Overview

Constant Contact is an established email marketing platform that has been serving small businesses since 1995, making it one of the longest-running email service providers in the industry. The platform now serves over 650,000 customers worldwide and maintains a 97 percent email delivery rate according to independent testing. Constant Contact positions itself as a beginner-friendly, all-in-one marketing solution that combines email marketing with social media management, event marketing, and CRM functionality, specifically targeting small businesses that need simple yet effective digital marketing tools.

What differentiates Constant Contact from many competitors is its exceptional ease of use and comprehensive customer support, including phone support available six days a week on all paid plans, which is rare in the email marketing industry. The platform features a BrandKit tool that automatically scrapes your website to extract your logo, colors, and social media accounts, instantly applying your branding to email templates without manual configuration. Constant Contact stands out for its integrated event management capabilities, allowing businesses to send invitations, manage ticket sales and registrations, process payments, and handle check-ins directly through the platform. For newsletter creators who value simplicity, guided onboarding, extensive template libraries with over 300 options, and responsive human support over cutting-edge automation features, Constant Contact provides a straightforward solution that prioritizes usability and reliability.

Best For

Constant Contact is ideal for small business owners, solopreneurs, nonprofits, and newsletter creators who prioritize ease of use and responsive customer support over advanced automation and competitive pricing. The platform works particularly well for beginners new to email marketing who need hand-holding through the setup process and appreciate having phone support available when issues arise. Newsletter creators who host events like workshops, webinars, product launches, or community gatherings will benefit from the integrated event management features that handle the entire lifecycle from invitations through ticket sales and check-ins. The tool suits users who send straightforward broadcast newsletters rather than complex behavioral campaigns, and who value having social media posting and basic CRM integrated in one platform rather than juggling multiple separate tools.

Key Features

Exceptionally Smooth Onboarding: Constant Contact provides one of the most beginner-friendly setup experiences in email marketing, asking relevant questions during signup to tailor your dashboard, automatically pulling brand colors from your website, and offering step-by-step guidance through account configuration. The platform includes tutorial videos throughout the interface that explain how to use features in context, making it easy for complete beginners to launch their first campaign within minutes of signing up.
BrandKit Automatic Branding: The platform's BrandKit feature automatically extracts your logo, brand colors, fonts, and social media links by analyzing your website, then applies this branding across all email templates and marketing materials. This automation eliminates the tedious manual work of configuring brand elements individually and ensures visual consistency across all campaigns without requiring design skills or multiple template adjustments.
Massive Template Library: Constant Contact offers over 300 professionally designed email templates organized across 20-plus categories including newsletters, promotions, events, surveys, holidays, and industry-specific designs. These mobile-responsive templates provide starting points for various campaign types, allowing newsletter creators to select appropriate designs and customize them through the drag-and-drop editor rather than building emails from blank canvases every time.
Drag-and-Drop Email Editor: The visual email builder uses an intuitive drag-and-drop interface that allows you to add text boxes, images, buttons, videos, social links, and other elements without coding knowledge. The editor includes helpful tips and real-time previews showing how emails will appear on different devices, making it accessible even for users who have never created HTML emails before.
Comprehensive Event Marketing Tools: Constant Contact uniquely includes full event management capabilities that handle invitations, registration forms with custom fields, ticket sales with different pricing tiers, promotional codes for early birds or special groups, printable tickets, merchandise sales, and check-in management. The platform charges an additional 5.4 percent plus $0.80 per ticket sold, but provides an all-in-one solution for businesses that regularly host events without requiring separate event management software.
Social Media Integration: The platform allows you to create and schedule social media posts for Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn directly within Constant Contact, and can automatically convert your emails into social posts with one click. This social integration saves time by managing email and social content from a single dashboard, though users seeking advanced social media analytics or sophisticated scheduling may need dedicated social tools.
Basic Marketing Automation: Constant Contact provides simple automation workflows including pre-built welcome series for new subscribers, automated email resending to non-openers, birthday wishes, and basic triggered sequences based on customer actions. While the automation capabilities are less sophisticated than platforms like ActiveCampaign or Drip, they cover essential use cases that represent the majority of what small businesses actually implement.
Audience Segmentation: The platform allows you to segment your contact list based on demographics, email engagement, purchase activity, custom tags, and list membership, with some pre-built segments that automatically categorize subscribers. Segmentation is only available starting with the Standard plan, which reviewers note is disappointing since it's considered a fundamental email marketing feature, though the capability is straightforward once accessible.
Heat Maps and Analytics: Constant Contact tracks essential metrics including open rates, click-through rates, bounces, unsubscribes, and spam reports, with heat maps showing exactly where recipients clicked within your emails. The reporting interface presents data clearly on the main dashboard with trends over time, though some reviewers note that advanced insights like geographic breakdown and optimal send time analysis are missing compared to more analytics-focused platforms.
Extensive Integration Ecosystem: The platform integrates with over 300 third-party applications including Shopify, WooCommerce, Salesforce, WordPress, Canva, Eventbrite, and major accounting software. These integrations allow newsletter creators to connect Constant Contact with existing business tools, sync customer data automatically, and embed signup forms on websites without requiring developers or custom code.
Phone Support on All Plans: Unlike most email marketing platforms that restrict phone support to premium tiers, Constant Contact provides telephone support six days a week to all paid subscribers regardless of plan level. This responsive human support includes live chat with actual agents and an extensive self-help knowledge base, making it easy to get assistance when technical issues or questions arise during campaign creation.

Pricing

Constant Contact offers a 30-day free trial that allows you to test all marketing tools without requiring a credit card, though no permanent free plan exists. The Lite plan costs $12 per month for up to 500 contacts and includes unlimited email sends, the drag-and-drop email editor, over 300 templates, AI writing assistance, social media posting, one ready-to-go welcome series automation, and access to 300-plus integrations. The Standard plan starts at $35 per month for up to 500 contacts and adds email and social post scheduling, three automation flows, automated email resending to non-openers, A/B testing limited to subject lines only, social media advertising, and advanced reporting with heat maps. The Premium plan begins at $80 per month for up to 500 contacts and includes everything in Standard plus unlimited automation flows, unlimited custom audience segments, 500 SMS text messages per month, dynamic email content that changes based on recipient data, lookalike audience targeting for ads, and SEO recommendations for website optimization. Pricing scales significantly with list size, with 5,000 contacts costing $80 for Lite, $145 for Standard, and $335 for Premium, and 10,000 contacts running $100, $180, and $410 respectively. Annual prepayment provides a 10 percent discount for six-month commitments or 15 percent savings for twelve-month commitments. Additional features like SMS marketing, advanced inbox previews through Litmus, and premium support services carry separate fees on top of base plan pricing. While Constant Contact offers exceptional ease of use and support, multiple reviewers note it struggles to compete on price with platforms like Brevo, MailerLite, and Moosend that provide more advanced features at lower costs.

Constant Contact