Overview
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.
iContact works well for us
iContact Review
We went back to iContact
iContact -- A Great for Small Business Users
iContact saves me time!
iContact - a good, email marketing workhorse
iContact for union member communication
iContact for a softball coach
Simple, Effective Email Campaigns
Personalize Emails with iContact and control marketing!
IContact is worth it
Great customer support makes iContact a no brainer for small-business email marketing
I stay in contact with iContact!
Happy, but require more training
iContact - Good for Small Businesses
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
2500 Users
$25.00
5000 Users
$45.00
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
Demo of shortcut to Business Card iContact using QR code on iPhone - Part 1
iContact for Salesforce Demo
Features
Email & Online Marketing
Using software to manage lists, send emails, automate email campaigns, and track results.
- 7WYSIWYG email editor(24) Ratings
Users can create html emails through a drag-and-drop interface, without html coding knowledge.
- 7Dynamic content(21) Ratings
Users can tailor email, website or landing page content depending on the viewer or recipient (e.g., email salutations that include the recipient’s name).
- 5Ability to test dynamic content(21) Ratings
Users can test dynamic content prior to launching a campaign.
- 7Landing pages(14) Ratings
Users can create web pages that are customized to a particular email or campaign. Landing pages often include web forms which can capture visitor information and integrate it back into the MA software.
- 5A/B testing(17) Ratings
Users can experiment with different variations of a campaign and measure results. Testable aspects might include subject lines, header images, or landing page copy.
- 7Mobile optimization(21) Ratings
Users can easily optimize emails and landing pages for mobile devices.
- 7Email deliverability reporting(25) Ratings
The software helps ensure inbox delivery of email campaigns, through features such as deliverability tests, opt-in management, bounce handling, suppression lists, dedicated IP addresses, and delivery monitoring.
- 8List management(25) Ratings
This involves creating, filtering, editing, merging and de-duping lists of contacts.
- 6Triggered drip sequences(15) Ratings
The software allows users to set up automatic / drip email campaigns triggered by certain events.
Reporting & Analytics
Users can report on and analyze usage, performance, ROI, and/or other metrics of success.
- 8Dashboards(26) Ratings
Users can create, customize and share dashboards, which provide an overview of the most important metrics.
- 8Standard reports(25) Ratings
The software offers pre-built reports with metrics standard to the category.
- 8Custom reports(15) Ratings
Users can create custom reports.
Pre-Send Testing
This set of features allows marketers to test out and preview various elements of their emails before sending out email campaigns. URL validation, inbox display, and email review are some of the activities included in pre-send testing.
- 7URL Validation(1) Ratings
This allows marketers to validate URLs and find any broken links before sending out their email campaigns.
- 7Link Tracking(1) Ratings
This allows marketers to verify that proper link tracking is set up before sending out their email campaigns.
- 7Image Validation(1) Ratings
This allows marketers to validate images used in their emails to ensure images and GIFs display correctly in their audience’s inboxes.
- 7Inbox Display(1) Ratings
This allows marketers to see how their emails will be displayed within different web browsers and within different email service provider (ESP) platforms.
- 7Email Accessibility Tools(1) Ratings
This type of tool scans emails before they are sent out to ensure that design and code are optimized for accessibility across different browsers.
- 7Spelling and Grammar Check(1) Ratings
This feature checks emails for spelling and grammatical mistakes before they are sent out.
- 7Spam Testing(1) Ratings
Spam testing allows marketers to test their email against most major spam filters before sending out their email campaigns.
- 7Email Previews(1) Ratings
This allows marketers to test out emails to see how they will display across multiple different applications and web browsers.
Product Details
- About
- Integrations
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is iContact?
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
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(97)Community Insights
- 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
(1-18 of 18)iContact works well for us
- Email campaigns
- Email templates to choose from and edit
- Great customer service
- Need to improve their scheduling features
- Uploading list can take a long time, I would like to have that process done faster
iContact Review
- Out of all the direct marketing tools available, iContact has the most flexibility in the area of design for my projects. I think their templates look great and I like being able to customize them for my projects.
- iContact has top notch customer service, and they have always been knowledgeable and helpful.
- Their website was a little difficult to navigate initially. They've made improvements since I first signed up, but I still think that there are areas where it could be much more intuitive than it is.
- Occasionally, some of templates can act a little buggy. I've had to start over on some projects because things like borders or font color will appear one way in the message builder, and then when the message is tested and viewed in email, will be a different color. I've never been able to fix this, and I believe it might be errors in code.
- We often publish newsletters in multiple languages and it would be helpful to be able to work on two messages at once. I've tried this in the past all to find out that one version was not able to be saved.
We went back to iContact
- Maintains the list of contacts.
- Allows us to segment or divide our contacts up into targeted lists.
- Provides a dashboard with statistics for marketing insights.
- Deleting contacts is not easy and if you make a mistake it is not easy to fix.
- Finding and reusing messages is not easy.
- Adding/manipulating blocks is sometimes frustrating to get the look you want in a message.
iContact for a softball coach
- You can get help by live chat, email or telephone.
- They regularly send out tips to improve your communication with your subscribers.
- They allow you to have many pictures. I have 126 and have not reached my maximum limit.
- Every time you edit or sometimes open an email it brings it to the top of the list. I would prefer my email to go to the top only after I send it out to my subscribers.
- When I add a new contact I sometimes copy and paste the email. This is not allowed sometimes and I have to manually type the email in.
- LinkedIn will not allow you to add pictures anymore when sending emails out.
- Great themes and templates that are already set up for you.
- It's easy for my customers to set up or decide to decline emails.
- Once emails are sent out, I'm able to view success rates and how well the emails are being received. Like how well they are doing, being opened and such.
- The ways the emails are sent out come across as spam. I wish iContact info was left out of it.
- Some of the editing tools are hard to navigate, and once I go from one page to the next, I have lost things that I have worked on. "Save" doesn't seem to work.
But I think for bigger businesses it might not be the right fit. I feel as though many people view messages coming from iContact as spam or junk mail and they are not opened or received. That can be a waste of time for the business owner or the developer.
IContact is worth it
- Versatile templates available
- Will create customized templates
- Easy to use email address collection forms
- Will offer expert insight and analysis on how to build lists
- Resizing columns
- Subscriber sign-up forms across different user folders
- Spellcheck is a little cumbersome
Happy, but require more training
- GREAT customer service. Our rep, Paige Maites, is always the first to pick up the phone and handle any issues.
- I love that you can design invites within the application.
- Managing lists. I feel like we are always hitting our storage cap with unnecessary contacts that are over 2 years old
Great for Small Business
- Contact management. iContact is really great for entering all your contact. You are able to put them onto different lists, and let them choose which lists they would like to be a part of as well. There are many data fields provided to fill in information.
- Emailing. We use the email feature at least once a month. They are always improving and adding new features, which is very helpful in presenting content in a new and exciting way to our readers. There are many options with remade templates and themes, or you can add your own.
- Insights. It is really helpful being able to have the data to see what is working and what isn't. It is nice to be able to go back and see how things went in the past compared to now. Opens, clicks, shares, etc.
- Surveys. iContact used to offer doing surveys direct through their platform and it was great. Very easy to use with great results. They removed that feature, sadly.
- Even better contact management. Every list you put a contact on goes towards your subscriber count. The more subscribers you have to more you have to pay. Sometimes emails get lost and the only way to manually subscribe someone to a list that never responded is by contacting support.
- More flexibility in creating templates. Their template creating feature for emails is very rigid. While you can change colors and widths of columns, you can't make it completely yours
iContact is MyContact with the World!
- Recently, iContact changed the way HTML emails are prepared and that has significantly moved us along this path of communicating better with our membership.
- If we have questions, Bill is always there to help us. The personal involvement means a lot because many times we're under a deadline to get information out to our membership.
- Adding names to iContact has been a cinch as we grow.
- Once we got to understand how HTML emails and newsletters were created, the process has been much simpler and I cannot honestly think of ways to improve anything about their website or implementation of the work we need to have done.
Great and Reliable for the Basics
- Great list segmentation. You can make a segment based on many different rules.
- Analytical tracking information is also very useful. It has all the major KPI's that one would expect.
- The integration to Salesforce is very useful. It allows us to have a more complete view of a contact within the Salesforce profile.
- Some of the emails that bounce cannot be traced to a specific reason. It leaves our team in the dark about why the emails are bouncing.
- The spam test sometimes give a thumbs up while the email is still flagged in Outlook. Obviously Outlook is a big deal for B2B marketing emails, and the resolution hasn't been so clear.
- iContact alots only a specific amount of space for your email images. This can be restricting at times.
- Our account manager keeps us up to date with our email sending statistics and provides an extra eye on the account. This helps us determine what and why open rates fluctuate and tools to keep the click-throughs UP!
- They offer incentives for their clients.
- It's the easiest and most user-friendly platform we use in the agency and when it comes to training, and execution - it's above all else!
- Honestly, I think I've learned the most from iContact on email platforms -- they provide blogs that are insightful to users and when I inquire or have questions, they're quick to respond and always have a detailed explanation.
- 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.
iContact - Easy way to connect to contacts
- 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.
Make Contact with iContact
- 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.
iContact is perfect for small businesses!
- 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.
A Fine ESP Option for Beginners
- 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.
uContact so iContact
- 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.
Does it provide the templates that will fulfill my campaign needs?
Does the product provide social media compatibility?
Does the product provide analytics?
Using iContact for Marketing to Professionals
- 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.