Email Rules: Constant Contact Versus MailChimp
A couple of years ago, we wrote a blog titled: Will Social Media Replace Email? The post was meant to be controversial, and it got a ton of commentary on Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter. One of the most poignant critiques was, “If social media is going to replace email, then why do you need an email to sign up for a social media account!” That put things in perspective, and even today when social media is hotter than it was a couple of years ago, we wouldn’t dare publish another title like that. Not after comparing large scale analytics on social media versus email. Email wins every time. We can’t assign a value on engagement per se, since by nature social media is more engaging than email. But when we look at traffic back to site, sales / lead conversions, etc. email is nearly twice as effective.
But this post isn’t a bout between social media and email. What marketers have learned, much to the despair of those who were hoping for the Swiss Army Knife of marketing to carve out a single unifying platform, is that today’s marketing is more complex because every platform counts. In this post we want to look at how ecommerce marketers are using email marketing to get the word out. Because email marketing is still the dinosaur on the block, the platforms really haven’t changed by brand name, at least the grandaddies of email marketing: Constant Contact and MailChimp. So, which is better?
On the surface, (and this all is just opinion, so we want you to weigh in too!) Constant Contact seems to be more user friendly (intuitive navigation, helpful live phone support, etc.), but MailChimp has a rep. for being more modern. For example, last we checked, MailChimp syncs with Sales Force (though not as seamlessly as we’d like-a manual download is required to get new Salesforce contacts over to MailChimp), has better custom options, and comes with nice little social sync. features like spitting out newsletters using the blog’s RSS feeds, etc. MailChimp is what we use at FastPivot.com.
However look at the pricing, and we’ll see that at starter levels MC (MailChimp) costs twice as much as CC (Constant Contact), but then evens out in the higher ranges.
MC
300 $9.00 (3 cents/email) purchase
1,000 $30.00 (3 cents/email) purchase
2,000 $60.00 (3 cents/email) purchase
5,000 $100.00 (2 cents/email) purchase
7,500 $150.00 (2 cents/email) purchase
10,000 $200.00 (2 cents/email) purchase
25,000 $250.00 (1 penny/email) purchase
CC
(The prices from left to right are for one month, six months, and 1 year.)
0 - 500 emails $15.00 $81.00 $153.00
2 501 - 2,500 $30.00 $162.00 $306.00
3 2,501 - 5,000 $50.00 $270.00 $510.00
4 5,001 - 10,000 $75.00 $405.00 $765.00
5 10,001 - 25,000 $150.00 $810.00 $1,530.00
6 25,001 - 50,000 $250.00 $1,350.00 $2,550.00
However, we all know, especially for top e-retailers, that price isn’t the only factor. What email marketing platform do you use? What factors did you consider?
Although Constant Contact is more user friendly at times when it comes to setting up a template for your communications, it it VERY limiting. It allows for one way to present yourself when “capturing” opt-ins for your list. You have one option “Join Our List”. Mailchimp is far more flexible in that respect. But they too do limit to one form for a given list.
Both of those packages allow entry of names outside of an opt-in. That can be good AND bad. Good because it can be less of a hassle… bad when you want to transfer to an application that requires opt-in confirmation.
I would submit that, while comparable in cost, AWeber is much better than either. And I’ve found it much more flexible when wanting to integrate with web and Facebook.
AWeber has a new “Message Builder” that is likely intuitive for new users although slightly frustrating for those that have used it for a while. But isn’t all change?
It is flexible in presentation and quite competitive with MailChimp as far as number of product integrations, it would be a tight race.
The POWER of AWeber comes in your ability to stratify your incoming traffic.
You can have multiple ‘sign-up’ forms for the same list AND you can identify blocks of users you import directly. When you import names, you have a choice whether through the admin panel or via a sign’up form to bring them in with or without autoresponse (if you say are bringing them in and they’ve already received a ‘welcome’ elsewhere).
This means you can identify if the subscriber came in from the opt-in on your squeeze page or landing page on your sidebar, maybe you have different sign-up form on your footer of your site, or on a tab in Facebook. Or perhaps you simply want to bring them in from an email contact list - but you want to know that is where they originated.
AWeber also allows you to communicate a disparate message to those that are signing up that are already on a given list, giving them instructions they may need to trouble-shoot. And giving you the opportunity to communicate that you KNOW that they are already on your list.
There is a feature to segment a list list based on a few criteria like sign up date, last message received, etc. that can come in very handy if you want to distribute a message to “fresh contacts” for instance.
You can set up a text only or video thank-you sequence.
You can mail a single broadcast to any combination of including and excluding subscribers … so… Include everyone on my general list “other than” those that have already purchased and are present on a second list. This can help you be persistent and at the same time not brow beat those that have already raised their hands.
AWeber definitely takes the stance that each list is separate and so even if you have someone on a list, whether they joined through an opt-in box or you added them to manually, they do have to confirm, every time. This is one of the only sticking points.
On Cost: (1 month, 1 Quarter, 1 year)
Pretty much on par with CC
0 – 500 emails $19.00 $49.00 $194.00
2 501 – 2,500 $29.00 (10.00 monthly add to base)
3 2,501 – 5,000 $49.00 (30.00 monthly add to base)
4 5,001 – 10,000 $69.00 (50.00 monthly add to base)
5 10,001 – 25,000 $149.00 (130.00 monthly add to base)