We were recently asked to describe our email system by a client.  The email response is repeated below.  It gives a good description of how our system is superior to Constant Contact and other systems.

We use a specific system for design firms and more technical users.  It is a bit more work to set up (for us) but is much better in the long run.  Our clients can easily send messages and it can be branded to exactly match their website’s branding.

Flexibility:

It is very easy for our system to be customized to match your branding or website.  Constant contact does not allow designers to make custom templates, you have to pay them $400 to make a template that uses their online editor.  We can make a custom template, usually in a couple of hours and tweak it when ever you want.  There are a bunch of free templates already to go, but it is very easy to customize them. Click Here for examples of the templates.

Also, our system has an interface that lets me do all kinds of automated things when we set it up right.  It can get emails from you contact form without leaving the website, tie into a CRM or eCommerce system.  For example, we built a online contest for Coastal Cupcakes with the system as the email backend.

Reporting and A/B Testing

The system automatically works with Google Analytics to track users on your site.  The tracking for click throughs and other reports are nice and easy for a non technical person to use. Also, it will automatically test alternative subject lines or content to determine which has the best click through ratio (or other metric) and sends out messages like that.

Easier for our Clients

The interface is simple to make new campaigns and send out emails.  It is very easy to edit emails and upload images.  We have not run across anyone who can not use the system.  Because we can make templates that look just like the branding, clients can send emails with out contact us, that match their branding.

Pricing Model:

Our System charges per email sent, not per number of contacts in the system.
For ours it is $5 + 1.5 cents per email each time you send.  Constant Contact is based on number of contacts you have

For example, if you send a message to 1000 people, on our system it is $5 + $15 (.015 x 1000) = $120
Constant Contact is $30 per month for unlimited sends to up 2500 people

For most of our clients it is about the same price, price is not really the major selling point, but if you send 10’s of thousands of emails, we can get the price down, by buying in bulk.

You pay for the emails you send, not how many contacts you have, so it can be cheaper if you segment the lists. Also, most people do not send out emails every week.

Overall, it is much nicer system to work with for both us and our clients, so we recommend it.  We have worked with just about every email system and am happy to consult on any off them, or build custom ones for the right clients, but this one has the right sweet spot of features and pricing model.

We are happy to work on any client’s email systems, but if you are interesting on how our system can improve your email campaigns and improve your ROI, please lets us know.