Likelihood to Recommend I think Blueshift is well suited as a CRM. It does a great job handling the customer information that you need, placing it, and displaying it in one concise place. They could do better in regards to being forthcoming with information. Documentation is weak, and depending on who you speak with on the support team, they may have different answers to the problem you're having. In my experience, there are a lot of inconsistencies in how they think about reporting, that someone who's been in marketing for the past 10-years, has to relearn and rethink how we share data for KPIs.
Read full review 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.
Read full review Pros Customer Segments + Recommendations Tool - Blueshift and has helped with automating and personalizing our retargeting efforts. The true value of Blueshift was realized when we could launch triggered marketing campaigns targeted to specific segments based on a user's behavior onsite, and deliver relevant personalized content using the AI-based Recommendations tool. Integration with Segment and other apps Retargeting with dynamic content pulled from data feeds / catalogs Read full review 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. Read full review Cons Campaign management features like drag and drop, copying elements - general ease of use improvements to the UX Ability to move customers easily from one campaign to another with one click Read full review 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. Read full review Likelihood to Renew We're not in the mood to start this process over at this time. A lot of hard work went into it.
Read full review 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.
Read full review Usability 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
Read full review Reliability and Availability No major problems in sending out the email campaigns and accessing the analytics
Read full review Performance 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
Read full review Support Rating 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.
Read full review Implementation Rating 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
Read full review Alternatives Considered Customer has a better UX/UI but Blueshift's capabilities are far stronger. The price is also more interesting considering what it does. Blueshift doesn't have certain integrations that are useful for startups (like Slack) but it's something that they should be having soon. Social media interconnection is also a step in the right direction that Customer hasn't moved toward
Read full review 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.
Read full review Scalability 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
Read full review Return on Investment Blueshift has had a tremendous impact on our email marketing KPIs. The AI-based approach and Recommendations tool has led to increased engagement. Read full review 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. Read full review ScreenShots Constant Contact Screenshots