BenchmarkONE vs. Constant Contact

Hatchbuck is great for small to mid size businesses that are really looking to keep track of their progress with their sales leads as well as their existing customers, as well as tracking the activity their customers are taking from their communications, and automate their sales and marketing funnel as much as possible. We are a SaaS company (software as a service), with sales that range from teeny tiny to very big fish so it's been an easy tool to work with to make sure we are communicating with clients based on their size and needs.

Incentivized

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

• The product is simple to use but can be as complex as you would like it to be.
• Customer service and support are great. Always responsive and quick to find a solution.
• The email templates and instructional videos have been helpful.
• They definitely understand marketing and have created a simple system to support content delivery.

• 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.

• They may be a little behind the curve when it comes to some of the advanced features, such as integrating various calendars and e-mail clients.
• I would like to see them more integrated with social media platforms, such as keeping track of social media activity and adding more platforms that they track within a record.
• The onboarding process was a bit bumpy and took much longer than expected.

• 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

In case you can't tell, we are in love with Hatchbuck software. Could it be improved? Of course it could, but, based on our current needs, and the needs of our existing and targeted clients so far, Hatchbuck presents the best fit option available. As a partner we are looking to grow with Hacthbuck into the future.

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.

Hatchbuck offers on-boarding, training, and has a suite of videos, which makes it super easy to get started. As with any software that is the key. Have a plan, stay focused, and get started. Once, you begin to play with Hatchbuck you will see that it is very user friendly.

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

There has never been any downtime for Hatchbuck, which is very reassuring for me as I market and recruit strenuously for the University at Albany's executive Weekend MBA Program. Hatchbuck team members have also been available when I have reached out to them with questions or issues. With one exception, where one of my e-mails became lost in the Internet "black hole," they have gotten back to me in very timely fashion!

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 always get a response within 24 hours, unless I ask on a weekend. The team seems to work together to resolve my issues, answer my questions, and update me on changes. In fact, they have even connected [with] me to ask how they can improve the Hatchbuck software and their service. This is why I love them so much.

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.

Overall very satisfied. More sample please.

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

I have had more experience with Hatchbuck, and was introduced to it through someone who is quite familiar. My perspective is that for the money, Hatchbuck does all it needs to, and does it well. I'm sure there are comparable products, but this is the first one that I found user friendly enough to be able to use it consistently

Incentivized

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.

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

• It saved us time, as we were able to centralize our marketing and sales efforts
• It helped close more sales, through nurturing funnels
• Since it has options to create sales-related tasks, it helped our team be on top of all new prospects and provide timely information

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