Compare Vertical Response to Constant Contact for Email Newsletters

How Vertical Response and Constant Contact Compare:

Designing a custom newsletter design
Hands down, VerticalResponse. They offer a super easy editing canvas, where you can access the code, easily create tables, and more. Last I checked, Constant Contact did not offer an editing canvas, so you needed to already have your HTML built in another content editor, and paste it into their HTML area. That, or you have to be a Super Coder and be able to visualize what your code looks like as you type it up, which is a series of letters strung together. Good luck.

Reports and Stats - tracking click throughs
Both Vertical Response and Constant Contact give you access to which links were clicked on. Vertical Response breaks it down so that you can see how many clicks happened on which images as well as text. In order to know which image is which, you'll have to be familiar with what the URL is. The report gives you the actual number of clicks, plus the overall percentage compared to the rest of the links in the email. The list of links is presented in a chronological link list. Could Vertical Response develop something more visual? I'm sure they could. But they are busy unveiling surveys .

Newsletter Design Templates
I tend to stay away from stock Templates. Customizing templates at Constant Contact could get messy, and be possibly easy to break, or corruptable, requiring you to build it all over again. If you are using a Constant Contact template as is, with no altering, you'll be fine. Both email companies offer programming services to create a custom newsletter template for your brand, where you can submit a design to them and they will build it for a fee. If you have used Vertical Response templates, and tweaked them, please chime in below.

Opt-in Sign Up Forms
A cinch with Vertical Response to make a straightforward, not too ugly email opt-in form. However, I've custom designed my own sign up boxes. See the newsletter signup form at Katie James and at Mugi Pottery. However, the generic Vertical Response sign up box, as seen at Chilbirth Connection, is doing quite well. It had very little extra coding, and is basically what you get with a standard Vertical Response sign up form. (Sorry Vertical Response...I need to put the link back into you on those pages!)

Surveys
Constant Contact has offered the ability to send surveys for a long time. Vertical Response has just released their own survey service. I have not tested it. Have you? If you have experience with the survey tool at either Vertical Response or Constant Contact, please chime in below in the comments.

Cost
Yes, Constant Contact beats Vertical Response for cost. Many clients that I have recommended to Vertical Response are romanced by the monthly carrot at the other email companies. Constant Contact offers a monthly service, where you can pay $15 for a list size of up to 500. Monthly cost goes up from there. Vertical Response tells me that they will be offering this in their pricing, perhaps this summer...I can hardly wait. But even MailChimp is on the monthly bandwagon. Either way, I do pay the per email price with Vertical Response because sending a successful newsletter is that much easier and enlightening with Vertical Response. If you are a non-profit, check to see if they have special pricing.

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