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!
It’s been a busy couple of months since our last update, but we’re finally ready to take the wraps off of a new feature that we think you’re going to love: campaign report sharing! Now you can share a great-looking, live-updating campaign report to anyone that has a web browser—including, of course, all Macs, PCs, iPads, and smartphones.
You’ll notice right away that the web version of your campaign report looks exactly like the Summary section of your report in Direct Mail. This is a great way to see, at a glance, the key performance indicators for your campaign. The web report automatically updates once a minute to match what you see in Direct Mail (that includes syncing any notes you add, too).
Sharing your campaign reports couldn’t be easier. In Direct Mail, switch to the Reports tab, click the Share button, then choose Share Report. For more information, please see this help article. Note that you’ll only be able to share reports for campaigns sent with Direct Mail 3.5 or newer.
Campaign report sharing is just one of the many improvements we’ve made in Direct Mail 3.5. We’ll be sharing more of what’s new in a series of upcoming blog posts. You can also subscribe to our monthly newsletter to get these updates pushed right to your inbox.
