Constant Contact is the most popular solution for author newsletters. But is it the best? Here are 7 reasons why I prefer Mail Chimp to Constant Contact.
1. MailChimp is free(er) than Constant Contact
Constant Contact costs a minimum of $15 a month. If you have 500 names or less MailChimp is free. After the 500th subscriber the prices are (currently) the same.
If you are just starting your email list you probably don’t have many names. It takes many authors years to build a good sized list. Why pay $15 a month for the first slow months when you can start using MailChimp for free?
If it takes you a year to get to 500 addresses you will save $180 by using MailChimp. That’s like a free iPod.
2. MailChimp integrates with Twitter
Mail Chimp lets your readers share your newsletter with their Twitter followers with one click. Even if you don’t use Twitter this can be a big platform builder.
3. MailChimp integrates with your blog.
MailChimp can take your blog posts from any blog and turn them into email newsletters automatically. This is called RSS to email and it is a must have in any email solution in my opinion. iContact & FeedBlitz also provide RSS -> Email services. Constant Contact does not.
MailChimp also has widgets premade for WordPress, Typepad, Joomla and Drupal. Constant Contact has no official plugins although there are some third party plugins available.
4. MailChimp has cleaner embed code.
Constant Contact allows you to embed a subscribe form in your site but the code is bad code. It sometimes breaks other parts of the design and is generally difficult to use. MailChimp, on the other hand, uses relatively clean CSS instead of invisible tables used by constant contact. MailChimp is still not standards compliant but it is at least a step in the right direction.
5. MailChimp has a easier interface.
This, is a matter of opinion, but I think MailChimp is easier to use. Mailchimp has a monkey at the top of every page that gives tips on how to use the site. Who can compete with that? This is in addition to the video guides, webcasts and intuitive interface.
6. MailChimp keeps you out of the spam box.
The worst thing that can happen to your newsletter is for someone to mark it as spam. When they do that your newsletter can get spammed for your other subscribers as well. When MailChimp sees that someone marked you as spam it automatically unsubscribes that person from the list. Both MailChimp and Constant Contact provide easy unsubscribe features. I’m not sure if they auto unsubscribe when you get spammed though.
7. MailChimp plays nice with others
Whether you are putting together an event on EventBrite, a survey on SurveyGizmo or want to see Google Analytics reports from your email surveys MailChimp will integrate with those services.
So lets say you wanted to schedule an event to speak about your book. You could create the event in EventBrite which would kick the info to MailChimp for the invitations. You could then create a speaker evaluation with SurveyGizmo and then MailChimp will do the rest.
Constant contact does not integrate with much. It is almost like they got lazy a couple of years ago when they got dominant market share and stopped innovating. As a result they feel like a Web 1.0 company trying to compete in a Web 2.0 world.
What do you think?
- What newsletter solution do you use?
- Are you happy with it?
- What do you like/dislike about Constant Contact?
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8 Responses
Constant Contact does unsubscribe all spam complaints. It also hides their identities from the user as best they can to protect the identity and privacy of the reporter.
Constant Contact has a better list management than Mailchimp.. Of we could integrate Mailchimp with some CRMs (as SalasForce) it would be great. Mailchimp gives better Analytics than CC..
I totally agree with all the above.. :)
MailChimp works with SalesForce. I just switched from Constant Contact to MailChimp and I'm so glad I did. Thanks for this post, Thomas!
Constant Contact has better list management? Not really. Mailchimp is a breeze to use and it fully supports all kinds of list segmentation, including targeting, such as a message to everyone in a certain state. To do targeted segmentation in CC, you have to export ALL your contacts, manually sort and filter the contacts in a spreadsheet, create a new list, and then import the target contacts as new list. You have to export and import your own data! And you'd have to do that for every message you send, since it's a manual user hack.
Also, MailChimp already has Salesforce.com integration, you can send a list from SF to MC, and MC will send message metrics back to SF.
I've been looking for the right way to start my newsletter. I have quite a few people that signed up as I was getting started, but couldn't decide which to use. I'm excited to try Mail Chimp now. Thank you for solving my dilemma.
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Hi Thomas. This is very helpful. What do you think of ‘get response’ which was recommended to me? Liz
Hey Liz,
I haven't heard of Get Response but it looks pretty good. MailChimp just added deep Facebook integration which is a nice plus. If you have 500 subscribers or less I would definitely go with MailChimp since its free.
I guess i have to try both before i decide. I'll post my reviews soon.
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