Are you thinking about using a service like Constant Contact to distribute your email newsletters, marketing emails, or other “blasts” of any kind? Great, but it might surprise you to know that Constant Contact has a growing number of competitors, with names like Benchmark, Campaigner, GraphicMail, iContact, Mad Mimi, MailChimp, Mailigen, Pinpointe, and Vertical Response.

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If you’re wondering how they differ, I just found an online comparison of them at Top Ten Reviews. I’d urge you to read those reviews before you entrust your email distribution to any one service. As I read the reviews, I noticed that although the services appear similar, there are actually more differences than first meet the eye:

• The size of your mailing list has a big impact on the cost. If you have a mailing list of up to 500 contacts, for example, monthly service fees prices range from free for MailChimp to $29.00 for Pinpointe. If you have a mailing list of 2,500 addresses, prices pretty much level out across the services, with most charging monthly fees in the range of $20.00 to $30.00. So comparison shopping to be sure you are getting the best deal for your list size is a good idea.
• Features are similar — but not identical — across all of the services that are reviewed. All of them will import email lists, allow you to embed images, and will report bad email addresses back to you. But there are some differences, a few of which could be critical for your needs. For example, only iContact and Constant Contact do not integrate with Google Analytics. And GraphicMail and Mad Mimi will not let you create and embed customer surveys in your emails. So again, comparison shop to be sure you are getting what you need.

Interestingly, all of the services are very user-friendly, offering “Wizards” that help you create full-featured emails, even if you lack extensive technical knowledge. And another thing — because all the email distribution services that Top Ten Reviews reviewed are competing aggressively for your business and adding new features regularly, recheck what they are offering before you sign up to use one.

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