Campaigner

Pros

As with any software you buy, the 'sell-in' always goes well, it always sounds exciting and any barrier seems insignificant. The difference with campaigner, was that all these statements were actually true. Not only did they help us with the onboarding but they've also given us dedicated time and training to help bring some more of our 'outlandish' automations to life. They've really helped modernise our Service and provide us with the capability worthy of our incredible donors.

Cons

Only suggestion would be to build into the software translation capability, although we have overcome this quite easily.

Pros

When Campaigner updated the software to utilize the drag and drop editor it was a game-changer! So easy to design templates for simple or more detailed email campaigns. Campaigner has been the best email marketing software that we've used so far and helps us to automate communications to our patients quickly and effectively. We also have to shout-out Campaigner's responsive customer service and support teams. Whenever we have had any issues with our account, the team is quick to respond and resolve any issue that we are experiencing. Speedy support is hard to come by in the software industry.

Cons

We do experience a lot of issues with the SMTP email relay function, which isn't Campaigner's email software directly but within its portfolio that we pay Campaigner for.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Campaigner

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Campaigner

Pros

There is nothing I liked about Campaigner as we were never able to use our account

Cons

Nothing - we never got access to the account

Pros

Campaigner is easy to use, and doesn't require a lot of technical knowledge to get started (although it certainly helps). Their technical support team is fantastic, though, unlike most other SAAS. They actually have people you can talk to - and they are consistently awesome.

We use it mostly for email marketing. The reporting is great, and everything (except for the 'cons' below) is pretty intuitive.

Cons

Campaigner is missing some critical functionalities that are becoming deal-breakers. Fairly simple things like integrations with Wordpress. One of the biggest gaps is the complete inability to easily create attractive sign-up forms for websites or popups. They have some templates - which are just, well, horrible.

Pros

Ease of managing lists, importing from other sources, handling unsubscribes and reporting. Terrific customer support via chat and telephone.

Cons

Creation WYSIWYG tool can be a little frustrating, as the interface sometimes makes editing difficult (size of the working box inhibits cut-and-paste, moving elements up and down, etc.)

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Campaigner

Reasons for Switching to Campaigner

Pros

The interface is very user friendly allowing for drag and drop editiong or html editor features make Campaigner a breeze to work with. In addition, being able to automate an email to go out weekly, or every two weeks, three weeks or four weeks is a great feature.

Cons

Sometimes Campaigner is caps sensitive with linked documents, which will sever links if you're not careful and unless you pull it into html editor you may not be able to see the severed link in the drag and drop editor to apply changes.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Campaigner

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Campaigner

Pros

Very straight-forward managing multiple mailing lists; useful and detailed analytics for email campaigns; very helpful and quick customer service (I suppose that the reason customer service reps are available so quickly is because they are not needed often, which speaks to the high quality of the software).

Cons

Because I do very time-sensitive campaigns, sometimes the test email doesn't arrive as quick as it should.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Campaigner

Pros

easy to use.
Cover most function that we need.
Drag and drop save a lot of time.

Cons

RWD.
UI of administer.
The report after importing contacts is terrible. There is only the row number on the report and then i have to check the original mailing list to find the email myself.
Sales is difficult to find and inefficient.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Campaigner

Pros

I haven’t used Campaigner for long, but it allows me to automate email marketing.

Cons

It lack email marketing capabilities for global enterprise organizations.

Pros

The product's reliability is what I like most. Campaigns have always been successful and productive. No spam folder problems. Customer service is always available.The product is easy to set up and use, the dashboard is great. Features split testing and automation.

Cons

The product lacks a free version or trial. Templates are more static and less customizable.

Alternatives Considered

Switched From

Pros

The templates were relatively simple and easy to use. You receive an email send delivery notification and are notified if the email is unable to send. Manual lists are easy to upload from Excel files.

Cons

It's difficult to use dynamic content, experiment with A/B testing and manage segments using our complex membership database. Several times, the site was down and the customer service reps could not provide ETAs for resolving the issue. The code has inline styles, limiting the degree of customization. It's difficult to drag and drop elements. Inserting photos is very difficult.

Pros

The reporting software is excellent. After analyzing the numbers after time, we have learned when is the best time to send, which formats work best, and it helped us optimize and improve the number of client opens, clicks, responses, and increase ticket sales. It works very well for that. We get more action from clients on a single email release then from all of our social media combined. It works well for us to increase our business.

Cons

1. We don't like nor use ANY of the stock templates supplied, so we write our own code in an external HTML compiler. Their stock HTML compiler is OK, but becomes tedious and lacks features. So we write our emails in an external HTML compiler, and then paste it into Campaigner. Sometimes, after a test email, we need to make changes in the external compiler. Then we repaste it into Campaigner, for reasons unknown sometimes the formatting becomes corrupted, esp when using tables. It tends to add information that we did not supply.
2. We find the 'Save' command - should be simple - very confusing. Sometimes if we worked on an email for hours, and we want to send - there is a message asking if we want to send this version or the prior version that was not saved? We never know how to respond to that. Occasionally we have unknowingly sent out the wrong version.
3. Our old email software had a 'read more' feature, which was very convenient and functional. Campaigner does not supply this function.
4. The image library is very confusing. If we use an image in our email, we would expect it to be saved in the Image Library for future use. But it is not saved. We have learned to upload all of our images to the library in advance, otherwise there are always problems.
3. The uploading of new contacts often has problems occasionally. We go through the process, and nothing happens. Then we connect with customer service, and end up sending them the files via email for uploading.

Pros

The price is probably why my company chose Campaigner.

Cons

Campaigner is not really set up for agencies to manage multiple client accounts. It has improved a bit over the past couple years but still clunky in that I, as the manager of multiple clients, cannot use my email address as the contact for multiple "sub-accounts." I also cannot set up new sub-accounts; I must request this from support and wait for them to do it. We need to move faster than that at times.

Pros

With the new block editor, Campaigner is light years ahead of what it was even a year ago. That said working with the block editor is not full proof. Fonts / spacing/bolding etc, may be different upon deployment that what is shown in the proof. TEST TEST TEST . And test on multiple devices because what you see on YOUR device(s) may not be what others see.

Cons

Customer support is unhelpful for bugs, and they do come up, but not as often as they used to with the introduction of the new block editor. I think the Constant Contact is the competition and offers way better flow and experience, however if you MUST use a tool whose data is stored in Canada, then this product is ok, but not the best.

Pros

It is appealing the easy email builder and the choice of email design

Cons

They take your card details and they carry on charging until you don’t change your card details. It’s not possible to cancel the subscription.

Pros

I am a self-taught user; the software is something that can be figured out

Cons

When asking specific questions to support, am directed to YouTube tutorials that are 1hr in length. I need quick direct answers. I also have questions on best practices and basics in segmentation etc... little advice or direction is provided.

Pros

I have used campaigner earlier for Email Marketing campaigns. Though it’s easy to use and set up but limited features. Workflow to send automated emails is one of the best features in this tool. You can create segments easily to send more targeted emails.

Cons

Customer service is not that good, sometimes we also found issues during login. It also never worked well in all browsers. Price is also comparatively high If you compare other tools with similar features.

Pros

I love the ease of adding leads
I love how I can save my emails in different categories with different themes, and find them super easy

Cons

THat if there is a problem, the only way I know is when my account is temporarily locked out, instead of giving me a heads up with some stuff that can easily be fixed.

Pros

more convenient than using internal email.

Cons

Biggest issue is trying to re-subscribe members using the subscription forms. Our members tell us they want to receive our newsletters, but sometimes they inadvertently unsubscribe to Campaigner even though they tell us they want to receive our communications. When we send them the re-subscribe form, all users reported being taken to a payment request page. I contact Customer Support and they created a form for me; however, it had the same result. I unsubscribed a staff member to test it and they were redirected to a payment page as well when trying to re-subscribe. In the end Campaigner Support had to re-subscribe people for me. Now I have a mounting list of people who need to be re-subscribed and I cannot do it and the form I given them does not work. We are now looking for an in-house software option to avoid these issues.

Also have issues with the mandatory Campaigner branded footer displaying in the newsletter body overlapping our content when viewed on mobile devices (mainly Apple).

Pros

Very easy to import and export from our main client database

Cons

experiencing many undelivered email due to one of the Campaigner servers having a "spam" label with several receiving client's servers... it should be taken off line or reassigned a new ip address....

Pros

It didn't take a ton of specialized knowledge to make a nice-looking email, building segments and sending emails was intuitive, glitches were rare.

Cons

Customer service in the rare event of glitches wasn't great.

Pros

The software is very easy to used once it is learned. There is some learning curve especially if your email blast content is anything other than a simple JPG. Along with the email marketing feature the ability to generate URL's is simple and quick. Customer support is very good and they respond quickly and efficiently.

Cons

The ability to use a pdf with function is not allowed. The software forces you to post a JPG an then assign further URL locations so that the receiver can view information selectively.

The software does provide a way around this and once you are familiar with the sequence of these functions its take only minutes to setup, define recipients, schedule when it is sent and then before actuating sending a test email to yourself.

Pros

Ease of use, price, and value for money! The setup, input, and reports are easy to use and very helpful.

Cons

The one thing that is bothersome is the "touchiness" of being locked out - but I totally get the reasoning

Pros

Campaigner is intuitive and easy to navigate. Our team primarily uses the platform for transactional emails and it does a good job meeting the demands.

Cons

Enhanced data reporting & exporting options would be an improvement. More robust support documentation would also be beneficial.

Alternatives Considered

Pros

No improvements since they purchased this from EZ Publishing

Cons

Its compatibility with Dreamwaever is not very good

Pros

It is supportive of mid tier type businesses it uses artificial intelligence to push/force emails for individuals with an extensive customer/consumer base.

Cons

There’s not a free version to use this software and most do, and the technical support is horrible.

Pros

Simple to use. Its automation and autoresponder feature are what make it the best among its competitors. Another best feature of this software is its integration with social media.

Cons

Poor customer support. They lack the responsive promptness even to make changes in the subscription plans.

Pros

It's quick and easy to get started with Campaigner. It's relatively easy to use and the price is good comparable to other programs.

Cons

Campaigner needs to improve the delivery rates and provide clear instructions on how to obtain the best delivery rates without getting tagged as spam. The reports should be improved to show something other than "no data." Either an email gets to the inbox or it doesn't. I need to know which. The contact filtering is a great feature but it constantly resets rather than returning to the last sorted list so it can be time-consuming when reviewing and editing contacts on a large scale. The editor is easy to use but the formatting in the final emails is often messed up and not as it was designed. Repeating the formatting to fix those issues is time-wasting and frustrating since it usually doesn't work.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Campaigner

Reasons for Switching to Campaigner

Pros

If the platform actually worked like it was supposed to and customer support was actually there i could mention 24/7 support and great features but this has not been the case at all

Mailchimp and Mailigen both of which i reviewed are far far better bets

Cons

Customer service is supposedly 24/7 but when i would go to chat with them online they were usually unavailable even during normal business hours. My dedicated account manager would not answer emails and when i had tech issues he would ant to schedule conference calls to give vague assurances even when the issues were specifically tech related and from their end. Also when i first signed up it took weeks to solve the issue which turned out to be related to a program many use (think like IOS) and they do not plan a fix anytime soon. So if you use this very popular sofgtwar you cannot use Campaigner on it for foreseeable future

Pros

Affordability - the main reason I continue to use Campaigner is that it is BY FAR the most affordable option for my company's needs.

Customizable plans - With Campaigner we were able to set up a plan based on monthly emails, and not contacts (as is the case with most email marketing platforms) which allows us to send infrequent emails to our large customer base.

Cons

Frustrating to build emails - "Glitchy" doesn't even begin to describe the absolutely nonsensical malfunctions that occur while designing an email in the campaign builder. Random spacing, broken links, and font reassignment are just a few of the issues I have come across using the Campaigner provided tools. Not once, but TWICE, has the program completely erased parts of my email template after HOURS of work. Total waste of time. The email builder is THE LEAST user-friendly software I have ever worked with.

Questionable customer service - I called customer service to make a short-term increase to my email limit (it was supposed to be ONE MONTH) and I had to call multiple times over the course of THREE MONTHS before our account was set back to normal. I'm still not sure if the rep flat out lied to me, or if he just managed to forget to do something multiple times. My associates have also had run-ins with Campaigner support being rude and condescending when calling for assistance. If you're going to run a platform that doesn't work half of the time, maybe work on having better customer support...

Pros

It is a simple-to-use solution that includes the essential feature for running email marketing campaigns and A/B testing. The media library is faultless and allows you to manage your data quickly. The email designs are well-designed and simple to modify. You may also submit your HTML-based email template. We can prioritize our follow-up by seeing who has opened the email and how often they have clicked the email we sent. This is amazing!

Cons

I don't like the dashboard design, especially when navigating the menus and settings. By default, you will be sent back to the main menu and must use the arrow keys to navigate the various menus until you reach an item you want again. Additional information on what has been clicked and by whom would have been more beneficial. Alternatively, a record of each connection and their email behavior might be helpful.

Pros

Campaigner is really easy to use and allows you to create beautiful, visually appealing and versatile newsletters seamlessly. The design os fully customizable and works very intuitively. It’s as easy as clicking wnd dragging.

Cons

Certain email servers seem to give us a high number of bounce backs ant that’s not ideal.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Campaigner

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Campaigner

Pros

The reason I chose to use Campaigner over all of the other email marketing software companies is because it allowed me to have the option to fully design the email by writing code, but also gave me the ability to design the email using templates and other built in design tools.

Cons

One thing that I would change is to make sending reoccurring emails to different lists easier. I find that I wind up copying previous emails just so I can assign a new list of recipients.

Pros

Campaigner is easy to use, and allows for storage of a lot of contacts (unlike some other platforms that charge you based on number of contacts, whether you are emailing them or not.
They make it easy to segment, design and schedule emails.
They also have a great agency feature and let you setup and manage sub-accounts.

Cons

Delivery rate shows as high, but when compared to other platforms we use, open rates are low. This leads me to believe that a lot of emails sent through Campaigner are often delivered to SPAM folders rather than inboxes.

Also, they frequently charge us for higher tier packages than we are signed up for, and it takes multiple calls and emails to get it straightened out.

Pros

Nothing I can think of at this moment. You can see under "cons" what I really think of their product.

Cons

1) They have terrible customer service. Most of their CS reps on the phone are rude, unfriendly and unhelpful. Their standard response is to tell you to look up one of their online training videos. They don't want to take the time to help with anything or answer any questions. This has been going on for two years. I just spent 20 minutes - yes 20 minutes - waiting for their online chat guy to answer a simple question: "I sent an email in earlier today - can you let me know if you'll respond by email or I need to check your message center, and about how long is your average response time." Yep, 20 minutes waiting for their customer service representative to answer that one simple question. I gave up and disconnected after prompting him multiple times.
2) Last year they accidentally unsubscribed almost all of my customer database - 10K names - and didn't tell me. Because of the nature of our emails, we didn't notice for about two months - what a disaster. They said "oh that happens," didn't apologize and did not give any type of credit. They did, however, restore the unsubscribes as they found the exact time they did it.
3) The platform is clunky and the searches and segmenting are difficult to use. They do not have an easy way to do a date range search for bounces, or other things.
4) We get conflicting answers when we call customer service.

In other words - it's a really really terrible platform with terrible people. We've been using ESPs for 14 years. We decided to use Campaigner about two years ago for our customer emailing only, based on someone's recommendation. It was a big mistake. Avoid at all costs.

Pros

I like the ability to have templates that can be shared across our organization. The new drag and drop editor is also very helpful to create templates and edit emails more quickly and easily - especially for staff who aren't as skilled at html etc. I think it also does a good job of list management and segmentation.

Cons

When editing an email, the software doesn't register you as being "active" unless you click next or save, so it tends to log you out while you're in the middle of editing. Sometimes there are also strange formatting things that happen to emails that take a long time to solve. I have also had experiences where the email wouldn't send because of a bad script or link to a dropbox that it flagged as spam. Solving that problem was extremely frustrating.

Pros

We use it for simple email blasts to our neighborhood association. We don't use it for marketing campaigns, so therefore do not have the need for some of the functionality available with Campaigner. For our needs it works.

Cons

Ease of use. It is not intuitive, and they haven't done any kind of software or GUI redesign since we started using it (6+ years ago).
Making a template should be a lot easier than it is: Creating and editing templates has a lot of old graphic (frames?) technology that makes for a frustrating experience when trying to line up text blocks with headers, footers and images.
Writing an email with attachments should be easier. Having to upload a file/image to the media library, and then importing it into your email is a lot of steps. Instead, allow a person to add a file/image to an email note in the same simple fashion as any other email client works: add a paper clip button and allow us to select the file to add to the note. That seems like it should have been done a long time ago.
Also, if you accidentally remove a person from an email list, you have to call up Campaigner support to get it fixed; you can't manually fix it yourself. Very annoying.

Pros

We use Campaigner exclusively for all support communications with about 300 subscribers to our Internet service at a large marina. We also use it for small business customers that we support with marketing and social media services. Easy to use and we have never had a complete failure.

Cons

The system has all of the features that we need, but the only (minor) issue is occasional "lagging" of website response and occasional apparently incomplete copying of an email campaign - we copy a lot for the purpose of sending the same email to new subscribers as they sign up to our Internet service. Sometimes the "subject line" of an email doesn't want to copy and be recognized as present in the copy.

Pros

I like the thought that was put into the little details such as, being able to put in a subject to any email link when linking to an image or text. I appreciate that because our Constant Contact account is very complicated when adding a subject to an email link.

Cons

It's a little complicated to use. I've had multiple issues adding and changing minor things to the blast. Sometimes you add a photo and boom its huge and you have to get in there and minimize it; sometimes you have to minimize the width and not the length. It's not as user friendly as Constant contact. The functionality of constant contact is very straightforward and consistent. For example, if you need to add an image somewhere to your blast, just drag the image icon to the area of choice; if you want to add a button, then just drag the button to where you like. We currently use both CC and campaigner and had thought of switching to campaigner which is why we started testing it out but cannot because we are very busy and need to be able to move through setting things up quickly. That's the thing holding us back from switching.

Pros

Our members are retired seniors and are very conscious of their privacy. We wanted software that was based in Canada or at least North America. Software that was inexpensive as we do not send a large volume of messaging. Software and company that can be forgiving with hard bounces.

Easy to import and maintain a contact list. Member driven, the member manages their own contact information and mailing lists.

Cons

Shortly after purchasing this product a redesign to a responsive design was implemented. This product is not responsive for smaller screens such as laptops. I exclusively use a 14 or 15 inch laptop. Very irritating.

Pros

Being able to duplicate a previous SEND so I can update it easily instead of recreating. Report are easily viewed. Being able to set the time for the SEND. The ability to SEND a previous email only to those that didn't open the first time. I like the fact that I can see JUST the opt outs and the bounces - both hard and soft.

Cons

Sometimes I want to have a picture to move to a certain spot in the 'page' but it won't go "dead centre" I would like to be able to edit a SENT product to be able to update a typo or date and then RESEND to those that didn't open. If I create a copy, I loose the means to only send to those that didn't open the original - if there is a way I would be interested to know.

Pros

Simple is better, so that makes it easy for non-experienced users to learn.

Cons

The email builder can be buggy sometimes, and I've found dynamic segments to be unreliable.

Pros

Being able to pull up old invites and using them as a foundation for new projects makes working on Campaigner very easy. The customization options are not limited and allow me to create unique invites and format them based on project specific needs. The reporting tool is extremely helpful and creating internal reports has never been easier with the stats breakdown (i.e. clicked, opened, delivered, etc.). Overall, a great product and much easier to use than other similar platforms.

Cons

I don't always receive test invites. I might get it once in a while but end up always having to send out an actual invite to myself or team member so that I can view what my recipients will see.

Pros

I am familar with it and have been using it for years.

Cons

I feel there are times where lists take a while to load, there are also some issues when a campaign gets in queue. This can have a significant impact on the business and we need them to go out on time. We feel if this problem continues we may have to look elsewhere.

Pros

The interface is intuitive and easy to use, unlike others that I've tried. It has the right features for building campaigns and automation without being an overkill. The reporting is also comprehensive and straightforward.

Cons

I had some trouble with the deliverability of my emails when I started. I contacted support and it seemed to help improve our open and click rates.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Campaigner

Pros

It allows us to track current/updated information for our alumni. And, it has been useful in sending Alumni e-newsletters, and invites to other fundraising events.

Cons

Our inability to auto load our alumni who sign up through our website.

Pros

This program was already in use when I joined the company and the learning curve was minimal. It has all the standard templates, contacts, and reports that you would need. Every time I have called customer service, they have been helpful.

Cons

Working with the templates can be really finicky. It can be difficult to get it to do what you want at times. It is also not as user friendly as MailChimp, for instance. Their reporting is there but you have to do click more time to get to it and comparing email sends can be annoying the way it's laid out.

Pros

It works but I can't think of any additional Pro's that I would list.

Cons

The company is all up in your business. I had to cancel my service after using them for more than 5 years because they were reviewing my emails and questioning their validity in their efforts to "protect" me from SPAMMING people. So I dropped them and went to MailJet who is way better. I would not be able to recommend Campaigner to anyone. They went from being a nimble and functional software company to being corporate and full of red tape. I suggest looking elsewhere.

Pros

The only redeeming feature of Campaigner is their sales team who are great at selling you a dream: deliverability experts, a dedicated account manager, a superior platform and deliverability. It's all promises up-front.

Cons

All of the features they promised: support, deliverability, platform

Pros

The basic functionality (sending emails, managing mailing lists, templates, etc.) do work, but it's not always the easiest to get it to work the way you want.

Cons

The interface to create emails is very clunky and they must be using an old WYSIWYG which causes a lot of problems. The numerous steps you have to go through to preview an email is frustrating.