Constant Contact – A Complete Review

With Constant Contact email marketing automation tool you work smarter not harder

Beginner Friendly and Stress-Free Automated Email Marketing for You

‘Work smarter…not harder!’ is the tagline proudly emblazoned on the homepage that greets users when they visit the Constant Contact website. The notion may be debatable but the Constant Contact team mean business! In fact, in our Constant Contact review, 2021, the email marketing automation tool/software wants to help you work smarter. Are you ready?

Ready to forget about the nightmare of manually keeping track of all your marketing campaigns? Are you manually analyzing and tracking statistics, straining to manage the email list-sorting out opened and unopened emails? Are you in a dilemma regarding which emails to follow up and which ones to revise?

Are you ready to forget the chaos of manually monitoring the sequences and responses of your various scheduled drip customer emails and newsletter(s)?

Ready to say bye-bye to long night hours manually multitasking between prospecting for customers, with scheduling your emails and responses to them in your favourite spreadsheets? Look no further than Constant Contact! Let’s go!

This article is a Constant Contact review looking at; what Constant Contact is, the essential features of the email marketing tool, but most importantly, its benefits to you.

 

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So, what is Constant Contact?

If you thought Constant Contact is another social media app or  better still, a cousin to Whatsapp, you might be forgiven…you are not alone… you are in good company):

Constant Contact is among other things an email marketing tool for small and medium-sized businesses. According to the company, ‘Constant Contact is a trusted partner in helping small businesses, nonprofits and individuals work smarter.’ The email automation marketing tool company has almost everything one needs for connecting, engaging and relating in a relevant manner with potential and present customers.

The email marketing tool helps you market your product and services, and attract prospective customers, build your brand online quickly, and at an affordable rate in addition to boosting your sales.

Constant Contact homepage
Source:ConstantContact.com

Who Should Use Constant Contact’s Online Marketing Tool?

1. If You Want to Foster Excellent Customer Relations and Engagement

Reach out to customers with well-designed templates. Also able to offer tools to create a message for different customers. These help increase the likelihood of your target audience, opening your emails. But even with effective SEO woven in the emails, drive traffic to your website if one has conditions to improve website performance.

 

2. Need Metrics to Track your Business Performance

Constant Contact’s analytic tool gives you detailed visitor metrics in real-time⁠—allowing you to quickly identify and pounce on trends. One can do website analysis, check pagespeed insights and  SEO and uncover additional problematic areas.

Using a  website checker, we can expose and resolve things like slow page speed and bad user experience that can hamper website traffic. When the issues mentioned above are identified and resolved, one increases their chance for ranking on google and attract visitors and leads.

 

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3. Website Builder

The website builder which is paid for separately at a cost of $10 a month enables one to create a store of their choice. The plugin is beginner-friendly and light to improve website page loading speed.

All this while doing website analysis to improve website performance and ensure you conform to the prescribed web standards that will help you reap big in the market.

Constant Contact Review website builder
Source:ConstantContact.com

 

4. Need Visibility from Potential Customers

Constant Contact helps one market their business via email, SEO, social media from the same place. Once one has created content, marketing is needed for is visibility. Spreading the word not only through email but also through SEO optimization will ensure you rank on google because of excellent user experience. One can use a website checker to provide proper SEO and website speed optimization to help people find you.

Constant Contact Core Features

1. Email Marketing

 With email marketing, one can create campaigns. The features present are easy to use. Get the word out.

Constant Contact email automation
Source:ConstantContact.com

2. Email Editor

Forget sending out direct dull-looking emails out. One can add video and images to their chosen email template. Constant contact editor is intuitive and easy to use for beginners and seasoned users. There is also a social share choice. One can also increase engagement by adding polls or support one’s cause by adding the donation button. Plus, there is a functionality to edit blocks of content separately. Your emails will look good on both desktop and mobile devices.

 

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3. Marketing Automation Tool

If you can automate your tasks, why hustle manually? As Constant Contact put’s it ‘send smarter, not harder’ when it comes to emails whether for campaigns or regular newsletters.

With automated email marketing, one can engage and foster customer relationships. Besides, with automated email marketing, one can run the following tasks on: resend non opened emails, automated welcome message to new users, help in contact segmentation, building user’s list(s), and triggering drip email series.

Constant Contact email sdrip template
Source:ConstantContact.com

4. Ecommerce

Constant Contact has e-commerce tools for email marketing to help drive the results for your online e-commerce store. Whether it’s finding new customers or keeping the current customers engaged-the automation email marketing tool has you covered. Also, having the website builder available if you need to develop a store.

 

5. Social Marketing

Constant Contact has Facebook and Instagram to make Ads boost website traffic or create brand awareness.

With deployed social campaigns, one can keep tabs on comments, update information, track and analyze performance.

ConstantContact social media Facebook and Instagram Ads
Source:ConstantContact.com

 

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6. Contact List Management

As Constant Contact puts it, one can create lists but with less of ‘management’. Have the source of your contact list ready, and the email marketing tools do their ‘magic’ including categorisations.

Constant Contact list segmentation
Source:ConstantContact.com

 

7. Tracking Tools

The tracking tools provide the metrics from which one can make useful insights. One can track the results in real-time. You will be able to see who has opened not only their email but also those who share as well.

Tracking in constantcontact email marketing
Source:ConstantContact.com

Advantages and Disadvantages of Constant Contact

Advantages

  • Is beginner friendly since it is personalized/intuitive and easy to use
  • A fantastic tool to create events
  • Has an easy to use email drag and drop editor
  • A selection of email template designs for creating beautiful emails
  • Has an integration functionality to other popular apps.
  • Availability of support and a community of users with helpful information.
  • A plus for the social media sign-up lists
  • The tool comes with QR code for users to scan and  join

Disadvantages

  • The price is on the high end
  • Options for building forms are not varied
  • Limitation in options when it comes to tagging. One is forced to do it manually a contact at a time. Also segmenting on, for instance, customer behaviour is absent.
  • Automation basic
  •  Even though A/B testing is available, it doesn’t go further than using it on subject lines

 

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What Constant Contact Offers: A review

Constant Contact allows one to create customized emails that reflect your brand’s colours. All you need is the URL of the website, and the rest is done.  Also available are templates that are built-in that one can customize. Constant Contact also comes with built-in templates such as for events, newsletters etc.

constant contact campaign template
Source:ConstantContact.com

 

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Also, one can display content to specific content and not to others through segmentation by age, geographical location or past buying history.

There is also functionality for managing contacts useful for creating email lists. It’s intuitive and personalized nature helps in suggesting; if one should add text messaging options for customers to subscribe to an email list, add apps or even add a sign-up page on the website for harvesting email addresses.

Suppose Constant Contact is connected to an online store. In that case, one can segment customers based on data from the online e-commerce store. Point to note is one can only make basic segments with Constant Contact based on for instance clicks. This is one of its downsides.

 

Support

Support should be one of the critical factors to consider when shopping for your email marketing tool. Constant Contact has in its drop-down menu telephone and email support. However, support is not 24/7. They also have a live support chat. They can also be reached on tweeter. Another plus for Constant Contact is that they have a community network where one can ask a question if they are stuck and document centre.

constantContactcomunitynetwork
Source:ConstantContact.com

Ease of Use 

The setup process is personalized, making it easy and quick to begin as you access the features you need. The personalization process is pegged on whether you have experience with an email marketing tool or if you have used the tool before.

For beginner marketers, you will have a streamlined dashboard with the basic and necessary steps/actions to take and explanations are given as well about the assignment.

Constant Contact displays basic dashboard to help you get started with your campaigns. Constant Contact does not come with a free basic plan like other email marketing tools like mail chimp.

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Pricing

The pricing is seen by many as being among the highest in the market, especially with the basic starter plan.

Pricing is in two effective plans with the minimal offer.

One can try using the tool for free for 60 days. One has to pay $20 a month for the basic plan of up to 500 contacts. Discounts are available at 30% for a charity organization and 1% for those who pay yearly instead of monthly. The next plan tier goes for $45 a month for 501-2500 contacts.

Constant Contact Pricing
Source:ConstantContact.com

 

Email Plus

With email plus you have to cough more for the extra features available. The features enable one to; conduct online surveys, create coupons, live events and a donation mechanism.

 

Constant Contact pricing pro
Source:ConstantContact.com

Integration With Other Software

Constant Contact can integrate with many software that businesses use. One can integrate Constant Contact with content management systems like WordPress, eCommerce solutions like Shopify, Customer Relationship Management solution like Salesforce and social media like FaceBook and, Email provider like Gmail. The list goes on and on.

Constant Contact also shines when it comes to one being able to directly plug/integrate add ons in the form of native apps to extend functionality. For instance- Constant Contact for Office 365, Gmail as well as IOS list builder.

 

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What Features are Available with Constant Contact?

FEATURE AVAILABILITY FEATURE AVAILABILITY
Free plan NO Community support network YES
A/B  testing YES Intuitive UI YES
Advanced segmentation NO Dynamic  content management Yes
App available in the marketplace YES Tips Personalization in-app   NO
Live chat Yes/Limited Free trial YES

 

 

Is Constant Contact a Better Choice?

Just like any other email marketing tool out there, your needs determine what choices you make. We can state that overall Constant Contact strong side is its ease of use for both beginners and experienced email marketers. Besides, Constant Contact has advanced contact management features. The tool is also intuitive and has a personalized process when setting it up.  There is also a community network and support.

The downside is that its starter price is a bit overpriced compared to other automated email marketing solutions out there. Also, segmentation is basic, for instance, based on openings and clicks. One can do A/B testing, however just the subject lines. Also, the form builder is primary.

However, that said, Constant Contact is great for charities, beginners, free trial to test the tool and for those who pay yearly as opposed to monthly.

ConstantContact Campaign example
Source:ConstantContact.com

 

Conclusion 

Constant Contact is great for beginners. It is easy to use, and with the available templates, one can create good-looking emails.

The marketing automation tool also has a good community support network from where one can get inspiration and ask for help if need be while using the tool. Also, it comes with a free trial.

Constant Contact email market automation tool promises to resolve your woes. Do you need to generate leads and make more sales for your business? Let Constant Contact do the work, while you focus your energy and time on prospecting and generating leads. As Constant Contact tagline goes,  ‘Work smarter…not harder!’

All Screenshots Source: Constant Contact.com

 

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