May 2012

Direct Mail Plug-In for Daylite 4

Update: Direct Mail 3.4 now seamlessly integrates with Daylite 4.1! Please see this blog post for more information.

Congratulations to our friends at Marketcircle on the release of Daylite 4, a fantastic customer relationship management application for your Mac (and iOS, too)! Many people have been asking us if our Daylite to Direct Mail plug-in is compatible with Daylite 4. As mentioned on their website, Daylite 4 does not yet officially support plug-ins or connectors, so the answer is no—for now. We are actively working with Marketcircle to bring you an compatible plug-in as soon as they are ready.  Stay tuned!

Direct Mail 3.1.1 Now Available

We’re happy to announce some fresh new bits for you to enjoy. We released the 3.1.1 update for Direct Mail this morning. The release notes have a full run-down of the changes, but here are a couple highlights:

Performance and Bug Fixes

You will find that navigating around your project (changing tabs, selecting groups, history report sections, etc.) is much faster, as is opening project documents. The improvements are particularly noticeable in large projects. In addition, several bugs (including bugs causing crashes) have been fixed.

Swipe to Go Back

Just like swiping to go back or forward between webpages in Safari, you can now use the swipe gesture on your trackpad or mouse to move between sections of the history report:

Demonstration of swipe gesture

This gesture makes it easy to drill down from the Summary section into detailed reports, and then swipe back to the Summary.

How to Upgrade

Upgrading is easy. Just choose Direct Mail > Check for Software Update from the menu bar.

If you downloaded Direct Mail from the Mac App Store, you will have to launch the App Store to update your application.

Using Preview Text to Grab Your Subscriber’s Attention

If you’ve ever found yourself reaching over to turn off the alarm clock while simultaneously picking up your phone to check email, then it will come as no surprise to learn that mobile devices are fast becoming the preferred platform for reading email. Email certification company Return Path revealed last Friday that mobile email consumption is set to surpass desktop consumption by the end of the year. The combination of overflowing inboxes and tiny mobile screens means your email needs to catch the eye of your reader before he or she has even opened it. Luckily, Direct Mail has just the tool you need to grab your reader’s attention: Preview Text.

What is Preview Text?

Preview Text is the two or three line preview of the contents of an email that is displayed in your inbox (usually underneath the subject line). Here’s an example:

Similar previews are shown in Outlook or Apple Mail. These previews work great for showing the content of text-only or conversational emails, but are less useful for newsletters. As you can see in the above example, the preview text is just showing a link to the Web Version and an Unsubscribe link—instead of catching the user’s attention with the meat of our newsletter. Wouldn’t it be great if you could customize that preview text to grab your reader’s attention?

Customizing Preview Text to Grab Your Reader’s Attention

With Direct Mail 3, you’re able to easily customize the content of those two or three preview lines.  Here’s how:

First, make sure you’re in the Messages tab. Then click the “+” next to the subject line. Choose “Preview Text”

Click "+" and choose Preview Text (or choose Message > Add Additional Headers > Preview Text from the menu bar)

A new “Preview Text” header will be added to your message. Pick a headline or sentence from your newsletter that you think will grab your subscriber’s attention and enter it into the text field:

That’s it! Now, when your send your message, your subscribers will see the preview text you wrote, instead of the default (and usually ineffective) text picked out by their email client:

Conclusion

Writing your own preview text is a great way to stand out from the crowd—especially when you’re competing for your reader’s eyeballs on a tiny mobile device. Direct Mail 3 makes it easy for you to choose just how you want to present yourself to your subscribers. Try using Preview Text on your next newsletter and watch open rates improve!

Announcing Stamps for iPhone!

Icon for Stamps for Direct MailDirect Mail is great for designing, sending, and tracking email campaigns on your Mac, but wouldn’t it be great if you could get campaign updates on your iPhone, too? Now, you can! We’re very happy to announce today’s release of our new iOS app called Stamps.

Use Stamps on your iPhone to track the results of any email campaign you send from Direct Mail on your Mac:

Stamps History List
View email open and bounce results at a glance

Direct Mail and Stamps sync automatically, so your campaign data is always up-to-date. The familiar iOS interface makes it easy to dig into the details with just one tap:

History details and charts in Stamps
Get reports on email opens, bounces, clicks, unsubscribes, complaints, and more—right at your fingertips!

What does it cost?

Stamps is free! You’ll need to have signed up for a Direct Mail pricing plan (or be an existing Direct Mail 2 user) to sign in.

How do I get it?

It’s easy, just visit https://directmailmac.com/stamps on your iPhone, or click here to be taken directly to the App Store. Our support site has additional information on Stamps.