On Track With Jack: The Importance of Plain Text

While sum-sum-summertime is here, don’t take a vacation from your email marketing!  There are a ton of great business opportunities to take advantage of - market them all with JangoMail.  Most recently, we’ve spent a lot of time focusing on deliverability, and I have something else to add into the mix this week:

Always generate a plain text version of your email.

Each time you send out a new email, you should include a plain text version.  While most email clients support HTML messages nowadays, there are still some platforms and devices that cannot display HTML.  Additionally, there are a few folks out there that prefer to block HTML emails.  When you send plain text with HTML, you ensure that your recipient can see your email, no matter what.

Need another reason?  Spam filters check for plain text because spammers do not include it.  A lot of messages without it go straight into the junk folder.  Please note that the spam filter also checks for a balance of HTML to plain text so you want to make sure you have an even amount of both.

At JangoMail, we make it easy.  Once you have the HTML portion of your email finalized click on the second tab in the editor labeled “Plain Text”.  You have two options here: you can “Generate now based on HTML message” or “Generate automatically at send time”.

If you want to edit any portion of the plain text, click the first link.  I prefer this option, especially for newsletters because I like to remove any duplicate links, for example.

Choose the second option if you want your plain text to be identical to your HTML message and it will be created when your message sends.  The system will generate the latest version right before your message is processed.

To recap: Make sure that you always include a plain text version.  With JangoMail, you can easily create plain text to ensure your message delivers.

Have questions? Ask. Dial 1-888-465-2646 or drop us a line here.

Jack the Jangolope
Department of Awesome
JangoMail

About Jack

Jack the Jangolope is our JangoMail mascot.  Each week, look for Jack's emails for marketing advice, trends, and quick tips on how to grow your email marketing plan to the fullest!  Hop into email marketing each week with Jack's helpful tips!

What is a Jangolope? Find out HERE

We want to hear from you. Remember, at JangoMail it's your email, your way.  Have a topic you would like Jack to cover?  Email us at marketing@jangomemail.com with the subject line: On Track With Jack.  Follow Jack on Facebook

Subscribe to On Track With Jack

It's a bird…It's a plane…It's v4!

By: Melonie Mottice
Marketing Specialist

The latest and greatest editor is live!

Like last month, we've been very busy at JangoMail. What a better way to kick off March than with a new editor?!? Our new v4 HTML Editor is our most advanced editor and is available now. It has a brand new look to match our UI, and all the same great features that EditLive has, along with a few extras. NOTE:  Any locked content you created in the other editors will still work.

Here are a few New Features:

1. Image Capabilities – Upload your images and graphics directly in the editor, no need to upload separately in Assets.
2. Source Code Button – This replaces the old HTML button.  Click to edit your HTML.
3. Template Button – Choose a Smart Template directly from the editor.
4. Spell Check Button – Double check the spelling of your copy.
5. Block Quote – Adds a block quote, or indented quotation.
6. Insert Content Button – CAN SPAM Footer and Social share, Unsubscribe, Forward-a-friend, and View-as-web-page links are found here.
7. QR Code Picture Generator – Easily insert a QR code here. Great for any promotions, contests or giveaways.
8. Maximize Button – This replaces the Toggle Full Screen button. The function is the same but the look is new. Use it to open a new window to work with a larger screen.

To see how these and all the other v4 features work, check out our updated documentation.

On Track With Jack: It's Time to turn off EditLive

Hi JangoMail Users!

It's always hard to say goodbye, but it's time to bid adieu to a special friend. We've had our ups and downs, but lately there have been mostly downs. Sometimes you just know when it's time for someone to retire. With mixed emotions (but mostly excitement), I give you my tip for the week:

Turn off EditLive and Switch to Our TinyMCE(v3) Editor

EditLive works with Java, which for a very long time has caused lots of headaches for you and our support team. While browsers and Java update with the times, EditLive does not. In the past, these updates caused problems, but now we've finally hit a point where the latest Java update has caused EditLive to stop all together.

Luckily we have another editor that works great! The Advanced editor doesn't need Java and therefore doesn't error out like EditLive does.

As a reminder, here are a few benefits of using our Advanced editor:

• If you can't resist copying from Word, use the new "Paste from Word" button. NOTE: We do NOT recommend creating any emails using Word. Copy/paste text using Notepad or a Simple Text Editor instead.

• You do not have to wait for Java to load, and there are no error messages. 
• Agencies: You can also lock content by restricting subaccounts from editing certain parts of an email. (This is more of an advanced tip: When using EditLive, in the HTML, you would tag an item as conenteditable="false". Now you can do that here too, add class="readonly".) 

To verify that you are using our TinyMCE(v3) editor, follow these steps:

1. Click Settings.
2. Select Authoring to expand section.
3. In the last option, Preferred HTML Editor, check to see if TinyMCE is listed.
4. If not, click the pencil icon to edit.












Select TinyMCE.
Press Save. 

Are you still using the old user interface? Here's some directions on how to switch there:

1. Click Settings.
2. Visit the Send E-Mail Page link.
3. Choose TinyMCE for the HTML Editor.
4. Click the Save Changes button.

If you haven't used our Advanced Editor before and have questions, our support team is here to help you transition.

Sincerely,

Jack the Jangolope
Department of Awesome
JangoMail

About Jack

Jack the Jangolope is our JangoMail mascot.  Each week, look for Jack's emails for marketing advice, trends, and quick tips on how to grow your email marketing plan to the fullest!  Hop into email marketing each week with Jack's helpful tips!

What is a Jangolope? Find out HERE

We want to hear from you. Remember, at JangoMail it's your email, your way.  Have a topic you would like Jack to cover?  Email us at marketing@jangomemail.com with the subject line: On Track With Jack.  Follow Jack on Facebook

Subscribe to On Track With Jack

On Track With Jack: Use our TinyMCE (v3) Editor

Hi JangoMail Users!

I don’t know about you, but I’m still recovering from Thanksgiving. All of those carrots can be quite filling! Before I go down another rabbit hole, let’s take a look at my tip for the week:

Use Our TinyMCE(v3) Editor

Over the development of JangoMail we’ve offered three different editors: Simple, EditLive, and TinyMCE, which is the most advanced and easiest to use. We encourage all of our users to take advantage of this great tool.

Users have always enjoyed our quick image insertion, social media and email links, as well as all of the formatting options. Recently, the JangoMail team has incorporated some EditLive features into our latest version of our Advanced editor, and we will be phasing out EditLive this winter. Here are a few benefits of using the TinyMCE(v3) Editor:

• If you can't resist pasting copy from Word, use the new "Paste from Word" button. NOTE: We do NOT recommend creating any emails using Word. Copy/paste text using Notepad or a Simple Text Editor instead.
• You do not have to wait for JAVA to load, and there are no error messages.
• You can also lock content by restricting subaccounts from editing certain parts of an email.
• This is more of an advanced tip:  When using EditLive, in the HTML, you would tag an item as conenteditable="false".  Now you can do that in TinyMCE too, add class="readonly".

To verify that you are using our TinyMCE(v3) Editor, follow these steps:

1. Click Settings.
2. Select Authoring to expand section.
3. In the last option, Preferred HTML Editor, check to see if TinyMCE is listed.
4. If not, click the pencil icon to edit.
   
   
   
5. Select TinyMCE.
6. Press Save.

To recap: Double check that you are using our TinyMCE(v3) Editor and make sure you switch over as soon as you can.  We will be phasing out EditLive this winter.



Sincerely,

Jack the Jangolope
Department of Awesome
JangoMail

About Jack

Jack the Jangolope is our JangoMail mascot.  Each week, look for Jack's emails for marketing advice, trends, and quick tips on how to grow your email marketing plan to the fullest!  Hop into email marketing each week with Jack's helpful tips!

What is a Jangolope? Find out HERE

We want to hear from you. Remember, at JangoMail it's your email, your way.  Have a topic you would like Jack to cover?  Email us at marketing@jangomemail.com with the subject line: On Track With Jack.  Follow Jack on Facebook

Subscribe to On Track With Jack

New HTML Editor Option: TinyMCE is here!

We've just added a third choice of HTML editor to JangoMail, and it's a crowd favorite: TinyMCE. TinyMCE is a lightweight, powerful JavaScript-based HTML editor that loads fast. We'll continue to option our other two editors, the simple ActivEdit editor and the powerful Java-based EditLive editor as well. Most of the features we offered in the EditLive editor have been replicated in the TinyMCE editor, including:

1. One-click ability to insert a CAN-SPAM footer, View as Web Page link, Twitter and Facebook sharing icons
2. One-click ability to insert custom, pre-defined HTML snippets at the cursor location.
   
3. Ability to load templates directly from the editor

Additionally, with the TinyMCE editor, you can switch between the Plain Text Editor and the HTML editor instantly, without having to re-load the page.

While the Java-based EditLive is still quite powerful, some users found it too slow to load and too clunky for rapid keystrokes. The TinyMCE editor is powerful, feature-rich, and lightning fast.

To set your account to use TinyMCE, begin composing a new message. Click the Settings Icon and choose the TinyMCE editor out of the three available options.