Having said that, you must know that email marketing when conducted with an “OK” software can cause negative effects on you. So you must always rely on the best email marketing software. But since there is a plethora of bulk emailing services, choosing an ideal one becomes difficult. So in this blog, I am going to focus on the latest talk of the town (in the arena of email marketing) i.e. Constant Contact. Simply speaking, in this Constant Contact review, I will enlighten you about its features, pricing, and most importantly, who should opt for Constant Contact. Rest assured, I have personally tried and tested Constant Contact. So you could trust what I’d have to say.
What Is Constant Contact?
Constant Contact is a professional email marketing service that has been revolutionizing online businesses since 1995. In addition to being a prominent email marketing tool, Constant Contact has also extended its services to website building, social media ads, Google Ads, logo designing and SEO. So if someone asks you – “What is Constant Contact used for?”, you can say “it can be used for all sorts of online marketing and optimal business growth”.
Features Of Constant Contact
Among all the known email marketing services, Constant Contact has an extensive set of features. But to access them, you must sign up. Don’t worry, you won’t be charged for signing up as you are entitled to get 1 month’s worth of email marketing services for free. Just click this link and sign up on Constant Contact. Let me tell you that sign up and the onboarding process is extremely fluent. Not to forget, Constant Contact also customizes itself depending on your email marketing experience. After this, you are good to go and access all the advanced features like –
Drag & drop responsive email template editing.Full-fledged email marketing automation.Effortless contacts management.Real-time reports of your email campaigns.eCommerce and other 3rd party integrations.Other miscellaneous growth-oriented features.
So, it’s for this Constant Contact review to dig deeper and analyze all the features in detail…
1. Drag & Drop Email Building
The Constant Contact review or any other EMS review starts by talking about the ease of creating responsive email templates. You’d be relieved to know that Constant Contact has a drag & drop email builder. You can unleash the inner Picasso in the email builder but before that, you are offered the option of choosing the template theme. For example, announcement, review, newsletter email templates. If you don’t want to use these template themes (which I highly doubt), you could also import or create a template using HTML through a custom code editor. Now, moving forwards, allow me to introduce you to Constant Contact’s email builder. The builder is stacked with all the elements like Text, Button, Spacer, Social Buttons, etc. On top of this, you are also given the flexibility to change the layout of the template into two columns of text, image-text, text-image and more. I must tell you, Constant Contact is pretty dedicated to how your templates look. So it also provides an Undo & Redo option to try and test what works best for you. And, once you are done with the editing, you are seamlessly transferred to the campaign’s settings page. This is the page where you add the email’s subject, From Name, select the recipient’s (contact’s) list and then hit send. Mind you, scheduling your campaign for a later time is also an option. That’s it..!! It’s that easy to draft an email campaign and send it with Constant Contact.
2. Email Marketing Automation
Next, in this Constant Contact review, I would like to talk about the most sought-after feature in email marketing services i.e. marketing automation. Have you ever dreamt of automatically sending emails based on your customer’s or subscriber’s action? Don’t worry, Constant Contact’s marketing automation feature will help you achieve it. I was surprised to see all the different types of triggers that initiate automated email sequences. Some of it includes –
Welcome email after sign up.Confirmation email after a successful purchase.Cart abandonment email after a customer leaves a product in its cart.Submitted his/her answer in a poll.
Or anything else… According to me, having a marketing email sequence in its place offers many benefits like a boost in customer engagement, improvement in brand recognition, a sense of personal touch, etc. And, Constant Contact will help you exactly the same and even more. I personally remember how welcome I felt after I signed up for Constant Contact. And, the automated onboarding emails were just cherry on the top.
3. Contacts Management
One of the most integral parts of an email marketing strategy is the proper nurturing and management of your contacts. To help you with this, Constant Contact presents a dedicated Contacts and List Management section. In this review of Constant Contact, I am also going to tell you how this software will help you create new email lists and add contacts in them. Since the list management has a separate section, you can directly access it from the dashboard or through the top menu. From here, you can simply click the “+” icon and give your email list a name. After this, Constant Contact provides multiple ways to add contacts in that list. Some of those options include importing lists through a CSV file or from Gmail, Outlook or other apps. Simply copying and pasting contacts in the list is also an option. Now comes the most exciting part. In order to provide custom, personal experience to your contacts, Constant Contact provides a Contacts Segmentation feature too. You could create segmentation for the Shopify audience or simply separate inactive contacts from the active ones. And, then with the power of segmentation, Constant Contact allows you to re-engage your inactive users. Lastly, Constant Contact also offers a comprehensive report for Contact growth too. Lastly, I don’t want to miss out on the key information regarding Contacts from this review of Constant Contact i.e. all the bounce, unsubscribes and spam complaints are automatically handled.
4. Reporting
After sending your first campaign, it’s absolutely necessary to analyze its performance through its stats. So, this Constant Contact review moves further to talk about the Reporting section offered by the software. Unlike other email marketing services that just show the count of email opens and clicks, Constant Contact takes a step further to also provide a graphical representation of your email marketing stats. Moreover, this is just for a specific email campaign. But if you have sent a plenty of email campaigns, Constant Contact arranges it in the reverse chronological order (the latest campaign is listed on top). And, from that list, you can search it by the name and then check out its performance.
5. Integrations
If you are using an email marketing service, chances are your business might be selling some products or services. So technically, this makes you an eCommerce business. Normally, managing and promoting an eCommerce business (most importantly its products) is a lot tedious and also difficult. But with Constant Contact and its seamless integration with eCommerce platform can turn this nightmare into a sweet dream. A dream that’s bound to come true..!! As of now, I have checked and personally integrated a few eCommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce. In all honesty, this is just the tip of an iceberg. Apart from the above-mentioned eCommerce platforms, there are some more platforms too. In addition to this, you can also integrate your Constant Contact account with different applications like Facebook, Salesforce, Eventbrite and more. Unfortunately, we won’t be covering the integration process in this Constant Contact review. You can always refer to the training and detailed documentation provided by Constant Contact.
6. Other Growth-Oriented Features
This review of Constant Contact will be incomplete if I skip all the features that emphasize on your growth. So without going in-depth, here’s a general overview of all the other awesome things Constant Contact can do.
6.1 Subscription & Lead Forms
One of the most essential parts of any email marketing or simply a business is to acquire a good amount of leads. More leads mean more chances of converting them into customers. So Constant Contacts has a dedicated module for creating and editing sign up forms. Furthermore, you can also choose how to display a form i.e. embedding it on your site, as a pop-up, etc.
6.2 Social Media & Google Ads
Email marketing, when combined with Social Media advertisements, can result in massive growth for your business. Simply create a lead generating ad, add those leads in your emailing lists and send them campaigns.
6.3 Surveys & Polls
Not many email marketing services offer the capabilities to conduct surveys and polls within your email campaigns. But Constant Contact is well equipped with this.
6.4 Collect Donations & Create Events
Another gem of a feature that Constant Contact offers is the ability to collect donations. If you are a Non Profit organization or an NGO, you are entitled to receive a huge discount and also collect donations for different causes. Besides this, with the integration of Eventbrite, you can easily create, manage and promote different events with Constant Contact.
6.5 Mobile Application
And, when you think that you have seen everything in Constant Contact, it surely surprises you with its mobile apps. With this, you could access all the mobile features on Android and iOS devices.
Ease Of Use
Another reason for covering all the features first in this Constant Contact review is that you could have an idea about its usability. According to me, Constant Contact is very easy to use. Even if you are just starting out, its onboarding steps and extensive tutorials will help you grasp its serviceability. Each of the email marketing key aspects i.e. email builder, automation, contacts management, reporting, etc. have their own separate section. And, each of them can be accessed from the top menu anytime and from any place. Moreover, one cannot simply ignore how fluidic it is to create an email template with the help of a drag & drop builder. Besides this, all the integration processes are an absolute breeze. No-fuss and no confusion. In totality, I feel that Constant Contact is very easy to use..!!
How Much Do Constant Contact Costs?
Now we have come to that part of the Constant Contact review which could be the ultimate deciding factor for you. I am talking about the pricing model, structure and plans of Constant Contact. Believe it or not, if you are like me, it all comes down to the pricing of a particular service that would decide if it is worth purchasing. Constant Contact’s pricing plans are built and segmented around the number of contacts imported or added. But one of the greatest benefits of Constant Contact’s pricing model is that it would allow you to send unlimited emails and access unlimited features irrespective of your plan. Based on this, Constant Contact has a couple of monthly subscription-based pricing plans –
Email – This plan starts at the price of $20/month and allows you to send unlimited emails to 500 contacts. All the other features are also included in this plan.Email Plus – If you do not want to compromise the growth of your business then you should opt for this plan. All the advanced versions of each feature are included in this plan. This plan starts at $45/month and allows you to import up to 500 customers and send unlimited emails to them.
All in all, if you’d ask me, the pricing of Constant Contact is on the cheaper side. So much that it could be regarded as a cheaper alternative to ConvertKit, Sendlane, etc.
Constant Contact Review – Final Verdict
When I had first signed up on Constant Contact and until now, I am totally hooked with it. And, I am quite sure that you too would feel the same. Having said that, I also know the importance of email marketing for a successful business. Well, email marketing is just a single battle. There are other marketing battles to be fought. Luckily, Constant Contact comes out to be a swiss knife that offers all the email marketing features, website builder, social media ads, and more. In simple words, it is very well equipped for your email marketing needs in the most simplistic manner. I, with the help of this Constant Contact review, would encourage you to give Constant Contact a shot. I am sure, you won’t be disappointed. There’s also a free plan that would allow you to use Constant Contact free for a month. And, once you have seen how efficient it is, you can then upgrade to a suitable plan.
