"Set Plain Text Automatically" Feature Improved

The feature that allows you to automatically create a plain text message from an HTML message has been improved! Here are the improvements:

1. The "Set Plain Text Automatically" button now works with the Simple HTML Editor and the Enhanced HTML Editor. Previously it only worked with the Enhanced HTML Editor.

2. The "Set Plain Text Automatically" button now works even if you are composing HTML in the plain text editor rather than the HTML editor. Previously it only worked when you were working with the HTML editor.

3. There have been improvements to the algorithm which more accurately predicts line spacings when generating the plain text message.

4. Links in the HTML message will now show up in the plain text message when the link text is not a URL. For example, this HTML code:

Click <a href="http://www.jangomail.com">here</a> to go to our web site.

will be converted to:

Click here <http://www.jangomail.com> to go to our web site.

New Feature: Smart Templates

Today we have officially launched our "Smart Templates" feature, which allows customers to design e-mails based on professionally designed templates that match their organization's logo and color schemes.

Read the full feature announcement here.

New "Mark as Template" Feature

On the Send E-mail page, there is now a checkbox underneath the Advanced Options section that allows you to mark any e-mail you send as a template. The checkbox is labeled "Mark as Template". Any e-mail marked as a template:

1. Will show up at the top of the "Re-send Old Message" and "Edit Old Message" dropdown menus.

2. Will be labeled "TEMPLATE" in the two dropdown menus.

3. Will never be deleted from your account by our automated data purges

This feature is the first stage in our overall template feature rollout which will occur over the next two weeks.

Bug Fix: Group Exports

We have corrected an issue where Exported Group CSV files would not display properly in Excel if a particular field value included double quotes (") or commas(,) as the very first character.

This issue is now fixed and all Exported Group CSV files should now display correctly in Excel.

API Method "ImportGroupMembersFromData" Improved

Previously, the maximum string size for the ImportData input parameter of the ImportGroupMembersFromData method was approximately 4 MB. This limit has been increased to 32 MB, which will allow for larger data sets to be imported at one time with this method.

How to do A/B split testing in JangoMail

It is very easy to conduct an A/B split test in JangoMail.

Using JangoMail Groups

If you are storing your e-mail lists in JangoMail Groups, you simply need to send one e-mail to one half of your Group and the second e-mail to the second half of your Group. You can easily split your Group in half using the "Filter and Send" feature.

1. Click the "Filter and Send" button.

2. Switch to the "Advanced Query Editor".

3. In the yellow "Tips" area, click link for "A/B split testing". This will populate the SQL SELECT and WHERE clauses.

4. Click the "Filter Members Now" button.

Now, JangoMail is prepared to send to half of your JangoMail Group.

After you send this e-mail, you may want to send a varying version to part "B" fo your Group. This step is very simple. This time you will NOT start in the "Filter and Send" section. Just go to the "Send E-mail" section, elect to send the e-mail to the entire Group in the Group selection box, but then down below, under "Don't send to recipients of these past e-mailings:", choose the e-mailing that you previously sent to part "A" of your Group.

This will filter out everyone that received e-mailing "A", thereby sending to only the second half of your Group.

Using an External Database Connection

If you are using JangoMail to pull in e-mail recipient data in real-time from an external database, then you need only write the appropriate SQL query to pull in only half of your records. For example, if your e-mail recipient data is stored in the table "Contacts", the SQL query would be:

SELECT TOP 50 PERCENT * FROM Contacts

If your database does not support the "percent" designation with the TOP keyword, then you can manually specify the half-count of your table. If your table has 5,000 records in it, you could use:

SELECT TOP 2500 * FROM Contacts

Bug Fix: Large Group Email Lists Display Faster Now

In the past, customers having a large number of e-mail addresses in a Group (over 1 million) may have experienced long delays when in the "Groups and E-mail Addresses" section, after having selected the Group and waiting for the list of e-mail addresses to display in the blue area.

The list of e-mail addresses will now display much faster. Additionally, sorting through the list 200 at a time with the <> links will now operate much faster. And lastly, using the Search box to find an e-mail address or a range of addresses will operate much faster as well.

HTML Editor Upgrade / New "Send E-mail" Features

We have upgraded our Enhanced, Java-based HTML editor. We have also enhanced the look/feel/functionality of the "Send E-mail" page. If you use the Enhanced Editor (as opposed to the Simple Editor), the following changes are now in effect in the editor:

1. The "Insert Images" dialog box has a better and faster user interface. Firefox users previously were unable to insert images using the Enhanced Editor, but now this has been fixed.

2. There is now an "Upload Images" button to the immediate left of the "Insert Images" button.

3. Some users were experiencing an issue where the spell-check feature would not work. This has been resolved, and spell-check should now work for ALL users.

4. The font and heading dropdowns now contain the options in the actual fonts and headings that are available.

5. There is now a "Print" option under the "File" menu.

6. Composing a plain text version of your HTML message is now as simple as clicking a button. Click the "Set Plain Text Automatically" button next to the Plain Text field, and JangoMail will automatically generate a plain text message based off your HTML message in the Enhanced Editor.

7. The "personalization" instructions above the Subject/Message area can now be expanded/collapsed at will, which gives the page a much cleaner and efficient look.

8. You can now decide whether the Plain Text or the HTML Editor loads when you first go to the "Send E-mail" page. You can configure this option under My Options --> User Preferences --> Send E-mail Page.

JangoMail now offers Dedicated IPs

Starting today, JangoMail is offering dedicated servers with dedicated IPs for those customers wishing to send mass e-mails through servers setup exclusively for them.

While JangoMail has some of the highest deliverability rates in the industry through our shared pool of high performance SMTP senders, high volume customers that want the ultimate deliverability solution may be interested in sending through a dedicated server with a dedicated IP address.

Benefits include:

*Blocks caused by other customers won't affect e-mails sent through dedicated servers

*The best deliverability rates possible

*The ability to brand the e-mail routing headers around your organization's domain (for example, if your domain name ise browniekitchen.com, your dedicated SMTP server can be set to smtp1.browniekitchen.com).

If you are an existing customer and would like to upgrade to a dedicated server, please contact us using our Support form at https://www.jangomail.com/Support/.

New customers can contact us at http://www.jangomail.com/ContactForm.asp.

Feedback loop established with MSN/Hotmail

JangoMail has established a feedback loop with Microsoft that allows MSN/Hotmail recipients to automatically be unsubscribed from a JangoMail customer's account when they report an e-mail as spam within the MSN/Hotmail environment.

You will now see manual unsubscribes in your account for @msn.com and @hotmail.com e-mail addresses. These are a result of the recipients reporting your e-mail message as spam, and the feedback loop kicking in to automatically unsubscribe these recipients.

Smaller "Powered by JangoMail" icon available now

There is now the option of having a smaller "Powered by JangoMail" graphical icon added to the bottom of HTML e-mail messages. Here is what the smaller icon looks like:

"Powered by JangoMail" footer to be added to complimentary/discounted customer accounts

Starting next week, JangoMail will begin adding a "Powered by JangoMail" graphical footer to the bottom of e-mail broadcasts sent through customer accounts which are either complimentary or discounted.

The graphical footer will link to JangoMail's home page and will look like this:



Additionally, a two-sentence footer will be added to text messages.

After never having forced a "Powered by JangoMail" footer in JangoMail's entire history, we now feel that this will be a good marketing tool to help us grow, which in turn, will allow us to continue to provide our complimentary/discounted customers with excellent service.

If you are a paying customer, and would like to do us a huge favor, you can also agree to have the footer appended to your mass e-mails. Just contact us, we'll gladly add the footer, and we will deeply appreciate you allowing us to do this.

You can now EDIT an existing e-mail message

On the "Send E-mail" tab, there is now an option to edit an existing e-mail campaign.

Editing an existing e-mail campaign is necessary:

1. If you want to make changes to a scheduled mass e-mailing that has not been sent yet (before the "edit" feature, you would have to schedule the e-mail again with the changes made, and then delete the first e-mailing).

2. If you want to make changes to a mass e-mailing from the past that you might now want to use as an autoresponder, in a recurring schedule, as a Trigger, or as a confirmed opt-in message.

Note that while editing a campaign, you are overwriting the data for an e-mail campaign. You cannot send to your recipients while in edit mode, although you can send a test (preview) message to yourself. If you want to use an old e-mail message as a starting point for a new e-mail campaign, then use the "Re-send Old Message" option from the "Send E-mail" tab.

New Feature: Triggers

We will soon be officially announcing the launch of our newest feature, Triggers. Triggers allow you to send automated, follow-up e-mail messages to your recipients who take a particular action on a past e-mail message.

You can setup such an automated follow-up e-mail when a recipient clicks a link, opens an e-mail message, or visits a page on your web site. For example, you can use triggers to send a follow-up e-mail 24 hours after a recipient opens your first mass e-mail announcing your new product. Or, you can use triggers to send a “thank you” e-mail immediately to a recipient that lands on the “purchase” page of your web site.

Download the tutorial on Triggers.

Cleaner look for the "Send E-mail" page

We have made some slight design modifications to the "Send E-mail" page which gives it a cleaner look:

1. The form fields have all been pushed about 50 pixels to the right, making them more flush with the black vertical line that does down the right. This frees up more whitespace on the left side of the screen and makes the screen more pleasing to the eye.

2. The colored box above the Subject field that explains personalization now does so more clearly and contains a link to the JangoMail Personalization Tutorial. The box also no longer spans the width of the entire screen.

You can now save Group Filters

While using the Advanced Query Editor to segment and filter Group members, you can now save filters under a friendly name, which allows you to run the filters later without re-composing the filter criteria.

New Feature: Additional synchronization options for web databases

The second phase of our new "Behavioral Targeting" feature has been completed. Those customers that use JangoMail to pull data in real-time from their web site's databases can now have JangoMail write data back to their databases based on recipient's behaviors.

The following actions can be synchronized with a web database:

1. Unsubscribes
2. Bounces
3. Change of e-mail address requests
4. E-mail opens
5. E-mail clicks
6. Forward to friend requests
7. Web site activity

Each action can be associated with a custom SQL query which will be executed against the web database when the action occurs. By taking advantage of these synchronization options, you can send targeted mass e-mail campaigns to your e-mail database based on a recipient’s past behavior. For example, you can send to just those recipients that opened a particular e-mail campaign or clicked a particular link in a particular campaign.

To learn more about JangoMail's ability to communicate with a web database, see the updated tutorial.

New Feature / New Tutorial: Filtering Groups Based on Past Member Behavior

In preparation for our "Behavioral Targeting" feature which will be officially launched next week, we have published a new tutorial on filtering group members. The tutorial can be downloaded here.

You can now filter Group members based on the Group member's past behavior, such as clicking a link in a certain campaign, or opening an e-mail, or visiting a certain page on your web site.

This tutorial teaches you how to filter a Group to send to only members that match a certain criteria. Perhaps you only want to send to the Hotmail addresses in a Group. Perhaps you only want to send to those Group members whose “Age” is over 30. Perhaps you only want to send to those members of the Group that have joined the Group in the last 60 days. Perhaps you only want to send to those members of the Group who have clicked at least one link in a prior e-mail campaign. You can accomplish all of these by filtering your Group. You can filter your Group based on two kinds of criteria:

1. The information you have stored for each Group member in the Group’s fields, such as FirstName, LastName, Age, DOB, City

2. Information stored in your JangoMail account about the Group member’s past behavior, such as clicks and opens

For more information, see the tutorial.

Our "Private Label" customers will see a branded version of this tutorial within their application's "Help" tab.

New Tutorial on Unsubscribe and Bounce Management

Because JangoMail provides such sophisticated and robust unsubscribe and bounce management, we've published a comprehensive tutorial covering these subjects. The tutorial can be downloaded here.

The tutorial covers the following topics and more:

• How to add unsubscribe instructions to your e-mail


• How to customize what the recipient sees after clicking the unsubscribe link


• How to brand the unsubscribe link itself


• How to remove unsubscribed addresses from your Groups


• How to let recipients unsubscribe from a particular Group rather than your whole account


• How to add/remove unsubscribed addresses and domains


• How JangoMail takes feedback data from AOL, Outblaze, and other ISPs and automatically unsubscribes users that report your e-mailings as spam


• How to synchronize unsubsribed addresses with a web database


• How to customize bounce handling


• How to view bounced e-mail messages


• What counts as a "bounce" message and what does not

Our "Private Label" customers will see a branded version of this tutorial within their application's "Help" tab.

We've updated our "client testimonials" page

http://www.jangomail.com/ourclients_testimonials.asp

Find our what our customers have been saying about us...we've updated our testimonials page to include comments from customers from the last year and a half. Remember that JangoMail's testimonials are not fabricated quotes. They are real and unsolicited e-mail messages that we have received from our customers!