Last week, we took a look at AWeber – an email marketing service I have used for years. This week we are covering a different auto responder that I have found to be popular among therapists, Constant Contact.

Over the next few weeks, I will cover the remaining popular email marketing services, including:

• AWeber
• Constant Contact
• MailChimp
• iContact
• Mailpoet

So what makes Constant Contact different from other email marketing services? Below are some of the pros and cons of Constant Contact for therapists.

PROS OF CONSTANT CONTACT:

• Free Trial Period: For those who aren’t ready to commit to an email marketing service, Constant Contact’s free trial period is a great way to test out their different features. Unlike AWeber, Constant Contact allows you to try their service free of charge (and no credit card required) for 60 days. There is one downside to this free period, which you an find in the ‘cons’ below.
• Email templates: Constant Contact has hundreds of email templates, which allow you to customize them to match your colors and branding.
• Drag and drop editing: The ability to drag and drop within the email allows the creation of emails to be much easier and streamlined.
• Store & edit images: Constant Contact allows you to store photos (only up to 5 with the basic version) and edit the photos – including adding effects, frames and cropping.
• Social media integration: As with AWeber, Constant Contact allows you to integrate your social media within your emails – allowing users to easily share your emails, or follow you on your various social media accounts.
• Analytics: Track the number of people who opened your emails, clicked any links and forwards. You also have the ability to view the analytics in graph form. Constant Contact also allows you to integrate Google Analytics to track your email links, a great way to monitor your website traffic with your email analytics.
• List management: Constant Contact allows you to easily import your current email lists from Excel, Outlook, Gmail or other email services.
• Sequencing capabilities: As with AWeber, when a person signs up for your newsletter or free report on your website, the autoresponder service allows you to automatically schedule follow up emails to build a relationship.

CONS OF CONSTANT CONTACT: 

• Very limited free trial period: While the free trial period is a great way to play around with the different features, the 60 day free trial period only allows you to send emails to 10 recipients. After 10 emails are sent out, you will have to pay $15 per month for up to 500 subscribers.
• No “Include” and “Exclude” specific lists: Unlike with AWeber, you cannot include and exclude specific lists with Constant Contact. When sending out an email campaign, you will not be able to send to multiple lists at once, while excluding certain lists.
• Overpriced: While the base price seems to be cheaper than other email marketing services, additional features including image storage and email archives both cost an additional $5 per month. These features are free in other email marketing services.
• Limitations for list building: Constant Contact only allows you to create and use one sign up form for your website. Therefore, if you have more than one newsletter or Free Report, you will have to get another account to create an additional sign up form.

PRICE OF CONSTANT CONTACT: 

Constant Contact is comparatively priced to AWeber and other email marketing services. For 0 – 500 subscribers, you will pay $15 per month. For 501 – 2500 its $30 per month, for 2501 – 5000 its $50 per month, and for 5001 – 10000 its $75 per month. While less than 500 subscribers is cheaper than AWeber, once you get above 500 subscribers, the price is very comparable to that of AWeber.

Constant Contacts easy to use email builder and analytics make it a great option for email marketing. Next week, we will take a look at MailChimp – another popular email marketing service among therapists.

By: Becky DeGrossa