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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.
For a bit of background: this email provider belongs to a massive group of digital tools called EIG, which includes brands like Bluehost, HostGator and Web.com. One thing I noticed is that Constant Contact is very often the top choice for many other review websites. In previous tests of the EIG brands, our reviewers found that most of the time their marketing was stronger than the actual product. Naturally, I am curious if that might be the case here too.
What makes them special is that they’ve added several features over the years that few of their competitors sport, such as digital product downloads, event management, appointment scheduling and social campaigns. These all add to the diverse list of email options available, in addition to automations and recurring newsletters.
Constant Contact Summary
Constant Contact screenshots
Constant Contact Pricing
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> Find out more about Constant Contact’s plans in our complete pricing guide
Pros and Cons
Niche features:
Constant Contact have some interesting niche features such as the ability to sell digital products, schedule your social media posts and create your logo. They also let you take payments for events (with some additional feeds applied, of course).
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 to other tools.
Limited automation:
They offer basic automations, but we’re really missing the more sophisticated and flexible workflows offered by other providers here.
Is Constant Contact the right newsletter service for you?
Recommended if:
You run events:
Constant Contact is quite unique in this regard, being one of the few email marketing tools to allow you to manage event invitations, registrations, and tickets. Bear in mind that this feature comes with its own fees: 5.4% + $0.80 for each ticket sold or transaction conducted.
Not recommended if:
You need advanced automation:
Surprisingly, for the premium it charges, Constant Contact doesn’t offer the most advanced automations. While they do offer triggered campaigns, autoresponders and abandoned cart campaigns (for Shopify only), you’ll find that other much cheaper tools offer similar levels of automation – MailerLite and Sendinblue, for example.
Rating details
| criterion | rating | comments |
|---|---|---|
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Ease of Use |
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Generally it’s easy to navigate, though a bit dull-looking. You can get to most places within a couple of clicks, though as they’ve added more functionality, some things have become a little hidden, for example, automations. |
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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. Apart from that it’s easy to work with. |
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Personalization |
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This is very basic, 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, basic automations, recurring newsletters, A/B testing, event registrations, coupons, surveys and polls. |
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Choice and Flexibility of Template Designs |
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Not bad. There are around 200 (!) templates to choose from, with varying degrees of quality (some are decent, while others look a little basic and dated). You can also start from scratch, and use a handy feature called ‘Brand your email’ to auto-generate a template based on your website’s colors and logo. |
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Email Automation |
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They offer autoresponders and abandoned cart campaigns for Shopify and WooCommerce. It also generates pre-defined contact segments based on your customers’ interactions with your online store (e.g. repeat, lapsed and potential customers). Automations based on contact triggers (e.g. email opens, clicks) are also available. It’s worth noting that the automations aren’t the most flexible, as you can’t really combine conditions and actions as you can in many other tools. |
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List Management |
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Constant Contact offer list management / segmentation, but it’s on the basic side. It’s done through a simple contact search using contact field values or behavioral data (e.g. opens, clicks). Once you’ve got your results you can either add them to a list or export them, and then send them an email campaign (although you’re not able to add them to automations). You can also tag contacts manually or based on contact field criteria. |
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Registration Forms/ Opt-in & Opt-out- Process |
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There is next to no customization 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. |
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Deliverability |
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As you can see in our deliverability tests, Constant Contact does not perform too badly, reaching the most popular email providers (AOL, Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook) the majority of the time. |
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Reports and Analysis |
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In addition to standard open and click reports, spam, bounce and unsubscribe rates are also available. You also get click heat maps, and some useful overview reports such as open and click trends, opens by device, and most successful subject line. You can also compare campaigns. However, advanced tracking such as social tracking isn’t available. |
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Languages |
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Here’s where it gets a bit hairy. The site and the tool are only available in English. You can choose to change some of the non-editable email sections (e.g. footer and privacy policy text) to one of 10 languages available, mostly European. Support and the knowledge base is available in 4 languages. Slightly confusing, but at least there’s some effort to support multilingual users and audiences. |
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Further Features |
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Spam- and Design-Testing |
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Spam testing isn’t available, however, there is a feature to check the email for errors (missing links, placeholder text that hasn’t been updated, etc.). There’s also a tool that allows you to preview how emails will look for specific recipients, although this didn’t seem to work when we tested it out. ‘Inbox Preview’ by Litmus is available as an add-on service, although at $10/month for just 5 tests, it’s a little steep. |
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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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Import/export available although it’s not as straightforward as it could be – you need to first enable advanced email permissions under Account Settings. |
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Storage available for data and images |
Unlimited |
All plans come with unlimited storage. |
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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, almost 400. |
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Landing Page Editor |
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This is only available via their form builder, and it’s very basic. Instead, we’d recommend these free landing page builders. |
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Support |
3.5/5 |
There are several channels of support, including live chat, phone support, a knowledge base and community-based support. However, I found that the chat and phone support weren’t always available, which was a little frustrating. When I was able to get hold of chat support, however, I did find them to be responsive and useful. |
|
Overall rating |
3.6/5 |
For a basic email tool, Constant Contact ticks most of the boxes. The main issue here, though, is that they’re asking a premium price for a sub-premium product. |
Conclusion
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. In fact, for the amount you pay with Constant Contact, you could find yourself using much more powerful tools such as ActiveCampaign and GetResponse.
They do pick up points for their decent deliverability rates, integrations (particularly social media integrations), and for allowing different access levels for separate users. And with recent enhancements to automations and reporting, and the addition of new features like a website builder, it does look like they’re making an effort to improve the product. But their lack of advanced features makes it difficult to recommend them over others at this price point.
So, there you have it: the next time you see Constant Contact as the number 1 rated service anywhere around the web, I would boldly claim that there might be other interests at play there.
Constant Contact Alternatives
ActiveCampaign has one of the most advanced automation systems we’ve ever tried, and it can’t be compared to Constant Contact’s simplistic approach (it only features autoresponders). They also offer robust reports and analysis tools. On top of that, they are even cheaper than Constant Contact.
Sendinblue is one of the cheapest all-in-one email marketing tools on the market. It’s available in 6 languages and comes with advanced automation options and a built-in CRM.
GetResponse is a solid alternative. It comes with many advanced features (e.g. a webinar tool), has excellent automations and offers one of the best spam and design testing tools we’ve ever used. That’s why Constant Contact falls short when compared to GetResponse.
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.
FAQ
Is Constant Contact better than Mailchimp?
Mailchimp beats Constant Contact hands down. If you’d like to get into the details, take a look at our Mailchimp vs Constant Contact comparison.
Can Constant Contact be used as a CRM?
Constant Contact doesn’t have the most advanced contact management features. You’d be much better off taking a look at any of these CRMs for small businesses.
About Roberta Phillips
Latest Updates
30 Oct 2020 - New video review
05 Oct 2020 - Images updated
14 Apr 2020 - Small update
23 Jan 2019 - Updated review
07 Jan 2019 - Deliverability rating updated
20 Mar 2018 - Deliverability rating added
06 Apr 2016 - Readjustments of the ratings
12 Aug 2016 - Video review added.
28 Jul - 01 Aug 2016 - Initial tests.
