Which Email Marketing Platform is Right for You? Mailchimp or Constant Contact

Mailchimp vs. Constant Contact. Which email marketing platform is right for your business? And does email marketing even matter in the age of AI?

Email marketing is still one of the best ways to reach your audience because it’s highly targeted. How so? 

Your email list is likely made up of people who’ve:

• Bought your product before. 
• Signed up for your emails.
• Come from a qualified source (a magazine list, an association directory, or someone you met at an event).

There are aancen abun of email marketing platforms out there. The trick is finding one that works best for you. We field questions about MailChimp and Constant Contact, though, so we’re tackling those two today.

Mind you, this isn’t an exhaustive analysis, and you’ll want to do more research. Let’s get started with an overview and then move into features.

Constant Contact Overview

Meet Constant Contact. It’s been around since the late 90s and has made a name for itself with nonprofits and small businesses. It’s straightforward, easy to use, and beginner-friendly. They’ve expanded their offerings to include social posting and ad management, customer automations, and over 300 integrations with other software and apps, such as Squarespace, WooCommerce, Stripe, and more. They offer a 30-day free trial with no credit card, but no free plan. 

MailChimp Overview

Owned by Intuit, Mailchimp was founded in 2001. It’s expanded way beyond its humble email marketing beginnings and offers almost any feature your business needs to grow. Customer journeys. Pop-up forms. Pre-built templates. A/B testing. Dynamic content. Segmenting. Surveys. Behavioral targeting. Landing pages. Social posting. Retargeting ads (Google), and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Let’s Compare Features

Here’s where things get interesting. We’re comparing the standard plan for each, with 500 contacts. If you’re looking for a particular feature, click on the lists below to go directly to the source.

• Constant Contact Features List  and Pricing Page
• MailChimp Features List and Pricing Page

What Would I Choose?

Overall, both are good choices for your email marketing. It really depends on what features you want, your budget, and your business type. Both have great templates and drag-and-drop email builders which make designing your email easy.

If I had to choose between the two, I would pick Constant Contact.

The  interface is straightforward, easy to use, clean, and uncluttered.

Things don’t feel buried, and it’s intuitive. The email builder is drag-and-drop and easy to use for beginners. There are plenty of templates to choose from,.They also offer a brand kit where you load your logo, colors, and images to make branding your emails easy.

A nice little feature is that I discovered while writing this is with a click of a button you can scan your website and load your assets.

For nonprofits the event feature can’t be beat. Even though it’s a little more per month I wouldn’t feel nickled and dimed by Mailchimp’s add-on pricing model.

That being said, if I were a larger company or had a marketing manager with experience that wanted more automation and customer journeys for nuturing campaigns, I’d opt for Mailchimp. It does have a modern drag-and-drop builder with a lot of design flexibility. They have a large selection of templates and  a little more extensive Brand Kit feature. You can use to upload your logo, colors, images, fonts, and even make a basic brand personality profile.

If you need help picking an email platform, creating a newsletter template or a campaign let me know. I’m happy to talk shop and help you figure out what the best fit is for your business. 

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