iContact Email Marketing Review

We personally use iContact for our email list, even though we promote StreamSend the most.
The reason for this is send frequency (more on that at the end of this post).

Out of all the providers, iContact offer the best value for what we want to do, which is to maintain an opt in list of subscribers generated from our website and send them a pre-programmed auto-responder series.

We also use iContact to send out monthly e-newsletters from time to time.

iContact’s Top Features:

1. Their platform is very easy to use, both for novices and experts. This is particularly important for expert users. Some email service providers (constant contact) are a real pain for expert users because of the way their email editor is built. Not so with iContact
2. 127 good looking templates as of Oct 2010
3. Very good auto responder capabilities
4. Excellent bounce handling. If you have people that give you a fake email or don’t read your messages, they get flagged automatically and don’t count towards your list size. This is really important considering that up to 50% of your list will probably be unresponsive. A 20% response rate is generally considered excellent
5. Not expensive – start for $10/month
6. Scalable – if your company takes off, iContact can handle huge mailing lists as well as small lists
7. Good tracking – easy to implement with Google Analytics
8. A survey tool is included

iContact offers an excellent solution for companies in need of a reliable email service provider. We recommend them as a first vendor for anyone using email marketing for the first time. You won’t out grow them until you start using extremely advanced tactics.

You might not want iContact if:

1. You have an enormous list and send infrequently – iContact’s pricing is based on number of contacts in your list. If you have a huge list and you only send once a month, you might be better off with StreamSend, who charges based on the actual number of emails sent.
2. You require lead scoring or any other enterprise level integration.
3. You want to know who specifically clicked on tracked links. You can see who clicked but not which link was clicked on.
4. You want the ability to send followup messages based on behavioral data – as in select everyone who clicked on a specific link and send them a second message.

Email Blast Company Review

	iContact 15 Day free trial, no credit card to try Plans from $10/month Excellent stats and integration Pay by list size (good for frequent senders)	Rating:
	StreamSend 30 Day free trial, no credit card to try Plans from $20/month Good for both beginner and experts Pay for messages sent (good for large lists)	Rating:
	Vertical Response 30 Day free trial, no credit card to try Plans from $10/month Easiest system to use, also does surveys Pay for emails sent (good for large lists)	Rating:
	Constant Contact 60 Day free trial Lots of great looking templates Great for beginners Pay by list size (good for frequent senders)	Rating:

*Since most companies offer a free trial, you should sign up and test drive each interface.