First Impression of Campaign Monitor

I will be the first to say that I don’t know much about email marketing. I’m a very basic user when it comes to email. With this said, it took me a while to realize what the Campaign Monitor website was about. Initially, I was under the impression that the website was about marketing a website in general. After doing some digging around, I discovered that Campaign Monitor was an email marketing platform. It could be an oversight on my end, but perhaps this could be a little more clear on the website’s landing page.

Creating an account is easy

The account creation process was smooth. Initially, there appeared to be a ton of fields I had to fill in just to get an account started, but a lot of the fields were optional. This is a plus in my book because it means you can get your account started, and fill in those less important fields at a later time versus having to do it just to create an account. After this, the standard “account created” welcome email was sent.

Password reset is convenient

I ended up forgetting the password I used to create my account, so I got to test this feature almost immediately. Resetting my password was easy – a plus for me, because there weren’t a ton of hoops to jump through. I understand that security is a major concern nowadays, but I strongly believe that there is a time and place for double and triple tier security, such as for a Google account.

Options for the questions in setting up account were sufficient

Again, I had no background in email marketing going into creating my account. There are a couple of questions Campaign Monitor asks to help you get started with your account. I really appreciated the use of simple language in the questions and that there were options for starting from scratch. A lot of places that give you “guiding questions” for setting up your account just prove confusing.

Intro video was informative

This was a major plus for me. The intro video was informative and updated. It was simple to follow along with the video.

I couldn’t tell you how many times I have seen instructional videos on a developer’s/product’s website that were outdated. It makes the learning curve much harder than it has to be. Additionally, the intro video for using Campaign Monitor was to the point – there was no upselling of other products or services that Campaign Monitor had to offer. It was very cut and dry, wasting no time. Another plus in my book because when I create an account for a service, I want to jump right into it without listening to a monologue and skipping around the intro video.

Overall, my first impressions of Campaign Monitor were positive. As with anything, there can be some tweaking on setting a password – the wizard tended to say that the password chosen is “too common.” A good fix for this is specifying the password requirements from the get-go. Otherwise, the interface was simple and not overloading to the eyes. The “Getting Started” materials were clear and helpful and did not further confuse a new user.