Constant Contact vs. Insightpool Ads Optimization

Constant Contact is an excellent tool for sending out flyers and newsletters. However, I feel the content's appearance is typically all the same. When I receive an email from Constant Contact, I can immediately identify it - the templates usually all look the same. When sending out communications with images, it is easy to use Constant Contact and link webpages. However, the email layout is always vertical and can get very lengthy. I prefer a more flip-book approach with options to flip the page.

Incentivized

I recommend Insightpool for anyone looking to build and maintain a relevant follower pool on Twitter as well as anyone that wishes to use Twitter for event recruitment, white paper downloads, etc. With a small team, I strongly recommend the full-service model, especially when you first get started. It's like having an in-house social team when you opt for full-service and has enabled us to do much more on Twitter than was previously possible with our small team.

• Market segmentation is great: my main segmentation is by region because that's how our sales team is divided.
• Lists: making customized email lists is easy and intuitive; the custom fields allow some flexibility in case our fields don't exactly line up with Constant Contact's.
• Campaigns: creating campaigns is quick and simple. I especially appreciate the 'resend to non-openers' option. I am constantly using this feature.
• Subject line generator: I like using the recommended subject lines. I'm able to plug in their recommended ideas, or sometimes, this feature helps me generate my own ideas.

• Event promotion and registration: Insightpool's unique ability to search both the Twitter stream and profile data makes reaching B2B marketing professionals at key industry events a cinch.
• Building relevant follower pool: Insightpool's ability to target relevant users by profile data makes finding and nurturing the right individuals easier than ever before.
• The personalized and targeted approach is well-received and prompts engagement from the people we care about.

• It would be nice if we had more customizable options for emails - like moving around pictures and text boxes, rather than a set spot for everything to go.
• I would like it if multiple people could work on a document at one time. So if I'm in charge of graphics, I can get those updated while someone else is entering content, etc.

Incentivized

• Initial iterations of the tool were buggy and not all that intuitive, which is why we moved to a full-service model. More recent releases are much more intuitive and less buggy.
• The tool was limited before its ability to search Twitter steams, but now with stream search, we do not feel hindered in anyway.
• Personally, I'm not a fan of public message targeting. Use with caution. The DM feature works great and is very well received by our audience however.

There is no doubt that we are going to renew Constant Contact. We have not just invested a lot of time in learning and creating a great looking product but we have developed a strong database of information that allows us to track how we are doing for each newsletter. This supports our goals of creating products that residents desire and are excited to receive.

Just renewed for the rest of the year. Pricing is very reasonable especially when you compare it to the cost of paid Twitter campaigns. And, Insightpool campaigns have consistently outperformed direct Twitter campaigns.

There is always room for improvement. I don't know how they test their systems, but they should invite not-so computer savvy people to test it. If I, as an expert have problems, they need to think like the technophobe. Since I've used Constant Contact in the past as part of my former employment, I have not viewed any of the tutorials and just jumped in to work on my client's newsletter. With that said, I found some areas easy and some a bit cumbersome

No major problems in sending out the email campaigns and accessing the analytics

Incentivized

The system seemed quite slow sometimes. Specifically, there was sometimes a delay in sends if it was during a high traffic period. There were time-outs when uploading new code for an email, and a lag in reporting analytics which was sometimes as long as 72 hours

I think the overall support for Constant Contact has always been incredible; I have nothing negative to say. Our customer support representative was attentive, easy to understand, and very knowledgeable. I never felt like I wasn't a priority of his and my issues, while very small, were fixed in a very short time frame.

Implementation is very easy for someone who wants to send out the “batch and blast” type newsletters. If you want to use their templates with no customizations, the product works fine. However, the more customizations you get into involving link color, etc, that’s where things can get tricky for someone who may not be familiar with coding

Constant Contact is much more intuitive for people who are not tech-savvy. Also, while sendgrid offered more options in it's drag and drop interface, it displayed differently across different email clients, which made it very cumbersome to use. It also took much longer to upload contact lists and it was harder to manage existing contacts. Performance in sendgrid was much slower as well, and the Preview feature was quite buggy. Our team initially chose sendgrid because of the integration options that it's API offered, but we ultimately switched to Constant Contact because it was much easier to build campaigns and better suited our requirements.

We've used sponsored Tweets via Twitter directly with limited success. We don't see the same level of engagement or types of followers with paid Twitter promos as we do with Insightpool campaigns. Additionally, we receive a fair amount of negative feedback when we use sponsored tweets as they tend not to be as targeted as running Insightpool campaigns

Very reliable in sending email campaigns and controlling the recipients so that no contact is sent the same email more than once, even if they are on a resent list

Incentivized

• I have had nothing but positive impacts from using Constant Contact.
• The church is large, and there are many subgroups and axillary groups within the church. Setting up specific groups based on responsibility, interest, member goals, and service needs allows me to send information quickly, saving valuable time for other tasks.
• Constant Contact allows leadership to stay personally engaged with the members I work with, without over-taxing my time. It feels so seamless.

Incentivized

• Not just more Twitter followers, but more RELEVANT Twitter followers and more engaged followers from our target audience.
• A great tool for prospecting and event recruitment at key industry events.
• Effective at amplifying content distribution, especially when content is related to key industry events.