Last Updated: 25 Jul 2026
I am going to be direct with you before we start.
Constant Contact is not the most powerful email marketing tool available. It is not the cheapest. And in 2026, it has real competition from platforms that do more for less money.
But it is the easiest to use. And if you are brand new to email marketing — if you have never built a campaign, never set up an automation, never imported a contact list — Constant Contact removes every possible barrier between you and your first email send.
This Constant Contact tutorial covers every feature inside Constant Contact step by step. By the time you finish reading, you will know exactly how to set up your account, import your contacts, build your first email, set up automation, manage your list, read your reports, and use every other feature the platform offers.
No assumed knowledge. No jargon. Start here and you will leave knowing everything.
Step 1: Sign Up and Set Up Your Account
Go to constantcontact.com and click the Start Your Free Trial button. The trial lasts 30 days and gives you access to every feature without a credit card. After 30 days you choose a paid plan or lose access — there is no permanent free tier.
When you sign up, use your business email address rather than a personal Gmail or Yahoo account. Constant Contact connects your sending reputation to the domain in your from address. Using a business email from day one builds sender credibility from the start.
After signing up you are taken through a short onboarding questionnaire. Answer it honestly — industry, business size, how long you have been in business. Constant Contact uses this information to suggest relevant templates and set appropriate account defaults. This takes about three minutes and is worth doing properly.
The three things to do immediately after signing up:
First — fill in your business profile. Click your account name in the top right corner. Go to My Account. Fill in your business name, phone number, website, and physical mailing address. Your mailing address is legally required on every email you send under CAN-SPAM law. It appears in the footer of every campaign automatically once you add it here.
Second — upload your logo. In the same Account Settings area, find the Branding section. Upload your logo here. Once uploaded, it becomes available in every email template and landing page you build. This saves you from adding it manually every single time.
Third — verify your email domain. Go to Account Settings and find Email Domain Authentication. Follow the steps to add SPF and DKIM records to your domain’s DNS settings. This tells inbox providers like Gmail and Outlook that your emails are legitimate. Without it, your emails are more likely to land in spam folders. The setup takes about ten minutes and affects every single email you will ever send from this account.
Step 2: Understand the Dashboard
When you log in, the main dashboard shows you an overview of your account activity — recent campaigns, contact growth, and quick action buttons to create a new campaign or add contacts.
The navigation runs across the top of the screen with five main sections:
Campaigns — where you build and send emails, create automations, and manage SMS messages.
Contacts — where you manage your subscriber list, create segments, import new contacts, and view individual contact profiles.
Reporting — where you see how your campaigns are performing — opens, clicks, bounces, and more.
Website — where you access the landing page builder and sign-up form tools.
Apps & Integrations — where you connect Constant Contact to other tools like Shopify, WordPress, and Canva.
The AI Content Generator button appears in several places throughout the platform. It generates subject line suggestions, email body copy, and campaign ideas. It is useful for getting past a blank page but the output needs editing before it sounds like your voice.
Step 3: Import Your Contacts
Before you can send anything, you need people to send to. If you already have a contact list from another platform, a spreadsheet, or a business card collection — this is how you bring them in.
Click Contacts in the top navigation. Then click Add Contacts.
You will see several import options:
Upload a file — the most common method. Prepare a CSV or Excel file with your contacts. Make sure the first row has column headers like First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Phone Number. Remove any blank rows. Save as CSV if you are using Excel.
Copy and paste — if you have a small list of email addresses, you can paste them directly without a file. Useful for lists under 50 contacts.
Import from another service — Constant Contact connects directly to Gmail, Outlook, Salesforce, and several other tools to import contacts without downloading a file.
Type contacts in manually — enter one contact at a time. Only practical for very small additions.
After uploading your file, Constant Contact shows you a column mapping screen. This is where you match your spreadsheet columns to Constant Contact fields. Match Email Address to Email Address, First Name to First Name, and so on. If you have data that does not match a standard field — a customer number, a membership level, a purchase date — you can create a custom field during this step.
At the bottom of the import screen, you must select a list to add these contacts to. If you do not have a list yet, click Create New List and name it — something like Main Newsletter List or Customers 2026. Every contact must belong to at least one list.
Click Import and Constant Contact processes your file. Depending on size this takes a few seconds to a few minutes.
One important rule: only import people who have explicitly given you permission to email them. Constant Contact reviews accounts and importing contacts who never opted in is one of the fastest ways to have your account restricted. If someone gave you a business card at a networking event — that is not permission to add them to a marketing list.
Step 4: Create and Manage Lists
Lists in Constant Contact are the basic containers that hold your contacts. Every contact belongs to at least one list. You can have as many lists as you need.
To create a list, click Contacts in the navigation. Click Lists on the left sidebar. Click Create List. Give it a clear, descriptive name — Customers, Newsletter Subscribers, Event Attendees, Workshop Waitlist. Vague names like List 1 will confuse you in three months.
You send campaigns to lists. You can send to one list or multiple lists at the same time. You can also exclude specific lists from a send — useful when you want to email everyone except people who already bought something.
The difference between lists and segments:
Lists are permanent groups. A contact stays on a list until you move or remove them manually.
Segments are dynamic filters. A segment shows you the contacts who meet certain conditions right now — like all contacts who opened your last email, or all contacts added in the last 30 days. Segments update automatically as contact data changes. You do not manage them manually.
Use lists to organise contacts by category — where they came from, what they signed up for, what stage they are in. Use segments to target specific groups within those lists when you send campaigns.
Step 5: Understand Contact Profiles and Tags
Every contact in Constant Contact has a profile page. To see it, click Contacts, search for an email address, and click the contact’s name.
The profile shows every campaign this person received, every email they opened, every link they clicked, which lists they belong to, any tags applied to them, and any custom field data stored for them.
Tags are labels you apply to contacts to describe something about them. A contact can have multiple tags.
Examples of useful tags:
- VIP Customer
- Webinar Attendee
- Referred by Partner
- Interested in Product X
- Cold — No Opens 90 Days
To add a tag to a contact, open their profile and click Add Tag in the Tags section. Type the tag name and press enter. If the tag already exists in your account it will appear as a suggestion.
You can also add tags in bulk. Go to Contacts, filter the view to show the contacts you want to tag, select them all using the checkbox, and click the Tag option in the bulk action menu.
Tags are searchable and can be used as segment conditions. Once you tag a group of contacts, you can create a segment showing all contacts with that tag and send targeted campaigns to just that group.
Custom Fields store additional information beyond what Constant Contact provides by default. To create a custom field, go to Contacts, then Custom Fields, then Add Field. Choose the field type — text, number, date, or dropdown — and give it a name. Once created, it appears on every contact profile and can be filled in manually or populated through form submissions.
Step 6: Build Your First Email Campaign
Click Campaigns in the top navigation. Then click Create in the top right corner. Select Email from the menu.
You will be asked to choose a campaign type. The main options are:
Standard Email — a one-time email sent to a list or segment on a date and time you choose. This is the most common type. Use it for newsletters, promotions, announcements, and any email you plan manually.
Automated Email Series — a sequence of emails that sends automatically based on a trigger. We will cover this in detail in the automation section. Do not create these here — create them through the Automations section instead.
Resend to Non-Openers — sends the same email again to everyone who did not open the first send. You can change the subject line for the resend. This feature alone can significantly increase the effective reach of any campaign.
A/B Test — sends two versions of your email with different subject lines to a portion of your list. The version with more opens automatically goes to the rest of the list. Available on Standard and Premium plans.
For your first email, click Standard Email. Give the campaign a name — this is internal only, your subscribers never see it. Something clear like August Newsletter 2026. Click Continue.
Step 7: Build Your Email Inside the Editor
After naming your campaign, you arrive at the email setup screen. Fill in:
Subject Line — the single most important line in your email. Keep it under 50 characters. Be specific. Tell the reader exactly what is inside the email. Avoid all caps, excessive punctuation, and words like Free or Winner that trigger spam filters.
Preheader Text — the grey text that appears next to the subject line in the inbox preview. Most people leave this blank, which means the inbox fills it with the first line of the email. Write something that complements the subject line instead — it is free extra selling space in the inbox.
From Name — your name or your business name. This is what appears as the sender. Use something your subscribers will recognise immediately.
From Email — your authenticated business email address.
Click Next and you reach the template selection screen.
Choosing a template:
Constant Contact gives you over 200 professionally designed templates organised by category — newsletters, promotions, events, seasonal campaigns, announcements, and more. Browse by category or use the search bar to find something relevant to your campaign type.
Click a template to preview it. Click Select to load it into the editor.
Inside the drag-and-drop editor:
The editor works in content blocks. On the left side you see a panel of block types you can add — Text, Image, Button, Divider, Social Links, Video, and more. Drag any block from the left panel and drop it into the email canvas in the centre.
To edit an existing block, click on it. A blue outline appears around it and the editing options appear in the left panel. For a text block, a rich text toolbar appears — you can change font size, make text bold or italic, add links, and change text colour.
Personalisation tokens insert contact data into your email automatically. The most useful ones:
- {{contact.firstname}} — inserts the contact’s first name
- {{contact.lastname}} — inserts their last name
- {{contact.emailaddress}} — inserts their email address
To add a token, click inside a text block, position your cursor where you want the personalisation, and click the Personalize button in the text toolbar. Choose the field you want to insert. Your opening line can say Hi {{contact.firstname}}, which makes every email feel like it was written specifically for that person.
Adding images:
Click an image block to replace the placeholder. You can upload from your computer, choose from the Constant Contact stock photo library, or pull from your Canva account directly if you have connected the Canva integration.
Keep images under 1MB each. Large image files slow down email loading and hurt deliverability on some email clients.
The email footer:
Constant Contact automatically adds a footer to every email containing your business name, mailing address, and an unsubscribe link. These are legally required. Do not remove them. You can customise the footer design and add social media links, but the address and unsubscribe link must stay.
Previewing your email:
Click the Preview button in the top right of the editor. This shows you how the email looks on desktop and mobile. Always check the mobile preview — more than half of your subscribers are reading on a phone. If text is too small, images are too wide, or buttons are hard to tap on mobile — fix it before sending.
Click Send Test Email to send a copy to your own inbox. Read it as a subscriber would, not as someone who built it. Check every link. Check every personalisation token filled in correctly.
Step 8: Schedule and Send Your Campaign
When the email looks right, click Continue in the top right corner. You reach the final review screen showing your subject line, from name, recipient list, and contact count.
Read this screen carefully. Check the recipient count — if it says 47 contacts when you expected 4,700, something is wrong with your list selection. Fix it before proceeding.
You have two sending options:
Send Now — the email goes out immediately to everyone on the list.
Schedule for Later — you pick a specific date and time for the send. This is almost always the better choice.
The best times to send emails vary by industry and audience, but as a general starting point — Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings between 9am and 11am tend to produce the highest open rates for most small business audiences. Test different times with your own list over time. Your audience’s behaviour is more reliable data than any general benchmark.
Click Schedule or Send. Your campaign is live.
Step 9: Use the Resend to Non-Openers Feature
This is one of Constant Contact’s most practical features and one of the most underused by beginners.
After you send a campaign, wait 24 to 48 hours. Then go to Campaigns, find the campaign you sent, and click the three-dot menu next to it. Click Resend to Non-Openers.
You can change the subject line for this second send — which you should, because if someone did not open the first subject line, the same subject line will not compel them to open the second attempt.
Click Send or Schedule.
This single step typically increases the total open reach of a campaign by 20 to 30 percent without creating any new content. It is the fastest way to get more return from emails you have already written.
Step 10: Set Up Your First Automation
Automation in Constant Contact sends emails automatically based on triggers — things that happen with your contacts that prompt a sequence to start.
Click Campaigns in the navigation. Click Automations on the left sidebar. Click Create Automation.
You will see the trigger options. The main ones available depending on your plan:
Contact joins a list — fires when someone is added to a specific list. This is the trigger for a welcome sequence.
Contact’s birthday — fires on the date stored in a contact’s birthday field. Useful for local businesses, restaurants, and retail stores sending birthday offers.
Contact’s anniversary — fires on a date stored in a custom date field. Can be a customer anniversary, a membership renewal date, or any date that matters.
Contact clicks a link — fires when someone clicks a specific link in a specific email. Available on Standard and Premium plans.
Contact opens an email — fires when someone opens a specific campaign. Available on Standard and Premium plans.
Building a welcome sequence:
Click Create Automation. Select Contact joins a list as the trigger. Choose your main list. Click Save.
You are now inside the automation builder. It shows you a linear flow — trigger at the top, steps below it.
Click the plus button below the trigger to add your first step. Select Send Email. Click Create New Email — this opens a mini email editor where you build the first email in your sequence. Write a welcome email — introduce yourself, tell subscribers what they can expect to receive from you, and deliver whatever you promised when they signed up (a guide, a discount, a checklist).
Click Save and Return when the email is done.
Back in the automation builder, click the plus button below the first email to add a wait step. Select Delay. Set the delay — 2 days is a common starting point. Click Save.
Add another Send Email step. Write your second email — go deeper on something you introduced in the welcome email, share a useful resource, or tell a story about why you started the business.
Add another Delay. Add a third email.
A simple three-email welcome sequence:
- Email 1 immediately: Welcome, deliver the promised resource
- Email 2 after 2 days: Your most useful content or your best blog post
- Email 3 after 3 more days: A soft invitation to follow you, buy something, or take the next step
When the sequence is built, click Activate in the top right. The automation is now live. Every new subscriber who joins your list will automatically receive this sequence.
Step 11: Build a Contact Sign-Up Form
A sign-up form is what people fill out on your website or social media to join your list. Without a form, the only way to add contacts is manually — which does not scale.
Click Website in the top navigation. Click Sign-Up Forms. Click Create Sign-Up Form.
Step one — choose a form type:
Inline form — embeds directly into a web page. Goes inside blog posts, on an About page, or at the bottom of your homepage.
Pop-up form — appears as an overlay on top of page content after a set delay or scroll depth. Gets attention but can feel intrusive if timed poorly. Set the delay to at least 30 seconds to avoid annoying visitors who just arrived.
Landing page form — a full dedicated page with just the sign-up form and some context about why someone should subscribe. Good for lead magnets and specific offers.
Step two — build the form:
The form builder is drag and drop. By default, you get an email field and a submit button. Add a first name field if you want to use personalisation tokens in your emails. Every additional field you add reduces the percentage of people who complete the form — keep it to email and first name for most use cases.
Write clear, specific button text. Your submit button should say exactly what happens when someone clicks it. Get My Free Guide is more compelling than Submit. Join the Weekly Newsletter works better than Subscribe. The button copy is the last thing someone reads before they decide whether to hand you their email address — make it earn that click.
Step three — set what happens after submission:
Click the Settings tab in the form builder. Here you configure two important things:
Confirmation method — either single opt-in (the contact is added immediately when they submit the form) or double opt-in (they receive a confirmation email first and are only added to your list when they click the confirmation link). Double opt-in creates a smaller but cleaner, more engaged list. Single opt-in grows faster but lets in more fake or mistyped addresses. For most small businesses, double opt-in is the better choice.
Thank you page — what happens after someone submits. You can show a default Constant Contact confirmation message or redirect to a specific page on your website — a download page, a thank you page, a members area. Use the redirect to deliver lead magnets automatically.
Step four — add the form to your website:
Click Publish in the top right. Constant Contact gives you a JavaScript code snippet and an HTML embed code. Copy the code and paste it into your website — in a blog post, on a page sidebar, or in your site’s global footer.
If you use WordPress, the Constant Contact WordPress plugin makes this a simple widget you can drag into any page without touching any code.
Step 12: Build a Landing Page
A landing page is a standalone web page designed to get visitors to do one specific thing — usually sign up for your list or download a resource.
Click Website in the navigation. Click Landing Pages. Click Create Landing Page.
Choose a template from the landing page template library. The options are more limited than the email templates — about ten to fifteen designs — but they cover the basic use cases.
Inside the landing page editor, you work with the same drag-and-drop blocks as the email editor. Replace the placeholder text and images with your own content.
Every effective landing page needs:
A headline — the first thing visitors see. State exactly what they are getting. Be specific. Get the Free 10-Point Email Marketing Checklist for Small Businesses is better than Free Checklist.
A subheadline — one or two sentences expanding on the headline. What problem does this solve? What does the subscriber gain?
A sign-up form — the form is already embedded in the landing page template. Connect it to your list in the form settings.
Three to five benefit points — short statements explaining what subscribers gain. Focus on outcomes. What will they be able to do after getting this resource that they could not do before?
A button with clear copy — same principle as the form button. Tell them exactly what happens when they click.
Click Publish when the page is ready. Constant Contact gives you a URL you can share on social media, in your email signature, or in your bio links on Instagram and Twitter.
Step 13: Set Up an Event Registration Page
This is one of Constant Contact’s most distinctive features — and the reason many nonprofits, community organisations, and local businesses choose it over cheaper alternatives.
Click Campaigns. Click Create. Select Event.
Fill in the event details:
Event name, date, time, location (or online event URL), and a description. You can add a cover image to make the event page look professional.
Set up ticket types:
Click Add Ticket. Name the ticket type — General Admission, VIP, Member, Non-Member. Set the price — $0 for free events. Set the quantity available. Click Save.
You can add multiple ticket types with different prices and quantities. A workshop might have an Early Bird ticket, a Standard ticket, and a VIP ticket all on the same event page.
Configure registration settings:
Decide whether registration requires approval (you manually confirm each registrant) or is automatic. Set a registration deadline. Add any questions you want to collect from registrants — dietary requirements, company name, how they heard about the event.
Publish and promote:
Click Publish. Constant Contact creates a public event registration page with a unique URL you can share. You can also embed the event on your own website.
Automated event emails:
Constant Contact automatically sends confirmation emails when someone registers and reminder emails leading up to the event. Go to the event settings to configure the timing and content of these automated messages. By default, reminders go out one week before, one day before, and one hour before the event.
After the event, Constant Contact marks attendees in your contact list. You can filter your contacts to show people who attended a specific event and send targeted follow-up campaigns to just that group.
Step 14: Explore the AI Content Generator
Constant Contact’s AI tools are available from several places in the platform. Here is where they live and what each one does.
Subject line suggestions:
Inside any email campaign, after you type a subject line, a lightbulb icon appears next to the subject line field. Click it and the AI generates five alternative subject line options based on your campaign name and content. The suggestions are a useful starting point — particularly when you are stuck on wording and want to see a few different angles before deciding.
Email body content generation:
Inside the email editor, select a text block. Click the AI button in the text toolbar. Describe what you want this section of the email to say — for example, Announce our summer sale with 20 percent off all products this weekend only. The AI generates a few paragraphs you can use as a starting point. Edit heavily. The output sounds generic without customisation.
Campaign advisor:
On the main Campaigns dashboard, click the AI Campaign Advisor button. Describe your business, your current goal, and your audience. The AI suggests a campaign type, a send schedule, and content ideas based on what similar businesses have found effective. Useful for brainstorming when you are not sure what to send next.
The honest limitation: Constant Contact’s AI tools are functional but basic compared to dedicated AI writing tools or the AI features inside more advanced platforms. Use them to break through writer’s block or generate options you can edit — not to write finished content.
Step 15: Connect Your Tools With Integrations
Constant Contact connects to over 300 apps. Here is how to find and connect them.
Click Apps & Integrations in the top navigation. Search for the app you want to connect or browse by category.
The most useful integrations for most businesses:
Shopify — connects your online store to Constant Contact. When someone makes a purchase, they can be automatically added to a specific list. Purchase data syncs to contact profiles so you can segment customers by what they bought.
WordPress — the Constant Contact WordPress plugin lets you add sign-up forms anywhere on your WordPress site without touching any code. Install it from the WordPress plugin directory and connect it with your Constant Contact account.
Canva — once connected, you can design graphics in Canva and insert them directly into your emails without downloading and re-uploading files. Access it inside the email editor by clicking the Canva icon in the image block options.
Salesforce — syncs contact data between Salesforce and Constant Contact. New leads in Salesforce can be automatically added to Constant Contact lists. Email engagement data from Constant Contact can sync back to Salesforce contact records.
Square — connects your Square point-of-sale system to Constant Contact. Customers who buy from your physical or online Square store can be automatically added to your list after a purchase with their consent.
Zapier — connects Constant Contact to apps that do not have a native integration. Zapier works by watching for events in one app and triggering actions in another without code. If you use a tool that is not on Constant Contact’s native list, Zapier almost certainly has a connector for it.
Step 16: Use Social Media Tools
Constant Contact includes basic social media tools for scheduling posts and running ads.
Click Campaigns. Click Create. Select Social Post.
Organic social posting:
Connect your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, or LinkedIn accounts. Write your post, add an image, and schedule it to publish on any connected platform. You can post to multiple platforms simultaneously or schedule different posts for different networks.
This is useful for small businesses that want to manage email and social from one place. It is not a full social media management tool — you cannot track comments, manage DMs, or do advanced scheduling. For more sophisticated social media management you need a dedicated tool like Buffer or Hootsuite.
Facebook and Instagram Ads:
Click Create. Select Facebook or Instagram Ad. Connect your Facebook Ads account. Build a basic ad campaign — audience targeting, budget, creative, and copy — directly from inside Constant Contact.
The ad creation tool is simplified compared to Facebook’s native Ads Manager. It covers the basics — location targeting, interest targeting, lookalike audiences based on your email list. For more advanced ad management use Facebook Ads Manager directly.
Step 17: Check Your Reports
Reports tell you whether what you are doing is working. Constant Contact’s reporting covers the metrics that matter for most small businesses.
Click Reporting in the top navigation.
Campaign summary:
The main reporting dashboard shows all recent campaigns with their key metrics at a glance — sent, open rate, click rate, bounce rate, and unsubscribes. You can sort by any metric or filter by date range.
Click any campaign to see its detailed report.
Inside a campaign report:
Opens — how many subscribers opened your email. The open rate shows this as a percentage of emails successfully delivered. A healthy open rate varies by industry but 20 to 30 percent is a common benchmark for small businesses. Below 15 percent suggests either deliverability issues or subject lines that are not working.
Clicks — how many people clicked at least one link in your email. The click-to-open rate (clicks divided by opens) tells you how compelling your email content was to people who opened it. A click-to-open rate of 10 to 20 percent is solid.
Bounces — emails that could not be delivered. Hard bounces are permanent failures — the email address does not exist. Soft bounces are temporary — the inbox was full or the server was down. Constant Contact automatically removes hard bounces from future sends.
Unsubscribes — people who opted out of your list from this email. An unsubscribe rate below 0.5 percent per campaign is healthy. Above that, review your sending frequency or content relevance.
Click map — a visual overlay on your actual email showing which links received clicks and how many. This tells you which content elements in your email are actually driving action. A click map showing that nobody clicked your main call-to-action button is valuable information that open rates alone would never give you.
Contact activity — a list of every contact who opened, clicked, unsubscribed, or bounced from this specific campaign. You can click any contact to see their full activity profile.
Reporting by contact:
Go to Contacts. Click any contact’s name to open their profile. Scroll down to see every email they received, whether they opened it, and whether they clicked any links. This contact-level view is useful when a specific customer asks about an email they may have missed, or when you want to understand how a high-value customer engages with your content.
Step 18: Manage Bounces and Unsubscribes
This is a maintenance task most beginners ignore — and it costs them in deliverability over time.
Bounced contacts:
Go to Contacts. Use the filter to show contacts with status Bounced. These are addresses that failed to receive emails. Hard-bounced contacts are automatically suspended by Constant Contact and will not receive future campaigns. They still appear in your contact list and still count toward your billing limit.
Periodically select all hard-bounced contacts and delete them. They cannot receive emails and they are inflating your contact count — which affects your billing tier.
Unsubscribed contacts:
Contacts who unsubscribed are automatically removed from all future sends by Constant Contact. You cannot override this and should not try to. Attempting to email an unsubscribed contact violates CAN-SPAM law.
Unsubscribed contacts remain in your account and count toward your contact limit. If you want to remove them from your billing count, filter by Unsubscribed status, select all, and delete them.
Step 19: Use SMS Marketing (Standard and Premium Plans)
SMS marketing lets you send text messages to contacts who have opted in to receive them. It is separate from email — contacts must specifically consent to SMS messages in addition to their email opt-in.
To access SMS, click Campaigns. Click Create. Select Text Message.
Set up your sending number:
Before you can send SMS, Constant Contact assigns you a dedicated 10-digit local phone number. This number appears as the sender on every text message you send. The setup takes a few minutes the first time.
Building an SMS campaign:
Write your message in the text composer. Keep it under 160 characters to avoid it splitting into multiple messages. Include a clear call to action and a way to opt out — something like Reply STOP to unsubscribe. By law, every SMS must include an opt-out mechanism.
You cannot send SMS to your email list automatically. Contacts must specifically opt in to SMS separately. Add an SMS opt-in checkbox to your sign-up forms to start collecting SMS consent alongside email consent.
SMS and email together:
The most effective use of SMS alongside email is for time-sensitive messages — same-day sale alerts, event reminders on the day of the event, urgent announcements. Do not replace email with SMS. Use it to supplement email for moments where you need attention immediately.
Step 20: The Order You Should Do Everything
If you just read through this whole guide and are not sure where to start — here is the exact order.
Day one: Sign up for the 30-day trial. Fill in your business profile and upload your logo. Set up email domain authentication. Import your existing contacts if you have them. Create your first list.
Day two: Build and publish your first sign-up form and add it to your website. Set up your welcome automation — even a single welcome email is better than nothing. Send yourself a test email through the automation to make sure it works.
Day three: Write and schedule your first email campaign. Use the preview tool to check desktop and mobile views before sending. Schedule it for a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday morning.
Day four onwards: Set up event registration if you run events. Connect Shopify or WordPress if you use them. Explore the reporting after your first campaign sends. Use the Resend to Non-Openers feature 48 hours after your first send.
Do not try to do everything on day one. The businesses that succeed with email marketing build one thing, make it work, then add the next layer.
Common Mistakes Beginners Make
I have seen the same mistakes come up again and again. Here are the ones worth avoiding from the start.
Skipping email authentication. Your emails land in spam without SPF and DKIM set up. This one step affects every email you will ever send. Do it on day one.
Importing contacts who did not opt in. Constant Contact reviews accounts. Adding people who never agreed to hear from you is the fastest way to get your account restricted.
Using a generic subject line. Weekly Newsletter — April 2026 tells the reader nothing. Write a subject line that tells them exactly what is valuable inside this specific email.
Never cleaning the list. Inactive contacts hurt your deliverability over time. Every six months, send a re-engagement email to contacts who have not opened anything in 90 days. Remove those who still do not respond.
Ignoring the click map. Most beginners check their open rate and move on. The click map tells you which specific elements of your email drove action. That information shapes every email you write afterward.
Not using the Resend to Non-Openers feature. It takes two clicks and adds 20 to 30 percent more reach to every campaign. There is no reason not to use it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to learn Constant Contact?
Most beginners can send their first campaign within 20 to 30 minutes of signing up. The basic features — email editor, list management, form builder — take a day to feel comfortable with. The automation, event management, and reporting features take another few sessions to explore fully.
Does Constant Contact have a free plan?
No. Constant Contact eliminated its free plan in June 2025. There is a 30-day free trial that gives you access to every feature. After 30 days, the Lite plan starts at $12 a month.
Can I cancel Constant Contact from the dashboard?
No. Cancellation requires a phone call during specific business hours — Monday through Thursday 6am to 8pm, Friday 6am to 7pm, Saturday 8am to 6pm Mountain Time. You cannot cancel through the website or by sending an email. Know this before you start an annual subscription.
How do I remove Constant Contact branding from my emails?
Constant Contact branding is removed automatically on paid plans. There is no Constant Contact footer badge on emails sent from Lite, Standard, or Premium paid accounts.
How many emails can I send per month?
Constant Contact does not publish a specific monthly send limit. You can send to your entire list multiple times per month. The practical limit is based on your contact count and engagement rates — sending too frequently to an unengaged list will hurt your deliverability over time regardless of any platform cap.
Does Constant Contact integrate with Shopify?
Yes. The Shopify integration is native and connects your store to Constant Contact. New customers can be automatically added to a list after a purchase and purchase data syncs to contact profiles.
What is the difference between Standard and Premium plans?
Standard adds A/B testing, ten custom segments, three automation templates, and better reporting compared to Lite. Premium adds unlimited automation templates, advanced reporting, SEO tools, and Google Ads integration. For most small businesses, Standard is sufficient.
