Constant Contact is a full-featured email marketing solution with capabilities such as social media integration, drag-and-drop editing, and real-time reporting. It is a bulk email tool designed for SMB customers. Since 2019, Constant Contact also offers marketing automation features, a website and landing page builder, and other tools to support midsize businesses.
$12
per month
Karbon
Score9.4 out of 10
N/A
Karbon is presented as a collaborative practice management solution for accounting firms. It includes communication and workflow tools to streamline practice operations, with task automation for common processes, and scheduling data collection. Its features encompass: Client Management - tracking the relationship with all the firm's customers. Knowledge Centralization - A single source of truth for job tracking. Business Analytics - Insights to guide firm…
$59
per month per user
Pricing
Constant Contact
Karbon
Editions & Modules
Lite
Starting at $12.00
per month
Standard
Starting at $35.00
per month
Premium
Starting at $80.00
per month
Team
$708
per year per user
Business
$1068
per year per user
Enterprise
Custom Pricing
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Constant Contact
Karbon
Free Trial
Yes
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
Optional
Additional Details
The SMS Marketing tool can be added to any Standard or Premium Constant Contact account. SMS is only available in the US for Standard and Premium paid plans. SMS can be added when logged in to an account after purchase. Plans start at $10/month for up to 500 messages.
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Having a tool where all of our task management and communication internally and externally is connect is a big pro for Karbon. When we made the switch we were able to eliminate multiple 3rd party tools we were using that didn't talk to each other. They are always updating and rolling out new features so you can stay up to date with what comes next to help your business. Being able to see all of the work agreed to for a client, all of the time budgets vs actual time, and then the specific tasks with specific notes, along with attaching all of the documentation (bills, emails, cc expenses ect) to the work items and having it all in one place so that the client work can be done by multiple people in our office has been a game changer for us for capacity and just not having one person hold all of the knowledge.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
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.
Resource management: Ability to view workloads of team members and reallocate easily in the event a team member is on leave.
Workflow management: Repeating workflows allows consistency of work and visibility of where work is up to.
Communication: As a remote team, communication is vital. We use tagging and assigning to ensure relevant team members are across the information they need to be. The client portal is handy for keeping sensitive information off email.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Time integration with XPM: We use fixed fee billing through Ignition, with invoices flowing through to XPM where we manage WIP against time. At the moment, time recorded in Karbon needs to be manually entered into XPM. A direct integration that automatically pushes Karbon time into XPM would remove this duplication and improve accuracy. Alternatively, if Karbon could pull the relevant Ignition billing information through in a way that supported WIP management, that could remove the need to maintain time separately in XPM.
Intelligence and reporting: I find the Intelligence area quite clunky for the management reporting we need. It can be slow to load, includes former team members who are difficult to exclude, and it is not easy to quickly produce a clean report with the key information required to manage the business.
I would like simpler, faster reporting around measures such as team productivity, revenue compared to payroll costs, utilisation and other operational performance metrics. Ideally, these reports would be included in the current subscription model, easy to filter and export for use for management decisions. The current experience has not provided enough value for us, and as a result I cancelled the Intelligence section of our subscription this year.
Bulk workflow updates: Making changes across a large number of recurring client workflows can be time consuming because many updates need to be made individually. While Karbon allows bulk updates using standard work templates, applying these can overwrite or remove client specific customisation, so it is not always practical for established workflows. It would be useful to be able to add a new task section to existing recurring workflows in bulk, while leaving all existing client specific tasks, settings and customisations intact. This would make it easier to roll out process improvements across the client base without having to manually update every workflow.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
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.
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
As mentioned previously, it is a great tool to increase overall productivity and transparency. The work appears in my-week making things hard to slip under the radar.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
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.
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
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 used CCH Prosystems for many years and in different variations and versions. I found that the training provided was lacking and the program was not user friendly. My former firm paid a great deal of money and we didn't use half of the functions it claimed to have due to the unfriendly nature of the platform.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
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
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
