My recommendation for which email marketing platform best suits the needs of Alan's Bakery. In this case study I independently conducted research on each platform through the perspective lens of our client to provide a recommendation tailored to their overarching marketing objectives and tactics.

1. E M A I L S E R V I C E R E C O M M E N D A T I O N
M A S O N M A Y E S
D R . O S B O N
M A R K 4 6 5 0
Alan’s

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
• Background……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3
• Business Objectives…………………………………………………………………………………………….... 4
• Target Audience………………………………………………………………………………………………...... 5
• Approach……………………………………………………………………………………………………......... 6
• Analysis………………………………………………………………………………………………………........ 7
– Segmentation
– Reporting
– Ease of Use
– Price Comparison
– Support
• Recommendation....................................................................................................................................................................... 13
• Sources......................................................................................................................................................................................... 15
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3. BACKGROUND
Alan’s is a popular delicatessen, bakery, and confectionery with ten
locations serving the Metro Atlanta area. predominantly located near
the large office buildings of Downtown and the affluent northern
suburbs.The upscale yet informal dining experience features
extravagant breakfast and lunch items comprised of fresh, locally
sourced ingredients. In addition to the retail breakfast and lunch crowd,
Alan’s catering services include office meeting breakfasts, boxed lunches,
and a staffed chef available to prepare hot meals on site. Furthermore,
Alan’s is renowned as one of the top bakeries in Atlanta, producing the
most sought after wedding cakes for brides-to-be.
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4. BUSINESS
OBJECTIVES
Alan’s main business objective through digital marketing is to increase sales by
encouraging repeat business, following the 80/20 principle of marketing (80% of your
business comes from 20% of your customers).We have decided the most effective way
to encourage repeat business is through the establishment of an email program that
enables Alan’s to stay in touch with their customers.We currently have an email
database of 200,000 names that have been collected in fishbowls and are separated by
location; in addition, we will be purchasing a mailing list of local brides’ email addresses
from the annual Great Bridal Expo.The purpose of this report is to analyze the two
best offerings for Alan’s: MailChimp and Constant Contact.The following criteria will
be used to judge the two email service providers: segmentation, price, reporting, ease
of use, and customer service and support. Based on this evaluation, we will make a
recommendation to Alan’s.
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5. TARGET AUDIENCE
Alan’s target audience is:
• Business professionals
• Companies with catering needs
• Brides-to-be
• Affluent families of the Metro Atlanta area
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6. APPROACHThe use of an email service provider
will be used to:
• Display the menu specials of the day
• Place orders online
• Send reminders about catering
options for 10+ people
• Send special emails targeting brides
with offers for wine/cake tasting
parties
• InviteVIPs to “best customer
events”
• Offers to cater office Christmas
parties, summer picnics, etc.
Alan’s will use the following segmentation
methods to accomplish this approach:
• Send emails twice weekly to the lunch
crowd
• Segment brides based on wedding
month and send about 12 emails per
campaign (one email per month)
• Send a special email each month to
people who have purchased specialty
cakes or desserts before reminding
them that the anniversary of their
special day is coming and that Alan’s is
ready to help them celebrate.
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7. VS.
ANALYSIS 7

8. SEGMENTATION
Criteria MailChimp Constant Contact
Segmentation • Subscribers can join groups when they sign
up for emails
• Profiles provide information about each user,
making segmentation easier
• Segmentation based on geographic location
• Segmentation based on event date
• Segmentation based on customer status
• Discover similar subscribers based off of past
segments
Customizable tagging allows for easy segmentation
based on:
• Location
• Target audience sub-type
• Event
• Event month
• Customer status
• Actions customers took in response to emails
Analysis:While the tagging feature of Constant Contact allows for more in-depth customization of segments
than MailChimp, it is in excess of what Alan’s truly requires. Furthermore, the tagging process of Constant
Contact is very time consuming, mandating the creation of tags for each customer. MailChimp, in contrast
allows you to quickly group consumers into segments and save those segments to quickly add new consumers.
The segmentation features of MailChimp align more with the approach we have outlined for Alan’s to
accomplish their business objective.
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9. REPORTING
Criteria MailChimp Constant Contact
Reporting • Interactive graphs
• Automated A/B testing
• Multivariate campaigns
• Click tracking map
• Engagement reports and trends (opens,
clickthrough rates, bounce rate, unsubscribes)
• Revenue reports
• Opens by location and device
• Bounces (which emails bounced and why)
• Industry comparison
• Google Analytics compatible
• Engagement reports and trends (sends, opens, clicks,
bounce rate, unsubscribes)
• Revenue reports
• Industry comparison reports
• Interactive graphs
• Compare campaigns (up to 5)
• Device tracking (mobile vs. desktop opens)
• Click tracking heat map
• Google Analytics compatible
Analysis: While MailChimp and Constant Contact offer very similar reporting tools, MailChimp’s are far
more user friendly, detailed, and allow for more customization based on your key performance indicators.
MailChimp offers a huge advantage over Constant Contact by offering automated A/B testing. MailChimp
also features multivariate campaigns, enabling you to test changes of multiple variables at once, thus
providing key insights to help you optimize your email marketing. Furthermore, MailChimp offers in-depth
instructions for the different tools as well as how to link the service with a Google Analytics account. 9

10. EASE OF USE
Criteria MailChimp Constant Contact
Design/Ease of
use
• Multi-user accounts
• Customizable predesigned templates
• Drag and drop editor
• Built-in photo editing tools
• Collaborate with your team by posting
comments and sending test emails with each
other
• Test and preview your campaign on your
own mobile device
• File manager
• Variety of integration with other platforms
• Mobile app
• Event marketing
• Multi-user accounts
• Customizable predesigned templates
• Mobile email template design
• ‘Design & Build Inquiry’ that allows a professional to
design your email template for you
• Drag and drop editor
• ‘Email Campaign Optimizer’ allows you to submit
your email to be evaluated by Constant Contact and
receive suggestions on how to improve
• File manager
• Built-in photo editing tools
• Limited integration with other platforms
• Mobile app
Analysis: Although both MailChimp and Constant Contact allow for customization of the predesigned templates, Constant
Contact’s templates are typically more ready-to-use. MailChimp, however, offers a huge competitive advantage in its
integration offerings and its test and preview features.
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11. PRICE
COMPARISON
Criteria MailChimp Constant Contact
Price $875.00/Month $895.00/Month
Analysis: MailChimp is $20 less than Constant Contact per month, thus giving MailChimp the advantage in
price.
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12. SUPPORTCriteria MailChimp Constant Contact
Customer
Service/Support
• Knowledge base
• Video tutorials/how-tos
• Chat support
• Email support
• Phone support
• Email support
• Chat support
Analysis: Constant Contact offers far better customer support than MailChimp.Although the knowledge base
and videos are helpful, MailChimp lacks a sense of personal contact without the option to call for support.
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13. RECOMMENDATION
To accomplish Alan’s business objectives,Alan’s should choose MailChimp as an email
marketing service provider. Although Constant Contact has an advantage in customer
support, MailChimp has the advantage in every other category. For ease of use, the design
features of the templates come down to personal preference, but MailChimp offers huge
advantages over Constant Contact with its integration abilities as well as its preview and
testing features. Furthermore, MailChimp’s segmentation features are more aligned with Alan’s
email marketing approach and are more efficient. MailChimp also provides more user friendly
reporting tools and automated split testing, which I believe to be the greatest advantage.To
top it all off, MailChimp is $20 less per month!
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14. MAILCHIMP TAKES THE CAKE
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15. SOURCES
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• http://blog.capterra.com/mailchimp-vs-constant-contact/
• https://www.constantcontact.com/features/email-tracking-software
• http://knowledgebase.constantcontact.com/articles/KnowledgeBase/5562-reporting-for-an-email-campaign
• https://mailchimp.com/features/segmentation-and-groups/
• https://mailchimp.com/features/reports/
• https://www.mailmunch.co/blog/mailchimp-vs-constant-contact/