Exciting Improvements Arrive in Direct Mail 3.6

Direct Mail version 3.6

We’re happy today to take the wraps off a special holiday present for all our fantastic  Direct Mail customers. Direct Mail version 3.6—available today—includes a host of bug fixes and improvements, including one new feature, in particular, that we’d like to tell you about.

A Whole New Way to Work with Templates

A primary focus of this update was improving the template editor experience. We want Direct Mail to be the easiest way to put together the best looking emails out there. With that goal in mind, here are a few of the improvements we made in version 3.6.

Revamped Template Gallery

Our templates now come in a wider variety of ready-made layouts: one-column, two-column, image-ready, text-only, and more. The new template and layout chooser do a great job of showing off the available designs and also make it much easier to find the style and particular layout that you want for your newsletter:

Fully Customizable Layouts

Our templates now come with 100% editable layouts. For example, after choosing a template, you may find yourself wanting to add another paragraph of text, include a sidebar, or add a gallery of images. These types of changes are now as easy as clicking the “+” button and selecting the type of section you want to add. Take a look:


These new flexible layouts make it incredibly easy to put together the perfect layout in just seconds.

Automatic Translation

Automatic Localization in Direct Mail 3.6

To support our customers around the globe, we’ve translated key portions of our templates (like unsubscribe links, view online links, company name, etc.) into German, Spanish, French, Swedish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Russian, and Japanese. When you select a template in the editor, you’ll see the translated version appear automatically. Direct Mail references your OS X language settings when choosing which language to present.

Enhanced Typography, Appearance, and Compatibility

As you browse through our collection of templates, we hope you’ll notice the refined typography and better selection of built-in color schemes (which you can always customize to match your favorite colors). After you send your newsletter, your recipients will notice how much better they look in their email client. We’ve gone through each template and made a host of changes to ensure they are easier to edit and are more compatible with the most popular email clients.

Where To Find The New Templates

The features described above are available in the templates that come built in to Direct Mail. If you’re already using a template from an older version of Direct Mail, you’ll need to create a new message and choose the updated version of the template from the template chooser. In other words, editing or duplicating an existing message won’t give you access to the aforementioned new template features.

Other Improvements

Templates aren’t the only thing we’ve changed in this update. We’ve fixed a plethora of bugs and spent many hours enhancing and refining the features you already love. If you like, you can view the release notes or just jump right in and download the update.

Thanks for all your feedback and suggestions. We look forward to unveiling the next generation of Direct Mail in the New Year. From all of us here at e3 Software, we wish you a wonderful holiday season with family and friends and a Happy New Year!

Update: Direct Mail 3.6 is now also available in the Mac App Store!

 

by Jonathan in Announcements

How Gmail’s Recent Update Affects Campaign Reports

Google is in the process of rolling out an update to Gmail that changes how images are displayed in the body of an email. There has been a lot of discussion (and confusion) on the Internet lately over how these changes will impact email campaign reports. The short answer is “you won’t notice much of a difference in your reports”, but if you’d like more information, read on.

What Changed in Gmail?

It used to be that Gmail blocked images by default and would only display them if the recipient clicked to turn them back on. When the recipient turned on image loading, their browser would load the images directly from the source. Starting this month, Gmail now has image loading turned on by default, but instead loads the images through a proxy (instead of straight from the source) for privacy reasons.

Why Does this Matter?

Email open tracking works by embedding in the email an image that is unique to each recipient. When that image is loaded, Direct Mail can report that “open” back to you and give you additional information, such as the recipient’s geolocation, email client, etc. Since Gmail has traditionally blocked images by default, your email campaign report has typically not be able to determine with great accuracy how many Gmail users opened your email (unless they turned on image loading or clicked a link).

With these new changes (image loading on by default), you may notice that more Gmail opens are showing up in your report. Remember, this doesn’t mean that more people are reading your emails now, it just means that we are able to collect somewhat more accurate data from Gmail. There are a couple downsides, however:

  • Since images are loaded via a proxy now, Direct Mail cannot obtain accurate geolocation data.
  • Since images are cached by Google, Direct Mail cannot obtain a 100% accurate account of how many times an email was opened by the same user. The number of unique opens will still be correct, however.

Note that these changes only affect people reading their Gmail via a web browser (on desktop or mobile). Folks reading their Gmail via Apple Mail, iOS Mail, Outlook, or other email clients are not affected.

Conclusion

Google’s recent change to Gmail image loading means your email campaign reports will no longer contain geolocation data for Gmail users, but, on the flip side, might have more accurate open tracking numbers. The Gmail web interface presently accounts for only 3% of email opens worldwide, so the impact on your campaign reports will likely be hard to detect.

It remains to be seen if the other webmail heavyweights (e.g. AOL, Outlook, Yahoo) implement similar changes. If so, we’ll be sure to keep you up to date here. Have a great weekend!

by Jonathan in Q&A

October Newsletter is Here!

We just sent out the October 2013 issue of Direct Mail Monthly. This month’s newsletter contains:

  • Information about recent Direct Mail and Stamps updates
  • Tips on adding contacts to more than one group
  • Great tips and examples for standing out in an overcrowded inbox during this coming holiday season
  • …and more!

Read now (and don’t forget to subscribe if you’d like these updates pushed to your inbox in the future).

by Jonathan in Newsletters

Using Emoji in Email Subject Lines

Trying to compete for your subscriber’s eyeballs in an increasingly crowded inbox can be tough. One tactic that you may not have considered before is using special characters (called “Emoji”) in the subject lines of your emails. Read on to learn what you should know about using Emoji in email.

Emo-what?

Similar to emoticons or webdings, Emoji are mini-illustrations that can be inserted alongside text. In fact, as far as your computer is concerned, they’re just another character of text. The use of Emoji started in Japan as a way to express one’s self in text messages and then grew in popularity worldwide when Emoji capabilities were added to the iPhone (and later OS X 10.7).

Emo-how?

Adding Emoji characters to your subject lines can be a fresh way to stand out from the crowd. Here’s how to do it in Direct Mail:

The Emoji character panel in OS X 10.7 and 10.8.
The Emoji character panel in OS X 10.7 and 10.8.
  1. Switch to the Messages tab and click the subject line you want to edit.
  2. Choose Edit > Special Characters from the menu bar.
  3. Select the Emoji character set.
  4. Double-click the Emoji character you want to insert into the subject line.

Words of Caution

Before you get carried away adding Emoji to your email, please consider the following tips:

  • Emoji works best when used in moderation (i.e. just one symbol) and when placed at the beginning of the subject line.
  • Don’t add Emoji just to add it. Try and use it to replace a word or add some extra meaning.
  • Emoji may not render properly in all email clients. Use our Design Test feature to see what it looks like in popular email clients.
  • Don’t overuse Emoji. Your subscribers will quickly tire and likely complain (i.e. spam) if you add Emoji to every email you send.

There are a variety of holiday-themed Emoji icons (snowflakes, stars, etc.) that you may want to try out over the next few months. Have fun and be creative!

by Jonathan in Features

Announcing Stamps for iOS 7!

Have you upgraded yet? iOS 7’s much anticipated launch day finally arrived yesterday and we were proud to be ready on day one! We’ve worked hard over the past few months to bring Stamps up-to-date with the new design principles of iOS 7. Stamps is now cleaner, easier on the eyes, and most importantly, gradient-free. Along with a fresh look, we made some tweaks under the hood that we think you’ll appreciate.

Stamps on iOS 7
Stamps on iOS 7

Live Updating

Just like Direct Mail on OS X, Stamps now updates  email campaign reports in real time, which means the data on your phone will always be current (even without manually refreshing). After your email campaign goes out, you can open up Stamps and watch how your recipients are reacting. This feature leverages the latest push notification technology in iOS 7 in order to save battery life while still enabling you to track the thousands of interactions your recipients make with your email. Stamps  even updates in the background! Be sure to allow push notifications when prompted by iOS.

Push Preview

This is a lesser-known feature of Stamps that we’d like to highlight. It’s no surprise that the percentage of emails being read on mobile devices continues to increase. With this in mind, it is crucial to test your email designs in a mobile environment. To save you the headache of sending yourself an email to test every change you make, we’ve added a feature to Stamps that allows you to see and interact with mobile versions of your email with a simple push of a button. Learn more

Deliver Now

When working in a team, it’s not unusual to have to wait by your computer for the go-ahead to send out an email campaign. Timing is key. With Direct Mail, you can set your mailing to be delivered in the distant future, and in Stamps, a button will appear at the bottom of your report called “Deliver Now”. This enables you to send out that mailing even if you’re not by your computer when the go-ahead finally comes.

Deliver Now Feature
Deliver Now Feature

Subscribe Form Kiosk Mode

Collecting contact information at trade shows or other events can be a pain: handwritten forms are sloppy, entering business card data is tedious, and transcribing info into a spreadsheet is error-prone. We have a better solution. Build a subscribe form in Direct Mail and it automatically syncs to Stamps on your iPad, where you can display it to your visitors. They can enter their own info, and Kiosk Mode prevents anyone from exiting the app or tampering with the rest of your iPad. Learn more

We’ve built Stamps to be a strong complement to Direct Mail and we think you’ll find it extremely useful. Best of all, it’s free on the App Store!

by Jonathan in Announcements, Features

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