Choosing the right email marketing software to run your campaign can be a daunting task. With so many email marketing softwares around which one should you choose? Where should you start looking? All are valid questions ‐ And our answer? It depends.

Not so helpful? I know. But it’s the truth, it all depends on the specific needs of your business. When you’re considering different options, you need to know what specific features you’re looking for. To help you narrow down your search we’ve decided to create a series of reviews for different email marketing softwares we know and love. The first being our Constant Contact review.

If you’ve been actively searching for an email marketing software, then you might’ve heard about Constant Contact.

Constant Contact aims to aid small business owners with the right tools to expand and conquer their industry. It has more than 650,00 users, with a bunch many amazing features.

It’s a great email marketing software that deserves a 4 out of 5 stars. Still need more convincing? In this constant contact review we’re going to dive into discussing its features, updates, pricing, and pros and cons to help you decide if Constant Contact is indeed worth the hype.

Constant Contact is a renowned email marketing software that lets you create your own newsletters to be sent to your mailing list. Its main goal is to help businesses engage and stay connected with their customers.

History

Constant contact has been around for 25 years. Founded in 1995, the company took on the name Roving Software and changed its name to Constant Contact in 2004. Since then the company has been providing its users with tools to support their email marketing, social advertising, and event management campaigns, along with other resources needed to run a successful campaign.

In the years since, Constant Contact has evolved and added new features like a landing page creator, online survey conducting tools, and donation collecting tools.

Constant Contact also helps businesses attract new customers and retain its current ones. The software uses a drag and drop editor that  simplifies the process of email creation  It also boasts a number of modern, clean, mobile friendly templates to make the process even easier.

Users have the ability to add their website URL and let the program integrate the company’s branding identity like their logo and color palette into their newsletters. Users can also store and segment the contact information of their subscribers. Another great feature is the software’s autoresponders that get triggered depending on a recipient’s actions.

We’ve touched on a few of the features Constant Contact has to offer; but we can say the best thing about it is it provides users a ton of personalized features you won’t be able to find anywhere else.

Even without any email marketing experience, Constant Contact isn’t a hard software to learn. You can easily dive into this email marketing program and take advantage of its many features.
Anyone can use Constant Contact, but we’d say Constant Contact is the best email marketing software for Podcasters and Bloggers.

Rebranding

Constant contact recently addressed their users as to why they rebranded. They interviewed John Orlando, Constant Contact’s Chief Marketing Officer, to discuss the change and what it means for the company.
When asked about the reason for their sudden rebranding, Orlando states:

“These changes to our platform have been natural. We’ve simply grown to better address the same need that we’ve always addressed: Helping small businesses and nonprofits to market themselves as effectively and efficiently as possible.

In the same way that our platform has evolved over the years, our brand must evolve along with it.”

Their rebranding came with a new logo, new colors, and a new look and feel to their website. The visual aspect of their fresh rebrand serves to reflect all of the new changes and updates Constant Contact has brought to their users.

Source Image

At the heart of their rebrand is their new logo, and as Orlando explained:

“The double C of course represents the Constant Contact brand name, with the two letters nestled together reflect our team’s support of our customers.

The ripple symbolizes effective, efficient communication and the power of sharing your ideas with the world. Our new logo is a reflection on our growth as a brand and the momentum we’re building together with our customers.”

To us, the rebrand sends a message that this email marketing software isn’t stagnant. It’s constantly evolving and changing to better serve its customers. When you choose to use Constant Contact, you should expect that there will be changes and added features in the future for your benefit.

Constant Contact has 2 plans you can choose from depending on the size of your mailing list. You can choose between Email or Email Plus, both of which offer a 30 day free trial. Both plans also allow users to store up to 50,000 contacts at $335 per month.

EMAIL

The first plan Constant Contact offers is priced at $20 per month based on the number of active contacts you have. You have 1GB of file storage and can send an unlimited number of emails.

Additionaly, you will get access to all the main features such as: tracking and reporting, email scheduling, integrations, contact management, and list building.  You also get to choose from dozens of customizable email templates that are mobile optimized.

Aside from that, you also get PPC advertising support for Facebook and Instagram.

EMAIL PLUS

The second plan is priced at $45 per month depending on the number of subscribers. Just like the first plan, you have unlimited number of emails but with 2GB file storage.

In addition to the standard features of the Email Plan, Email Plus allows users access to some extra features like Email Automation, Surveys & Pools, Split Testing, Coupons, Donations, and Event Marketing.

The Email Plus Plan includes multi-user features that allow you and your team to operate with different roles and permissions. Unlike the basic Email Plan, which can only be used by one person, it can cover up to 10 users.

Consequently, go for an Email Plan if you are starting your company and want some simple marketing tools with all the significant features.

On the other hand, the Email Plus Plan is great if you want to get more powerful features to expand your business.

The best part about Constant Contact’s pricing is that both plans offer a 30 day free trial. You can try their service during the free trial and explore all the features listed in this review.

Lastly, we have to mention Constant Contact’s prepaid payment option. Pay in advance and save on your monthly expenses. Take a look below:

 

Key Features

Now let’s move on to the heart of this Constant Contact review, the features. Take note as these features will help determine if Constant Contact is the right email marketing software for you.

Create a Subscriber List

Constant Contact makes it super easy for its users to add their contacts. You can copy and paste, manually add addresses into a form, or upload CSV, TXT, XLS, or XLSX files. You can also import from Gmail, pulling from Microsoft programs, and other CRM tools.

Another thing to mention is how Constant Contact manages duplicate contacts. This software can easily merge duplicate contacts so you don’t have to. Plus, Constant Contact makes it possible for Mailinator and other “burner email addresses” or disposable addresses to disappear after a short time.

Users are also able to assign tags to contacts to make tracking easier. You may also create segments of users based on location, preferences, and other information you have gathered from your contacts.

Emails & Newsletters

Constant Contact also allows you to create forms for emails and newsletters that clients may use to sign up. It also provides landing pages and OptinMonster, Facebook Lead Advertising and Facebook Join My List App integrations. You can segment the customers based on whether they use the sign-up form or other ways.

Take note that Constant Contact requires verification that you’ve sent consent forms to your subscriber list. Bought lists are a definite no no for the software. Group addresses such as [email protected] or [email protected] addresses or delivery lists should also not be used. This is due to there is no way to guarantee that you have the permission to send messages to that address.

Segmentation

Constant Contact only helps you create segments depending on whether your email has been received, opened, or clicked by a recipient. This contrasts to other email marketing tools that helps you to segment clients based on factors such as whether or not they have bought something and the last time they opened an email.

The ability to interact with Shopify and use data directly from your online shop to create segments is one helpful segmentation feature. This helps you to reach consumers with suitable promotions through all stages of the consumer lifecycle that increase the possibility that they will purchase your goods or services or re-engage with your company.

Basic automation is also possible for Constant Contact with three trigger options available:

• Opening of Email
• Link clicks
• Subscriber who joins a list

Campaign Creation

It is as simple as selecting from Email, Email Automation, Event, and Survey to create a campaign. You can check for campaigns by date or keywords. You can also  view the Recents tab if you wish to revisit or copy a campaign. In order to plan emails based on holidays or other activities, Constant Contact also has an integrated campaign calendar.

With Constant Contact’s drag and drop editor, you can easily choose a template to start blasting emails. There are plenty of templates to choose from. You can easily edit text with access to Google fonts, images, and colors.

You can also add a blog post preview and import PDFs that are converted into emails that are interactive. Constant Contact’s branded template builder lets you incorporate your brand’s logo, colour scheme, and social media links in all of your emails.

Further, you can also store images in Constant Contact’s media library. The image library now has 2 gigabytes (GB) of storage, with a maximum file size of 5 MB. Users can also access free and paid stock images directly from this software.

Email Scheduling and Automation

Constant Contact for email marketing is packed with resources that make it an outstanding service. It allows you to quickly contact your subscribers. Scheduled emails or newsletters can be sent to the readers once they have signed up. Then, later follow-up actions are possible.

Constant Contact helps you observe the approach of the receiver of your emails through reports specifying whether the email was bounced, opened or forwarded. This allows you to plan your subsequent newsletters or emails in a manner that will enable more clicks and shares.

Automated Series

It’s easy to create an automated series on this software. All you have to do to create an automated series or an “autoresponder” is select Email Automation from Constant Contact’s campaign options. Then, choose an email trigger, create a new email or use a preexisting email. After that, choose how long you want to wait before sending the follow up email. Lastly add as many email follow ups you want.

You may also send a sequence of emails to a particular group of contacts. Simply segment the contacts into various folders and match them to the automated sequence.

Campaign Tracking and Reporting

Constant Contact’s Reporting tab can monitor the progress of your email or newsletter after you have sent them. The dashboard reveals the basics, including requests to open, click-through, bounce, and unsubscribe. You can even see the subject line that has the most engagements and the opens on desktop

There are video tutorials from Constant Contact that walk you through the tracking and reporting process. They explain what your reports mean and other helpful tips.

They also have a mobile application that allows you to view your campaign’s performance on mobile.

Signup Forms

If your goal is to expand and maintain your email list, then you need to collect user contact details via signup forms on your site. Based on the company’s needs, Constant Contact lets you create popups, embedded forms, and personalized landing pages.

The signup and landing pages can be customized, including the style assets and background photos to match the brand of your company.

Integrations

Integration with Shopify and WooCommerce lets you automatically send emails to your website visitors based on their actions. For example, you can give them a shopping cart abandonment email. This occurs when a customer adds a product to their cart but does not finish the order. This helps improve the experience of the user and increases conversion rates in the long term.

Support Options

Constant Contact is simple to use and has several choices for support, starting with the Information Icons that are helpfully placed next to Options and fields. There are also comprehensive Knowledge Base (KB) posts on each dashboard with coaches accessible at a toll-free contact, and qualitative support.

There’s no 24/7 phone service available, but the hours are always generous. But you can also chat and interact with customer support via twitter.

Constant Contact has recently made updates last October 2020 and January 2021 to better serve their customers. We’d like to take the opportunity to discuss these in this constant contact review. Some of their updates include:

Customizable Landing Pages

Constant Contact came out with the new custom landing pages feature. This feature allows you to create a landing page that fits your particular needs. It includes new design template options for a portfolio, event, or  with a blank slate. With this feature, you can quickly turn leads into customers and increase sales on the spot.

With the versatile drag & drop editor, the possibilities are virtually infinite. To start generating new leads and sales for your company, just build, post, and promote your page through email, on your website, and social media.

Google My Business

Showing up on page one of the search results page is a perfect way to bring your company visibility to new clients and guests. Claiming your profile on Google My Company is an integral part of ensuring the publicity you desire for your business or organization.

This is why Constant Contact added this new feature to make it easy for businesses to build and maintain their Google My Company listing. Edit your profile, post updates, log interaction and respond to feedback.

Shopify Automation

You can now send specific emails automatically to consumers who are first-time buyers or set up a sequence of emails to say thank you, suggest a product, or request a review to keep your company top your mind, via your Constant Contact account.

New Integrations

Constant Contact has new integrations for Etsy and SurveyMonkey, as well as marketplace integrations for WiseAgent and Repeat rewards.

• Etsy ‐ This integration synchronizes your contacts on a regular basis, and also separates them into different lists, so that you can connect more easily through tailored messages.
• SurveyMonkey ‐ Connecting and synchronizing your contacts from SurveyMonkey to Constant Contact is easy. You can even include your survey in your newsletter, on a landing page, or inside your social posts to expand your reach and get as many responses as possible.
• Wise Agent ‐ You can use Constant Contact within your Wise Agent account to send out automatic email promotions until you have attached all your Wise Agent contacts to a list.
• RepeatRewards ‐ RepeatRewards provides an affordable loyalty program expressly tailored for small businesses. They encourage you, with an affordable, personalized and automated loyalty program, to connect with your most loyal customers. You can then provide them with e-Gift cards, use refer-a-friend templates, leverage push updates, geo-fencing alerts, and, of course, give them seasonal rewards emails via Continuous Communication convergence to keep these main connections coming back and helping you develop.

Mobile App

The mobile app allows you to promote your email or include other alerts from inside the mobile app to your friends and fans on Facebook and Instagram. See Impressions, reach, and engagement on the new mobile app

Website Builder

Constant Contact has recently updated their Website Builder to support three different websites. You can now manage your company website and side hustle under one account.

They also added new tools on your website, such as a fundraiser section, a podcasting section, and even one for artists who want to bring their music out to the public.

• Great for hosting events
• Huge number of templates
• Free stock images
• User-friendly
• Image editing tools
• Email scheduling as per event
• Great reports and analytics
• Social sharing statistics
• Excellent delivery rate
• List building support

• The email may resize incorrectly for Outlook users
• Manual removal of un-subscribers
• Difficult to import legacy HTML templates

This concludes our Constant Contact Review

Constant Contact fulfills its promise of helping small businesses grow through their email marketing service. You can create and deliver professional-looking newsletters thanks to advanced contact management and email builder tools .There are also various special features in the app, such as the event scheduling tool. Get your one month free trial here.

With an overall score of 4 out of 5 stars, it’s truly a great software any business can try. Have you used Constant Contact for your email marketing campaigns? Tell us your experience and thoughts in the comments section below.

You can read more on our series of email marketing reviews here.