7 reasons nonprofits shouldn’t use Constant Contact

Invariably when I start to work with a new client I always ask, “Do you have an email list?”

In most cases people say no, but in the cases they say yes, there’s two places where that list lives: in an Excel sheet on someone’s computer, or, in Constant Contact.

Leaving aside the need for something more robust than an Excel file, Constant Contact still really bothers the bees in my bonnet.

1. Constant Contact’s free plan limits you to just 100 email addresses.
2. Constant Contact’s templates look like someone in accounting was told, “We need some templates” and that’s what they ran with.
3. Their drag-and-drop editor is infinitely confusing for us and for everyone we’ve ever known to use it.
4. Many of the templates we get from people using Constant Contact aren’t responsive, meaning they don’t scale down neatly to phones. Which is a huge oversight when at least 40-50% of your email list is going to read your message on a phone. That results in quick deletions.
5. Image storage is wimpy; it’s as if Constant Contact doesn’t want you designing your own images.
6. Constant Contact commits one of the cardinal sins against consumers by having a purposefully inadequate sign-up page. When you see something that says “Free Trial” and then no mention of what comes after that trial, that’s a problem.
7. To their credit, nonprofits can pre-pay for several months in advance and receive a small discount, but that discount is still costing nonprofits and associations more money than MailChimp, which is free up to 2,000 subscribers.