ESP Comparisons
How many Email Service Providers (ESPs) are there in the world? I stopped counting after I found 20. I did find a list that claims to be the “complete list of email service providers.” I can’t guarantee this is actually a complete list, but check it out for yourself.
How do you select the right ESP for your business? Honestly, there is no correct answer. It is dependent upon many variables. What CCLd would like to do is offer information on 3 of the most common ESPs available.
CCLd has used many different ESPs: ExactTarget (now Salesforce Marketing Cloud), Constant Contact, Vertical Response, MailChimp, and our current ESP – Zoho Campaigns. In this article, we’d like to discuss MailChimp, Vertical Response, and Constant Contact. We’ll address the features, pricing, and learning curve for each of these ESPs. We will also interject our opinion at the end of the facts we provide.
MailChimp
MailChimp has been in business since 2001. Their website states to have more than 15 million people around the world using their ESP.
Features
- Send marketing emails
- Schedule emails
- Contact management
- Sign up form
- Automated messages based on behavior, preferences, and previous sales
- List segmentation with custom rules
- Targeted campaigns
- In-depth reports: advanced reporting features, monitor sales and website activity, Google Analytics integration, and more
- Connect stores (such as shopify, magneto, woocommerce)
- Multi-user accounts: you can have managers, authors, and views in your account. This helps agencies manage clients and collaborate productively.
- Social media integration
- Flexible API documentation for CMR integration, or other integrations you require
- Mobile apps
Learning Curve
- Flexible design with easy drag and drop interface
- Aesthetically pleasing, customizable templates available
- Code your own
CCLd Opinion
MailChimp has a very simple user interface. Their customer service is also stellar. Their learning center has useful articles. Their pricing is acceptable as well. For startups and small businesses, their free account is very useful as you build your list. Their monkey logo is adorable!
VerticalResponse
Vertical Response (VR) has been in business since 2001. VR is the first ESP CCLd ever used! They have grown exponentially throughout the past 16 years. They offer multiple tools in addition to email marketing.
Features
- 100% mobile and social friend email templates
- Schedule emails
- Sign up form
- Series of autoresponders including automated follow up emails
- Insights with reporting on the autoresponder series
- Advanced reporting
- Professional landing pages
- Multiple integration capabilities
- Developer API
- Contact management
- Much, much more
Learning Curve
- Drag and drop interface
- A large pool of templates to choose from
- Code your own
CCLd Opinion
VR has a great blog with videos to help in every area of email marketing, including using their UI. Their customer service is fantastic. VR is good for SMBs – even larger companies as they offer a variety of marketing tools (in addition to email marketing).
Constant Contact
Constant Contact has been in business since 1995 as “Roving Software.” They realized that email wasn’t just for communicating with friends and family, they saw email as a way to market products and services.
Features
- Customizable templates
- Schedule emails
- Sign up form
- Online surveys
- Trackable coupons
- Autoresponders
- Event marketing
- Multi-user accounts
- Client management
- Apps & Integration
Learning Curve
- Drag and drop editing
- Dozens of templates to choose from
- Code your own
CCLd Opinion
Constant Contact is a very popular ESP. They have advanced their reporting and autoresponders throughout the years. They are a great choice for SMBs.
Final Thought
All the reviewed ESPs have great features, pricing, and learning curves. The question “which ESP should I use” is the same as “which came first, the chicken or the egg”? The variables will help you decide which is best for you. CCLd uses Zoho Campaigns because the variables we required led us to this ESP. However, MailChimp, Constant Contact, and Vertical Response are all fantastic ESPs.
Got questions? We’d love to help. We’d also like to know which ESP you use and why!
