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Constant Contact vs Hubspot: Which is the best email marketing platform for your needs?
Are you trying to decide between Constant Contact and Hubspot Marketing Hub for your email marketing platform? You’re not alone. Many businesses use these two services as their email marketing solution, but they can also be confusing to sort out. In this blog post, we’ll do a side-by-side comparison of the features that Constant Contact offers and the features available in Hubspot Marketing Hub, so you can make an informed decision about which email marketing tool is right for your business. We’ll cover topics such as automation tools, reporting capabilities, design templates, pricing options, customer service support, and more! So read on if you want to learn more about two of the best email marketing automation platforms today.
Table of Contents
Constant Contact Vs Hubspot Marketing Hub
As you may already know, Constant Contact and Hubspot Marketing Hub are two of the leading digital marketing platforms available today. Both offer a variety of tools and features to help businesses achieve their online lead generation and marketing goals.
Constant Contact has been known for its ease of use and comprehensive email marketing capabilities. It allows users to quickly build and send emails, track analytics, segment lists, create targeted campaigns, and more. It is ideal for those who are just starting to learn the basics of email marketing to quickly hit the ground running when it comes to launching their business’ email marketing campaigns.
On the other hand, Hubspot Marketing Hub has more robust capabilities for advanced users. It provides a wide range of options for creating campaigns and managing customers. Additionally, it offers analytics and data-driven insights into customer behavior that can help business owners make better decisions. Hubspot’s customer relationship management (CRM) system is also highly efficient, allowing users to store and manage customer data all in one place.
Constant Contact is an intuitive solution with comprehensive automation capabilities, while Hubspot Marketing Hub provides powerful customer segmentation capabilities that are designed to facilitate personalized customer journeys. Choosing between them can be difficult as both programs have tremendous value; however, in the end, whatever works best for you and your business should take priority.
Overview of Constant Contact
Constant Contact is an email marketing software designed to help small businesses grow their customer base and maintain relationships with existing customers. It provides templates for newsletters and emails, customizable sign-up forms, and analytics reports to track the performance of sent emails. It also has survey functions, so marketers can easily collect customer feedback and act on it in real time. Constant Contact makes it quick and easy to create personalized campaigns that can be sent out with just a few clicks. With its drag-and-drop editor and list segmentation capabilities, you can customize your emails to fit the specific needs of each recipient.
The main feature that most businesses will use in their email campaigns is the ability to create contacts and contact lists. This helps you organize your emails and make sure that each one is sending the right message to your audience.
It also makes it easier to track and analyze your emails’ performance. You can see which subscribers opened your emails, clicked on links, and more.
You can also create automated emails that are triggered by certain events in the user’s life. This helps you send personalized emails to your customers based on their preferences and behavior.
Overview of Hubspot Marketing Hub
Hubspot Marketing Hub is a comprehensive marketing platform that includes all the tools you need to market your products or services. It helps you streamline your marketing and sales processes, track and report on your success and make data-driven decisions about your campaigns.
It has a host of features including an automated CRM database, list segmentation, email analytics, workflows, and more. These features help you optimize your marketing campaigns and improve your ROI.
The marketing platform also has a comprehensive community and training resources for users of all levels. From the Starter plan and up, you can receive support through chat, email, and phone, while users of the Professional plan get one-on-one training.
Hubspot also offers social media management tools that allow you to schedule posts on Linkedin, Instagram, and Facebook from within the platform. This helps you manage your social media strategy without having to leave the marketing platform.
Comparison of features
Hubspot offers a full suite of marketing features including website and blog building, landing page creation, social media management, and email marketing. They also offer extensive customer service via email, chat, phone, and fax.
They’re best for salespeople, marketers, and operations managers who need a comprehensive marketing tool. Their industry-renowned blog offers a wealth of information for all business strategies, from online marketing to social media.
Constant Contact is designed with user experience in mind. Its intuitive reporting and ready-to-send templates make it easy for users of all skill levels to use their platform.
For example, you can personalize content in emails based on the data in your CRM. They even have conditional content, which allows you to change your content based on a specific lifecycle stage or list of contacts.
It also has a manual suppression list, which is helpful for keeping you from accidentally sending emails to people who have already unsubscribed. They also have an event management tool, which allows you to set up landing pages for online events like webinars or product demonstrations.
User Interface and Ease of Use
Constant Contact:
Constant Contact provides a user-friendly interface that is intuitive and easy to navigate. Its clean and organized layout allows users to quickly access the desired features and functionalities. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced marketer, Constant Contact’s interface makes it simple to create and manage email campaigns, design landing pages, and track performance metrics.
HubSpot Marketing Hub:
HubSpot Marketing Hub also offers a user-friendly interface but with a more robust and comprehensive set of tools. The platform provides a unified dashboard that integrates various marketing features, such as email marketing, social media management, lead generation, and analytics. While HubSpot’s interface may initially appear more complex, its extensive capabilities allow for a more in-depth and integrated marketing approach.
Email Marketing Features
Constant Contact:
Constant Contact excels in its email marketing capabilities. It offers a wide range of customizable email templates, allowing you to create visually appealing campaigns without any design skills. With its drag-and-drop editor, you can easily add images, text, and other elements to craft engaging emails. The platform also provides list segmentation and automation features, enabling targeted and personalized email communications.
HubSpot Marketing Hub:
HubSpot Marketing Hub’s email marketing features are equally robust. It offers a comprehensive set of tools for creating, managing, and analyzing email campaigns. HubSpot’s email editor provides advanced customization options, allowing you to create highly tailored emails. Additionally, the platform offers powerful automation capabilities, enabling you to set up automated workflows based on user behavior and preferences.
CRM Integration
Constant Contact:
Constant Contact offers limited CRM integration options. While it provides basic contact management features, it lacks the depth and functionality of a dedicated CRM system. If you require advanced customer relationship management capabilities, Constant Contact may not be the ideal choice.
HubSpot Marketing Hub:
HubSpot Marketing Hub is part of the larger HubSpot CRM ecosystem. This integration provides seamless synchronization between marketing and sales activities. HubSpot’s CRM offers robust features for managing contacts, tracking interactions, and analyzing customer data. With a unified CRM and marketing platform, you can gain valuable insights into your customers’ journey and enhance your marketing efforts accordingly.
Lead Generation and Conversion Tools
Constant Contact:
Constant Contact offers lead generation tools such as customizable sign-up forms and landing page creation. These tools allow you to capture visitor information and build your contact list. While the platform provides the essential tools for lead generation, it lacks the advanced lead scoring and nurturing capabilities offered by HubSpot Marketing Hub.
HubSpot Marketing Hub:
HubSpot Marketing Hub excels in lead generation and conversion tools. The platform offers a wide array of features, including lead scoring, progressive profiling, and dynamic content personalization. These features enable you to capture and qualify leads effectively, nurture them throughout the buyer’s journey, and increase the likelihood of conversion.
Reporting and Analytics
Constant Contact:
Constant Contact provides basic reporting and analytics features. It offers insights into email open rates, click-through rates, and bounce rates. While these metrics are essential for evaluating the performance of your email campaigns, Constant Contact’s reporting capabilities may be limited if you require more in-depth analytics.
HubSpot Marketing Hub:
HubSpot Marketing Hub offers comprehensive reporting and analytics tools. It provides detailed metrics on various marketing channels, including email, social media, and search engine optimization (SEO). The platform also offers real-time data on website visitors and campaigns. This allows you to adjust your strategies to maximize the effectiveness of your marketing initiatives. In addition, HubSpot provides A/B testing capabilities as well as custom reports for deeper insights into your campaign performance. With these powerful analytics tools, you can optimize your campaigns to drive more leads and sales.
A look at the pricing plans for each platform
As with most cloud-based marketing automation software, there are a number of different pricing plans for both tools. The price varies depending on the number of users you want to add to your account and the features you need.
HubSpot Marketing Hub Pricing
The most basic plan for HubSpot Marketing Hub is called Marketing Hub Starter. It includes 1,000 contacts, live chat, email reply tracking, landing page builder, email and in-app chat support, team email, forms, conversational bots, blog, SEO recommendations, list segmentation, website traffic analytics, Facebook messenger integration, HubSpot mobile app, and ad management tools. While HubSpot does not offer a free trial period for its starter tier, it does allow you to sign up for the free version of any or all of its modules. With that in mind, you can sign up for HubSpot’s Sales, Marketing, and CRM modules without typing in your credit card information but be forwarned that the functions are limited to their most basic features.
In most cases, landing pages, and email campaigns created through the HubSpot Marketing Hub’s free account carry their branding along with yours, which doesn’t appear very professional, and may turn off some of your potential customers or clients.
If you want to dive in and experience HubSpot’s robust features, you can sign up for a free trial of either their Professional or Enterprise tier, which starts between $800/mo, and $3,600/mo, billed annually after the 14-day free trial.
Since HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing platform, they do offer a lot of marketing automation tools but you do have to upgrade to a premium plan to gain access to all of these suites. As of the moment, they do offer their starter package for only $30 a month when you commit to subscribing to an annual subscription, and $50 for a monthly subscription. This includes starter tiers for their marketing, sales, CMS, and operations software.
Note that you need not subscribe to the Professional, and Enterprise tiers if you go beyond the 1,000 contact limit but you will be billed for additional contacts.
| Pricing Tier | Features Included | Price (Starting from) |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | Basic marketing automation features and lead generation tools. | $50 per month |
| Professional | Advanced marketing automation, CRM integration, and analytics. | $800 per month |
| Enterprise | Comprehensive marketing automation, advanced reporting, and more. | Custom pricing |
The Starter tier provides essential marketing automation features, including email marketing, lead capture forms, and basic analytics. It is suitable for small businesses and startups looking to automate their marketing efforts.
The Professional tier offers advanced marketing automation capabilities, CRM integration, and more comprehensive analytics. It provides features like lead scoring, dynamic content, and social media integration, making it suitable for growing businesses with more sophisticated marketing needs.
The Enterprise tier includes all the features of the Professional tier, along with additional advanced functionality such as custom reporting, advanced attribution reporting, and personalized support. This tier is designed for larger businesses and enterprises with complex marketing requirements.
Please note that the pricing mentioned is the starting price for each tier and can vary based on factors such as the size of your contact database and specific customization requirements. Additionally, HubSpot offers additional add-ons and services that can be purchased separately.
It’s worth mentioning that HubSpot also offers a free CRM platform that integrates with its Marketing Hub, providing a solid foundation for managing customer relationships and tracking interactions.
For more detailed pricing information and to explore custom pricing options for the Enterprise tier, it is recommended to visit HubSpot’s official website or contact their sales team for the most up-to-date and accurate pricing details.
Constant Contact Pricing:
Constant Contact offers various pricing plans based on the number of contacts in your email list. While the initial plans are reasonably priced, the cost can increase significantly as your contact list grows. However, Constant Contact provides scalable options to accommodate businesses of different sizes.
| Pricing Tier | Features Included | Price (Starting from) |
|---|---|---|
| Basic email marketing features and list management. | $20 per month | |
| Email Plus | Advanced email marketing features and additional tools. | $45 per month |
The Email tier offers basic email marketing features, including customizable templates, contact list management, and basic reporting. It is suitable for businesses starting with email campaigns and looking for essential functionality.
The Email Plus tier includes all the features of the Email tier, along with additional tools such as advanced analytics, automation, and A/B testing. It also offers features like event marketing and surveys to enhance your marketing campaigns further.
Please note that the prices mentioned are the starting prices, and they can vary based on the number of contacts in your list. Constant Contact offers scalable options to accommodate businesses of different sizes and needs.
Keep in mind that Constant Contact occasionally offers promotions and discounts, so it’s recommended to visit their official website or contact their sales team for the most up-to-date pricing information.
Tips on choosing the right marketing platform
In order to get the best marketing platform, you need to take into consideration your needs and budget. If you’re a small business, you’ll need a tool that’s affordable and easy to use.
Both Hubspot and Constant Contact are popular email marketing platforms that serve the needs of businesses with small to mid-size budgets. They also include website builders and other features that help businesses manage their marketing campaigns.
One of the biggest advantages that both Hubspot and Constant Contact have over other platforms is their list management capabilities. The ability to segment your subscribers is a great way to target specific groups and increase your conversion rates.
On paid plans, you can create segments based on specific activities such as opening emails, clicking links, and more. This is a powerful tool that can save you time when building your email campaigns.
The other big advantage that both Hubspot and Constant Contact has is their customer support. Both offer email and chat support on all of their plans. You can also get phone support if you choose to upgrade.
Pros and cons of Hubspot Marketing Hub
Hubspot Marketing Hub is a comprehensive tool that helps businesses attract, engage, and delight customers. Its suite of tools includes email, website, social media, and landing page marketing.
It also helps users track the activity of their subscribers and create segmented email lists based on their behavior. They can also create automated series of emails based on actions like clicking links or making purchases.
However, its pricing can be a bit high for smaller businesses. It starts at $50 per month for the marketing hub and goes up to $180 per month for its enterprise plan.
Despite its price, Hubspot Marketing Hub is one of the most widely used and trusted marketing software tools in the world. Its ease of use and extensive features are perfect for salespeople, marketers, customer service teams, operations managers, and business owners.
The tool also helps businesses measure and analyze the performance of their marketing campaigns on Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other platforms. It is easy to set up and maintain, and it can help you link the interactions of your ads with contacts in your CRM.
Pros and cons of Constant Contact
Constant Contact is a popular email marketing platform that helps businesses market their products or services. It also offers an easy-to-use interface for small business owners to manage their mailing lists.
Constant Contact also provides automation features for delivering emails to new subscribers, ensuring that you never miss an opportunity to send them a relevant message. These emails can be triggered based on specific actions users take when visiting your website, such as scrolling down a page or clicking a link.
In addition to email automation, Constant Contact also offers a range of other services that can help your business grow. These include a knowledge base, blog, and webinars.
You can create an email campaign within the platform with a simple drag-and-drop template editor that’s perfect for novice users. If you’re more experienced, you can also create email templates based on custom codes.
The platform also offers integrations with a number of business tools, such as Quickbooks and Shopify, to help you capture contact information. These integrations provide a more personalized experience for users and can boost your conversion rates.
Conclusion
In conclusion, when comparing Constant Contact and HubSpot Marketing Hub, it is important to consider your specific needs and priorities. Constant Contact offers a user-friendly interface, basic email marketing features, and scalability options. On the other hand, HubSpot Marketing Hub provides a more comprehensive suite of tools, advanced customization options, CRM integration, and robust analytics.
When making a decision, evaluate factors such as the complexity of your marketing requirements, the need for CRM integration, the level of automation desired, and the depth of analytics you require. Constant Contact is a suitable choice for businesses seeking a simple and affordable email marketing solution. However, if you require more advanced features, comprehensive automation capabilities, and in-depth analytics, HubSpot Marketing Hub offers a more robust solution.
Ultimately, the choice between Constant Contact and HubSpot Marketing Hub depends on your business goals, budget, and long-term growth strategy. Consider your specific marketing needs, weigh the features and benefits of each platform, and choose the one that aligns best with your objectives.
Remember, effective marketing relies on choosing the right tools and strategies. Constantly monitor and analyze your results, adapt your approach when necessary, and leverage the capabilities of your chosen platform to drive success in your marketing campaigns.
