MailChimp or Constant Contact – Does It Matter?

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It’s not exactly an epic battle, but for businesses trying to decide on an email marketing solution the choice can be tricky.

So, which is it? MailChimp, with its adorable little hat-wearing mascot, or Constant Contact and their smooth envelope flying through the air?

This article in PODBOX breaks it down by the numbers.

Mail Chimp is free up to 2,000 subscribers, with inexpensive plans after that. It’s simple to use and has a nice drag-and-drop template feature that means you probably don’t need to get your design team on this. They also offer some at-a-glance reporting so you know how your emails compare to industry standards. But there are no auto-responders (possibly a huge deal for serious marketers) and their customer support is basically self-serve.

Constant Contact was one of the first of its kind, and has been around for 20 years (that in itself is amazing in an online service). They aren’t free, but do offer a 60-day free trial, and they have a higher delivery rate than MailChimp in general. Plus they have real people doing their customer support during business hours.

Do you want easy, free and simple? Or is deliverability and added functionality important to your business? It’s worth a read even if you already have what you think is the right system for you. Then chime in. We’re interested to know what you think.