TrustRadius Insights
iContact is a versatile communication tool that is used by various organizations and individuals for a wide range of purposes. For …
Starting at $14 per month
View PricingOverview
What is iContact?
iContact is an email marketing solution that was acquired by Vocus in 2012. The product is integrated with Facebook and Twitter and is aimed at SMBs with unlimited sending as a key feature.
Recent Reviews
Popular Features
- Dashboards (26)8.080%
- List management (25)8.080%
- Standard reports (25)8.080%
- Email deliverability reporting (25)7.070%
Pricing
1500 Users
$15.00
Cloud
per month
2500 Users
$25.00
Cloud
per month
5000 Users
$45.00
Cloud
per month
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Starting price (does not include set up fee)
- $14 per month
Product Demos
Build Your Brand Webinar Series: iContact Demo
YouTube
Demo of shortcut to Business Card iContact using QR code on iPhone - Part 1
YouTube
iContact for Salesforce Demo
YouTube
Features
Return to navigation
Product Details
- About
- Integrations
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is iContact?
iContact is an email marketing solution that was acquired by Vocus in 2012. The product is integrated with Facebook and Twitter and is aimed at SMBs with unlimited sending as a key feature.
Drag & Drop Editor
No HTML required, but can be used in conjunction with their Drag & Drop email designer.
A/B Split Testing
Conduct email tests to specific subscriber groups ranging from test email subject lines, incentives, layouts, or color schemes.
Automation
Schedule emails based on your own needs, or with suggested times based on iContact's automation algorithm.
Landing Pages
Designed to help users automize conversion rates with customizable landing page templates.
Performance Reporting
Analyze email metrics with personalized dashboards.
Subscriber Management
Embed custom sign-up forms, and manage lists of subscribers based on demographics.
Multiple Users
One account, multiple users, with customizable permissions-levels.
API Integrations
Incorporate data from multiple sources into iContact for subscriber management. Export data from iContact into other tools to optimize email marketing applications.
Drag & Drop Editor
No HTML required, but can be used in conjunction with their Drag & Drop email designer.
A/B Split Testing
Conduct email tests to specific subscriber groups ranging from test email subject lines, incentives, layouts, or color schemes.
Automation
Schedule emails based on your own needs, or with suggested times based on iContact's automation algorithm.
Landing Pages
Designed to help users automize conversion rates with customizable landing page templates.
Performance Reporting
Analyze email metrics with personalized dashboards.
Subscriber Management
Embed custom sign-up forms, and manage lists of subscribers based on demographics.
Multiple Users
One account, multiple users, with customizable permissions-levels.
API Integrations
Incorporate data from multiple sources into iContact for subscriber management. Export data from iContact into other tools to optimize email marketing applications.
iContact Integrations
iContact Competitors
iContact Technical Details
| Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
iContact is an email marketing solution that was acquired by Vocus in 2012. The product is integrated with Facebook and Twitter and is aimed at SMBs with unlimited sending as a key feature.
iContact starts at $14.
Reviewers rate List management and Dashboards and Standard reports highest, with a score of 8.
The most common users of iContact are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(97)
Community Insights
TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
- Cons
- Recommendations
iContact is a versatile communication tool that is used by various organizations and individuals for a wide range of purposes. For example, schools utilize iContact to manage both internal and external communications, including sending emails about performances, weekly updates, illness announcements, and emergency communication. This ensures seamless and efficient communication within the school community. Similarly, marketing departments of businesses employ iContact for email marketing campaigns, allowing them to reach out to customers with monthly newsletters, promotions, and announcements.
Moreover, iContact serves as a valuable tool for coordinating communications across different departments within a company. It enables approximately three departments to send targeted messages to specific audiences such as physicians and consumers while ensuring brand consistency and tracking open rates. In addition to these organizational use cases, iContact also caters to individual users who rely on it to stay connected with clients or referral sources. The user-friendly interface guides users through the entire email campaign process, making it suitable for those with little experience in this domain. Overall, users have praised iContact for effectively solving the challenges associated with mass email communication and promoting engagement with their target audiences.
Intuitive and Easy to Use Interface: Users find iContact's interface intuitive and easy to use, making it convenient for completing urgent work. They appreciate the ease of setting up and sharing knowledge with colleagues. Some users feel that iContact is particularly helpful for beginners in email marketing.
Wide Selection of Design Templates: Users appreciate the wide selection of design templates provided by iContact, allowing them to create eye-catching emails and newsletters on any device. The template designer feature is particularly helpful in creating professional-looking emails. Many reviewers mention that these templates are fantastic and simple to use.
Effective Contact Management and Sales Opportunities: iContact's platform effectively manages contacts and sales opportunities, providing a faster experience for customers. Users find it easy to do marketing campaigns and share information between multiple sources using iContact. The individual person management feature allows for effective addressal of specific account details. Several users mentioned that they find managing email lists and the automatic payment system intuitive and affordable.
Confusing User Interface: Many users have expressed frustration with the confusing and difficult-to-navigate user interface of iContact. They find it challenging to locate specific features and perform tasks efficiently. The overall layout and organization of the interface can be improved to enhance user experience.
Limited Image Storage Space: Users have reported a lack of sufficient storage space for images in iContact, which hampers their efficiency in managing and using visuals for email campaigns. This limitation forces users to constantly delete or replace existing images, resulting in extra effort and time consumption.
Performance Issues: A common complaint among users is the slow loading speed and performance issues experienced while using iContact. Slow loading times not only hinder productivity but also create frustration among users who rely on prompt access to their email marketing tools. Improving the software's performance would greatly enhance user satisfaction and workflow efficiency.
Users recommend iContact for various purposes, including PR needs, non-profit organizations, and growing businesses. They appreciate the ease of use and effectiveness of iContact. Customers also praise the reliable customer service provided by iContact and its ability to track results. Users find iContact competitively priced and easy to learn. They highly recommend iContact for email marketing and its seamless integration with Salesforce. The platform is also praised for its contact management capabilities, convenient templates, and pricing options. Users find it beneficial for quickly sending contact emails. It is advisable to try a demo before fully committing to iContact. However, caution is advised when sending mass emails to leads. Overall, users believe that iContact is an excellent tool for tying in with Salesforce and meeting email marketing needs.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(26-45 of 45)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
July 07, 2015
iContact is an easy to use email marketing system. As part of the Vocus marketing suite, it's a no brainer.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We used iContact as our default email marketing system. It was used primarily by the marketing department, but service would also use it to communicate to our database. Segmentation of our contact list 20K+ contacts, was easy to manage. The email editor was easy to use and customizable.
- List segmentation and management
- Campaigns are easy to create and duplicate
- Email editor is easy to use
- Email templates were not as modern as other services
- Email editor required some knowledge of html to maximize it's potential
- Full integration with our CRM would have been nice (it was a feature they were planning but had not yet implemented)
We used iContact on a daily basis to send a high volume of emails, either through broadcast sends or and autoresponder email series. Email is our main source of communication with customers. We have various different strategies from early lead conversion, to reoccurring purchasers to inform them of new product releases. Without email we would not be able to spread the word of our business or acquire new customers.
- They are inexpensive
- Their HTML editing software is great for new users
- Easy to manage various lists for large number of broadcast sends
- Testing emails is quick and easy
- They are not in a hurry to improve their platform. Their software is the same today as it was 3 years ago when we first signed up with them (an eternity in internet years)
- Their analytics are sparse, if you want to know more than just general open and click rates then look somewhere else.
- Deliverability is terrible. If you use iContact expect to be sent in the spam folder for all your Gmail and Hotmail clients.
April 30, 2015
iContact - Easy way to connect to contacts
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- Customer service is beyond expectations. Every representative has full knowledge of every aspect of the program and provides detailed instructions including links. They are prompt and courteous each time as well as patient, staying online to chat until the entire issue is resolved.
- iContact is easy to use by providing building blocks in the form of modules. It is rather simple to move blocks of text or add new text boxes.
- Linking directly to social media is an intelligent way of instantly extending the reach of an email marketing piece. Having all major social media platforms through iContact also makes it easier to track.
- Tracking reports does the work for you, making iContact a one-stop shop for email marketing purposes. It is easy to see if the email marketing piece is truly reaching the target audience.
- Copying and pasting text can only be done using keyboard functions. The right-click drop-down menu exists but does not work, rendering the menu useless.
- Readjusting the size of boxes isn't easy and requires manipulating the program to get exactly the right look, which takes up an unnecessary amount of time.
- Lack of space for image storage reduces efficiency.
March 10, 2015
Maybe if you're a begining novice but if you know what clickthrough rates or A/B test are, don't waste your time.
Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We used iContact to send our retail and wholesale email newsletters for over 5 years.
- Their deliverability was very good, our bounce rate averaged less than 2% and open rates were better than the email provider we moved to after we left iContact.
- The user interface was relatively simple and easy to use, with only a couple exceptions it's very intuitive.
- They have a large selection of templates to choose from, both completely blank and themed with graphics. Example: want to send a 4th of July themed email? Go into the email templates and they'll have several with fireworks and flags decorating the background and/or borders, all you have to do is plug in your main content and not worry about spending time "decorating" the email.
- The amount of free storage they provide for hosting the images in your email is better than some of the others out there so if you need to store a lot of images for your emails it's easy to do within iContact and avoid using a third party hosting service, which complicates the email building process.
- Very weak reporting. Example: they calculate click through rates based off of the number of emails you send, not off the number of people who opened the email and actually saw the links in your email. Because of this a poor open rate results in a poor click through rate, even if 100% of the people who read your email clicked on your link. If you're not aware how they're calculating this it could lead you to make some very poor decisions based on their misleading stats.
- There is no automated A/B testing feature. You have to export your list, segment it in a spreadsheet, label each segment, then upload the segments, now you have the lists for the test emails and the main segment for the winner. Next you create the two versions of the email and send them. After you have collected enough data you have to examine the stats and choose a winner, then send it to your main segment. Both of the other email providers I've tired since have an automated A/B testing feature, create the test emails, the software segments your list, sends the test, waits for the data to come in, then sends the winner out to the remainder of your list. While they do have limitations, it's far easier than iContact.
- They don't have any built in rendering or testing mechanism to see how your emails will look in Gmail vs.Yahoo, or a mobile device. If you want to do this you either have to use a third party service that you upload or send the email to or you can create various email accounts and send test emails to each, then log into each account to see how your email is displayed.
February 25, 2015
Best. Email Marketing Suite. Ever
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- Easy to use UI makes building your emails a breeze!
- The list import and building process is click and go.
- The Spam check is one of the simple and most accurate that I have ever used.
- If you are like me and prefer to build your own HTML and self-host then iContact is the best here. Nothing strange happens to the code when you import; click and go!
- Added support for CSS Styles would be GREAT.
- A device/client simulator for various devices and platforms would be awesome too!
- Improve the list removal/editing process; its a little cumbersome.
February 03, 2015
IContact Uses Shady Billing Practices
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We have been using iContact as our email marketing service, to send monthly newsletters to our email mailing list. It facilitates regular contact with our customer base, introduces new products and makes clients aware of special sales events and what's new with Peggy Lutz Plus.
- This kind of email service is relatively easy to use as it offers templates and modules.
- Emails go out quickly and easily.
- Updates to the mailing list are made by the service, including deletions and new subscribers.
- Customer service at iContact is seriously lacking.
- iContact overcharged me for two years of service and refused to issue a reasonable refund.
December 30, 2014
Make Contact with iContact
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- iContact allows you to store a large number of images (5,000 KB) within your account without upgrading or paying an add-on fee. I do manage and pay for an FTP site with another brand, which I use to maintain my website and store images on as well; however, iContact saves me the time (and money) of going back and forth from an FTP site to my e-newsletter.
- I am very happy with the lack of bugs or idiosyncrasies I have experienced with other programs. Paragraphs don't shift on their own, WYSIWYG, so there are not surprises when it is finally sent out to my audience.
- Even if I have not logged in for a while, it remembers me. That is beyond convenient, and after two years, I have no reason to believe it is not secure.
- I would really like a way to put captions under any image at any time. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.
- All of my previous e-newsletters do not show under the Messages tab. They do show up under "Email-Re-use." It may be that I am reusing my previous message each time to keep the template in order.
- A separate archive folder would be handy, a la Constant Contact.
December 01, 2014
Mass Emailing for Non-Profit Advocacy Organization
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- iContact makes it easy to send organized and professional looking emails to our network.
- Clean data layout - bounces, no info, unsubscribe, etc.
- Templates for all occasions and the flexibility to use HTML to edit the templates.
- Segments are not user friendly. Need to improve by allowing multiple selections i.e. for state you should be able to say "Either NY, NJ, PA, or CT".
- Photo editing - should be able to resize when uploading.
- Uniform HTML layout across outlook, gmail, etc.
December 11, 2013
iContact Fanatic
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- I really love the "ease" of use of creating mailing lists and updating contact info of subscribers.
- The ability to preview emails provides me with a chance to correct and revise without having html background.
- I would like to add words that are business/organization related to the spell check function.
December 06, 2013
Good from far, but far from good
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- iContact provides you with easily customized templates that have a professional look about them.
- Since we have frequent turnover, the ability to view previous drafts and sent messages helps us maintain information about previous marketing strategies. We can also reuse the templates if we found something was successful.
- We appreciate the integration with our CRM tool so that we can collect more information on what our clients are interested in.
- Once you start using a template, you cannot easily transition it to a new template or format.
- Does not maintain integrity of design when sent to Outlook.
- There are several times where font will be hard to change or extra spacing will appear within the document.
- Sometimes text will jump as you are typing and you will be typing in a section you did not want to.
November 25, 2013
iContact Hits and Misses
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- iContact is great at allowing email list so be segmented, allowing a user to target their audience with specific niche emails.
- iContact has a large image library, which allows for plenty of visuals to be added to emails.
- iContact has a good customer support team. They are always available by phone or email to answer questions.
- iContact does not allow attachements to be included along with the main body of the email, which can be frustrating.
- The visual aspects of the email such as logos and images sometimes do not show, depending on the type of device which is opening the email e.g. Blackberry
- I have noticed that the tracking feature of iContact does not always accuratly depict the number of users who's email bounced, opened etc.
November 23, 2013
iContact is perfect for small businesses!
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- iContact enables small companies to have professional looking communications without a big marketing department or in house graphic designer. It is easy to use, affordable, and we are able to control the look and feel (i.e. our branding).
- The ability to send information to a large contact list, using their spam filters and settings, is something smaller companies can not achieve on their own. The unsubscribe button enables us to manage our contact list and communicate effectively with those who we know have opted in.
- The online contact list truely is a cloud based version, so we have peace of mind that it is being backed up and stored off of our internal databases & server.
- The design tools are intuitive - you need not be a technical wiz to produce powerful graphics and top notch marketing presentations to your audience.
- Sometimes if you selected the preview screen, it would not save your updates. Would be nice to have a "stop" feature where you are prompted to save your work prior to changing to a different screen to ensure it saves.
November 22, 2013
Messaging made easy!
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- Easy to use.
- Variety of templates to suite different engagements.
- Integration with Salesforce.
- Good statistical information for analysis.
- Responsive customer service.
- I always want to see more templates!
- Better graphics.
- I have issues importing content.
November 22, 2013
A Fine ESP Option for Beginners
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- Segmenting Lists: iContact makes it very easy to segment contact lists into subsegments, so you can better target your audience with specific email communication.
- Customer Service: All email service providers give the best customer service in the beginning of your contract. iContact provides excellent customer service for the entire extent of your contract.
- Creating and Editing Email Templates: I've used a few ESPs in my experience, and iContact was the easiest to use when creating and editing emails in both visual and html modes.
- Email Automation: iContact provides many options for setting up triggers that automatically add contacts to lists and allows you to email them a series of timed emails - minimal coding required.
- Email Automation Customization - you can't dictate what time of day the emails go out. Also, once you automatically add users to a list, you can't automatically remove them (for example - you may want to remove contacts from a list after they have been converted).
- Site Speed - My company used iContact extensively, and it was very slow at times, which was frustrating.
- Deliverability Testing - iContact doesn't have the best deliverability testing, which can be harmful for your domain's reputation.
November 21, 2013
iContact provides a fantastic ROI
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- HTML rich emails.
- Sorting duplicates.
- Creating groups.
- The HTML panel where one could cut and paste their code needs to be in a particular format that iContact platform can read. This panel should take any kind of HTML. It took a lot of editing with both the front-end and back-end before completing a project.
- More templates.
- Eliminate iContact branding in the footers.
November 21, 2013
Email Marketing Made Easy Peasy!
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- The templates are fantastic and simple, especially for those of us who are graphically-challenged.
- iContact does a great job of checking for keywords that will flag your messages as "spam" and easily allows changes to be made.
- I occasionally have trouble when formatting messages. For example, moving blocks of text around. There could be improved user functionality there.
November 21, 2013
'iContact' you made easy
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- Their sales team very helpful throughout my initial research into choosing this product. They were very insightful and detailed.
- I like how easy it is to use this product versus other large comparable email services. I have yet to have a problem and I am sending a large number of messages.
- When I do have questions about the capabilities, or features, the support team is very easy to reach. They have great training opportunities.
- It is very easy to integrate social media into your messages and bring multiple campaigns together.
- I enjoy seeing the metrics that they provide.
- It would be slightly more affordable to have more contacts at a lower price point, as each tier is different.
- It does seem that there are certain email platforms that either bounce or get marked as spam much more then others. It is difficult to find which ones until you conduct your own research.
- When lists that are marked as spam exceed 0.01 percent, the list is added to a do not mail list. This is frustrating, however this is also a federally enforced metric.
November 21, 2013
uContact so iContact
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- iContact provides e-mail templates that look aesthetically pleasing and professional.
- The capability to maintain your database is easy and streamlined.
- The analytics provide insightful information that helps any online marketing professional improve their campaigns.
- The analytics feature is only available for "upgraded" accounts, and this feature should be made available to all accounts.
- Incorporating some automation features. For example, if someone clicks on a link embedded within an e-mail campaign, an additional e-mail gets triggered.
November 21, 2013
Using iContact for Marketing to Professionals
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- iContact provides great tools for managing my e-mail contact list
- iContact allows me to focus on the message I want to send, rather than on the mechanics of sending it
- iContact give me the tools to customize what I want to say and who I want to say it to
- Much of the benefit in iContact depends upon setting it up properly at the start. If you begin without a clear idea of what you are doing, you'll have to go back and redo all of the work.
- Much of the information regarding delivery effectiveness depends upon feedback that most corporate e-mail systems don't allow to be collected
- The online message editor has a jerky, unstable feel to it. I prefer to write my message in outlook or a word processing application and then paste it into the editor to minimize the amount of work I have to do in it.
November 21, 2013
Best-in-Class Email Marketing Campaign Tool for Lead Gen
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- iContact is a well-designed email marketing software with a great selection of campaign management, design, and analytics tools.
- iContact for Salesforce is a great integration tool that allows me to run campaigns within Salesforce with all of the luxuries of iContact.
- The iContact support team is extremely responsive, provide support with world class customer service, and have saved me from spending time on technical research.
- The design tools are easy to use and the ability to use both HTML and WYSIWYG is nice, however some of the design elements do not publish correctly from time to time.