In the past decade, digital marketing has gone from an experimental testing ground where companies test-specific strategies to a complete beast in its own right. Companies today no longer depend or use traditional means of marketing, and instead completely depend on digital marketing for at least 80%-90% of their advertising. And among the many ways that you can promote your brand through digital marketing, a good website is certainly in the top three.
Building a website can be very hectic, especially when you do not have any experience in web development. However, with the help of applications like Constant Contact, you can create competitive websites at a fraction of both the cost and the experience. However, in a world with Wix, Squarespace, and WordPress, how does Constant Contact hold up? In this guide, we will go over the many pros and cons of using Constant Contact to create websites.
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Who Is Constant Contact For?
Much like how Wix is a great launching pad for beginners and novices, and WordPress is a great place for intermediate and expert web developers, Constant Contact is also a great place for beginners to start. The added templates and collection of features make the experience of creating a website very easy and welcoming to newcomers.
The site also has a built-in eCommerce section that allows you to set up shop online without having to jump through additional hoops. That said, Constant Contact does not have enough unique features to bring experts its way. Moreover, Constant Contact also focuses more on eCommerce sites than say blog sites. This creates a massive divide in their potential audience.
With this information in mind, it is safe to assume that Constant Contact is a site great for newcomers looking to set up an eCommerce store. Now that is not to say that they will never be ready for blog sites and various other types of websites. In fact, Constant Contact is currently working on a complete overhaul of their business model.
Constant Contact Features
Constant Contact is a great platform for beginners and intermediate web developers to make the website they want. The platform comes with a multitude of different features that make the overall experience of creating a website much more enjoyable and manageable. These features include:
Built-in eCommerce
One of the core benefits of using Constant Contact for building a website is its built-in eCommerce functionality. People looking to make a new eCommerce website will find Constant Contact equipped with all of the tools necessary. While sites like Wix and WordPress use plug-ins to enhance the user experience and give variety to the creation process, Constant Contact has everything on deck.
Amazing Email Marketing
While eCommerce is, without a doubt, a great addition to the constant contact service, the real star of the show here is email marketing. Email marketing provides you with some of the essential marketing features to grow any small or midsized business. Constant Contact includes email tracking, autoresponders, transactional emails, landing pages, and even subscriber management.
These features combine to give an excellent working experience and help people that are generally new to web development. Constant Contact also helps you easily edit and update templates and also allows you to manage mailing lists.
Event Marketing
Event Marketing is also a great feature that Constant Contact provides to its web developers. With this feature, they are able to craft a new marketing campaign with different templates for their emails and different social media marketing unique to this event. This feature allows them to edit the event calendar, segment the audience, and even manage their campaign effectively.
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ther than social media promotion and various other types of marketing, event management also provides an option to surveys and feedback forms for visitors to leave their suggestions.
Analytics
Analytics is an essential part of any website, as it helps to see just how effective marketing and changes to the website are. The analytics software also allows you to check out different marketing strategies that you have deployed for events. With separate interfaces for both the events and your website, you can easily keep track of both.
These analytics also track emails and the response they receive, making it the perfect solution to tracking progress.
A/B Testing
Getting the right design for your website can be very difficult and requires a long time to fit the personality of your brand onto a proper website. A/B testing is a great way to test out new designs for your website, and a Constant Contact website gives you the ability to A/B test your websites easily.
A/B testing, combined with amazing analytics software present in Constant Contact, allows you to actively track and compile data on just how effective each version of the website is. A/B testing also applies to email marketing and various other forms of social marketing. Therefore, you can choose who gets to see what version of the website.
Pricing
It goes without saying that Constant Contact provides a multitude of benefits like marketing and analytics. However, the most significant benefit of Constant Contact is its price and free trial. While some may argue that the price to features ratio is very low for $20 every month, the free trial gives you complete access over the site and its features for at 30 days.
With the help of the free trial, you can get the complete experience of using Constant Contact without paying for it. Therefore, you can see for yourself if the website builder is worth your time and if it is great for you.
In conclusion, Constant Contact is a great website builder that provides you with multiple features, making it easy to use. These features also give you an edge in order to keep up with the rest of the competition. Moreover, the easy to use interface and the simple controls make it great for business owners with limited experience and smaller companies.
Read our full review of Constant Contact Website Builder here.