How To Choose The Best Email Marketing Solution

A Comparison Of The Top Three Email Marketing Solutions: AWeber, iContact, Constant Contact

Part Four: Constant Contact Review

In parts two and three, AWeber and iContact were thoroughly reviewed. In this part of the series, we will take a look at Constant Contact.

Constant Contact is as old as AWeber, being formed in 1998. They have 450,000 customers, making them the second-largest provider of email marketing solutions.

What quality of service and usability does Constant Contact provide?

Deliverability-Related Features

Constant Contact advertises that its delivery rate exceeds 97%. Though much higher than smaller email marketing services, this number is a bit lower than you should like. Delivery rates of only 97% mean that nearly one out of every 30 remains undelivered.

Constant Contact also implements a no tolerance spam policy and claims strong partnerships with ISPs. While constant contact has automated spam filtering, the 97% delivery rate would suggest that it does not work as well as it should work.

Analytics And Tracking

All necessary basic reporting features are supported by constant contact. You can tell what percentage of emails was opened, how often links were clicked, and observe bounced email rates.

You can also find out how often your emails are liked or shared on Facebook, the running count of tweets they’ve received, and detect LinkedIn posts relating to your campaign.

Very basic functions exist to compare the effectiveness of your campaigns. You can graph results according to email opening rates, click through’s, bounces, and a handful of other stats. This service has no advanced searching or campaign sorting options available.

Customer Support

Customer support is available via phone. Hours of availability are limited to 10 1/2 hours per day and only on weekdays. Representatives are friendly and can answer any questions you have. Their automated answering service has a poor quality and unprofessional sound. Yes, this is picky, but it does contribute to their overall image.

The knowledge base on their website looks very good for basic users. They also have some more advanced tips.

Live webinars are conducted throughout the week. They do have an impressive lineup of both live and recorded webinars. Their webinars are divided into three categories. 16 different live webinars are available on a huge range of topics. During these live webinars, you can ask any questions you would like.

An additional 17 recorded webinars are available, and all of these are completely different topics within the live ones. If you enjoy learning through webinars, Constant Contact has by far the greatest selection.

Additional Features

This e-mail solutions provider focuses mainly on the basics. Few notable additional features exist.

Constant Contact gives you over 400 e-mail news letter templates and you can order custom templates if you desire, but they will charge additional fees.

Conclusion

Constant Contact is worthy of consideration. They have all the tools you need to conduct successful e-mail campaigns. They are lacking in bells and whistles, but these aren’t entirely necessary.

Visit ConstantConact.com

In part five, the top three e-mail marketing services– AWeber, iContact, constant contact– will be compared and rated head-to-head.

Continue on to part five: Top Email Marketing Solutions Compared