Choosing a Marketing Automation Solution: Mailchimp vs Constant Contact

Angie oversees Cazoomi's operations. She enjoys traveling, loves dogs, is a 1% Pledge supporter, and a start-up entrepreneur with investments in several APAC startups. 6 minute read

choosing a marketing automation solution: mailchimp vs constant contact

You probably already know that email marketing is outperforming all other online marketing strategies. But in order to reap its full benefits, you need to figure out which marketing automation solution is right for your business. If Mailchimp vs. Constant Contact is on your shortlist, this article is for you.

Email marketing is an important marketing strategy and a cost-effective way to promote your company, communicate with customers, and achieve your business goals. Check this out; for every $1 spent on email marketing, you achieve an ROI of $32.28.

Impressive, right?

Mailchimp and Constant Contact are two leading marketing automation solutions for both small, medium to even large businesses. But before we delve on how to pick the most suitable option for your business, let’s first understand their key features.

Mailchimp Vs. Constant Contact: What You Need to Know

What Is Mailchimp?

Mailchimp a marketing automation platform where businesses can share emails and ad campaigns with customers, clients, and other stakeholders.

Mailchimp pros and cons

Pros

  • Free to monthly plans
  • Easy to use
  • Advanced features

Cons

  • Online only customer support

What Is Constant Contact?

Constant Contact offers a range of marketing applications including email marketing, social campaigns, and reporting, event marketing, offer management and survey management. These are available independently or as an integrated suite.

Constant Contact email marketing pros and cons

Pros

  • Numerous templates
  • Easy to use
  • Numerous features
  • Base monthly cost

Mailchimp vs Constant Contact Comparison

1. Pricing

How much does Mailchimp cost?

Mailchimp offers three payment plans.

A Forever Free Plan that gives your business the possibility to manage up to 2,000 subscribers and allows you to send 12,000 emails each month. This account gives you access to Mailchimp basic features including segmentation, email designer, Facebook ad campaigns, marketing automation, and more. When you use the free version, a small Mailchimp badge appears at the bottom of every email sent out.

The second is the monthly plan for senders with more than 2,000 subscribers. They have a growing business plan for $10 per month and pro for $199 per month. These plans have access to additional features like email delivery depending on time zone, powerful e-commerce tools, and inbox preview.

The third is the pay per use plan for subscribers who only send emails occasionally. Users access the same features as the Monthly plan.

Update: After being acquired by Intuit, Mailchimp recently degraded their free plan, which now only allows only up to 500 contacts and 2,500 emails per month (with ads). However, there is always a possibility to check on some great Mailchimp alternatives.

How much is Constant Contact per month?

Payment is based on the number of contacts you have yet all plans come with unlimited emails. You get your first month FREE of their Email or Email Plus plan and then you have to pay $20 and $45, and up onwards, depending on the number of contacts and additional features you require.

2. Support

Mailchimp customer support is available on their online knowledgebase for the free plan. Paid plans have 24/7 access to chat and email support. Weekends are however limited to email only.

Constant Contact offers chat, email, phone support from Monday to Friday during business hours and email support for weekends. They also have a community forum, tutorials, email marketing boot camp classes, and local seminars. You can also access additional training for a fee.

3. Features and Functionality

Both Mailchimp and Constant Contact have rich features and functionalities. However, there are some differences worth noting:

Features Mailchimp Constant Contact
Importing contacts Add subscribers one by one, import a CSV file, import contacts from other services or copy paste from files Add subscribers one by one, multiple contacts, paste or upload via file, integrate with other apps
List management and segmentation Create groups (target users within a single list) and segments (based on subscribers’ shared characteristics) Can have different lists and tag subscribers.
Emails and Email previews Allows you to preview emails for mobile and desktop
Shows exactly how the email will be displayed
Easy to use customization features
Templates are mobile friendly
Allows you to preview emails for mobile and desktop.
A wide variety of email templates.
Great designs
Drag and drop editor option available
Ability to customize emails
Images Upload unlimited images to be used for different campaigns Upload 5 images free then upgrade for more.
Access to free stock images
Analytics Track clicks, opens, delivery, revenue, locations by opens, average order value, links clicked and when they happened.
Compare results to industry averages to gauge how well you’re doing
campaign performance per hour updates
Track clicks, opens, and revenue
Can compare open rates between mobile and desktop
A/B testing Available. You can test different campaign elements like names, subject lines, send time and content.
You determine factors that show winning like click rate, open rate etc.
Not available, however, subject line A/B testing is available. You must do it manually for email content.
Automation Advanced automation capabilities but on the paid account Limited automation capabilities

 

4. User interface

Mailchimp and Constant Contact both have an easy to use navigation and sections. Mailchimp editor is modern with some advanced features. Constant Contact has robust features as well.

5. Deliverability

Mailchimp has a 96% to 99% deliverability.

Constant Contact has a 97% deliverability.

6. Integrations

A marketing automation solution can do a lot for your business on its own. But, if you really want to leverage the power of email marketing and sync it with your marketing and business goals, integration with your other tools is a must.

Before you decide on a marketing automation solution, check out if you can integrate it with your CRM and other mission-critical applications used in your business.

Mailchimp integrations include Salesforce, Zoho, NetSuite, Dynamics 365, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Shopify, WordPress, BigCommerce, WooCommerce and Magento.

Constant Contact integrations include MINDBODY, NetSuite, WordPress, QuickBooks Online, Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Hootsuite, and Salesforce.

Making the Mailchimp vs. Constant Contact choice should ultimately be driven by your business’ needs. There is no one-size-fits-all here. So don’t make your choice based on what your competitors or friends are using. It’s only your goals and your needs that matter!