Constant Contact vs. HubSpot CRM

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

For basic CRM and organization, it's incredibly easy. I'd like to see some more customization options that link the CRM side of things to the operational side. What I mean by that is a better way to associate deals and quotes with existing workflows and CRM contact records. I'd also like a place for additional notes and more automated reporting options.

Incentivized

• 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.

• Personalized email campaigns: It helps to create highly effective personalized emails with its wonderful content tokens.
• Scheduling of meetings: It eliminates the bottlenecks in the process of meeting schedule with its amazing integrating capabilities with other calendar tools like Google calendar. It also ensures the automatic reminders of meetings to the participants of meeting.
• Automation for follow-up : With its feature called "sequences", follow-up emails made easy.

Incentivized

• 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

• A lot of my companies have one URL for a ton of branches and each branch has their own name and location so I have to manually enter all the information because they all have the same URL so I can't easily use an Excel file to import those contacts so a faster solution to this would be appreciated
• Making Corporate and branch associations is very tedious, it would be nice if the companies that all share the same url would automatically associate with the corporate company so I didn't have to manually do it
• I would like to not see all the extra feature tabs in my layout because I am not using them so it would be nice to be able to turn them off (even the ones that are in my plan that I don't use, it would be nice to turn them off)

Incentivized

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.

To be honest there are some barriers due to which we are unable to use Hubspot at it's full potentials. The region that we work in has some restrictions that don't allow us to make calls or text which leaves us to just Email to the client.

Incentivized

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

HubSpot CRM is extremely easy to use (/easy to grasp!). There are plenty of tutorials online to get started and the software in general is self-explanatory. What is most appreciated is how smoothly it integrates with software (specifically in our case, Outlook and Gmail), eliminating most if not all technical roadblocks to implementation and usage. When problems arise, there is a non-invasive pop-up, i.e. "Some users are experiencing ___" alerting you to any issues, with a resolution that follows very quickly.

Incentivized

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.

Because when I needed help HubSpot responded immediately and provided me with the information I needed which enabled me to realize that HubSpot was even more customizable and easier to use than I thought! And I already thought HubSpot was very user friendly and easy to use, and then Support showed me how to manipulate the settings, columns and the appearance of the tool.

Incentivized

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

If you've had any prior experience with cloud based marketing automation or group communication tools, you can do the implementation without paid outside support. Though getting to a SLA (service level agreement) would be best achieved with the help of a third party who can facilitate

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.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud and HubSpot Marketing are somewhat similar but the Marketing platform on HubSpot beats it 9/10. It's way easier to use and is just tailored to marketing a little bit more. When it comes to Copper and Zoho Marketing Plus however, HubSpot completely blows it out of the water. HubSpot offers way more from a marketing perspective and our sales team has plenty of experience elsewhere when it comes to CRM's and they even agree that it is easier to use and navigate than any other CRM's they have used in the past

Incentivized

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

• We can raise the tickets easily from HubSpot only. There is no confusion about that.
• There is difficulty raising tickets from Hubspot as once it is resolved, we will not be able to check again on the deal overview that needs to be solved.
• HubSpot is very good compared to Salesforce and Zoho, as I have worked on all 3 till now.

Incentivized