Overview

Constant Contact is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that provides email marketing, marketing automation, and related digital marketing tools primarily for small businesses, non-profits, and individuals. Established in 1995, the platform has evolved to offer a suite of integrated services designed to help users manage customer relationships and promote their offerings effectively online. Its core functionality centers on email campaign creation, distribution, and performance tracking, allowing users to design professional-looking emails using drag-and-drop editors and pre-designed templates.

The platform caters to users who may not have extensive technical or marketing backgrounds, offering an interface that aims for ease of use. Beyond email marketing, Constant Contact includes features for building simple websites, setting up e-commerce stores, managing social media posts, and conducting SMS marketing campaigns. These tools are intended to provide a centralized hub for various digital marketing activities, reducing the need for multiple disparate services. For instance, its event management tools allow users to create event pages, send invitations, and track registrations, integrating directly with their email lists.

Constant Contact's design philosophy emphasizes accessibility and comprehensive support, including educational resources and customer service channels. The platform supports compliance with regulations like GDPR and CAN-SPAM, providing features to manage consent and unsubscribe requests. Pricing models are typically tiered based on the number of contacts in a user's list, with additional features becoming available at higher tiers. This structure is intended to scale with the growth of a small business's marketing needs. Developers can also interact with the platform through its RESTful API, enabling custom integrations and data synchronization for contacts and campaign performance metrics, as detailed in the Constant Contact API guide.

The platform is often chosen by businesses looking for an all-in-one solution for their digital outreach, particularly those focused on building direct relationships with their customer base through consistent communication. Its features for contact list segmentation allow for targeted messaging, which can improve engagement rates for specific audience groups. The website builder and e-commerce functionalities enable small businesses to establish an online presence and sell products or services directly, without requiring extensive web development knowledge. This integrated approach aims to streamline marketing operations for resource-constrained organizations.

Key features

  • Email Marketing Automation: Create and schedule automated email series based on triggers like new sign-ups, birthdays, or specific customer actions. This includes welcome sequences, abandoned cart reminders, and re-engagement campaigns to maintain customer relationships.
  • Website Builder: Design and launch simple, mobile-responsive websites with customizable templates and drag-and-drop editing. This feature often includes hosting and basic SEO tools to help businesses establish an online presence.
  • E-commerce Tools: Integrate online stores directly into websites, allowing users to sell products, manage inventory, and process payments. This includes product listings, shopping cart functionality, and order management.
  • Social Media Management: Schedule and publish posts to various social media platforms directly from the Constant Contact dashboard. This centralizes social media efforts and enables cross-promotion of email campaigns and website content.
  • SMS Marketing: Send text message campaigns to opted-in contacts for promotions, announcements, or reminders. This provides an additional channel for direct communication, complementing email outreach.
  • Contact List Management: Import, organize, and segment contact lists based on demographics, engagement, or custom fields. Tools for list cleaning and duplicate removal are also included to maintain data quality.
  • Event Management: Create event landing pages, send invitations, manage registrations, and collect payments for workshops, webinars, or in-person events. This integrates event promotion directly with email campaigns.
  • Reporting and Analytics: Track the performance of email campaigns, website traffic, and social media engagement with detailed reports. Metrics include open rates, click-through rates, sales conversions, and audience growth.

Pricing

Constant Contact offers tiered pricing plans that scale primarily with the number of contacts in a user's list. As of May 2026, a free trial for the first month is available. Specific pricing details can be found on the Constant Contact pricing page.

Plan Name Starting Price (up to 500 contacts) Key Features
Lite $12/month Email marketing, contact management, basic reporting, mobile app, chat support.
Standard $35/month All Lite features, plus marketing automation, website builder, pop-up forms, A/B testing, phone support.
Premium $55/month All Standard features, plus advanced automation, custom landing pages, e-commerce integration, dedicated support.

Pricing increases incrementally with larger contact lists. For example, a Standard plan with 2,500 contacts would be priced higher than the base $35/month. Users are advised to consult the official pricing page for current rates and specific feature inclusions for each contact tier.

Common integrations

Alternatives

  • Mailchimp: Offers a freemium model and a wide range of marketing tools, often favored by small businesses for its user-friendly interface and comprehensive features, including email, landing pages, and CRM functionalities.
  • ActiveCampaign: Known for its advanced marketing automation, CRM, and sales automation capabilities, catering to businesses looking for sophisticated customer journey mapping and personalization.
  • Sendinblue (Brevo): Provides email, SMS, chat, and CRM services with a focus on transactional email and marketing automation, offering competitive pricing plans for various business sizes.

Getting started

To interact with the Constant Contact API, developers typically use its RESTful interface for managing contacts, campaigns, and reporting. The API supports standard HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) and uses JSON for request and response bodies. Authentication is handled via OAuth2. Below is a basic example using curl to retrieve a list of contacts. This assumes you have obtained an access token.

# Replace YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN with your actual OAuth2 access token
# Replace YOUR_API_KEY with your application's API Key
# Replace YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID with the Constant Contact account ID

curl -X GET \
  'https://api.cc.email/v3/contacts?limit=10' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN' \
  -H 'Accept: application/json'

This command sends a GET request to the contacts endpoint, requesting up to 10 contacts. The Authorization header includes the OAuth2 bearer token for authentication. Successful responses will return a JSON array of contact objects. For more detailed API usage, including creating campaigns or managing lists, refer to the Constant Contact developer API reference, which provides comprehensive documentation on endpoints, request parameters, and response structures. Additionally, the Constant Contact blog on getting started with email marketing offers practical advice for new users on campaign setup and best practices.