Grid℠ for Email Marketing | Summer 2015

Mailchimp has cemented its position among users as a “simple to use, fun to learn, and effective” email marketing tool. New reviewers since the Winter 2015 Grid℠ Report found this product best suited to meet the needs of small to medium sized business organizations.

Considered good value for its cost, Mailchimp’s inclusion of features such as detailed bounce reports, A/B testing and seamless integration from RSS-feeds were appreciated by users. Despite being an easy to use software that doesn’t “break the bank,” reviewers voiced the need to have more options in terms of list selection, customization, and email segmentation.

While Mailchimp might not be able to efficiently handle volumes larger than 20,000 subscribers, according to the reviewers, they had very little to complain about this software. Users made particular note of the variety of templates made available to them considering the affordability of the product. Mailchimp has also been known to provide free plans/trials for companies that have less than 2,000 subscribers. Reviewers recommended buyers to make the most of these offers especially start-ups looking to kick off new campaigns.

Constant Contact is an email marketing tool with some automation features. According to the new reviewers since the Winter 2015 Grid℠ Report, it is best suited to meet the needs of a small- to medium-sized business. Users say it’s “basic” but always manages to deliver.

Reviewers ranked Constant Contact high in terms of its functionality and successful deliverability. They found the product especially useful to prevent spam generation. Despite great results, customers requested better graphic design and ease of photo upload options in the templates. The lack of specialized features such as A/B split testing and advanced lists was seen as a concern by most reviewers but most also rationalized this absence of “bells and whistles” by how affordable Constant Contact was.

Criticized in the past for its billing practices, Constant Contact seems to have fixed that problem as the new reviews do not mention inaccuracies pertaining to that. Their customer service has been a constant topic of discussion and the users had polarized views about it. From “poor and restrictive” to “knowledgeable and helpful”, reviewers had varied experiences with Constant Contact’s customer service team but review trends indicate that there has been an improvement in their services.

Overall, an easy to setup and no-frills software, Constant Contact can be availed by potential buyers at a discounted rate by searching for online coupons, as recommended by users.

dotmailer users loved the product’s easy editor, reporting and analytics, intuitive interface, and customer support. New users found that the product was easy to implement and could be picked up easily by marketers, regardless of creative or technical skill. The email builder’s drag and drop feature was a time-saver for users, while advanced editing tools allowed for extensive customization of layout, colors, images, and links to build communications consistent with a user’s brand. Most users praised the company’s friendly staff and supportive account managers, although some users had trouble reaching customer support.

Overall, users felt that dotmailer could have better integration with CRM systems. Other users noted limitations to automation and reporting, and suggested that more in-depth analytic features would be helpful.

In spite of some limitations with the service (and a higher cost), users found dotmailer to be a strong performer in reporting, lead generation, and deliverability. The service was highly reliable, users noted, and offered a user-friendly and data-driven way to create professional emails and promote communication with customers.

Although only a few new reviews came in for dotmailer since the Winter 2015 Grid℠ Report, there was a lot of positive feedback about the tool. Reviewers reported that their businesses were doing significantly better after having switched to dotmailer as their choice of email marketing software. Not only were they able to internalize the cost of hiring a different agency to handle their campaigns, they also managed to reach out more effectively to their target audience.

iContact offered users a fast and simple email message and newsletter builder with custom templates and helpful reporting features. Reviewers found that the product was a good choice for those with little to no HTML experience, though its features were robust enough for advanced users as well. The customizable templates and distribution lists were easy to configure and manage, users said, although they would have liked to see a greater variety of template options and the ability to further segment lists.

Image size and storage limits were a major complaint for reviewers, as the product requires users to resize images before uploading to their library. Some users also experienced bugs or navigation issues in the email builder, which could make text, image, or content editing difficult. Reviewers liked that they could store several different large email lists, but were frustrated that a client listed on more than one list was listed (and charged for) more than once.

Although iContact does not offer the advanced nurturing campaigns of other solutions, users overall praised its ease of use and found that it successfully helped their companies to boost their sales. iContact was also a particularly popular choice among nonprofits, as the company offers generous discounts to nonprofit organizations.

iContact received only two new reviews since the Winter 2015 Grid℠ Report and both highlighted several issues with customer care. Users continued to experience problems with the image upload feature and expressed dissatisfaction with the responses they received from the customer care representatives. Cancellation of the service was also extremely cumbersome, as reported by another reviewer.

Maropost is a simple, fast email marketing service that “straight up works,” according to users. The product offers users enterprise-level technology with the personal touch of an excellent customer support team. Reviewers frequently cited a positive relationship with the company’s CEO, Ross Andrew, and appreciated knowing that the company was listening to their customers. Users found it easy to migrate to the system, and found that the product offered excellent delivery rates and ROI. The product’s automation and split-testing were highlighted in particular by users as industry-leading features.

The most pressing complaint for users was Maropost’s high cost, although most seemed to find it justified in the value of the product. While some users experienced technical glitches and found the product lacked advanced segmentation capabilities, most were pleased that Maropost quickly resolved problems and frequently improved the product.

The new reviews received since the Winter 2015 Grid℠ Report continued to rave about Maropost’s “solid deliverability and great customer service.” Reviewers unanimously agreed that the best thing about this tool was “the people behind the platform.” Users found some problems with functionality on the development front, but they maintained that they had great confidence in Maropost’s team to fix the problem through quality upgrades.

Users of ExpressPigeon praised the program’s easy to use design and navigation, which allowed them to easily create and send campaigns, add new contacts, and review campaign results. The usability was excellent for new users, reviewers said, and the interface was simple and intuitive enough for non-technical users. In spite of its simplicity, ExpressPigeon nonetheless offered powerful tools covering all areas of email marketing, including a/b subject testing and unlimited email sending, as well as the “technical muscle” to handle complex integrations.

Users had some suggestions for improving user experience, including a desktop application and a multi-user version. Reviewers also would have liked more advanced features, such as the ability to make edits via HTML code, integrate with payment processes, and do more complex a/b testing. Overall, complaints were minor, and users found that necessary adjustments were made quickly by the ExpressPigeon team.

Beyond the functionality of the software, users praised the ExpressPigeon customer support team, which responded promptly to inquiries; according to one reviewer, questions or concerns were addressed within an hour. A positive customer support service, along with an easy and effective interface, led many users to recommend ExpressPigeon.

ExpressPigeon received no new reviews since the Winter 2015 Grid℠ Report.

Responsys users were impressed by the program’s ability to leverage customer data to create campaign segmentation. They noted the product offers state-of-the-art email marketing with advanced options for pulling in data from any source and developing highly targeted campaigns. Reviewers found the product relatively easy to use and learn, and highlighted customer success managers as a key benefit of using the product. Many credited their customer success managers with helping them to overcome technical hurdles and offering strategic recommendations.

Because of Responsys’ complexity, users found that it could be labor intensive to learn and use. Some would have liked to see improvements to reporting functionalities and to the user interface, as well as better integration with other marketing channels. While the product had occasional glitches, reviewers reported that the support team listened to customer’s needs and formulated effective updates.

Users recommend Responsys as a premium platform for enterprise businesses, as the power and complexity of its offerings require internal resources and technical support. For those seeking a more streamlined WYSIWYG platform, Responsys users recommended looking elsewhere. However, for those who would benefit from the program’s sophisticated functionality, users recommended it as a platform that stretches the imagination and ROI of email marketing campaigns.

While past reviewers reported occasional run-ins with bugs, the only reviewer since the Winter 2015 Grid℠ Report expressed significant dissatisfaction with the product. Past reviews did not share this strong negative sentiment. Responsys is rated as a contender in this report, as other products improved their satisfaction scores since our last report, shifting the relative positions of all products on the Grid℠ .

How do you position yourself against your competitors?

To date, a response has not been provided by Oracle.

Feature-rich, cost effective and easy to use according to reviewers, Launchpad was ranked high in satisfaction. Time and again since the Winter 2015 Grid℠ Report, new reviewers have commented on this email marketing tool’s efficacy in targeting audience groups based on demographics.

Reviewers recommended Launchpad as a perfect platform for businesses to execute both postal and email campaigns. Apart from having access to email markets exclusively by demographics, users were impressed by the “multi-channel lead generation” capacity of the tool. Streamlined marketing processes, acquisition of new customers, and increased customer engagement were some of the positive outcomes reported from using Launchpad. Despite these results, it was the exceptional customer service delivered by Launchpad that was appreciated by the users the most. They described the assistance provided as “fast and effective” in solving their problems.

While a few changes have been made to the user interface, reviewers also suggested the inclusion of more variations that allowed them to combine demographic selections. Always known to be responsive to feedback, reviewers made special note that improvements were regularly introduced by Launchpad.

Overall, users determined Launchpad as the go-to option for email marketing because of its affordability, wide array of features, and always ready to help customer service.

VerticalResponse was the “go-to email marketing tool” for many reviewers, who praised a long list of the product’s useful features. Its clean user interface made VerticalResponse easy to learn and adopt, while reviewers loved the product’s smart uploading, dynamic content, industry-standard analytics, and powerful segmentation tools. The product’s Salesforce integration worked well for many reviewers and was often cited as a key benefit.

VerticalResponse also integrates with Google Analytics, although some reviewers noted that it offered little integration with other marketing products and had some compatibility problems with Outlook.

Users felt that more flexible pricing plans, better deliverability, and better analytics would have improved their experience with VerticalResponse. They also complained that templates were not very customizable, and segmentation capabilities were limited.

When it came to recommending VerticalResponse to prospective users, users advised evaluating exactly how a company planned to use an email marketing application and which metrics would be used. While VerticalResponse was found to be great for basic email marketing, reviewers recommended that new users take time to consider which vendor to choose and to take advantage of the product’s 30-day trial.

VerticalResponse received only four new reviews since the Winter 2015 Grid℠ Report and users highly recommended it to non-profit organizations, because they can take advantage of the product at a discounted price. Overall, apart from improvements in list management tools, reviewers were satisfied with VerticalResponse’s performance.