5 Alternatives to Constant Contact
Constant Contact has been at the forefront of email marketing for more than twenty years now and while it is remarkable that the brand is still so recognizable, the product may be struggling to keep up with the high degree of complexity required of today’s marketing tools.
No doubt it is still a great choice for beginners attempting their first campaigns, but more experienced marketers may quickly become frustrated by the tired capture forms and limited ability to customize. To stay competitive, it is vital to keep innovating and Constant Contact is not able to provide the kind of sophisticated automation functions that email marketing can now offer. Even on a budget, there is a number of Constant Contact alternatives offering more features.
1. Omnisend
Omnisend is breaking new ground in email marketing and has an array of features on offer, which can be easily integrated across channels. Based around an impressive email platform, the tool provides marketing automation with advanced customization to support the entire marketing operation.
Best Features
Innovative email capture forms - Boost your subscription rates with dynamic forms and gather more data by adding customized fields.
Intuitive Content Editor - A user-friendly interface offers drag and drop design to customize any one of a number of templates. Select additional elements like a Scratch Card or Gift Box for optimum click-through rates.
Segmentation and pinpoint Targeting - Create comprehensive customer profiles to tailor every message on a personal level.
Omnichannel integration - In addition to SMS and email, utilize push notifications, Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger and Viber! Can be integrated with Google Customer Match and Facebook Custom Audiences.
Sophisticated Automation Workflows - Specially designed for ecommerce businesses, Omnisend offers built-for-you automation workflows.
Pricing Structure
Free : Basic email features include sending up to 15K emails per month
Standard : From $16 per month you have the option to add SMS to your campaigns and get access to automation workflows
Pro : From $199 per month you will be able to send unlimited emails and use advanced segmentation features integrated across all available channels
Enterprise : From $2,000 per month you will be appointed an account and email deliverability manager and take advantage of sophisticated customization options
2. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is another email marketing platform that focuses on managing customer data and automating the entire sales process to run your business efficiently. The user-friendly platform allows for the seamless integration of various communication channels and offers fully customizable marketing automation features.
Best Features
Sales CRM with automation – manage tasks in a calendar and set up notifications to keep you and your sales team organized. Automate workflows to turn leads into customers and track engagement.
Effective Segmentation – allows you to personalize your messages with a good selection of segmentation options.
Channel integration – offers in-site messaging, SMS and Facebook Custom Audiences alongside email for additional reach.
Automation Builder – a simple drag-and-drop interface makes for easy customization of workflows within the automation builder.
Lead scoring – Find your most qualified leads by tracking their interactions with you and see at a glance who is ready to buy.
Pricing Structure
Lite : $9 per month gives you access to basic email and marketing automation
Plus : $49 per month opens sales automation and data integration as well as a host of other features. This level allows you to integrate SMS and Facebook Custom Audiences
Professional : $129 per month adds a machine learning platform to score leads and help identify which customers are most likely to convert to sales
Enterprise : $229 per month provides you with your own account manager, onboarding, custom design services and personalized deliverability
3. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a very well-known brand in the email service provider market. Simple and user friendly, it has all the basics needed to create a successful email campaign as well as the functionality to produce Google and social media ads. In addition to the regular automation options, it also offers segmentation features to write and test a selection of different messages.
Best Features
Email capture forms – a selection of templates can be customized and embedded on your website.
Visual email builder – user-friendly editor allows for dragging and dropping elements into customizable templates.
Simple automation – include all the basics needed to create simple automation workflows for email drip campaigns.
Ad creation – create ads for Facebook, Google, or Instagram.
Segmentation and reporting – offers easy to read reports and relatively advanced segmentation features so you can send personalized messages to subscribers.
Pricing Structure
Mailchimp’s pricing is rather complicated due to a basic fee for the plan with additional costs dependent on the number of subscribers.
Free: Limited features with a maximum of 2,000 subscribers
Grow From $10 per month. Totals $30/month for up to 2,000 subscribers
Pro: Starts at $199 per month. Totals $229/month for up to 2,000 subscribers
4. GetResponse
GetResponse provides an advanced suite of tools to manage all your email marketing needs and the bonus of an integrated webinar marketing solution not offered by other platforms. There are hundreds of email templates, capture forms, and landing pages to choose from, while complex workflows can be designed easily using a drag-and-drop builder.
Best Features
CRM Functions – nurture leads by tracking every customer throughout your customized sales process with scoring and sales to date.
Webinar solutions – from invites to registration forms and reminders, this has all the requirements to set up webinars and integrate them into your campaigns.
Ecommerce tools – segment contacts based on shopping habits, product recommendations and abandoned cart tracking.
Advanced marketing automation – simple but powerful workflows can be designed easily with a drag-and-drop workflow builder
Multinational campaigns – deliver emails promptly in any time zone and work in over 15 languages
Pricing Structure
GetResponse’s pricing is based largely upon the number of subscribers you have, so you can scale up as you grow. These are the four plans currently available:
Basic: $12.30 per month for up to 1000 subscribers will get you the basic features of email and marketing automation
Essential: $40.18 per month gives you additional features for marketing automation and ecommerce as well as webinar functionality for up to 100 attendees
Professional: $81.18 per month supports up to 300 webinar attendees and gives you custom workflows as well as custom DKIM
Enterprise: at $830 per month for over 100,000 contacts you will be provided with an account manager and dedicated infrastructure/IP address
5. ConvertKit
ConvertKit may have been designed with bloggers in mind, it does have all the fundamentals required to run an ecommerce business. You can send an unlimited number of emails and create customized forms. Integrate automations with more than 70 apps using a visual build tool and add even more through API.
Best Features
Customized forms – a collection of effective templates can be simply customized and embedded as needed on your website.
Simple Subscriptions – using segments and tags you can organize your list to send personalized emails.
Visual automation builder – user-friendly platform makes it easy to send the perfect email to each segment of subscribers.
70+ direct integrations – ecommerce apps supported include Recart, Shoelace, WooCommerce and Wix.
Active Slack community – find support and encouragement from other current users.
Price Structure
Paid annually these are the current prices:
<1,000 subscribers - $24 per month
1,000 - 3,000 subscribers - $41 per month
3,000 - 5,000 subscribers - $64 per month
5,000+ subscribers starts at $83 per month
Consider all the features you need for your email marketing right now and what you might want to achieve down the line. The best alternative to Constant Contact will entirely depend on what you’re looking for.
While it is possible to start with a basic plan in the beginning, with thoughts of upgrading to a better tool as and when you need it, you might save yourself some extra work in the future, by selecting a comprehensive solution from the get-go.
