Campaign Monitor |
Campaign Monitor is designed specifically with designers in mind. In fact, it started out as a web design resource and more or less morphed into an email marketing platform over a period of time, as clients demanded more and more email functionality.
It’s really a resale email marketing platform created for designers, who can also then resell a branded version of campaign monitor to their clients at a markup. It offers the same kinds of email creation and list management features as competing products like: Vertical Response, MailChimp, Constant Contact, AWebber, JangoMail, EMMA, and many others.
But, if you are a business that is looking for an email marketing platform or service and have no one on staff that is technical, we would probably recommend other alternatives to you that have been reviewed here on our web site.
Case in point, this email marketing platform requires HTML skills – if your company or team is not technically adept this platform would not be usable! If you do, then this is a great email marketing platform that has endless customization capabilities.
Design-based email creation: This is perhaps the feature that stands out the most about campaign monitor. Whereas other email marketing platforms allow you to create your marketing emails using a predefined toolset, Campaign Monitor allows you to implement all of your design knowledge into the creation process. If you’re an HTML geek, you can do just about anything you want to do with your email creative.
Inline CSS: Designers will appreciate the fact that the Custom Style Sheet (CSS) for their emails is inline. That is, you can manipulate the look and feel of your email directly during the email creation process on the fly if you will. This is not a feature found with most other popular email marketing platforms.
Campaign Monitor Templates: Even if you’re not a designer, there are still more than 100 Campaign Monitory templates to choose from. This isn’t as wide a selection as some email marketing tools, but it’s sufficient for most.
API: What is the Campaign monitor API like? This is a fully-functional API, allowing you to interface with the application via third-party apps or those that you develop in-house that fit your company’s email marketing needs.
Reporting. Among competing email marketing platform vendors, Campaign Monitor features one of the more robust reporting toolsets. The detailed reporting information can tell you with amazing accuracy how well a given campaign did, and give you some important clues as to why it worked well or why it failed.
List management: This email marketing platform has a robust list of management features, allowing you to import, segment, and manipulate your lists as needed in just about any way you want to. This is where this email marketing platform really shines.
Autoresponders: Campaign Monitor’s autoresponders works well (instant connection) and has the same functionality as most autoresponders on the market from other vendors such as AWeber.
Rebranding is great for an agency or designer: Campaign Monitor can be rebranded and resold to your clients in order to provide them with design services, email marketing campaigns, and other features.
Campaign Monitor offers customers two different pricing models. The first, which is fairly standard among email marketing tools, is subscriber based:
Number of Subscribers |
Monthly Cost* |
|---|---|
Up to 500 |
$15 |
501-2,500 |
$30 |
2,501-5,000 |
$55 |
5,001-10,000 |
$100 |
10,001-25,000 |
$250 |
25,001-50,000 |
$500 |
Over 50,000 |
Special/negotiated |
*Signup is free; you don’t pay until you actually send a campaign.
The subscriber model pricing is fairly competitive, falling within 20% of the median pricing for email management products we’ve reviewed. Alternatively, you can use Campaign Monitor on a pay as you go model. The pricing is fairly straightforward. You pay $5 per campaign, plus $.01 per recipient. This pricing is very competitive on the low end, with most email marketing platforms requiring a much larger number of subscribers to get that kind of pricing.
Campaign monitor shines in a number of areas, including:
More design and customization options for Campaign Monitor templates than any of its competitors; tradeoff is you have to be a savvy HTML developer.
A/B testing for email campaigns, which is consistent with other email marketing platform with similar features and functionality.
Unlimited image hosting.
Comprehensive reporting and integration with Google Analytics, which is well done.
A full featured Campaign Monitor API that supports third party platforms for CRM integration as an example.
Why this is not a good fit for most small businesses:
Without a working knowledge of HTML and CSS, you can’t take advantage of all of its features
Campaign Monitor may be difficult to use for novice developers
Customer support is poor overall, and there are no web- or video-based tutorials to help you navigate the interface.
Campaign Monitor earns 6.5 out of 10 stars as a small business email marketing platform.