Feature Set:  

There are quite a few features that help make iContact so effective. One impressive feature within iContact email marketing is the survey ability. You can create, send, and manage results from custom surveys. This encourages two-way communication between you and your customers, and can be very beneficial in getting important feedback.

We also appreciated the autoresponder, which sends out automatic messages at pre-determined intervals. Simply pre-schedule the messages, and the autoresponder helps you send the series of message over time. The autoresponder is great for staying in touch with your clients and keeping your brand in their minds.

We also particularly liked the SPAM test feature. Before sending your campaign iContact will scan your email’s subject line and complete content to determine the likelihood your messages will end up in your clients' junk boxes. This SpamCheck technology helps you proactively avoid wasting precious resources and having your hard work end up unnoticed.

iContact also allows you to establish aliases and send emails based on established demographics or filters. For example, if you just want to send an email to those on your list between the ages of 25 and 35 you can separate these people from your list and send a personalized campaign to them (without establishing an additional list for 25 to 35-year-olds). You can manage and filter your list of message receivers on all sorts of criteria, including 13 standard fields, and any other custom fields you wish to segment by.

Ease of Use:  

Setting up this service is a cinch, and the interface is simple to navigate. All tabs are located clearly at the top of the screen. Just select your section and iContact’s small setup wizards will efficiently direct you through each step of the process.

The entire process is straightforward and logical. iContact is great for beginners, but has enough cutting edge features to accommodate advanced users as well.

Email Campaign Creation:  

Creating an email campaign is simple with iContact's step-by-step process. First, select the "Create" tab. Then choose how you want to create your email or survey. You can use a web page, HTML type, plain text or utilize one of the pre-made templates. The whole process is user-friendly and you can preview your message after it is completed, and even save a draft to complete later.

Additionally, iContact included the largest list and best selection of templates we reviewed. With more than 300 template options you are guaranteed to have a professional looking email message even if you are completely unfamiliar with HTML code.

iContact will also let you create an email from an existing website on any server. You can customize the page by inserting images, hyperlinks, tables, lines and other basic formatting features.

Although iContact included one of the best email creation sections we reviewed they only included .5 MB (500 KB) of image hosting. This should be sufficient for a few logos and stock photographs, but .5 MB of space is used very quickly.

Campaign Reporting:  

All the reporting features in iContact are conveniently located under the “Tracking” tab and the summary of your emails is on the “welcome” button for quick access. iContact will report actual click-throughs, as well as messages sent, forwarded, bounced, delivered and unsubscribed emails.

The tracking and reporting features in iContact are thorough and certainly useful. You will be able to effectively monitor and report all sorts of statistics, complete with easy to read tables and charts. The data can easily be exported into other forms, and will help you track the effectiveness of your work and the success of your campaign.

Help/Support:  

iContact has some of the best and most comprehensive help options from the services we reviewed. Apart from the general knowledgebase, iContact includes video tutorials, live webinars and an extensive selection of articles and additional resources like a company blog and newsletter. Live support is available over the phone, through email, and even over live chat.

iContact also features an impressive community. This unique features allows you get your content out to even more people. You can publish your blog posts or newletters within the iContact community, and increase your potential viewers and subscribers.

Overall, iContact is an excellent email marketing service. If you're interested in creating a simple and effective email campaign with surveys, autoresponders and more this is the service for you. In addition, there are tons of additional help features to get you campaign off to a great start. With a complete lineup of tools, easy to use interface, and several innovative features, iContact is the best email marketing service we’ve seen.