Constant Contact Vs Mailchimp Email Template Building Options

Constant Contact Vs Mailchimp Email Template Building Options

An email is only as good as its design elements. You’ve taken the time to create a headline recipients  can’t resist, but if your design is subpar or limiting, they will close out as fast as they opened it.

Good thing marketers today have a variety of online tools out there that can help automate the email process and put out captivating designs that work with the messages they are trying to convey. 

Constant Contact allows users to create the most effective email marketing campaigns using their template builder. They also offer reporting, sign-up/registration forms, surveys, and other integrations marketers can use. 

Mailchimp is another marketing automation platform that lets you create templates from scratch, create quick layouts, and even provides pre-made themes you can work with. 

With a free, introductory plan, you get up to 10,000 free emails per month, 2,000 total subscribers and a variety of template options. MailChimp makes it easy to quickly send out newsletters, announcements, invitations, etc, to all your customers.

Both services, offer template building options and features; whether that’s from scratch or using pre-built ones they've designed. It’s important that marketers not only have full capability to design a template that works with their brand, but also an easy-to-use interface and design process. 

So which service offers the better design and template building options? Let’s compare. 

This infographic was created by Venngage Graph Maker 

Pre-Designed Layouts & Templates

Constant Contact (CC):

CC offers 4 basic layouts you can use to start building your emails; basic announcement, basic newsletter, basic review/testimonial, and the basic template. 

Mailchimp(MP):

MP offers a lot more variety on the template layouts you can choose from when you start building your email. They offer 5 different featured layouts and 9 basic template layouts. 

Featured: Sell products, make an announcement, tell a story, follow up, educate. 

Basic: 1 column 1 column full-width, 1:2 column, 1:2 column full-width, 1:2:1 column, 1:2:1 column full-width, 1:3 column, 1:3 column full-width, simple text. 

The Drag & Drop Design Function 

After selecting the template you wish to use, whether that be a pre-design layout or starting from scratch, you will be brought to the design dashboard.

Designing your email templates and bringing everything to life works by using the drag & drop feature. 

Constant Contact

When testing each software, I found that Constant Contact was a little more user-friendly, giving users more options to work with. The dashboard was also more aesthetically pleasing, as well!

** Constant Contact Integration Building Features: 

• Shopify
• Woo
• Eventbrite
• RSVP
• Poll
• Donations
• Coupons

Mailchimp

Constant Contact provides integration options you can incorporate into your emails, making them more action friendly, such as donating or taking a poll.

However, Mailchimp includes design options for mobile and the ability to embed your own code for design purposes.

Here, you need to ask yourself which features would benefit your company the most and consider your end goals. 

Themes or Pre-Built Template Options

Both services offer pre-designed templates you can use to eliminate half the design work for you.

Constant Contact wins the battle for this round! They offer almost 3 times the amount of themed templates for users to choose from versus Mailchimp.

Their designs appeared more professional, aesthetically pleasing, and some include GIFs on select templates to add a little fun! 

All you have to do is find a theme that represents your brand and email goal, change the logo, colors, add your context and you're done! 

Integrations With Purplepass

Both services have an integration partnership with Purplepass. 

With Constant Contact, you can create the most effective email marketing campaigns to promote your events. By enabling Constant Contact integration,

Purplepass will sync and add all of your customer’s contact information to your account. You can also include your Guest List information!

You can start a free trial for your first 60 days which includes live expert help and online resources to get you started.

The Mailchimp integrations allow you to automatically sync the contact information of your ticket purchasers directly to your MailChimp account.

With a free, introductory plan, you get up to 10,000 free emails per month, 2,000 total subscribers and a variety of template options. MailChimp makes it easy to quickly send out newsletters, announcements, invitations, etc, to all your customers.

So who would we recommend?

Constant Contact

If you're running a fast-paced business with a large email list and plan on sending out consistent automated email blasts, I would recommend Constant Contact. 

Their themes and design builder makes creating emails easy, efficient and fast! They offer pricing plans based on the number of contacts you have, so anyone can find something that will work for their business size.

Email plan pricing:

• 0 – 500 contacts: $20/month
• 501 – 2,500 contacts: $45/month
• 2,501 – 5,000 contacts: $65/month
• 5,001 – 10,000 contacts: $95/month
• 10,001 – 15,000 contacts: $195/month
• 15,001 – 25,000 contacts: $225/month
• 25,001 – 30,000 contacts: $295/month
• 30,001 – 35,000 contacts: $315/month
• 35,001 – 50,000 contacts: $335/month
• More than 50,000 contacts: Contact the sales team

Email Plus plan pricing:

• 0 – 500 contacts: $45/month
• 501 – 2,500 contacts: $70/month
• 2,501 – 5,000 contacts: $95/month
• 5,001 – 10,000 contacts: $125/month
• 10,001 – 15,000 contacts: $195/month
• 15,001 – 25,000 contacts: $225/month
• 25,001 – 30,000 contacts: $295/month
• 30,001 – 35,000 contacts: $315/month
• 35,001 – 50,000 contacts: $335/month
• More than 50,000 contacts: Contact the sales team

Mailchimp

Mailchimp would be recommended for for smaller, start up business that are just beginning their company or have a smaller client base. Why? Unlike CC, MP offers a free plan that include all the basics for business beginners.

With this plan you get up to 2,000 contacts, 10,000 free email sends per month, 7 marketing channels, marketing CRM and behavioral targeting.

We think that's a pretty awesome deal for free! As a small business you also don't need the amount of themed template options that CC provides. If you want to upgrade to unlock other features through Mailchimp, you have three other packages to choose from.

Email plan pricing: 

• Free plan: $0
• Essentials: $9.99/month
• Standard: $14.99/month
• Premium: $299/month