iContact

iContact is easy to use in most cases. There are tons of different templates and creating your own email template is a breeze. If you get one of the Pro plans they'll even help you make templates for future use, so that's great, too.

There are plenty of ways to upload data and keep track of that data. In fact I tend to use iContact to export my data for use on other platforms because it keeps everything so nicely. My point of sale doesn't even allow the breadth of exports and options that iContact does, so it's more than just an email platform to me.

Automation is visually very simple and means that I know I'm reaching my audience at the correct times. I no longer have to manually send each email, and with the automation there are tons of options to segment in addition. This means I'm not sending frivolous emails, so that keeps our open rate high.

I have three businesses that have to be kept separate and my only big complaint is that I can't copy automation plans or other things back and forth between them. So a lot of time is wasted redoing certain campaigns between the locations.

I also think the social connectivity needs to be updated. Twitter for one is outdated and the actual website allows much more text to be posted than in-app. They're several updates behind on Twitter.

The ease of creating email promotions. Very professional looking.

More email templates for creating promotions.

iContact is a low cost solution for basic email marketing. You have access to a strategic advisor. My strategic advisor always provides thorough answers and/or solutions when requested. iContact offers automation with workflows that are easy and quick to build. The user interface is easy to understand.

The response time to fix API issues can be slow. iContact does not offer a post unsubscribe survey. I'm not able to download user profile information when exporting email send statistics - this is important for me when I want to do a quick analysis on my data.

. I have multiple clients that I do emailing for. I'm able to set up accounts for each one of my clients and keep their information separate. They get their own usernames and passwords and can access statistics while I can manage each accounts list, email design/layout and track and compare results.

The costs associated with every little add on feature. You often have to buy entire packages to take advantage of a single feature. I would prefer to be able to buy those feature "ala carte".