Constant Contact vs. iContact vs. Quid

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.

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I would only recommend it if someone was a small business. I think they are the best suited for companies who will send out a coupon or offer here and there. The most recent updates made it more complicated to use for more complicated processes. It is easy to train someone on the program, and so quick to learn. But I would also only stick to the simpler things. I also think the colorful templates are great, and show great creativity. But again, it is hard to justify recommending the program when it isn't WYSIWYG.

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In my use of [NetBase] Quid, I found the tool particularly suitable for curating pertinent content. It allowed me to develop more comprehensive analysis at a larger scale, all while substantially reducing the amount of research time needed. It is also a plus that [NetBase] Quid is delivered as a web app. I did some of my [NetBase] Quid work on a low-end Chromebook without issues.

• 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.

• Contact management. iContact is really great for entering all your contact. You are able to put them onto different lists, and let them choose which lists they would like to be a part of as well. There are many data fields provided to fill in information.
• Emailing. We use the email feature at least once a month. They are always improving and adding new features, which is very helpful in presenting content in a new and exciting way to our readers. There are many options with remade templates and themes, or you can add your own.
• Insights. It is really helpful being able to have the data to see what is working and what isn't. It is nice to be able to go back and see how things went in the past compared to now. Opens, clicks, shares, etc.

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• Their NLP is very strong with the ability to distinguish subject in sentences and then apply analysis based on either the subject or sentence. Competitors lack strong NLP and often have lower degrees of accuracy.
• The platform is highly flexible with dozens of ways to filter and cut the data. It is great for an analyst that really wants to deep dive into the data. However, the analysis done automatically by NetBase is also strong enough that less experienced users would still be able to gain insight with ease.
• The customizable dashboards are perfect for client reporting and drastically reduce the amount of time spent preparing recurring reports and decks. These are also very flexible depending on reporting needs.

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• 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.

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• We also would like to send transactional messages which don't require an opt-out, this is a challenge with iContact. (May be a feature with pro?)
• The regular version of iContact doesn't support event management or logic flows for automated messaging.
• Custom form fields have limited field type options (can't build a drop-down).

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• Dashboards can only currently be exported as PDFs. It would be helpful to have a more read/writable format (eg. PPT) that enables us to combine Netbase's outputs with other sources, or to make them more consistent with our own branding (colours, fonts etc.)
• The business model revolves around a limited number of login seats. I would like to be able to roll out the tool to make it available/accessible to more people in the business, but the pricing model makes this impractical/uneconomical.
• Logging out users after a period of inactivity can be frustrating when multitasking/task switching and unsaved work is lost.
• While Netbase's focus on language processing is its key strength, additional functionality around social analysis (eg. people who follow a brand account, users who talk about X are also likely to talk about Y) is somewhat limited.

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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.

iContact has been a quick and easy way to send any announcements and news directly to email and social media subscribers. Its tracking and reporting capabilities turn a simple email into a marketing campaign that can be used as a tool to efficiently gauge reader response and customer satisfaction, and ultimately to reach potential customers. The consistency and excellent customer service is what makes this program a pleasant experience.

We've had a good experience using the tool and have invested quite a bit of time training the internal team on how to get the most benefit out of it. There would need to be a compelling reason or business case to port over all of our existing topics and tool know-how to another platform.

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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

I rate iContact as an easy to use program due to its user friendly dashboard and user interface. Most companies of small to medium size do not have a dedicated marketer, therefore it is someone multitasking who may or may not have this kind of experience. iContact makes it relatively simple and can actually expand one's knowledge in the area of business promotion.

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Very simple to use, quick to pick up on the key principles, and a task-centric design (ie. Topics to set up what you want to analyze, Analysis to do the exploration/analysis, and Dashboards to pull results and findings together to generate reports.) All intuitive, drag & drop etc.

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

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iContact is regularly up and running. Only once has it been unavailable for maintenance, which is to be expected and even desired for optimal performance when needed.

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

NetBase constantly updates the platform with features. The platforms ability to analyze complex social listening topics is exceptional. Its fast and gives you the ability to create standardized reports for a quick topic analysis. Additionally, the standard overview tab provides the topic at a glance and assists in quickly identifying areas to further analyze. Great product with excellent support behind it!

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.

They have always been responsive to any issues or concerns that have arisen with our account. Our customer account manager participates in our monthly county-wide communicators meetings via telephone to ensure that we are getting the most from the service. He also analyzes our lists to help us weed out inactive contacts.

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Our support contact is always available and will spend all of the time required to make sure our questions are answered.

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The templates are difficult to customize, and they don't render well in email platforms

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 wouldn't be using it if i wasn't satisfied. time is money

We had an internal implementation meeting with the NetBase team as well as a business seat implementation for one of our clients. I would highly recommend having all stakeholders attend an implementation meeting as they can understand the power of this platform.

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.

I didn't have a say in the decision because I wasn't with the company at the time. I listed HubSpot here because I know we used it in conjunction with iContact for email automation, but HubSpot Email was only recently built-out to the point where it is today. Now, iContact and HubSpot are no longer integrated.

Meltwater took too long to load whenever you had to change keywords, their customer service was not very responsive, and their interface was not very customizeable. We decided to search for a new software company and we invited many companies to present. We selected Netbase after a free trial for reasons stated earlier.

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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

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iContact stays the same with the number of users added or taken away. It certainly remains reliable despite increased usage, and so, can be considered scaleable in that aspect.

• 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.

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• We have a template for webinars that we send every month. We just edit it and send. This couldn't be easier (once you know where to find it).
• We like the breakdown of statistics in the dashboard. They're easy to read.
• iContact isn't a comprehensive solution, so it is only one of a few products we use for marketing.

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• Positive - NetBase allows us to quickly gather a high level over view of a topic, which helps for new business pitch and being able to inform the account teams of basic information.
• Negative - We have to use other tools to gather news, which affects our budget.

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