In this comprehensive Constant Contact review, I’ll give you my honest, unbiased opinion of a platform that earns continuous acclaim as one of the best beginner-friendly email marketing tools.

Although it may not be perfect (let’s face it, very few tools are), when you’re just starting your journey towards building a profitable blog or another content platform, the last thing you need is a complex, costly tool, and confusing.

After all, the more time you spend identifying how everything works, the less time you get to work on what’s important:

Creating great content and growing your audience.

Still, Constant Contact isn’t the only email marketing service that prides itself on user-friendliness, so what about this one that makes it one of the best email tools for beginners?

I’ll answer this question in the review below and outline the pros, cons, and everything you need to know about this all-in-one messaging tool.

What is Constant Contact?

Ranked highly in my guide to 2022’s top five best email marketing tools, Constant Contact combines novice-friendly simplicity with advanced features to help marketers and content creators grow their audience via multiple channels.

More than just another email list-builder, the service gives you the freedom and flexibility to communicate with your subscribers via whatever method suits them (and you) best, whether that’s through SMS text messaging, social media, or even online events.

Indeed, after initially launching in 1995, one of the company’s first acquisitions was an events management platform known as e2M, and to this day, it remains a popular alternative to tools like Eventbrite for building up attendee lists for corporate conferences and events.

We’ll talk more about that later in this review, but we’ll also take an in-depth look at its impressive array of communications tools and how you can put them to work on building your brand.

Who is Constant Contact For?

Bloggers, brands, and businesses alike will find a lot to appreciate about Constant Contact simply because it’s such a versatile tool.

Though the platform originally pitched itself at the B2B (Business to Business) market, it now offers tools and templates for a wide variety of both B2B and B2C customers, including, but by no means limited to:

Accountants and bookkeepers
Business administrators and business support services
Child daycare services
Consultants
Educational services
Health and wellness brands
Construction industry professionals
Non-profits
Real estate agents
Restaurants
Musicians, artists, writers, and creators.

As a content creator who writes primarily for other content creators, you can probably guess which of those appeals to me the most, but honestly, it doesn’t matter what industry you’re in or what you make.

If you have a message to spread or a product to promote, Constant Contact offers a range of features to help you do that.

Constant Contact Features

Besides its user-friendliness, the one thing I love about Constant Contact is that it contains enough features to help you manage every aspect of building your audience.

From capturing your first leads and subscribers to making the most of your list with an attractive, conversion-optimized campaign, it truly serves as an all-in-one messaging platform.

Some of those critical features include:

1. Email Sign-Up Forms

If you’re going to be using email marketing to promote your blog, then it goes without saying that you’ll need at least one sign-up form to start collecting subscribers.

Constant Contact offers a lot of options here.

You can choose a basic sign-up form that sits within a section of your website, or you can create forms that pop up, fly in and out, or even appear as a banner.

If you want to take things a step further, you can even go ahead and create a fully customized lead generation landing page to grab new subscribers from social media and email.

2. Customizable Email Templates

Once your sign-up form has been active for a while, you’ll have started to build up a list of subscribers, which means it’s time to send out your first email.

To do that, you can select from any one of several hundred different email templates, each beautifully designed and fully customizable.

Various themes such as holidays, events, sales, and general newsletters arrange templates, and there’s also a handy search function to make it even easier to find a template that best suits your needs.

Once you’ve found a template you like, you can edit it using the beginner-friendly visual editor. It should look very familiar if you’ve ever used a drag-and-drop landing page builder like Elementor.

Simply click on an element to bring up various customization options or drag new elements (called blocks) to create the perfect email.

When you’re done, you can preview how your email message will look on desktop and mobile browsers (good news, all the templates are fully responsive) and even send a test email to ensure everything is working perfectly.

If you’re pleased and content with your design, you can move on and select several options for sending that email, including:

Choosing which of your email lists to send it to
Choosing to send it right away or schedule it for a later date (perfect for time-sensitive sales promotions).
A/B testing for headers and pre-headers.
Adding your physical address to comply with relevant anti-spam laws.

3. Social Media Management

It’s no secret that social media can be a potent tool for helping you to launch a successful blog, and Constant Contact has plenty to help you out in that regard too.

Disappointingly, it doesn’t offer the kind of design templates you get for emails (though I recommend Canva for some awesome social media templates). However, it does offer a lot more.

Using the social media management platform, you can connect your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Linkedin accounts create posts with texts and images to drive traffic to your website and schedule them to be published at a time your audience is most likely to see them.

As if that wasn’t enough, you can also use Constant Contact to reply to messages and comments and generally take control of your entire social presence in one place. 

Suppose you’re familiar with social media tools like Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, or SproutSocial. In that case, you’ll appreciate how convenient it is to have many of the same features offered by those services within the same platform as your email marketing tools.

4. Reporting

Beyond simply creating and scheduling posts, the analytics features will also show how each of your posts did in terms of impressions, engagements, and other vital statistics.

The reporting features don’t end there, either.

Once you’ve sent your email campaigns, you’ll get real-time feedback on their performance.

Constant Contact tells you:

How many emails were opened
How many clicks were made from those emails
How that click rate compares to the industry average
How many emails bounced (didn’t reach an active inbox)?

Elsewhere, you can track your contacts’ activity from sign-up to conversion to help you better understand customer journeys and optimize your sales and marketing processes.

Finally, if you’re integrating Constant Contact with your online store, the reporting features will also show you how many people clicked on your products from your email and social posts and, of course, how many sales you made from those clicks.

5. Event Planning

Constant Contact’s most underrated feature is its all-in-one events management system.

Every aspect of your event marketing and promotion can be handled within the platform, from online classes and webinars to offline fundraisers and conferences.

Using the same user-friendly drag-and-drop tools that you’ll find in its other features, you can create a fully customizable landing page for your event, complete with a registration form that gives you the freedom to collect custom data about attendees, such as food preferences/allergies, accessibility issues, and other important information.

The form can connect with eCommerce solutions to allow you to sell tickets and offer promotional discounts. At the same time, Constant Contact’s email marketing tools can be used to send out automated confirmations, reminders, and other essential details.

If you’ve opted into the SMS service, you can also use the same tools to send email invites and promote your event via social media and text messages.

As if all that wasn’t enough, you can also use the email list’s tools to create VIP lists or organize your attendees in a way that suits your event.

With the event publicized to the maximum, the platform’s reporting and tracking features help you to keep tabs on the number of RSVPs and tickets sold.

6. Other Key Constant Contact Features

The five main features listed above may be the highlights of this incredibly versatile marketing platform, but there’s even more on offer.

Other key features include:

Organize your contacts into separate email lists
Import and export contact lists
Manage full campaigns combining email, SMS, and social
Build websites and eCommerce stores (Plus plan only)
Setup and manage Google Ads
Integrate with a whole wealth of third-party services, including

Canva
Zapier
Shopify
SurveyMonkey
Eventbrite
SalesForce.

How Much Does Constant Contact Cost?

Another aspect working in Constant Contact’s favor as one of the best beginner-friendly email marketing tools is its very affordable pricing.

When you’re at the start of your journey, you may not have a large budget to invest in a top-price platform. Even if you do, I understand that if you are not 100% confident in your success, paying over the odds is a risk you’re not willing to take.

Fortunately, there are no such concerns here.

Constant Contact offers two digital marketing plans, both of which come at wallet-friendly prices depending on the number of subscribers you have (or intend to have).

These are:

PRODUCT NAME	PRODUCT DESCRIPTION	PRODUCT PRICE
Core Plan	5 x users Drag-and-drop email editor Several hundred email templates A/B testing for subject lines Include video in emails Website sign-up forms Lead generation landing pages Integrated gift card incentives Automated welcome email for new contacts List growth, email view, and bounce rate reports 1GB image storage	$9.99 p/m (0 – 500 contacts) up to $300 p/m (45,001 – 50,000 contacts)
Plus Plan	Unlimited users Lookalike Facebook ad targeting Integrated Google Ads Text message sign-ups Integrate products from your Shopify, eBay, or Etsy store into your email Dynamic email personalization Automated resend to non-openers Abandoned cart reminders Automated email behavior series Conversions and sales reports 2 GB image storage Build and publish a website.	$45 p/m (0 – 500 contacts) up to $410 p/m (45,001 – 50,000 contacts)

How Difficult is Constant Contact to Use?

If I haven’t made it abundantly evident by now, Constant Contact is a straightforward email marketing tool.

The dashboard and navigational menus are well laid-out and highly intuitive, so you’ll never have trouble finding the exact tool you need.

Then, when it comes time to start building landing pages and sign-up forms or simply sending out an email blast, the combination of beautifully-designed templates and uncomplicated drag-and-drop builders make the whole thing a breeze.

Still, rather than tell you, why don’t I show you?

How to Get Started and Create Your First Campaign With Constant Contact

1. Visit Constant Contact

Point your browser to ConstantContact.com and take advantage of the free trial by entering your email address in the box provided, then click ‘sign up free.’

2. Create Your Account

On the next screen, create your account by entering all the usual details, such as your name, contact information, and password.

Provided you’ve done everything correctly, you’ll receive a message telling you your account is ready, and you can head straight to it by clicking the ‘Go to My Account button.

3. Start the Onboarding Process

On the next screen, you’ll be given two options.

You can either dive right in by uploading your logo and customizing the look and feel of your campaigns to match your branding, or you can complete the quick onboarding questionnaire.

Personally, I prefer to take the second approach as it helps to customize the platform to suit your needs better.

You’ll be asked questions about your familiarity with the software, the type of business or brand you run, and how you plan to use the service.

You’ll also be asked if you have a list of contacts already. If you do, you’ll be directed to a page where you can import them.

If you don’t, don’t worry, that’s exactly why I’m talking you through how to use Constant Contact in the first place so that you can start to build that list.

4. Create Your First Sign-Up Form

Now comes the fun part. From your dashboard, you can do everything from creating and sending emails and social media posts, adding contacts, or even accessing a wealth of tutorials to guide you through the platform.

I’ll talk more about those tutorials later, but since I’m writing this under the assumption that you’re brand new to email marketing, I suggest we help you create your first sign-up form so that you can start building your email list.

To do this, select ‘Sign-up forms’ from the top menu, then click ‘Create sign-up form.’

Here, you have several options.

As I showed you earlier when talking about Constant Contact’s features, you can create a sign-up form in several ways, including:

Pop-ups
Flyouts
Banners
Inline (a static form placed within your website)
Lead generation landing page
Facebook ads with a sign-up form.

For this tutorial, I’m going to create a pop-up sign-up form, partly because I think they look cool but mostly because they’re a great way to generate leads.

Select the pop-up option from the menu, and you’ll be presented with a basic form and an easy-to-use visual editor with which to customize it.

Here, you can change everything from the title and description to how many contact fields you have and even the color and design.

Doing so is as easy as selecting the element from the left-hand menu and changing the text, colors, and other options until you have something that looks like this:

Didn’t I tell you it was easy?

5. Publish Your Form

To use your new form on your website, you need to publish it, which means ditching the free trial and signing up for one of the two paid plans we looked at earlier.

First, click the ‘publish’ button in the top-right-hand corner.

Next, select your preferred plan and choose whether to add SMS marketing to your package.

After paying for your plan, you can then access the code that you’ll need to add the form to your website.

Alternatively, if you’ve installed WordPress to build your site, you can use the Constant Contact WordPress plugin to connect to your account and publish your sign-up form automatically.

6. Using Other Constant Contact Features

I used the example of creating a sign-up form above for two reasons.

1. It’s the essential thing you’ll need if you’re going to use email marketing to promote your blog, so it’s the best place to start.

2. It’s a perfect example of how easy the whole thing is to use.

Whether creating a landing page, designing and sending an email, or sending social media messages, everything is just as straightforward, with lots of visual drag-and-drop tools and customizable templates to make every part of your marketing campaign as easy as possible.

What is Constant Contact Customer Service Like?

Having used Constant Contact for a while now, I can honestly say that I’m thrilled with their customer service.

This is partly because they are one of the few SaaS (Software as a Service) companies that offer telephone support to all their customers regardless of which plan you’re on.

At a time when many other companies limit phone support to their highest-priced plans (or don’t offer it at all), this comes as a welcome move for anyone who simply prefers to speak to another human being when they run into a problem. 

Of course, the standard live chat and email options are also present and correct, and all three methods of contact put you in touch with an expert who will take as much time as you need to understand your problem and help you come up with a solution.

This is just one of the many reasons why I keep telling you that the company is a good option for newcomers. 

Whenever you try any new tool or service, there will always be at least a little learning curve to overcome. 

Constant Contact’s specialists not only know what they’re doing, but they guide you through every conundrum in plain English, never patronizing you and always making you feel like a valued customer.

Tutorials and Help Files

Of course, if you’d instead figure out the problem for yourself before reaching out for support, there are many options to do that.

The company offers a whole library of video tutorials on YouTube, along with in-depth webinars to teach you how to make the most of your new marketing platform. A helpful knowledgebase and a helpful community support forum also help to ensure that no matter what you’re struggling with, you’ll get the solutions you need in no time.

What Do Other People Say About Constant Contact?

By now, I think I’ve made it pretty clear that I love Constant Contact for its user-friendliness and that you can access an extensive array of marketing and communications tools from one very well-designed dashboard.

Still, if you’re going to spend money on a service, it pays to consider more than one person’s opinion.

So what do other people have to say about Constant Contact?

The company scores 4 stars out of 5 on trusted software review site G2, with the majority of their 4,800+ reviews stating many positive things.

Those who like the service praise it for many of the same reasons that I do:

It’s simple, easy to use, and great for beginners.

Meanwhile, those who aren’t big fans of the service all seem to have similar complaints that the design options are somewhat limited and could be improved.

Constant Contact Pros and Cons:

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Frequently Asked Questions About Constant Contact

Is Constant Contact legit?

Absolutely. Constant Contact is one of the oldest email marketing services on the web, with a strong reputation for keeping your subscriber’s data safe and secure.

Is Constant Contact expensive?

Constant Contact isn’t the cheapest email marketing tool (ConvertKit is slightly more reasonable), but it’s still very affordable for an all-in-one marketing tool.

Does Constant Contact work with Gmail?

Though Constant Contact works better with domain-based email addresses, you can use it with Gmail if you use it in conjunction with Zapier.

Is Constant Contact Right for You? My Final Verdict

So, having learned all there is to know about Constant Contact, only one key question remains:

Is it the right tool for you?

In almost all circumstances, the answer is a resounding yes.

If you’re new to contact marketing and growing your blog, you’ll love how beginner-friendly the whole platform is, not to mention how relatively affordable it is. 

Suppose you’ve been doing this for a while but find it frustrating to manage your email marketing, social media, and other communications via multiple platforms. In that case, you’ll love that you can do all the above from one intuitive dashboard.

However, the answer is probably no if you’re a more experienced user.

While Constant Contact certainly packs many features that newbies will love, serious marketing professionals may prefer some of the advanced features and analytics tools offered by Aweber or SendinBlue.