Constant Contact is one of the oldest and most respected names in e-mail marketing, but that does not necessarily mean that they have the best offerings on tap for savvy marketers. Constant Contact offers a very well-thought out user interface, plenty of campaign management and tracking features, and excellent support. On the downside, Constant Contact is fairly expensive by market standards, but there are free trials available to ensure that Constant Contact is a good choice before making any purchasing decisions.

User Interface

Constant Contact’s user interface is sleek and streamlined, making it a real joy to use. Other e-mail marketing software packages are clunky and feel as if they were put together by a team of software engineers that were not well coordinated. By contrast, Constant Contact feels as if it was designed by ex-Apple engineers; the user interface is attractive, functional, and very intuitive. The included multi-lingual e-mail templates are very useful for some, but those who want to upload their own HTML files are welcome to do so. All files are easily modifiable with a built-in editor. Not only does the WYSIWYG editor work well, it allows for the addition of hyperlinks, Amazon code, PayPal snippets, and so on. The user interface itself easily deserves an A.

The user interface makes its presence felt nowhere more keenly than it does when organizing a new campaign. Simply click on the Email  Campaigns tab along the top, and create new a campaign. All recent campaigns show up on the Home tab, along with the number of e-mails sent, bounced (both as a number and percentage), spam reports, op-outs, opens, clicks, and forwards whenever relevant. Few user interfaces are as clean as Constant Contact’s, and that makes creating and managing campaigns easy. Constant Contact earns top marks for its intuitive and well-executed campaign management features: A plus.

Managing Mailing Lists

Mailing lists can be imported from Outlook, or an CSV (comma separated values) file exported from virtually any database software written in the past 20 years. Once a list is imported, it can be used by itself, in conjunction with other lists, or use to select certain e-mail lists from within for a new campaign. Not only does Constant Contact making inputting data easy, it makes the output of data very easy as well in the form of raw reports. Why anyone would want to export data from Constant Contact is certainly a question worthy of some debate, especially considering the fact that Constant Contact offers some of the best looking and useful reporting sections in the entire field of e-mail marketing suites. Again, the attention to detail by those writing the user interface elements of Constant Contact weigh heavily on the efficacy of the product as a whole. Again, Constant Contact shows that with age comes experience, and they earn another A plus for easy import, export, and management of data.

Potential Flaws

If there were a flaw to be found in Constant Contact’s offerings, it would clearly be in their pricing structure. There are many better deals on the market for e-mail marketing software and services, but one would do well to remember the old saying about things that glitter. Another saying is probably relevant as well, that about customers getting what they pay for, and that certainly seems to be the situation with Constant Contact.

Constant Contact’s pricing structure is unique in that they charge by the number of contacts, and not by the number of e-mails sent. This can be a major advantage for those who use the same mailing list over and over again, or a major problem for those that are constantly acquiring new e-mail addresses. For up to 500 e-mail addresses the price is $15 per month, 2500 e-mail addresses is $30 per month, 5000 e-mail addresses is $50 per month, 10000 e-mail addresses is $75 per month, and 25000 e-mail addresses cost $150 per month. Those consumers needing to use more than 25000 e-mail addresses can call for pricing. There are also discounts on pre-paid accounts.

A few final flaws worth mentioning are the pitifully insufficient amount of online space (512 KB or 5 images, whichever comes first) allocated for picture storage, and the lack of auto-responders. The last seems intentional, and it is also worth observing that many users report accounts closed with almost no notice if they violate Constant Contact’s rules and regulations, especially those revolving around CAN-SPAM adherence. These rules are in place to protect Constant Contact as much as they are the customers of Constant Contact, so be certain to understand them thoroughly before signing on the dotted line. Restrictions and higher than market prices are the only sore spot on an otherwise honor roll worthy report card: Constant Contact gets a B for pricing and restrictions, which might keep it off the Dean’s List, but that is far from a reprimand sending it to the Detention Hall.

Things to Remember

Before signing on the dotted line, one should avail themselves of a trial account. Trial accounts last for 60 days but have a 50 e-mail address limit. Still, it may be a worthwhile idea to spend a few days practicing and understanding the software prior to paying for it and discovering that there was a question that could have been answered before the clock was ticking. On a final note, those that do find Constant Contact to be a worthwhile investment should try Googling the company and looking for reviews, as many sites offer promotional coupons good for a few free e-mails, or additional time.

Email Marketing 101

Today we are going to start a new series called Email Marketing 101. I will try and keep the content within these posts pretty straight forward and relevant for the average bear. If you have any questions drop me a line in the comments. Enjoy!

We’ve all seen it. You open your email client and find new emails. To protect you your email client blocks the images unless the email is coming from “Safe Sender” or another known party you have approved.

Your email client does this primarily to protect you from spammers using tracking pixels also known as a “Web Bug” . But these spam protections have a huge impact on your email campaigns. Essentially they force your emails become functional without images.

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Keep them Short and to the Point

No one likes run on sentences! The same goes for email titles. As stated in an earlier post, keep the length of your eblast headline around 50 Characters (including spaces). I generally don’t suggest complete sentences, fragments are fine to use, often you can convey more in 2 – 3 fragments separated by a ~ or – than a sentence.
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If you send out an Eblast You want it to be seen right?

Well here are 7 tips that will help your eblast stand out!

1. Use a Descriptive Headline:

There is nothing more crucial to a good eblast than a descriptive headline. Picture the headline as a cover letter of a resume, if you don’t have a good one, there’s a higher chance it won’t get looked at no matter how outstanding you may be.

This approach also helps get your eblast past spam filters, if you have a generic title such as “Just Reduced!”

More on which headlines work and which don’t in a later post.
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