Constant Contact vs Mailchimp – Which Email Marketing Platform Should You Choose?

So, you’ve made your leap into email marketing. Smart move! Email is still among the most effective methods to reach customers.

Now, though, you have the difficult decision of selecting an email marketing platform. You might feel a little overwhelmed gauging your options. Well, don’t stress! We are here to help make that decision easier.

In this post, we’ll look at how two of the biggest services – Constant Contact, and Mailchimp – stack up against each other.

A Brief Background

Before we discuss further details, here’s a brief introduction to Constant Contact and Mailchimp so you know what we’re dealing with.

Constant Contact launched in 1995, making them one of the first email marketing platforms to hit the market. So they focused on building a platform that’s really, really easy to use, for small businesses, and people without any technology experience. They also provide strong deliverability.

Mailchimp appeared in 2001 with a mission to give growing businesses powerful functionality. They are known most for their free plan and their advanced marketing automation devices.

So now that you know the basics, let’s break down what each platform does…

Features Comparison

A plethora of features on Constant Contact and Mailchimp can make or break your email marketing success. Let’s see how they stack up.

What You Get with Constant Contact

Constant Contact offers a solid set of email marketing features:

Email campaign creation toolsEvent management capabilitiesMulti-channel marketing to expand beyond emailAI-generated content to customize emailsExcellent deliverability with high inbox placementSocial media integrationSMS marketing (U.S. only unfortunately)Customizable templates to design beautiful emailsContact management to organize your listsReports to track performance

Their strengths are definitely deliverability, event management, and simplicity.

Mailchimp’s More Advanced Features

Now let’s look at Mailchimp’s robust feature set:

Email campaign builderAudience management toolsExtensive marketing automationBuilt-in landing pages and basic websitesPowerful analytics and reportingIntegrations with other apps and softwareA/B testing capabilitySegmentation options to target groupsSend-time optimization to pick the best delivery timesMultivariate testing for creating multiple campaign variations (Premium plan only)

As you can see, Mailchimp has all the email campaign basics covered, plus deeper analytics and automation.

Key Takeaways on Features

If you’re just getting started and want a simple starting point, Constant Contact is the solution you need. Advanced users who would like the strong functionality should go with Mailchimp.

Pricing Plans

Another very important factor when it comes to choosing a platform is pricing. Here’s a breakdown of everything each provider delivers:

Constant Contact Pricing

Lite Plan: $12/month for as many as 500 contactsBasic Plan: $35/month for 500 contactsPremium plan: From $80/monthCustom Pricing: For more than 50,000 contacts

Mailchimp Pricing

Pricing Plan 1: Free$0/month (up to 500 contacts and 1,000 emails/month)Essentials Plan: From $13/month (500 contacts)Standard Plan: From $20/month for up to 500 contactsPremium Plan: From $350/month for 10,000 contacts

Key Takeaways on Pricing

Constant Contact is probably more cost effective for small lists under 1,000 subscribers, where Mailchimp can be more flexible for larger lists. It’s nice they also provide a nice free plan!

How Do These Providers Compare in Deliverability?

Deliverability describes how well your emails are actually getting into subscriber inboxes. This metric is extremely important!

Here’s how our two contenders stack up against each other:

Constant Contact Delivers Strong Deliverability

The inbox placement rates of Constant Contact is also quite high in the major ISPs (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook and so on). Recent tests found that Constant Contact had an 88% deliverability rate on average. That’s very solid!

Mailchimp’s Slightly Better Deliverability

Mailchimp has a slight advantage over Constant Contact in terms of deliverability, achieving a deliverability rate of 92.6% in recently. That’s a small advantage over Constant Contact, but both have top-notch reputation management to get emails into inboxes.

What You Should Know About Deliverability

You can’t go wrong with either provider here, really. But if you’re looking to get a little more traffic to your site, Mailchimp earns you a slight advantage.

Ease of Use

We all want an email marketing platform that’s intuitive and easy to use day-to-day. How do these two stack up?

Constant Contact for Beginners

Constant Contact is excellent for use by newbies. Their interface is extremely clean and easy to use.

Constant Contact’s user-friendliness is a huge benefit for small business owners and people without a tech background.

Mailchimp for Beginners

Mailchimp has an easy interface available too, but they offer way more customization options for power users.

Their drag-and-drop builder and pre-made templates create emails with ease. The platform also scales nicely for growth.

Key Takeaways on Ease of Use

In the end, Constant Contact is simpler and better suited for beginners while Mailchimp offers more advanced customization. Think about your own level of tech comfort and your needs.

How Does Customer Support Stack Up?

You’ve been on the receiving end of both great and terrible customer support, right? So, how does Constant Contact vs Mailchimp compare when it comes to support?

Phone and Email Support from Constant Contact

Constant Contact comes highly recommended for its outstanding customer support. They provide email and phone support, a rarity among competitors.

This feature makes Constant Contact extremely appealing for more novice users bluebird eager to have human help on hand.

Mailchimp Email & Chat Support

Mailchimp has strong customer support as well. They offer 24/7 email support, plus live chat on paid plans. This has been a necessity for global enterprises working across different time zones.

Key Takeaways on Support

You can’t go wrong with either company here, really. But Constant Contact’s phone support is an appealing option.

Unique Selling Points

Each platform has their own strengths outside of core email marketing:

Excellent at event management (Constant Contact) It allows for invitations, registrations and ticket sales.Mailchimp is unique with its marketing automation and omnichannel capabilities It builds sophisticated workflows and provides website and landing page automation tools.

Industry Benchmarks

How do these platforms compare to industry norms?

The average open rate for e-mails is 30.07% and the average click-through rate is 2%.

Both Constant Contact and Mailchimp either meet or exceed these benchmarks. 77% of Mailchimp users report engagement increases. Constant Contact’s deliverability promotes high inbox placement with all the major email providers.

The Final Verdict

So which platform should you be using?

Here are some final thoughts to keep in mind:

Constant Contact is perfect for small businesses and non-profits who want easy to use, events management and fantastic support. But costs can ramp up quickly with larger lists.

Mailchimp is ideal for teams looking to utilize marketing automation, analytics and omnichannel features. It is a great starting point because of its free plan and deliverability.

Assess your own functional requirements and priorities to find a right fit. Also keep in mind – if your needs change over time, you can always switch between platforms.