Item: Campaign Monitor by Marigold
Rating: 7
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Campaign Monitor to send out targeted emails to staff, monthly eNewsletters to stakeholders of our hospital and research updates from our research department. The application is used across the entire organization by a select few communication coordinators. It addresses the need for sending out professional, templated emails both internally and externally, while providing analytics and tracking statistics.

Pros and Cons

Once templates have been created, it is easy to use, especially for those who aren't versed in HTML coding.
Analytics are simple and more in-depth than some of its competitors, even offering metrics based on geography, email client type, device type, etc.
A/B testing is simple to use and effective, requiring minimal set up.

An HTML editing mode would be welcome, as the templates are currently very restrictive. While this is a good thing for people who don't have a coding or web design background, it severely limits the customizability.
Whitelisting seems to be an issue for some organizations, although this is likely also a function of the IT departments of those organizations.
While creating emails from a pre-made template is easy, if they wanted to totally remove the coding aspect, they could've implemented a WYSIWYG or drag-and-drop editor.

Return on Investment

Since we are not a for-profit organization, there is no specific ROI to report
From a communication standpoint, it allows us to easily and quickly send out mass emails without going through numerous steps. Many other email communications products force you to go through multiple steps, including testing, before sending an email.
Once templates are set up, the ease of use of the product makes it easy for even novices to begin sending emails without any further knowledge of HTML. The strict templates also ensure that there are less chances for user error, which can be an issue when working with HTML tables to format an email.

Alternatives Considered

MailChimp and Vertical Response

Once templates are set up, Campaign Monitor seems to be easier to use for novices than either MailChimp or Vertical Response. There is less back-and-forth between steps, and Campaign Monitor seems to want to usher you along all the steps as quickly as possible without the need for reviewing and testing. A/B testing is a breeze, and can automatically send emails after a certain threshold is reached.

This comes at a price, as emails turn out to be more formulaic and less dynamic.

Other Software Used

TweetDeck, MS SharePoint, WordPress, Adobe Photoshop, Trello

Likelihood to Recommend

Campaign Monitor is suited to cases where the emails that you send are heavily templated, and will not deviate much from that template. We use it primarily for internal communications to staff as opposed to sending an Outlook email, as it provides us with stats on open rate, clickthrough, etc. It is less appropriate for cases where you anticipate a lot of deviation between email communications and would rather have full control over the look and feel of the email.

Usability

The templates, while useful, are very locked down, This makes it very usable from a novice's standpoint, but also very inflexible from a designer's standpoint.

Creating several version of the email campaign and using A/B testing was a powerful and easy-to-use feature, and the system also provides the option of automating the sending of emails once an A/B testing criteria is reached.

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Like to use Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Feel confident using Familiar	Cumbersome

Easy Tasks

Creating content and sending emails
A/B testing and dynamic content integration

Difficult Tasks

Creating new templates or altering existing ones.

Campaign Monitor allows novice users to send & monitor their email campaigns. Expert email marketers need not apply.

Overall Satisfaction with Campaign Monitor