Some thoughts on Constant Contact

I use Constant Contact for The Lab’s mailing list and really enjoy using the application. I wanted to share with you some of the things I like, and dislike, about the product.

What is Constant Contact?

Constant Contact is a SAAS-based email marketing management application. It manages contacts, images, emails, and the analytics around your campaigns.

What does it cost?

Constant Contact pricing is based upon the number of contacts you have stored in the system. Costs start at $15 per month for fewer than 500 contacts and rise from there. However, they offer a FREE 60 day trial which is enough time to dig in and determine if the application is right for your needs.

Creating emails

Constant Contact uses a straightforward wizard to construct your emails. The editor allows the non-technology savvy users to easily create good looking emails, inserting images, formatting text, inserting social media links. For those of you that are comfortable with HTML, however, you can easily load the email into the built-in editor and build a very robust mail message.

However, a downside of the editor is that it requires Internet Explorer or Firefox. Someone on the road with their IPad, as I am now, cannot use the email editor at all.

Managing Contacts

The contact management aspects of Constant Contact are basic but sufficient for your email marketing efforts. I really like, however, the ease with which you can customize the information you capture from people when they sign-up for your emails. A simple form enables you to define fields that you want captured and if they are required.

Social Integration
Constant Contact has done a nice job providing social media integration. Email and social media must be used as complimentary communication methods and this solution handles this need well. When emails are sent you are able to save your mail as a web page, automatically tweet links to the page, and share the page on various social sharing web sites. In my experience you can achieve impressive results by sharing these messages on mail and social channels, give it a try.