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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Constant Contact

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AConstant 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

    Meltwater

    Score7.6 out of 10
    N/AMeltwater Media Intelligence platform is a set of public relations software tools for media monitoring, social media monitoring, and collecting brand insights. The four areas of functionality are Monitor, Analyze, Distribute, and Engage. (Note that this product combines features from the vendor Meltwater's former Buzz, Press, and News products.)N/A
    Pricing
    Constant ContactMeltwater
    Editions & Modules
    Lite
    Starting at $12.00
    per month
    Standard
    Starting at $35.00
    per month
    Premium
    Starting at $80.00
    per month
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Constant ContactMeltwater
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsThe 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.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Constant ContactMeltwater
    Considered Both Products
    Constant Contact
    No answer on this topic
    Meltwater
    Chose Meltwater
    You can't customize your email templates as well as in Constant Contact or MailChimp. The analytics with meltwater are a great way to see what types of journalists are opening your press releases, instead of just an email address. Also, with the other two, you need to have a …
    Incentivized
    Chose Meltwater
    We currently have both platforms.
    Incentivized
    Chose Meltwater
    There's a bit of a learning curve, but customer service is excellent, and their price beats their rivals handily. All draw from similar databases of media and news.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    85%
    Would buy again
    61 Answers
    63%
    Would buy again
    20 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    61 Answers
    62%
    Delivers good value for the price
    16 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    85%
    Happy with the feature set
    61 Answers
    69%
    Happy with the feature set
    22 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    91%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    42 Answers
    63%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    15 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    90%
    Implementation went as expected
    46 Answers
    81%
    Implementation went as expected
    22 Answers
    Features
    Constant ContactMeltwater
    Email & Online Marketing
    Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Constant Contact and Meltwater
    Feature
    Constant Contact
    9.0
    120 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Meltwater
    -
    Ratings
    WYSIWYG email editor9.7102 Ratings00 Ratings
    Dynamic content9.7104 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ability to test dynamic content8.582 Ratings00 Ratings
    Landing pages9.378 Ratings00 Ratings
    A/B testing8.373 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile optimization8.686 Ratings00 Ratings
    Email deliverability reporting9.9116 Ratings00 Ratings
    List management9.3118 Ratings00 Ratings
    Triggered drip sequences7.962 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Constant Contact and Meltwater
    Feature
    Constant Contact
    8.5
    117 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Meltwater
    -
    Ratings
    Dashboards8.488 Ratings00 Ratings
    Standard reports9.8115 Ratings00 Ratings
    Custom reports7.558 Ratings00 Ratings
    Pre-Send Testing
    Comparison of Pre-Send Testing features of Constant Contact and Meltwater
    Feature
    Constant Contact
    8.4
    69 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Meltwater
    -
    Ratings
    URL Validation8.231 Ratings00 Ratings
    Link Tracking7.934 Ratings00 Ratings
    Image Validation8.932 Ratings00 Ratings
    Inbox Display8.635 Ratings00 Ratings
    Email Accessibility Tools7.928 Ratings00 Ratings
    Spelling and Grammar Check9.856 Ratings00 Ratings
    Spam Testing6.026 Ratings00 Ratings
    Email Previews9.968 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Constant ContactMeltwater
    Small Businesses
    Mad Mimi
    Score10 out of 10
    Help a Reporter Out (HARO)
    Score5 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Campaign Monitor by Marigold
    Score9 out of 10
    Cision Communications Cloud
    Score8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Emma by Marigold
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Cision Communications Cloud
    Score8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Constant ContactMeltwater
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.8
    (135 ratings)
    7.2
    (73 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.9
    (23 ratings)
    10.0
    (10 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (12 ratings)
    5.6
    (5 ratings)
    Availability
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (9 ratings)
    10.0
    (29 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (5 ratings)
    6.1
    (2 ratings)
    Configurability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Constant ContactMeltwater
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Constant Contact
    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
    Read full review
    Meltwater
    Meltwater is well-suited for agencies that have an engagement team who is looking to service a variety of client needs such as social media reporting, public relations outreach, and community management. If you're looking to have a platform serve just one need, you can still use Meltwater but will get more bang for your buck if you are needing a variety of tools.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Constant Contact
    • 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
    Meltwater
    • Media research - you can search for relevant publications and journalists to add to your media list.
    • Earned media coverage - you can search for coverage of your brand and find news stories that also include data that may be useful (how many people did the story reach for example).
    • Building media lists - if you have no current existing list, you can build and export one in Excel for example.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Constant Contact
    • 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
    Read full review
    Meltwater
    • The dashboards are not user-friendly, customizable (color, font size, etc.), or worthy of presenting to a client. All of the insights from a dashboard get pulled from the platform and placed into a more client-friendly presentation.
    • Paywalls for certain publications connected to who-knows-what. DowJones racket limits media monitoring capabilities and results in manual searches for a growing number of publications.
    • TVeyes, the broadcast monitoring arm of the media monitoring capabilities, just needs TLC and to become more client-facing. Currently, the links produced to share clips look sketchy, and they have a relatively short shelf life.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Constant Contact
    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
    Meltwater
    Meltwater works well for our organization and has allowed us to meet our internal goals. We are always open to new products and services that may be able to provide similar or better features; however, our experience has been that many of Meltwater's competitors are not up to the task.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Constant Contact
    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
    Meltwater
    Once you get some basic training it's pretty easy to use. I would like to see training manuals, or instructional videos to help me explore features I'm not currently using.
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Constant Contact
    No major problems in sending out the email campaigns and accessing the analytics
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Meltwater
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Constant Contact
    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
    Meltwater
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Constant Contact
    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
    Meltwater
    Our account rep at Meltwater went dark for a long time. Then, a couple of weeks ago, our new account manager reached out to set up a meeting. Apparently, they had a big shakeup in the company, and there were some personnel changes. Our new account rep was great in discussing the platform's capabilities that were available to us and even offered to schedule a follow-up meeting with his technical team to introduce our new social media team members to the platform and how it could help them with their jobs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Constant Contact
    No answers on this topic
    Meltwater
    Again, really in-depth and helpful for a program that is really easy to use.
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Constant Contact
    No answers on this topic
    Meltwater
    Walked step by step through program. Very informative on a program that doesn't require much training.
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Constant Contact
    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
    Meltwater
    You are only allowed 15 users, so make sure you've identified who will have access to use the tool.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Constant Contact
    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
    Meltwater
    I was looking for a full-service option. I did some research. What really sold me was the presentation. They offered products that were helpful, and I wasn’t even aware of them. It is more expensive than the other products that are out there, but you get more. The other companies are good, but Meltwater Media Intelligence is more full service.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Constant Contact
    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
    Read full review
    Meltwater
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Constant Contact
    • 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
    Read full review
    Meltwater
    • As a PR firm, we rely on the media databases that [Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform] supplies to deliver the media exposure that they expect from us.
    • We utilize their tracking of media hits for our overall reporting to our clients.
    • Both of these are advantageous in helping us to not only keep our existing clients happy but also to gain new clients (and, in turn - revenue), as well.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Constant Contact Screenshots

    Screenshot of the AI Content Generator that can be used to create content for emails, social posts, or SMS.Screenshot of an example automation workflow. These help to ensure a business's marketing is always on.Screenshot of some of the available pre-built email templates, that can be edited with the included drag-and-drop email editor.Screenshot of the Social Posting tool, used to plan and post social media messaging across platforms.Screenshot of the SMS Marketing feature.Screenshot of some of Constant Contact's available integrations.