Is Constant Contact Hurting Your Email Efforts?

02Nov11

Many companies use Constant Contact because it’s easy to get up and running and to get emails out the door. But Constant Contact is a shared email system. This means that the IP address under which Constant Contact sends your emails is shared between you and any number of other companies who also use Constant Contact. If they’re spamming people (however innocently) and the IP address gets blacklisted, your email deliverability will suffer as well, and you won’t even know about it. Part of the problem is that Constant Contact doesn’t really vet new users, so they get people who use purchased lists (which technically is spam because they haven’t opted-in to the sender’s company), and purchased lists result in greater blacklisting.

The fix? Use an Email Service Provider (ESP) who vets prospects, and can provision a dedicated server, dedicated set of IP addresses, unique email domain, etc. as needed. I’ve been using MailChimp for several years and was impressed initially by the questions they asked upfront about me and my lists to ensure I was sending only opt-in messages. I believe they also keep a sharp eye on how many of your recipients click the Junk Mail button. There are many other ESPs besides MailChimp so do your research to find one that fits your business. In the end you’ll get greatly improved delivery rates and hopefully more ROI from your email efforts.

P.S.: By the way, if you decide to stick with Constant Contact, opt-out of the self-serving ad they place to the bottom of your emails about signing up for their service. It detracts from your message and brand and is just plain out of place.