Today’s update to Direct Mail brings a variety of bug fixes and enhancements, but one of the most noticeable changes will likely be the improvements to the Reports user interface.
Since most of our customers (and most Mac users, in general) are accessing Direct Mail from their laptops, we optimized the Reports tab to make the most of limited screen real estate. As shown in the animation above, you’re able to see much more of your report in version 3.5.3 as compared to previous versions of Direct Mail.
We’ve also added a Report menu to the menu bar for easier access to features you may not have realized existed before.
As always, you can learn more about the rest of the changes in Direct Mail 3.5.3 by reading the release notes. Follow us on Twitter or Facebook for more updates in the future!
For all you WordPress fans out there, we’re happy to announce another great way to integrate Direct Mail subscribe forms into your WordPress blogs and websites. Our friends at ARScode have integrated Direct Mail support into their excellent Ninja Popups WordPress plug-in. Ninja Popups makes it easy to add eye-catching, easy-to-use subscribe forms to your site, complete with themes, statistics tracking, and more. New subscribers automatically sync to Direct Mail behind the scenes. Learn more at the Ninja Popups website.
If you prefer a subtler approach, our free Direct Mail Subscribe Form WordPress plug-in is also available to install.
Update: Direct Mail 3.5.2 is now available to Mac App Store customers, as well.
We just released a bug-fix update to Direct Mail. Version 3.5.2 includes some important fixes for bugs and crashes, so we encourage you to update as soon as possible. If you’d like more information, please review the release notes.
Mac App Store customers will have to wait just a bit longer as Apple is still reviewing the update.
We rolled out an updated version of our WordPress plugin last night. We’ve modernized the code to make sure it works great on the latest WordPress installations, and added support for multiple subscribe form widgets on the same page.
If you have a WordPress blog, you can use our plugin to add a simple subscribe form widget that automatically syncs with Direct Mail. Install the plugin by logging in to your WordPress Dashboard, then choosing Plugins > Add New from the menu on the left. Search for “Direct Mail” and click Install.
Upgrading an Old Plugin
If you have an old version of the WordPress plugin installed, you can upgrade to the new version, but you will need to re-enter your subscribe form ID and mailing list name after upgrading. For information on how to find your subscribe form ID, please see this help article.
The just-released Direct Mail 3.5 update includes some changes to how Daylite syncing works. If you don’t use Daylite in conjunction with Direct Mail, then this blog post will probably not interest you. If you do, however, then you might be interested in what has changed.
Direct Mail now synchronizes unsubscribe information back to Daylite. Previously, if a contact was marked as “unsubscribed” in Direct Mail, that information would not appear anywhere in Daylite. Starting in version 3.5, when a contact is marked as “unsubscribed” in Direct Mail, the corresponding contact in Daylite will be moved to a group called “Unsubscribes” the next time you sync. The “Unsubscribes” group in Daylite is created for you automatically and will appear as a sub-group of the Daylite group you sync with.
Here’s an example. Let’s say you have synced Direct Mail to the “Mailing List” group in Daylite. Here’s what your group looks like in Daylite:
…and here’s what it looks like in Direct Mail:
Now let’s say that Victor Chan unsubscribes from our list:
The next time sync Direct Mail with Daylite, Victor Chan will be moved out of the “Mailing List” group and into the “Unsubscribes” group. Victor Chan will also disappear from your list in Direct Mail (as Victor is no longer in the “Mailing List” group that Direct Mail syncs with):
A Note on Performance
If you have a large number of unsubscribes that have not been synced over to Daylite yet, you may find that the syncing process takes a long time to complete. We are working with Marketcircle to improve sync performance in future versions of Daylite.
Conclusion
We hope you find this improvement to Daylite syncing useful in your day-to-day workflow. Please let us know if you have any questions—and please let your friends know about how easy it is to use Daylite with Direct Mail!
