, online donations, plus surveys and coupons. Here’s more that you should know about Constant Contact’s pricing:

1| The prices for both plans are based on list size. If you prepay for six months, you receive a 10% discount; if you prepay for 12 months, you get a 15% discount. Additional discounts are available for nonprofits. Special plans are available for franchises and associations.

2| Prices for the Email plan start at $20 per month for up to 500 subscribers and $65 per month for up to 5,000 contacts. The most expensive package is $335, which supports 50,000 contacts.

3| The cheapest package for the Email Plus plan starts at $45 per month, and you can send emails up to 500 contacts. For 2,500 contacts, the cost is $70 per month. The most expensive package is $335 for 50,000 contacts.

4| If you have more than 50,000 subscribers, you need to reach out to Constant Contact for a price quote.

5| If your contact list changes from one billing cycle to the next, Constant Contact will automatically adjust your fee.

6| The 60-day free trial includes all of Constant Contact’s tools, including templates, images, an email editor, contact management, reporting and live support. But, you can only send emails to 100 contacts or less.



Constant Contact Features

Constant Contact has an array of tools that make it easy to create eye-catching, appealing email marketing campaigns. Here’s what we liked about Constant Contact.


1| A/B Split Testing

With Constant Contact’s A/B testing feature, you create two different subject lines that are each sent to a portion of your contact list. The software determines the better-performing subject line and automatically sends the winner to the rest of your audience.


2| Autoresponders


With Constant Contacts autoresponders, you can create a series of personalized, automated emails that will be sent automatically based on certain triggers. You can automate emails such as welcome messages to new subscribers, and birthday and anniversary emails to existing customers.


3| Deliverability

Constant Contact boasts a 97% deliverability rate. The company also offers resources on its website where you can learn about email best practices and phrases that may trigger spam filters.


4| Email Editor


When you click “Create Email,” you have the choice to add your website. If you select that option, Constant Contact scrubs your website to find your brand’s colors, logo and social media accounts, then adding them to the email. Next, you pick a template and edit it using the drag-and-drop tools. If you aren’t sure how to use the email editor, a video automatically plays when you’re in the editor for the first time. When we used Constant Contact’s email editor, we created and sent an email in less than 10 minutes. The emails we sent hit the right inboxes, not the “spam” or “promotions” folder. SendinBlue Is grate alternative of constant contact.


5| Email Templates

Constant Contact has dozens of templates in its library. Each template is reusable and built for both desktop and mobile. Once you pick a template, you can customize it with your own images as well as your brand’s colors and fonts.


6| List Management


You can upload your existing contacts with Excel, Outlook and Salesforce. When you upload new contacts, you can use tags to categorize them, such as “VIP donor” and “prospect.” Constant Contact automatically removes duplicates and unsubscribed contacts for you so you don’t have to manually manage your lists.


7| Reporting

Once you send emails out, you can immediately view reports from the campaign. Statistics include open rates, click rates, the number of emails sent, bounces, successful deliveries, unsubscribes, spam reports, and did not opens. You can also view what links are clicked, social media statistics and poll responses. In this dashboard, you have the option to resend an email. 


Pros

We found a lot of positives to Constant Contract. Among the benefits that stood out most to us include:

1| Ease of use: Constant Contact is one of the easiest email marketing services to use. Its email editor is outstanding. Even if you have never designed an email, the editor automatically scrubs your website to find your logo, colors and social media profiles. Once it has this information, you can easily customize templates to create an appealing email. There are dozens of templates to pick from, and you can save your favorite templates so you can quickly reuse it to create a new email.

2| Integrations: Constant Contact integrates with several other services, such as Excel, Salesforce, Outlook and list-building tools. You can sync contact data easily and so much more. Constant Contact has integrations for the software applications that a lot of small businesses use and rely on.

3| Automation: You can send automatic emails triggered by customer actions so you have a response in place when consumers are interested in your products or services.


Cons

There were a couple of potential drawbacks to be aware of. Here are some limitations of Constant Contact.

1| No free option: While Constant Contact has a 60-day free trial, many email marketing services provide a free version of their software, often with limited capabilities. Constant Contact does not offer a free option.

2| Limited A/B testing variables: The best email marketing services let you compare multiple variables with your A/B tests, such as different designs. Constant Contact’s A/B testing feature only lets you change email subject lines, which is limiting.


Customer Support

Constant Contact has a variety of resources to help you. Along with its extensive knowledge base and videos, it offers chat and phone support. When we reached out, Constant Contact’s representative was helpful and not at all pushy, and answered all of our questions.