Constant Contact: a data-backed look

Constant Contact overview

Constant Contact is a straightforward email marketing platform designed for small businesses and nonprofits, offering an intuitive space to create and manage campaigns with ease. With mobile-optimized templates, simple automation, and built-in tools for events and scheduling, it covers the core needs of email marketers.

Best suited for users seeking ease of use over advanced customization, Constant Contact offers a dependable solution for sending campaigns, tracking performance, and organizing contacts in one place.

How much do businesses spend on Constant Contact?

The chart below illustrates average quarterly spending on Constant Contact by business size.

Looking at these spending patterns across different business segments, there are some interesting behavioral insights about how organizations approach email marketing platforms:

Micro businesses show remarkable consistency in their platform investment throughout the year. This suggests they've found their sweet spot for basic marketing needs - likely focused on essential functions like regular newsletters and maintaining their subscriber lists without dramatic scaling up or down.

Small and medium-sized businesses demonstrate the most predictable spending behavior. This stability indicates these companies have likely matured past the experimental phase and settled into established marketing rhythms. They know what works for their audience and maintain steady campaign schedules across email and social media channels.

Mid-market and enterprise organizations reveal the most interesting pattern with their variable quarterly investments. The significant uptick in the final quarter suggests these larger businesses are either capitalizing on seasonal opportunities or expanding their use of premium features when it matters most. This flexibility demonstrates that they're treating their email marketing platform as a scalable tool that can be ramped up for high-impact periods.

The overall trend suggests that as businesses grow, they shift from seeking consistency and cost control to viewing their email marketing investment as something that should flex with business objectives and market opportunities.

Who is Constant Contact best for?

The pie chart below breaks down Constant Contact's user base by business type and size, showing which segments adopt the platform most frequently.

This customer distribution reveals how Constant Contact has positioned itself across the business landscape:

Micro businesses form a significant foundation of the user base, reflecting the platform's success in attracting entrepreneurs and small teams who need marketing tools that don't require extensive technical knowledge or dedicated marketing staff. The appeal here centers on accessibility - quick setup, ready-made templates, and straightforward functionality that gets campaigns running fast.

Small and medium-sized businesses represent the largest segment, which makes strategic sense for Constant Contact. These companies sit in a sweet spot where they've outgrown basic tools but don't need enterprise-level complexity. They're actively using the platform for diverse needs like audience segmentation, event promotion, and e-commerce support, suggesting they value having multiple marketing capabilities in one place.

Mid-market and enterprise customers maintain a substantial presence, demonstrating that the platform can scale beyond its small business roots. These larger organizations are likely drawn to advanced automation features, integration capabilities, and the ability to coordinate marketing efforts across multiple teams or business units.

The distribution pattern suggests Constant Contact has successfully avoided being pigeonholed as just a "small business tool." Instead, it's built a platform that can grow with companies as they expand, starting with simplicity for micro businesses and scaling up to handle the complexity that larger organizations require. This broad appeal across business sizes indicates a well-designed product architecture that balances ease of use with sophisticated functionality.

Constant Contact key features

Email campaign creation

• What it does: Provides a drag-and-drop email editor with over 200 customizable templates.
• Key benefit: Enables non-technical users to create professional-looking emails quickly, maintaining brand consistency while testing different approaches to optimize engagement.

Contact management

• What it does: Offers comprehensive list segmentation, contact import from various sources, and automated list cleaning tools that filter out expired contacts and unsubscribes.
• Key benefit: Creates targeted email lists based on demographics, behaviors, or purchase history.

Marketing automation

• What it does: Features a visual automation builder for creating customer journeys, with triggered emails based on subscriber actions and personalization options for targeted messaging.
• Key benefit: Saves time and improves effectiveness by automatically sending the right messages at optimal times based on customer interactions and behaviors.

Analytics and reporting

• What it does: Delivers metrics on opens, clicks, and engagement, including heatmaps for visual analysis of email interaction patterns and comparative performance tracking.
• Key benefit: Provides actionable insights to refine marketing strategies, understand audience preferences, and improve future campaign performance.

Event management

• What it does: Includes invitation creation, RSVP management, and automated reminder tools designed explicitly for businesses hosting events or webinars.
• Key benefit: Streamlines the entire event promotion process.

Multichannel marketing

• What it does: Integrates email with social media posting, ad management, landing pages, signup forms, and SMS marketing capabilities.
• Key benefit: Creates cohesive marketing campaigns across multiple channels from a single platform.

Constant Contact pros & cons

Constant Contact is a good fit if:

• Your business needs an intuitive email marketing platform with a minimal learning curve
• You host events regularly and need integrated event management tools
• You're a nonprofit organization that can benefit from substantial platform discounts
• You want comprehensive analytics to track and improve campaign performance
• Your marketing strategy includes multiple channels beyond just email

Consider alternatives if:

• You have a rapidly growing contact list and are concerned about escalating costs (like SendGrid)
• You need sophisticated automation workflows with multiple triggers and conditions (like Klaviyo)
• You require faster system performance for high-volume campaigns (like SendGrid)
• You're looking for a permanent free plan with basic functionality (like Mailchimp)
• Your business requires highly advanced customization options (like Marketo)

Constant Contact alternatives

• ActiveCampaign: Offers more sophisticated marketing automation capabilities with advanced workflow conditions and triggers. Ideal for businesses focused on customer journey optimization and those requiring complex segmentation rules based on detailed behavioral data.
• Klaviyo: Specializes in e-commerce email marketing with powerful segmentation and personalization based on shopping behavior. Best suited for online retailers seeking in-depth integration with their e-commerce platform and advanced purchase-triggered automations.
• Mailchimp: Offers a free plan with a permanent limit of 500 contacts and a more extensive template library. Well-suited for startups and growing businesses looking for scalable options with strong creative tools and broader social media capabilities.
• Marketo: Delivers enterprise-level marketing automation with advanced lead scoring and account-based marketing features. Ideal for B2B companies and larger enterprises that require sophisticated nurturing campaigns and sales alignment.
• Omnisend: focuses on e-commerce, offering pre-built automation workflows specifically designed for online stores. Excellent for e-commerce businesses seeking specialized features, such as product recommendation blocks and cart abandonment solutions.
• SendGrid: Excels in email deliverability and transactional emails, such as order confirmations and invoicing. Best suited for technically oriented teams and businesses that send high volumes of transactional emails alongside marketing campaigns. For companies seeking to integrate their invoicing with marketing efforts seamlessly, SendGrid provides robust solutions.