A brand new update for Direct Mail is out today and it features some great new improvements that we’re excited to tell you about. It’s been a busy month or so since our last update, and today we’ve got a double whammy: Direct Mail 3.3 and Stamps for iPhone 1.1. Read on for highlights of what’s new, check out the release notes for the nitty gritty, or download the update.

New Templates

We love seeing the sharp-looking emails that you put together using our professionally-designed templates. Direct Mail 3.3 introduces over 20 new templates in three families: Skyline, Storesletter, and Versatile. We think you’ll appreciate the additional options these templates provide. For in-depth tips on using our templates,  check out last week’s post on Top Template Tips to Try!

Facebook Integration

Growing your mailing list is a key part of email marketing, and a great way to grow your list is by including a subscribe form on your website. This latest version of Direct Mail comes with an all-new subscribe form builder that makes it easy to:

• Create professional looking subscribe forms with custom logos, colors, and form fields. We’ll host it for you for free!
• Create an embeddable subscribe form that you can paste directly into your website
• Add your subscribe form to your organization’s Facebook Page with one click!

Take a look at our Facebook Page (click Newsletter Signup) to see how nicely our forms integrate into Facebook. Now you can add a form to your Facebook page in seconds.

Notifications

People love getting notifications on their iPhone and, new in Mountain Lion, on their Mac. We’ve upgraded Direct Mail and our Stamps app to send you notifications when your email campaign finishes sending, and when design tests complete (Mac only):

You’ll want to make sure and update Stamps to version 1.1 (just open the App Store app). Never heard of Stamps? Check out this blog post for an introduction.

And More!

This blog post just scratches the surface of what’s new. Other improvements include a great Preview on iPhone feature, significant performance improvements, expanded printing support, Twitter sharing support (Mountain Lion only), and more. Take a look at the release notes for details, and be sure and watch our Twitter or Facebook feeds for new blog posts on the changes.

How to Upgrade

If you downloaded Direct Mail from our website, just choose Direct Mail > Check for Software Update from the menu bar. Direct Mail will automatically download and update itself. If you downloaded Direct Mail from the Mac App Store, you’ll have to exercise some patience while Apple reviews and approves the update. We’ll post to our blog, Facebook, and Twitter feeds when Apple approves the update.

As always, we welcome your feedback and look forward to going in-depth on some of these changes in future blog posts.

Update: Direct Mail 3.3.1 is now available in the App Store, as well.

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!

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:

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.

Direct 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:

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:

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.