Video Tutorials Now Available on Trackable SMTP Relay Configuration

JangoMail has two new Video Tutorials on configuring our SMTP Relay Service:

1. Using JangoMail SMTP Relay with a Desktop Email Client

2. Using JangoMail SMTP Relay on a Web Server

Watch these to learn how to configure JangoMail's SMTP Relay Service to work with a Desktop Email Client like Outlook, Thunderbird, and Lotus Notes and how to configure it for use on a Web Server. This new service improves your sending capabilities by offering these benefits:

• Open Tracking
• Click Tracking
• DomainKeys/DKIM Signing
• Easy web-based access to SMTP Logs
• Categorization of different types of transactional emails
• API methods to retrieve Reporting data

New Feature: List-Unsubscribe Header

In response to users' frustrations with trying to figure out how to unsubscribe from mailings, Hotmail and GMail have created features in their interface to standardize unsubscribing and make it easier. Users can now simply click one link in their email interface to unsubscribe from a mailing. This feature offers an alternative to using the Mark As Spam button to unsubscribe. We are now supporting this List-Unsubscribe Header option for GMail and Hotmail users.

On Wednesday, July 29 we will turn on this option on for all of our customers. This feature does not apply to transactional emails. You can turn this feature off or on by following these steps:

1. Click on My Options and Settings in your JangoMail account.

2. Under Reply Management, choose Unsubscribe Options.


3. Find the Use List-Unsubscribe Header checkbox. To turn on the List-Unsubscribe feature, keep the box checked. To turn off this feature, uncheck the box.

4. Save your preferences by clicking the Update Unsubscribe URL button.


This feature adds code into the header of the email that includes two links for an email client to use to unsubscribe the user:

1. A URL that will unsubscribe the user when visited
2. A mailto address that the email client can use to send the unsubscribe request

The header of the email looks like the below screenshot:

Click to Enlarge

The email client will follow one of these links to unsubscribe the user. If they follow the URL, JangoMail can match that unsubscribe to the email campaign it came from and it will show up in your Reporting. If the email client uses the mailto address, the unsubscribed address will only show up in your universal unsubscribe list and JangoMail won't be able to track it to a specific campaign. Unfortunately, it's up to the email client to choose which of these two links to use.


GMail users can unsubscribe from a mailing in two ways:

1. Mark the mailing as spam and choose the Unsubscribe option

2. Click the "show details" link in the top right hand corner and click "Unsubscribe from this sender"


Hotmail users can unsubscribe simply by hitting the "Unsubscribe" link at the top of the page when they are reading the mailing.

As more email clients adopt the List-Unsubscribe Header, they will be adding their own link for recipients to unsubscribe.

For the official website on the List-Unsubscribe Header, visit: http://www.list-unsubscribe.com/

To read the technical specification on the List-Unsubscribe Header, visit: http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2369.html

To read about GMail's implementation, visit: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/unsubscribing-made-easy.html

New options for sharing unsubscribe data between master/sub accounts

We have introduced a new option today that allows any account within a master/sub-account grouping to use the unsubscribe lists of all the other master/sub-accounts in the group, during the pre-processing stage of an email campaign.

Previously, a sub-account could elect to have its campaigns cross checked against its own unsubscribe list and that of the master account's unsubscribe list. Now, with the addition of the new mechanism, a sub-account can elect to have its campaigns cross checked against:

1. Its own unsubscribe list
2. Its master account's unsubscribe list
3. All the other sub accounts' unsubscribe lists.

This option can be toggled on and off for each individual sub-account. Simply login to the master account, go to Account Info, click Manage Sub-Accounts, and set the "Use Subs Unsub" to True or False.

Geo Tracking Phase III (Google maps overlay) is complete!

We are happy to announce that the third and final phase of our geo tracking rollout is complete - you can now view your Open/Click/Web Page View data visually as an overlay on top of Google Maps. Zoom in, zoom out, drag west, drag east...drill down to the county level in the United States and to the national level for countries outside the United States. This new feature has been one of our most intensive code development efforts to date. JangoMail is one of the few Email Marketing Service Providers to provide this feature.

Here's an example from a recent campaign we sent to all JangoMail customers (the one about the SMTP relay service). This screenshot shows Open Tracking plotted over Ohio. The purple areas represent the counties from which Opens came. The raw data is shown in the table below.


After clicking Franklin country (where Columbus is), we further drill-down until we see Google Maps markers, depicting exactly where the Opens came from:


Similar data is available for Clicks, and Page Views if you're using JangoMail's Web Site Activity Tracking feature.

You can also read earlier blog posts about Phase I and Phase II of our Geo Tracking deployment. These previous posts show you how to view raw location data on Opens, Clicks, and Page Views, as well as segment your data by distance from a particular zip code.

JangoMail Featured in Entrepreneur.com Article

CEO Ajay Goel discusses online lead generation and the launch of the new JangoMail web site: http://www.entrepreneur.com/ebusiness/buildingawebsite/article202458.html

Bug fix: Using the unsubscribe link in transactional emails

We have fixed a bug that prevented the unsubscribe link from working properly in transactional emails, including emails sent with the trackable SMTP relay.

To insert an unsubscribe link into transactional emails, do so the same way as you would with a regular email broadcast campaign, using a snipped of HTML code:

Just link to this URL:

http://x.jango9.com/u.z?***uniqueid****

and be sure to replace x.jango9.com with your account's actual Tracking Domain. The system default Tracking Domain is currently x.jango9.com.

If you link to the above URL in a transactional email, the ***uniqueid**** will be replaced by the JangoMail email engine with a string unique to your recipient. Then, then the URL is clicked, the recipient will be added to your account's unsubscribe list, preventing said person from receiving future emails from your account.

Bug Fix: Bounce processing of email addresses with apostrophes

Previously, if an email address containing an apostrophe bounced, then the email address would be added to your account's Bounce list but with the apostrophe stripped out! Then, the next time you sent an email campaign, the "bad" email address that had previously bounced would still end up on the recipient list since it wouldn't be filtered out during the Bounce list crosscheck.

This has been fixed so that the full email address, including any apostrophes, will be preserved when added to an account's Bounce list, and therefore future email campaigns will not attempt to send to this address.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about the SMTP relay service

Q. How are bounces handled?

A. If you send an email message to an address that is on your account's Bounce list, then that email message won't be sent, and instead, a notification will be sent back to the sender with this error message:

Web Service Exception BouncedEmailAddressException: Email address is on account's Bounce list. System.Exception: JangoMailNamespace.BouncedEmailAddressException: Web Service Exception BouncedEmailAddressException: Email address is on account's Bounce list.

If you send an email message to an address that is not yet on your account's bounce list, but the recipient address is invalid, then that address will then be added to your account's Bounce list. If you wish to receive an email notification of the bounce-back, like you would with a "regular" SMTP service, then set the appropriate options under My Options and Settings --> Bounce Handling.

Q. How are unsubscribes handled?

A. If you send an email message to an address on your account's Unsubscribe list, the email message will not be sent and instead an error notification containing the following text will be sent back to the From Address on the email message:

Web Service Exception UnsubscribedEmailAddressException: Email address is on account's Unsubscribe list. System.Exception: Namespace.UnsubscribedEmailAddressException: Web Service Exception UnsubscribedEmailAddressException: Email address is on account's Unsubscribe list.

You have the option to have the SMTP relay bypass your account's unsubscribe list and not perform this check. To do so, check the appropriate box under My Options and Settings --> SMTP Relay.

Q. How is word wrapping handled?

By default, the SMTP relay is set to wrap lines at 76 characters. Many of Microsoft's email clients wrap lines at 76 characters, so we chose this as the default. You can, however, customize this setting under My Options and Settings --> SMTP Relay. Most desktop email clients, like Outlook, Thunderbird, and Eudora already transmit the email to the SMTP server with proper word wrapping in place. Many programming-based components, like PHP, ASP, and ASP.Net email components that send email programatically via an SMTP server, may not do any word wrapping at all. It is for this reason that the SMTP relay will do the word wrapping at 76 characters by default. To prevent the SMTP relay from doing any word wrapping, set the Wrapping option to 0 under My Options and Settings --> SMTP Relay

Q. Can I use the standard JangoMail unsubscribe link in my email messages sent via the SMTP relay?

A. Yes, you can. Just link to:

http://x.jango8.com/u.z?***uniqueid****

x.jango8.com can be replaced with the Tracking Domain specific to your account.

Q. My email client sends emails encoded in base 64 or quoted-printable. Will there be any issues with this?

A. Everything will work fine. JangoMail's SMTP relay will not only preserve your email client's original encoding scheme, but it will also still be able to add the open-tracking and click-tracking entities to your email message.

Q. What are the costs to use the SMTP relay?

A. The pricing is the same as that of the regular JangoMail email broadcast service. It is based on the number and size of the emails you send per month. Pricing is at http://www.jangomail.com/pricing.asp

Q. What happens if I attempt to send more emails through the SMTP relay than my account allows?

A. If your account is marked as an "overage allowed" account, then you will never encounter this issue. If your account does have set limits, as most do unless you've requested otherwise, then when your emails exceed your account limits, the sender will get return notifications indicating that the account is over limit and that the email was not delivered.

Q. Is my email message delivered to my recipient instantly through the SMTP relay?

A. Your email message is delivered within 3-5 seconds after it arrives at relay.jangosmtp.net. That 3-5 seconds is required for processing, such as adding the open-tracking and click-tracking mechanisms, signing with DomainKeys (and DKIM), and checking against your account's Bounce list.

Q. Can click-tracking affect phishing filters?

A. Yes, depending on the email program that the recipient is using. Since click-tracking alters your original URL, spam filters may detect this as a phishing attempt. The smarter email clients get though, the less of an issue this will become over time. Additionally, if your display text itself isn't a URL, then there won't be an issue. For example:

This is the best web site. (good way to link)

versus

http://www.google.com is the best web site. (bad way to link)

Q. What happens if I send email from either an IP address or a From Address that I have not yet authorized under My Options and Settings --> SMTP Relay?

A. An error notification will be sent to the Sender of the email message with the IP and From Address infomation:

Relaying denied for [IP Address] / "Joe Smith"