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
Picsello
Score10 out of 10
N/A
Photography business management software is for photographers, and helps them manage, market, and manage their business at every stage. It includes a client booking system, where the user can create and view sessions and events right from a calendar, as well as promote upcoming events right from a public profile. Integrated email supports communicating with clients, and its streamlined process guides clients through the entire booking process so they can view availability and proposals, sign…
N/A
Pricing
Constant Contact
Picsello
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 Contact
Picsello
Free Trial
Yes
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
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
Picsello helps you stay on task. I have struggled with being too nice to clients in regards to when they pay for my services but Picsello fixed that. A payment schedule is included in the proposal process so when you send the email to your client, they'll get their contract, questionnaire, pricing details and a request for payment to secure booking. That's one less item on my to-do list and I can move forward with my workflow.
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.
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
People like flexibility and being able to work with previously established vendors that are different from the print vendor currently available in Picsello. I know additional partnerships are forthcoming and once they do I think this product will only increase in popularity.
One feature that would be helpful is to be able to block off time in the calendar so potential clients can view your availability.
I'd like to be able to enter multiple contacts under a single client. If you have a large group and you have their email addresses you could send the gallery to more than one person but from the same job.
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
Picsello is a 10 because it has everything I need to successfully run my photography business. I can communicate with my client, get them booked and paid all in one location. I don't need a separate gallery manager, I don't need to remember gallery passwords, I don't have to worry if I remembered to send a contract to a client, I don't have to worry if I don't hear back from a client about their gallery because Picsello will tell me when they logged in to view it. And best of all, I know what I need to charge in order to earn the goal I set for myself and at the end of the day, it's all about earning money doing something you love!
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.
The people at Picsello are genuinely interested in seeing you succeed! Are you having trouble deciding what to charge? They have a Mastermind Facebook group, and they have business coaching available. Are you frazzled and just need a little extra help, Customer Success is there to listen and dive into the app with you. Are you new and just need some guidance? Customer Success is there to walk you through the process or send links to demo videos or to sign you up for a one-on-one meeting. These people have been truly nice to me as I've gotten help and learned the product. Customer Service is a big deal to me and this company is going to have my business for a long time.
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.
Against Pixieset: I like Picsello better for a client experience and managing pricing and galleries. Pixieset is too complicated and cumbersome. Setting up the store is required before you can sell products on Pixieset and that's one large step more than Picsello. Against Honeybook: This is a product that's too generic and doesn't have even half the features of Picsello. It might work for freelance type work but a photographer needs way more than what is offered. It's just not made for photographers so it fails to hit the mark. Shootproof is another I tried but it's just not robust enough. There aren't enough features to help you successfully run your business, but if you'd like to add music to a photo montage, they've got you covered. That's fun to have but it's more important to earn a livable income and Picsello has them all beat with the Smart Profit Calculator!
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
By incorporating everything I need in a single email to my client, it saves me time. The contract, questionnaire, pricing details and payment are all sent over in one email and the automation takes over from there as the client signs everything and returns it with payment. So much time saved!
Having all my clients saved in this platform is a space saver for my Contacts app and so easy for me to contact them on the go since Picsello is mobile-ready. I can use it's full features anywhere!
The questionnaires are a godsend! I use to have word documents saved all over my laptop from clients but having everything in the Picsello app is way move convenient!
The photo galleries are given a password and it's automatically entered into the email you send your clients when you share the gallery. I used to have to come up with a password and keep track of it in case a client lost it. Such a pain! This is so much easier and I literally don't even think about this anymore since Picsello does it for me!
