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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
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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
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- 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).
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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
(1-22 of 22)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
December 08, 2021
iContact Review
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- 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.
December 19, 2019
iContact -- A Great for Small Business Users
IContact was used in a previous engagement with a mid-sized business client. It was used only by the Marketing department to solve a couple of business challenges. They needed to be able to send email messages to a select number of contacts in a specific region in order to inform them of upcoming events and engage them for sales conversations. They needed a platform that would allow them to quickly launch ad-hoc email marketing campaigns to subscribers and identify potential opportunities based on an analysis of the results. The solution needed to be simple to use and affordable. iContact fit the requirements for this client initiative and I was in charge of implementing and managing the activities within iContact to meet our objectives.
- A quick campaign creation process.
- Easy to use interface.
- Hundreds of attractive email templates.
- There's a limited amount of storage space for images.
- Their subscriber-based pricing can get high really fast.
- The email customization options are limited.
December 05, 2019
iContact saves me time!
I am the only user in our company and I use it to send out mass emails to our members.
- It allows me to send out large quantities of emails at one time.
- It allows me to make my newsletters interesting.
- I'd like to know how to attach links to the emails.
September 11, 2019
Simple, Effective Email Campaigns
We use iContact for email campaigns. It works well for small to medium campaigns. I have also recommended and setup the product for several other companies. The interface is pretty straight forward and it does a good job of walking you through the entire process for someone who has little experience.
- Easy to use templates.
- Good delivery rates.
- Good customer support
- Can get complicated if you do not want to use one of their templates
- Larger email lists can get expensive.
- Very strict rules about adding a contact who does not respond to an invite.
January 04, 2019
IContact is worth it
Many departments use IContact to create colorful, well-designed newsletters to promote activities and events. It helps us provide information about upcoming programs and events of interest to our residents. Our service also includes one project per month from I-Contact's graphic design team. They will work with a department to create a nice, eye-catching newsletter template.
- 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
December 14, 2018
iContact is a lifesaver!
I use iContact keep in touch with all of my clients. iContact allows me to stay organized and seamlessly market to my current clients. It is an essential tool for me to use that it has generated a ton of deals for me and my team. Not only do I use iContact but many others in my organization use it independently. Highly recommending it would be understated.
- Track opens
- High delivery rate
- User-friendly
- Tracking. How many times one opens emails. See who forwarded emails.
December 07, 2018
Great product for just sending e-mail. Not trying to do too much.
iContact is being used to send out all of our e-mail marketing hits that we send to either our entire list or to a segment of our list. It is used solely by the marketing department, but occasionally marketing will send e-mails using iContact on behalf of other departments, such as customer service or events. It is not, however, used for automated marketing e-mails that are sent to individuals at specified time intervals based on when they take certain actions is our marketing funnels. We use another marketing automation software for that.
- iContact, for the most part, ONLY does e-mail, so they're good at it. You can expect inbox deliverability to to be high because it's all they do. They don't have their team focused on trying to be everything to everyone.
- iContact has an easy drag & drop user interface to create e-mails as well as the flexibility of being able to code your own e-mails with an HTML source editor.
- They only do e-mail. This is a pro in the sense that they're good at it. But their marketing automation is lacking.
- Misses the mark on some cool things that competitors are doing like sending e-mails out at different times to individual subscribers based on when they're most likely to open your message. This would be a great feature to add.
- Segmentation isn't as good as it could be. A tagging system would be preferred for segmenting. Right now, you can really only segment based on field data and to add a field for every possible situation I might want to tag a contact record is a bit daunting. Being able to segment based on realtime behavior would also be helpful. For example, we only send to contacts that have had some interaction (opened or clicked an email) within the last 180 days. Each month, I have to pull everyone who hasn't clicked in that time and add them to a list that I exclude. I also have to remove anyone who has interacted again from the exclusion list. It'd be easier if that segment of people updated automatically so I didn't have to manually add and remove people each month.
- If you're working with a lot of contacts and you have a lot of segments, loading and performance can be slow.
Every client in our agency utilizes an email campaign platform to send out eBlasts to our audiences and each of those clients uses a service that is fit best for them - so, no solution is agency-wide, here. In the case of the Bridge Run, we reviewed several platforms before making the decision to go with iContact and it was a fantastic choice. They offer incentives for non-profits and the service they provide is above all else. We have an activation account manager that guides us through new capabilities and keeps us in line with our stats. It solves the annoying issue of emailing. It's the best email tool we've explored yet.
- 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.
April 25, 2018
Professional Company With Solid E-mail Infrastructure
We use iContact to integrate with other website tracking tools and to send e-mails to various segments of subscribers. This is used by the digital marketing department and it addresses the business opportunity of staying in touch with our customers with news and offers that are important to them. We use iContact in coordination with a dedicated account manager, which is a major difference maker for us.
- Constant support from a dedicated account manager.
- Consistent deliverability of e-mail messages.
- Accurate reporting of clicks, opens and the ability to easily segment based on these.
- Ability to deliver to inbox based on days/times recipient typically opens.
- Reports on messages being forwarded or otherwise shared.
- More sends per month included in plans.
September 14, 2015
iContact - I like it!
iContact was being used to address marketing and promotion for a consulting job I was assigned to. This was a general contractor who wanted to promote sites and completed projects to current, potential and clients that did not know of them. It was used by the Marketing firm handling their PR and it was being used as an outreach tool.
- It allows for multiple audience databases.
- It allows for multiple document structures and designs (internal and imported)
- User friendly and ease of use
- Access to help for functions could be more readily available within the various areas of content. This would prevent users from having to go to the help area and away from where they are working.
- Easing limitations on how many users could be sent blasts at one given time.
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.
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.
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 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
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.