05/11/2023
Constant Contact: A Quick Overview
Bottom line: After starting as an email marketing provider, Constant Contact has expanded its services into other aspects of digital marketing, becoming one of the top providers in the field. From building deeper relationships with customers to converting more leads, its mission is to help small businesses grow.
Who should choose Constant Contact? Entry-level or new small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that only need the basics. You can upgrade as you grow, but for real scalability, you’ll likely have to move to another platform for more in-depth reporting and better testing tools.
MY Editor Rating?
Overall: (4.0)
Constant Contact earned its rating based on strong features, affordable pricing, and overall excellent customer service. I found Constant Contact lacks depth in its features, but it’s still a great solution for most businesses.
· Plans And Pricing: (4.3)
· Features: (4.0)
· Ease Of Use: (4.0)
· Integrations: (4.0)
· Support: (4.0)
See how we rate sales and marketing tools.
Constant Contact's standout features
Constant Contact's standout features
Email tools
Strong email tools covering most needs
Available email templates
100s of ready-to-use templates
A/B testing
Comes with basic A/B testing tools
Reporting
Includes basic reporting and analytics
Website builder
Yes, included in all paid plans
Integrations
300+ app integrations available
Support
Live chat and email support
Admin interface
Extremely simple to use
What Are the Pros and Cons of Constant Contact?
Constant Contact boasts great features suitable for small businesses, but its depth and scalability have drawbacks. Consider these advantages and disadvantages when deciding whether to use Constant Contact.
Pros of Constant Contact
1. Affordable solution: With plans starting from only $9.99 per month, Constant Contact has a good price for great features.
2. Simple user interface: Even without experience, I found it hard to get lost in Constant Contact’s admin interface, which includes a simple header bar with all the required tools.
3. Exceptionally long free trial: For those in the U.S., Constant Contact offers a 60-day free trial; for everywhere else, there is a 30-day free trial. None of its competitors can match this free trial period.
Cons of Constant Contact
1. Lacks depth in some features: The biggest downside I found in Constant Contact is the lack of depth in some features. A/B testing, email templates, reporting, and integrations aren’t as extensive as what alternatives such as HubSpot CRM and GetResponse offer.
2. Not the most scalable solution: Constant Contact is a solid solution for small businesses, yet its most affordable plans lack the scalability to support large companies. For example, Constant Contact’s A/B testing and reporting tools aren’t robust enough for in-depth testing.
Constant Contact Plans and Pricing
(4.3)
Constant Contact offers two plans:
· Core ($9.99 per month)
o Good for Small businesses, e-commerce, nonprofits
· Plus ($45 per month)
o Good for: Small businesses, agencies, freelancers
All Constant Contact plans include hundreds of email templates, sign-up forms to grow your list, social media and e-commerce integrations, engagement reporting, and more.
Constant Contact Features
(4.0)
Constant Contact offers useful features for all of its plans, including robust campaign-building tools, A/B testing capabilities, a landing page builder, and award-winning customer support.
See Constant Contact’s top features:
· Advanced campaign-building tools to help you stand out
· A/B testing to maximize your marketing results
· Website and store features to help you build a professional website
· Reporting tools for understanding marketing performance
· Ease of use
· Flexibility
While Constant Contact was originally software for email marketing, it now offers social media, list-building, event, and SMS marketing tools.
Social media tools to make your presence known
Constant Contact comes with a dashboard that lets you post to all major social media platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook simultaneously.
Here are some things it can help you do:
· Schedule content in advance
· Read and respond to comments from one place
· Integrate your social media and post from it simultaneously
· Use tools for designing Instagram and Facebook ads
List building tools to grow your contact list
Constant Contact’s List Builder tool makes it easy to grow your email list. You can add sign-up forms to your landing page, website, blog, or SMS to collect subscribers’ contact information.
I was able to import contacts from a spreadsheet or a standard file. Once you have a list of subscribers, you can easily manage them from the content management page and segment your leads into different groups so that you can send targeted emails or SMS messages.
For example, you could create a group for customers who have purchased in the past 30 days and another group for those who have not.
Email tool with 100s of email templates
Constant Contact comes with a handy email tool — you can create and send out email marketing campaigns. Whether you want to send a newsletter, a discount, or a sales email, you’ll find an email template that meets your needs. If not, you can always customize your own emails.
It has the following advantages:
· 100s of ready-to-use email templates
· Mobile responsive templates designed to adjust automatically
· Easy to use drag-and-drop email editor
Email automation to minimize manual work
The email automation tool enables you to schedule emails ahead of time. With the help of series triggers and action blocks, you can create entire email funnels or single welcome emails.
A few highlights of Constant Contact email automation:
· Send automatic emails to new newsletter subscribers
· Send follow-up emails to those who didn’t open your first email
· Build an email series based on how subscribers engaged with your previous email
Email automation helps you and your business to save time by not having to send emails manually.
Event marketing tool to promote events
Constant Contact comes with a built-in event marketing tool. I was able to manage events, sell tickets, and track details in one place.
Event marketing tool features:
· Gather registration data and manage it all from one place
· Sell items and collect payments, like event fees
· Set up an automated email campaign to thank your participants
· Get feedback from real-time reporting and find out how everything went
SMS marketing to help reach customers via text
As a new feature, Constant Contact allows you to connect with your customer via SMS marketing. The SMS marketing feature comes with an extra $5 per month cost, and it’s only available in the U.S. at the moment. To make things easier, you will get a dedicated phone number, text message editor, reporting, and list tools.
A/B testing tools to maximize your marketing results
Constant Contact A/B testing tools allow you to test different subject lines to maximize the email open rate. This information can be used to fine-tune future email campaigns for improved results.
While testing different providers, I found an A/B testing option is a must-have in email providers. While Constant Contact has subject line A/B testing, alternatives like Active Campaign offer more robust A/B testing capability, including the capacity to test entire email funnels. However, this is not a deal breaker for most people, since you can still perform basic subject line A/B testing.
Website and landing page features to build a website
In addition to providing you with a powerful email marketing platform, Constant Contact also offers a website builder and landing page builder.
These features give you everything needed to design and launch a professional-looking website, no matter your experience level.
You can create a landing page to convert more leads and sell stuff, a website to showcase your services, or a blog to keep your customers updated.
For those wanting to create a basic website, Constant Contact asks you basic questions about your niche and helps you to set up the site based on that. For those who wish to create an e-commerce store, you will be asked about your products, preferred payment methods, shipping charges, and more.
I found these features easy to use, but limited in their capabilities. There are similar types of website-building features offered by competitors such as Mailchimp and Sendinblue, thus, there is no big difference in terms of the features. For those wanting to create a proper website, definitely opt for a website builder.
Reporting tools to understand marketing performance
Constant Contact reporting and analytics tools enable you to better understand your customers and make your campaigns more effective.
It offers reports like engagement reports to see how emails are performed, campaign comparisons to assess various campaigns, click segmentation to create targeted lists, and mobile open rates.
Reporting tools help you with the following:
· Save time: By adjusting and creating content that resonates with your customers, you can save time from manual testing and increase your conversions.
· Improve team productivity. Reporting tools improve the productivity of your team through the segmentation of customers and a better understanding of problems.
· Analyze valuable metrics: Analyzing metrics like open and engagement rates allows you to better understand your customers and see what works.
Constant Contact lacks some depth regarding its reporting tools compared to some of its competitors.
For example, Mailchimp offers everything above plus geo-tracking, social media reports, and an e-commerce conversion tracking feature for an affordable price. Despite Constant Contact’s basic tracking features, if you want more versatile reporting, choose an alternative like Mailchimp.
Although Constant Contact’s Marketing Automation plan, which starts at $449 per month, offers more actionable reports, I would not recommend upgrading just for the reporting tools.
Ease of use
Constant Contact offers in-app tips to help improve your email marketing campaigns as it walks you through a straightforward process of launching your first campaign. The strategic partnership with other platforms lets you easily create and manage your marketing content. To help you make the most out of every feature, Constant Contact offers video and blog tutorials.
Beginner-friendly dashboard: Email marketing campaigns are simple to set up and launch quickly. It suits marketers of all experience levels, including those who have never used email marketing software. Users of Constant Contact praise the user interface’s simplicity for newcomers.
Constant Contact has well-marked menus that make it easy to find your way around. You can log in and immediately see all necessary menus on your user dashboard, including total contacts, and various insightful statistics such as contact growth, and social audience growth.
Flexibility
Constant Contact has a library of more than 300 different apps you can access to extend its functionality.
· Easily create emails and digital ads: You can integrate Canva to make your email design process smoother or Vimeo to add high-quality video elements to your campaigns.
· E-commerce tools: With Shopify, you can drive more sales, and sync contact payment data automatically using Stripe. And with WooCommerce, you stay connected to your customers with automated emails.
· Social media platforms: Your account can be connected to social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You can schedule and automate posts and track results.
Constant Contact may lack some depth in its app integrations, to the extent that close competitors Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign both offer more than 800 app integrations. But it is very likely you will find the app you’re looking for.
Integrations
Constant Contact has a library of more than 300 different apps you can access to extend its functionality. For example, you can integrate Canva to make your email design process smoother, or Vimeo to add high-quality video elements to your campaigns.
Again, Constant Contact is comparatively deficient in its app integrations, while close competitors Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign both offer more than 800 app integrations. Still, you’re likely to find the app you’re looking for on Constant Contact.
Constant Contact integrates with all the most popular platforms such as Shopify, Stripe, and Salesforce.
Constant Contact Support
(4.0)
Constant Contact offers various methods of customer support:
· Knowledge base: Search step-by-step guides, tutorials, and how-to articles.
· Blog: Explore small business marketing advice and insights.
· User community: Connect with your fellow customers to be updated or ask for help.
Constant Contact’s team of experts provides technical support, you can reach out via live chat and phone support, but it’s only available for a limited time.
Great customer support and self-service options
Constant Contact offers a variety of support options to meet the needs of all its customers. For those who need assistance, a team of highly-trained customer support representatives is available via chat five days a week or phone six days a week. While live support isn’t available 24/7, I had no trouble getting connected with help.
It also offers self-service options for those who prefer to troubleshoot independently. The Knowledge Base is a comprehensive resource with step-by-step instructions for solving common problems. And for those who need extra help, there is also a community forum where you can ask questions and get advice from other Constant Contact customers.
Compare Constant Contact Alternatives
“Email marketing is an effective way to communicate with prospects, leads, and customers, and Constant Contact is a good entry-level option that gets high marks. However, it isn’t as advanced in areas especially important to marketers, including split testing and detailed analytics. Although Constant Contact is affordable, its value has diminishing returns when you need more powerful tools and better insight compared to Mailchimp, Drip, and ActiveCampaign.” —Amy Nichol Smith, Content Marketing Manager
Although Constant Contac comes as a good email provider for small businesses, other options like Mailchimp, Sendinblue, ActiveCampaign, and MailerLite may be a better fit. Compare Constant Contact to other top-tier email marketing providers:
Email marketing plarform
Starting price
Basic plan features
Constant Contact
Overall rating (4.0)
$9.99 per month
· Drag-and-drop email editor
· 100s of email templates
· Basic A/B testing
· Contact segmentation
· Live phone and chat support
Frequently Asked Questions About Constant Contact
Is Constant Contact legitimate?
Constant Contact is a legitimate email marketing service provider, offering a 60-day free trial and a money-back guarantee so that you can try the service without risk. The company has been in business for over 20 years.
Can Constant Contact be used as a CRM?
Is it easy to cancel Constant Contact plans?
What are the best alternatives to Constant Contact?
What Is Constant Contact with the Company?
Constant Contact is a leading email marketing provider and online survey solutions for small businesses, nonprofits, and individuals. The company was founded in 1995 by two entrepreneurs, Steven Dupere and Gail Goodman. Constant Contact offers many features and services, including customizable email templates, list management tools, autoresponders, and reporting and analysis tools.
Constant Contact is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. The company has over 700 employees and serves more than 600,000 customers in over 180 countries.
In addition to its intuitive platform and easy-to-use tools, Constant Contact is known for its outstanding customer support.
· 1601 Trapelo Rd., Waltham, MA 02451
· (781) 472-8100
· Official website
· Facebook
· Instagram
· LinkedIn
· Twitter
· YouTube
How I Rated Constant Contact
I test sales and marketing tools based on the following factors:
· Sale management: Does the platform offer sales tools to help with lead management and closing deals? What are its features?
· Ease of use: Is the platform simple to set up and use?
· Customization and automation: Can you tailor the software to your business needs?
· Integrations and analytics: Does this software integrate easily with other business tools, and will its reporting features fit your needs?
· The support provided: How easy is it to get help?
· Free trial: Is a no-cost trial or demo offered?
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