Constant Contact vs. Influitive vs. OutboundEngine

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

We have seen success with information sharing. Giving customers another way to access our resources has been a huge help for them. While we see good engagement numbers there are still some limitations to getting our advocates to complete the 'harder' challenges, like a testimonial or reference

Incentivized

OutboundEngine does a referral campaign and I've been able to close a couple of deals based on getting in touch with people who engage with this campaign and state they could use my services in the next 6 months. This is a great follow up tool for those you may or may not know are going to be needing your services.

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.

• Allows you to create compelling and engaging challenges that help your content stand out.
• The gamification system enables a seamless rewards program that doesn't require a big manual lift.
• The data and insights are easy to access, analyze, and guide you toward your north star.

Incentivized

• The content that they generate to send to our clients is relevant and the clients want to engage with us. It makes us appear more professional and consistent, even though we are a smaller company.
• It helps us stay in touch with clients and helps us stay top of mind. We are able to generate more new business leads if we are in consistent contact with current, former, and potential clients.
• Their customer service and support is outstanding. All my questions were answered and I went into the program feeling confident and knowledgeable.

• 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

• The Admin view is not as intuitive as the user view and the functionality just isn't as great. I wish it had almost the same layout/interface as how the customer sees it so I didn't have to constantly enter Preview mode.
• I wish there were more included integrations in the regular Influitive package.

Incentivized

• I do not like the use of drawings to attract new customers, and they have ignored my requests to eliminate that for my personal emails.
• I do not like it when a competitor in my immediate market has the same posts. It cheapens the service or makes it appear that I am simply sharing another's post.

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.

Depending on the cost and new features to be added, our company might be motivated to renew the use of Influitive. However, a lot depends on the year to come and the enhancements that can better our experience and add more gamification to the platform. Adding elements that can woo our target audience.

Incentivized

The biggest issue is poor ROI. The second biggest issue is rigid customer service process, lack of a sense of urgency, and inability to reach out to upper management with issues.

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

Overall, Influitive is very easy to use for customers. There's a bit of a learning curve for new admins, but that's only because Influitive isn't always intuitive. The UI is confusing in certain places. I expect something to be in one place, and I find it somewhere else entirely. This is the only reason my usability rank isn't higher

Incentivized

Overall, OutboundEngine is very user friendly. It is simple to set up and explore, and if there are any issues or questions, the customer service team and account managers are always available to help. They are very knowledgeable and were able to explain everything in detail to me. The program is easy to navigate and helps me stay organized, and an uncomplicated and straightforward solution was exactly what I was looking for

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

Incentivized

Yes, always available and extremely quick. The availability is 10 on 10 for sure. We also have situations where their team might not be working or on a holiday, but if we have an event, they are available and ensure smooth running. That is the beauty of having Influitive take care of you.

Incentivized

I haven't had to contact Outbound Engine because I haven't had any application errors or unplanned outages. I basically have had such a trouble free experience with them that I haven't had to call. Everything is automated and I get a notice to review every isse. I suppose if I personalized the newsletter a bit more and added some of my own articles, I would need to contact them, (which I should really start to do) but so far things have been so on point, I haven't felt the need.

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

Influitive AdvocateHub interacts with Blackbaud Champions and is an on-time response system. What I mean by that is once data is entered in Influitive AdvocateHub, it is updated in real time and I can access a computer and the data is there immediately. Sometimes the rewards do not show up right away and I am under the assumption that the delay is caused by an influx of traffic.

Incentivized

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.

If a problem can be easily addressed, Influitive Support is all over it! They're fast and always easy to work with. Some of the larger, or more unique problems, can get a little lost. I'd love to see a bit more follow-up on these more important issues, instead of me needing to reach out to find the status of a previously submitted issue. Overall, everyone at Influitive is kind and wants to help!

Incentivized

The customer service was excellent! Everyone I spoke to was kind and knowledgeable. My account manager was easily reachable. Setup of the OutboundEngine program was explained really thoroughly, and we knew how we could best use the product to meet the needs of our clients and get our online and social media presence off the ground.

I was taught and made to show all features that could help me learn more about the platform and this was great hands-on training for me. I picked up things faster than others and did have time to create challenges and make changes while someone was around to supervise and help.

Incentivized

The training was extensive and gave me the knowledge/ skills that I needed in order to implement my advocacy program using Influitive's Advocate Hub. I also meet on a regular basis with my Customer Success Manager. My Success Manager helps give me ideas for my program and helps me ensure that it's successful. Influitive is really invested in my success. They act more like a partner than a vendor

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 think some of the key insights I can put forward are all aligned to simply being organized. Make sure you have a well thoughts out plan where you have taken all factors into account. Prioritize the list of deliverables, and make sure you have all the right people alighed to assist internally & externally. If you have a well organized plan you will be set up for success.

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.

Vanilla is great for forums, but they don't have the gamification/challenges piece that is so important toward building advocacy. I've found a similar circumstance with Salesforce communities--good if you're looking primarily for crowdsourced tech support and QA, but nothing "sticky" for really building a thriving community, or the advocacy piece

Incentivized

I selected it for the ability to have an automated system do 3 things all at once, social media posts, emails and the instant communication with the chat box. I have never seen a chat come through that lead to a helpful client touchpoint. I have never used another product but have since begun to weigh some of the less expensive options.

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

When I stayed using we only had a hundred or so Advocates and now we have 2100+. Pretty amazing product!

• 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

• Influitive has helped us generate hundreds of reviews on sites like G2, TrustRadius, and Capterra, which has resulted in various awards and positive placement on grid reports.
• Influitive has helped us generate dozens of case studies and hundreds of quotes that can be used in sales and marketing campaigns.
• Influitive has generated thousands of survey responses to help our product team better understand what our customers want, which has had a direct impact on our product roadmap.

Incentivized

• One client identified how one article I sent that he read saved him from having to replace his entire AC system.
• One client actually thought I was sending this to him personally because I valued him
• One of the above transacted with me twice for over $3M in sales

Incentivized