Ecommerce

Top Email Marketing Services: Constant Contact Review

By Tinuiti Team

Jun 16 2014

Constant Contact Email Marketing Service Review

Constant Contact is one of the largest email marketing service providers in the world today. Below we want to evaluate how they became such a large player in the email marketing industry for business owners. For more information about our other top email marketing service reviews go here.

Constant Contact At First Glance

First, to give you a little bit of background on the company, Constant Contact was launched in 1998. Over the past 15 years they have grown their client base to over 500,000 paying users every month. Users range from the $15 a month basic accounts to the more power users with over 10,000 subscribers.

Over the years, they have also expanded their offering past email marketing to event, social media, deals, and surveys. The majority of their customers are small business owners who want a clean email system, as opposed to a fully integrated solution.

Who’s Best Suited for Constant Contact?

The customers who will receive the greatest benefit from Constant Contacts services are small to medium sized businesses with 10 employees or more.

Some benefits for small & medium businesses include:

Robust templates and pre-made emails that are easy to use for mom and pop stores.
EventSpot integration allows for easy promotion of events.

Remember that emails are like miniature websites. You want to create the right branding and craft the right message to convert prospects to customers. If you are open to putting forth the investment, then Constant Contact is worth your time and efforts.

Constant Contact Pricing

Constant Contact’s sweet spot for pricing is for users with less than 2500 subscribers. At this price point, the cost is $60 and you get a full auto responder along with a selection of beautiful templates that can be great for attracting clients.

For those with less than 2500 users you might want to consider using a free option like MailChimp. The challenge is that with a list this small, unless you have a very targeted list, you should not be spending that much money on email marketing each month.

Most small business owners when they start out they do not have the type of quality list needed to use a full out email marketing system like Constant Contact. Once you have 2500 users, you can start using the auto-responders to get prospects into a regular follow up system relevant to your company. With just 12 emails in your auto-responder, you will be top of mind for the next year with clients. You will still want to create event and offer specific emails, but an auto-responder gets you started.

Constant Contact Features & Usability

To give you a full idea of what Constant Contact offers, we’ve broken it down into 7 categories:

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Notable Constant Contact Users

Small business owners are the star for Constant Contact. Business professionals (attorneys, CPA’s, etc.), mom and pop retail shops, and trades (construction, auto repair, etc.) are best suited for this service.

These businesses want to create effective email campaigns to reach their list, which Constant Contact does almost better than anyone else does. Their system is simple system and does not have a large learning curve, which is useful for entrepreneurs who do not want to spend a lot of time learning all the technical aspects of email marketing.

In essence, small business owners can dive right into using Constant Contact, or pass it off to an assistant without the need for a lot of training.

Bottom Line

Constant Contact is not a dynamic email marketing system, but it is a reliable choice for small business owners. The system is especially useful for those who are in retail and professional services, looking to build up their marketing services. Because the templates are simple and easy to use, you can quickly send out quality emails to your list.

In the end, creating high-end emails that attract interest in your services is enough for most business owners. They do not need all the bells and whistles, just something that is solid and simply works. Constant Contact definitely satisfies most professionals’ email marketing needs.

We have compared 9 of the most popular email marketing services and graded them on pricing, functionality, and usability. Check out the individual reviews for more in-depth information about each services.