Steve Lamattina
Jul 23, 2018
Constant Contact have been in the email marketing game since 1995. During that time they’ve managed to become one of the most used email tools in the world, boasting over 650,000 customers.
What makes them special is that they’ve added several features over the years that none of their competitors sport, such as an event management tool, surveys, and social campaigns. These all add to the diverse list of email options available, in addition to autoresponders and recurring newsletters.
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Niche features:
Constant Contact have some interesting niche features such as event management, which may come in handy for specific businesses.
High deliverability rates:
They have consistently performed well in our deliverability tests, offering some of the highest rates of deliverability among our reviewed tools.
Very poor price-performance ratio:
The prices for this newsletter tool are incredibly high compared to what they offer, and also compared against other tools.
Support:
Issues with knowledge base links not working, as well as long wait times for email support. Live chat staff were often unable to help, simply directing me to call an international number.
No automation:
Their automation is limited to autoresponders, and we’re really missing the more sophisticated automation features offered by other providers here.
You run events:
Constant Contact is quite unique in this regard, being one of the few email marketing tools that allows you to manage event invitations, registrations, and tickets (if you opt for the Email Plus plan).
You need automation:
You read that right – this popular (and somewhat pricey) newsletter tool does not offer automation, beyond basic autoresponders like welcome and birthday/anniversary emails. We think this is a pretty indispensable feature in this modern marketing climate, which is why we’d recommend a tool like GetResponse or MailerLite over it any day.
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Ease of Use |
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Generally it’s easy to navigate yet a bit dull-looking. As there aren’t too many options, it’s logically laid out you can get to most places within a couple of clicks. Sometimes sections can take a while to load, though, which slows down the experience. |
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Newsletter Creation |
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Editor |
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The editor is fast, but light on features, especially in the styling department. One of the limits we discovered, for example, is that a three column layout is not (yet) possible. Apart from that it’s easy to work with. |
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Personalization |
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This is very basic though, only allowing you to insert simple greetings or contact details. There is no if/then/else logic available. |
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Email types |
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Classic, autoresponders, recurring newsletters, event registrations, coupons, surveys and polls. |
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Choice and Flexibility of Template Designs |
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While the templates aren’t particularly stylish, there are a few to choose from, and you can also start from scratch. Using the previewer allows you to see how templates look in both desktop and mobile format. |
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Email Automation |
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Not available, simply autoresponders. |
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List Management |
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Constant Contact have quite basic list management and segmentation. It’s done through a simple search while with contacts, using “is”/”is not” filters, and once you’ve got your results you can check them to either add them to a list, remove them from one, or apply a tag. |
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Registration Forms/ Opt-in & Opt-out- Process |
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There is next to no customisation with the form, and it simply offers a description box, basic field options (which you can’t add to) and then a list, or lists, that people can check to be added to. Embedded forms also have a limit of 200 sign-ups per day. |
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Deliverability |
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As you can see in our deliverability tests, Constant Contact has had one of the best performances. And they did especially well when reaching the most popular email providers (AOL, Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook). |
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Reports and Analysis |
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Constant Contact have just the basics in terms of reporting. Openers and clickers, and Google Analytics integration. No advanced tracking available though. |
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Languages |
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The site is only available in English, but you can choose to change some of the non-editable email sections to one of 10 languages available, mostly European. |
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Further Features |
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Spam- and Design-Testing |
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Under development. |
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Bounce Management |
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Soft bounces are placed on temporary hold for 15 days, and then resent. If it happens again they are moved into a suspended bounce category. They have a ‘recommended for removal’ filter available to view these, but don’t remove them automatically. |
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Blacklist |
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Not available. |
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Storage available for data and images |
2GB |
Max image size of 5MB. |
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Pro Features |
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Authentication |
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SPF and DKIM are supported. |
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Own Domain |
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Different levels of account access |
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The Account Owner can also assign roles to be either an Account Manager or a Campaign Creator. |
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Integrations |
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Constant Contact offer a massive amount of apps and integrations, over 270. |
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Landing Page Editor |
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This is only available via their event management tool. |
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Support |
2.5/5 |
Support was a letdown with Constant Contact. While they do have a moderately useful knowledge base, sometimes the links just didn’t work. I didn’t test the phone, but email and live chat were disappointing. Email help claimed a 4 hour response time, but it took 10. And live chat staff were often unable to help, directing me several times to call the international number. |
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Overall rating |
2.9/5 |
For a basic email tool, you could do worse than Constant Contact. The main issue here, though, is that they’re asking a premium price for a sub-premium product. |
As Constant Contact themselves reiterate through their site, they are a tool for small businesses. And, as such, it’s worth evaluating them on these terms. As mentioned above, they definitely have enough of the basics covered to satisfy most small businesses, and if it were as simple as that then we’d recommend them more highly.
The issue, these days, is that there are plenty of other email tools offering even more than Constant Contact, and for a lot less money. This includes not only features, but also user experience and, of course, customer service. This last point is a bit of a sore point for Constant Contact. I really didn’t feel valued as a customer during my interactions with their support team. It wasn’t that they were unfriendly, just that the level of knowledge was lower than expected and getting the right information was a multi-step process.
They do pick up points for their general integrations, particularly social media integrations, and for allowing different access levels for separate users. But their lack of advanced features, such as marketing automation, makes it difficult to recommend over others at their price point.
We have a detailed guide with the best alternatives to Constant Contact, check it out here. You can also try out our Smart Finder to see which newsletter service is best suited to you.
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