This ConstactContact Review was written based on actual testing of their software by our staff. If you don’t agree with it or would like to provide further feedback about this ConstantContact Review, please provide your comments at the bottom of the page.
Constant Contact was launched in 1995 as Roving Software in USA. Constant 
Contact has three offices across USA and has over 250,000 customers. In 2016, Constant Contact was acquired by Endurance International Group (which operates brands like Bluehost, Hostgator and iPage).
Features: 4 out of 5
Constant Contact offers most features that you will need for email marketing including autoresponders. You will need their Email Plus plan to get all the features that they offer. Read more about price plans below. Constant Contact lets you import contacts from Salesforce, ACT, Quickbooks and Outlook etc. Unsubscribes are removed automatically. There really aren’t any fancy templates offered for the sign up forms unlike GetResponse, they do however allow you to upload your own image and make changes to colors/fonts etc. Constant Contact logo shows at the bottom of the sign up form if you choose their Lite or Email plans. Logo can be removed only if your sign up for their most expensive Plus plan.
You get 1 to 2 GB of free storage based on the price plan that you have selected. Stock images are offered free. Being able to use images from their stock gallery can make your newsletters a lot more attractive and relevant. The reporting tool provides all the important metrics that are required. Your messages can be stored online in an archive (with Plus plans.)
Sign Up Form with Constant Contact Logo at the bottom
Integration with Facebook and Instagram is available and you can create a post from within your Constant Contact account, however you can only access images of your social media account with the Email Plus plan. Split testing (A/B) and segmentation is available so that you can better target your subscribers. Constant Contact does not offer RSS to Email or Google Analytics Integration. However, you can add RSS feed of your event campaigns to your website.
Autoresponders (aka automation) are easy to set up and you can pre-schedule your messages too. Several other apps and integrations are offered (some of them are paid) which makes it easier to grow your contact lists and share results of your email campaigns, for example, HootSuite, Salesforce, Zoho CRM, Apple Mail etc. You can use their API if you are a developer. If you use an iphone or Android phone, you can use their free app to manage your email campaigns.
Price: 3 out of 5
Price plans are available under three categories: Lite, Email and Email Plus.
Lite plans offer very basic features with a total of 10,000 email sends per month. That means if you have a subscriber base of 10,000, you can only send them one email or if you have a subscriber base of 5,000, you can send them two emails etc.
Both Lite and Email plans display Contact Contact logo with their emails and sign up forms. Many other features are restricted with both of these categories. For example, no access to advanced automation features, decreased image storage, no access to action-oriented content blocks, no dynamic content blocks, no A/B testing etc.
Most likely you may feel frustrated when you are not able to use a specific feature with their Lite and Email plans. Therefore we recommend that you opt for only their Email Plus plans, which tend to be more expensive. However if you have very basic email marketing needs and don’t care about their logo showing in your emails, then by all means go for their Lite or Email plans. For example, if you run a non-profit or just have to make announcements, then you may not need their Email Plus plan which is meant more for advanced marketing needs. Event marketing and surveys are only available with their Plus plans.
Overall the price plans are relatively expensive compared to their competitors. Most features that are available with their Plus plan are included in the Basic plan of GetResponse.
Discounts are available for regular customers if you pre-pay for six months in advance @ 10% or annually @ 15%.
A non-profit organization can receive a 20% discount off the regular pricing when prepaying for 6 months or a 30% discount when prepaying for 12 months.
Deliverability: 5 out of 5
This score will give you an idea about whether your messages will make it to the inbox if your subscribers. The higher the score, the better are the chances. We checked the deliverability score of over 50 shared IP addresses of Constant Contact on a third party website. Overall, Constant Contact’s deliverability score of its IP addresses is excellent.
IP Rating of some of Constant Contact IP Addresses
Email Editor: 4 out of 5
Constant Contact offers a flexible drag and drop email editor to create your messages. The editing icons are well placed and intuitive to use. Desktop and mobile preview makes it see how your message will appear on your subscribers’ devices. You can easily add your own images or use free stock images provided by Constant Contact.
The editor does not offer spam check or spell check which are important features and should have been included. Spam check feature lets you check the likelihood of your message being marked as spam by automated systems used by email programs, like Gmail. For spell check, you’ll need to rely on your browser. However, most other email marketing software no longer offer spell check. So the only option is to use an online tool or copy your content into Word and run a spell check. There isn’t anything more embarrassing than sending an email with incorrectly spelled words.
Whether you are just a beginner with email marketing or an expert, Constant Contact makes it really easy for you to create your emails, customize them by uploading your logo, images to an existing template or your own. You can also pre-schedule your messages.
Social Media Share lets you post an update on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, while your recipients also have an option to share your emails with others. All of your email newsletters can be stored online in an archive (offered with Email Plus plan).
There is no time travel feature available which is something being offered by GetResponse only.
Constant Contact Email Editor
Ease of Use: 4 out of 5
Constant Contact’s system is easy to use and we didn’t have any problem figuring it out. If you are new, it may take you a couple of days to get used to its interface. There are helpful video tutorials available in case you find any difficulty using one if its features.
Support: 3 out of 5
Constant Contact offers live chat, phone support. There is no email support. You can also send them a message on Twitter to get support. Live chat, email support and phone support are available 5 days a week except overnights and US holidays (EST). Support staff is friendly and professional. Most other email marketing software providers 24/7 chat support. So this is something that Constant Contact should look into if they want to get better at providing support. It took us about 7 minutes to connect to a person the first time we contacted them via live chat – which is a little too long. Constant Contact’s Live chat is available 18 hours a day – so not too bad either.
Overall Score (Constant Contact): 3.5 out of 5 (Fair)
CONCLUSION
CONS:
- No fancy sign up form templates.
- RSS to Email not available
- Price plans more expensive than competitors.
- Spell check, spam check not available
- Constant Contact Logo shows at the bottom of their sign up forms unless you sign for their most expensive Plus plan.
PROS:
- Good deliverability rates
- Mobile preview is available
- Email Plus plans include many useful extra features
- Android and iphone apps to manage your email campaigns.
Overall, Constant Contact offers user friendly email marketing. They offer good deliverability rates of emails into inbox which ensures high conversion rates for senders. The email editor is quite easy to use. It is simple, yet powerful. Most of the features required for email marketing are available with Constant Contact. Plus plans offer additional features that can be quite helpful for your overall online marketing needs – which is what we really like about Constant Contact.
The only and the major drawback is pricing. If you want to take advantage of all the features offered by Constant Contact, you will need to opt for their Email Plus plans. However, compared with GetResponse, you end up paying a bit more since GetResponse Plus plan offers almost all features that are offered by Constant Contact’s Email Plus plans. For example, if you have 10,000 subscribers, with GetResponse Plus plan, you pay $95, whereas with Constant Contact Plus plan, you pay $125. That’s a difference of $30 per month. For 25,000 subscribers, there is a difference of $46 per month.
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