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"

Bug Fix: SendTransactionalEmail

Previously, the SendTransactionalEmail API method was not rejecting domains that have been unsubscribed in an account and system-wide unsubscribed domains. For example, the domain antihotmail.com is a domain that is in the JangoMail system-wide blocklist.

This has now been corrected.

Now if you use SendTransactionalEmail to send to xxxxx@antihotmail.com, the following exception will be thrown:

JangoMailNamespace.SystemDomainAddressException: Web Service Exception SystemDomainAddressException: Email address is on system-wide domain block list.

Similarly, if you unsubscribe the domain abccompany.com within your individual JangoMail account, and then you attempt to send an email to xxxxx@abccompany.com via SendTransactionalEmail, this exception will be thrown:

JangoMailNamespace.UserDomainAddressException: Web Service Exception UserDomainAddressException: Email address is on account's domain block list.

HTML Editor Upgraded to EditLive Version 6.7.1.17

We have upgraded the HTML Editor that JangoMail uses on the Send Email page. The upgrade is to the latest version of Ephox's EditLive Java-based HTML editor, version 6.7.1.17.

Bug Fixes Included in Version 6.7.1.17

• Merge Inline Styles did not merge with the first P tag
• Table corruption when merging between rows in the last column
• Word Count did not exclude removed text
• Inserting an image next to another image copied the attributes of the previous image
• Proxy servers specified by IP address were resolved to a hostname, which can cause issues with local servers
• Spell Checker did not automatically load the correct dictionary when using the Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Norwegian or Dutch interface translations
• Address tags with inline styles crashed the editor
• EditLive! corrupted cookies with spaces
• Inserting new rows into a table with the inline table toolbar present caused the editor to move focus above the table

PDF Document now available on Trackable SMTP Relay feature

The official PDF guide is now available:

http://www.jangomail.com/documents/Public/JangoMail-Tutorial-SMTP-Relay-Tracking.pdf

Read this step by step guide to learn how to track every single person to person email that you send. The new SMTP service has lots of benefits over your existing SMTP service:

• 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

Use it with Outlook or any desktop email program. Use it with your web page scripts that send email (ASP, ASP.Net, PHP, JSP, all web platforms are supported). Use it anywhere you designate an outbound SMTP server.

Two new API methods to delete Group members

Tonight we have launched two new API/web service methods that allow for mass deletion of Group members. These two methods and their descriptions are below. Click each method to go directly to the API test form.

Groups_DeleteAllMembers
Deletes all members of a Group.

Groups_DeleteBulkMembers
Deletes all specified email addresses in a Group.

The Groups_DeleteAllMembers method is analagous to the Delete All Members button within the JangoMail web interface. The Groups_DeleteBulkMembers is analagous to the Delete Group Members In Bulk button in the web interface.

Feature Enhancement: The Email List Importer can now handle multi-GigaByte files

We are happy to announce that we have enhanced our Group Import algorithm such that even super-large files can be uploaded for import. Previously, files over 150 MB would not process correctly and our data team would have to manually import the email list. Now, multi-GigaByte files can be uploaded through the web interface or via FTP, and JangoMail will begin to instantly process the file.

For more information on importing data into JangoMail Groups, see this tutorial.

For more information on how to FTP data files for importing into JangoMail, see this blog post.

New Feature: Geo Tracking Phase II (segment by location data)

In addition to being able to see geo tracking location data for Opens, Clicks, and Web Page Conversions on your email marketing campaigns, you can now segment your data by location or by a distance from a particular location.

Let's say I want to know who opened my email campaign within 100 miles of downtown Chicago (zip code 60610). I simply enter the data in the distance box and filter my data down:

Instead of filtering by distance, I can also choose a specific location by which to segment by using the Location dropdown menus:


Here is the sample filtered report for all Opens within 100 miles of zip code 60610. Note that actual email addresses have been blurred:

What's next?

Our final phase III rollout of Geo Tracking will include a spectacular visual overlay on Google Maps showing you graphically where Opens, Clicks, and Web Page Views/Conversions came from. Additionally, you'll be able to export any segemented data into a new JangoMail Group with a single click. This will make sending followup email campaigns to geo targetted segments a snap!

New Feature: Trackable SMTP relay now in beta

Today we have launched a feature into beta, that no other email marketing service provider has -- an SMTP relay service built specifically for email marketers. Any JangoMail active account holder can test it right now.

You can now send all of your person-to-person and transactional emails through the JangoMail SMTP relay at relay.jangosmtp.net.

The benefits of relaying your individual email messages through relay.jangosmtp.net instead of your corporate email server or your ISP email server are:

1. Open Tracking
2. Click Tracking
3. SMTP Logging
4. DomainKeys/DKIM signing
5. Automatic plain text and HTML message generation
6. Grouping of different types of emails into different categories for ease of reporting

We will soon be publishing a detailed document on how to use the SMTP relay service, but for now, follow these steps:

1. Login to your account and go to My Options and Settings --> SMTP Relay.

2. Review the settings and setup an authentication scheme, either by IP Address or by From Address.

3. If you choose to authenticate by From Address, then your email system will have to authenticate into the SMTP relay service with your JangoMail account username/password. Additionally, all of your emails must come from the From Address(es) that you specify under My Options and Settings --> SMTP Relay --> From Addresses.

4. After you've setup your authentication and tracking preferences, start relaying your email through relay.jangosmtp.net. You can connect on port 25 or port 2525.

5. All Reporting is in real-time under Reporting --> Transactional Emails.

------------------------------------------------------

Update on 6/15/09: Official PDF document now available at http://www.jangomail.com/documents/Public/JangoMail-Tutorial-SMTP-Relay-Tracking.pdf

New Feature: Geo Tracking is here (Phase I)

We're excited to announce the availability of Geo-Tracking data for Open Tracking, Click Tracking, and Web Site Activity Tracking reports. JangoMail is one of the few email marketing service providers to provide Geo-Tracking data.

The following data is now available along with the email address of the subscriber that took the action:

• City
• State
• Zip Code
• Country
• ISP
• Latitude
• Longitude

To view these additional columns, click the "By Location" tab on any of the Open Tracking, Click Tracking, or Web Site Activity Tracking reports.

Here is a sample Open Tracking with Geo Tracking Report data from our client, Popcorn Palace:


Here is a sample Click Tracking with Geo Tracking Report from JangoMail's own JangoMail account:


A similar Web Site Activity with Geo Tracking Report is available if you implement Web Site Activity Tracking on your site, which allows you to see what web pages your subscribers are visiting after clicking on and leaving your email campaign. We're not showing a screenshot of that report, since the above two clearly illustrate the Geo Tracking columns.

What's coming ahead?

1. The ability to segment Geo Tracking data based on any of the above parameters, and then send a new campaign to just those subscribers.
2. The ability to do distance based segmentations. For example, send my second campaign to everybody that opened the first campaign within 100 miles from Chicago, Illinois.
3. A visual overlay of geo tracking data over Google Maps.

New Feature: Autoresponders now work with Triggers

Want to setup triggered emails to fire based on recipient activity on an autoresponder email? Now you can do that. Any triggers associated with an email campaign used as an autoresponder, will now have those same triggers fired when action is taken by the recipient upon the autoresponder email.

For more information about Triggers with JangoMail, see http://www.jangomail.com/documents/Public/JangoMail_Tutorial_Triggers.pdf.

For more information about Autoresponders with JangoMail, see http://www.jangomail.com/documents/Public/JangoMail_Tutorial_Autoresponder.pdf

New API/Web Service Methods: Web Page Views and Mailbox Full Data

We have just released six new API methods for the JangoMail Email Marketing API.

These three methods allow you to retrieve web page view data for a particular email campaign if you're using JangoMail's Web Site Activity Tracking feature:

Reports_GetPageViews_Dataset
Retrieves all web site page views from an email campaign that is using JangoMail Activity Tracking. Returns a .NET DataSet.

Reports_GetPageViews_String
Retrieves all web site page views from an email campaign that is using JangoMail Activity Tracking. Returns a String.

Reports_GetPageViews_XML
Retrieves all web site page views from an email campaign that is using JangoMail Activity Tracking. Returns an XML document.

These three allow you to retrieve "mailbox full" soft-bounce data for a particular email campaign:

Reports_GetMailboxFull_Dataset
Retrieves the "mailbox full" soft-bounces for a particular email campaign. Returns a .NET DataSet.

Reports_GetMailboxFull_String
Retrieves the "mailbox full" soft-bounces for a particular email campaign. Returns a String.

Reports_GetMailboxFull_XML
Retrieves the "mailbox full" soft-bounces for a particular email campaign. Returns an XML document.

New JangoMail website is LIVE

After 8 years of thinking about it, it's finally live - http://www.jangomail.com

New JangoMail website design coming in next few days

Within the next seven days, we'll be launching a new website design. The login form that you're used to seeing in the upper-left will now be in the upper-right corner of the screen. Click the purple LOGIN button, and the login form will instantly appear. See the below image for a preview of the new website and the new LOGIN button.


We're excited about our new website design. It's the first re-design in our company's 8 year history. Additionally, after the new website is live, I'd love to hear your feedback.

New Feature: Determine Size of Email Before Sending

You can now determine the size of your email message using the Spam Check tool on the Send Email page.

Why would I care about the size of my email message?

JangoMail measures both number of emails sent and total data bytes sent from your account. Both are a factor in your account's pricing. Now, the Spam Check tool will include the exact size of your email message in bytes, taking into account the HTML/Plain Text parts, any attachments, and embedded images, if you choose to set your email marketing campaign that way.

Here's a live example from our customer, Popcorn Palace:


And here is the result of the Spam Check:

The size of this email at 191 KB is bigger than the average email marketing message, and that's because it's using the Embedded Images feature, which encodes the content of each image within the actual email content, rather than referencing the images off a web server.

If this email did not use the Embedded Images feature, the total size would be around 1,500 bytes, or 1.5 KB, for a size savings of over 99%!

New Feature: Pause/Resume an email marketing campaign in progress

Did you hit Send by mistake? Did you just notice that your Subject line is spelled wrong, but you already hit Send?

You can now Pause and Resume an email marketing campaign in progress.

Go to Reporting, find your campaign, and click the red PAUSE link. You may also click the status message to the left in parentheses to see the sending progress of your email campaign. Click the parenthetical status and the popup will show you many messages in your email campaign have been sent and how many remain to be sent.

Here is a live example from our client, Popcorn Palace:

Click the red PAUSE link to pause an email marketing campaign.

After clicking PAUSE, the email campaign is paused and the text changes to RESUME. If you made a mistake in the content of your email, you can go back to the Send Email tab, and make any necessary edits. Click the RESUME link to continue the sending of the email campaign.

Click the (sending) or (paused) status to launch a popup displaying progress statistics of the email campaign, including how many emails have been sent and how many remain to be sent.

Email Notifications:

If you pause a campaign, JangoMail will email you daily email reminders alerting you that you have a paused email campaign, and that you have 7 days after the Pause date to Resume your email campaign. Here is a sample email notification:

Dear Michelle:

This is a reminder that you have a PAUSED email campaign in your account:

Subject: Mother's Day Popcorn Specials
Mass Email ID: 233288445
Total Recipients: 46781
Pause Date: May 9 2009 5:51PM

You have SEVEN DAYS after the Pause date to resume your email campaign, otherwise you will not be able to resume it. You can resume your campaign by finding your campaign in Reporting and clicking the green RESUME link.

Please direct any questions to https://www.jangomail.com/Support/.

Sincerely,

The JangoMail Administrator
https://www.jangomail.com/Support/
http://www.jangomail.com
1-888-709-4099 or 614-343-3864



API / Web Service Reference:

ResumeMassEmail
Resumes a paused mass email campaign

PauseMassEmail
Pauses a mass email campaign

New Feature: Inbox Shadow

Tonight we have released a new feature called the "Inbox Shadow", which allows you to filter out recipients from an email campaign that have received a previous email campaign from you in a designated number of past days.

Sample Scenarios:

1. You wish to send an email campaign, but make sure you do not send to anyone that has received a campaign in the last 30 days.

2. You may want to schedule a daily recurring email campaign to go out to a Group, but upon each daily send, have those recipients that have received any email campaign in the last 7 days filtered out.

To use this feature, simply set the proper field on the "Send Email" page:


You can also set a recurring schedule for an email by filling out the Recurring Scheduling section:

New Feature: Email Deliverability Diagnostics Tool

There are cases when a customer, using a desktop email package like Outlook, Thunderbird, or Windows Mail sends a test email message, only to find that the email message is automatically routed into the Junk Mail folder rather than the Inbox. Many times, there is something in the content of the email message that is triggering the Junk Mail filter, and often times it is hard to isolate the exact content issue due to the black box nature of desktop spam filters.

JangoMail has introduced a Deliverability Diagnostics Tool, which will send variations of your email campaign to a given email address, so that you can see which emails end up in the Inbox versus the Junk Mail folder. Based on this, a customer can easily determine what factor of the email message is resulting in it being perceived as Junk.

What kinds of test email messages will the tool send?

You have the option of sending variations of a generic system email, and/or variations of your own email campaign. Each test will be varied, with open and click tracking turned on versus off, with a different From Address, with a different Tracking Domain, and other variances.

How do I use the Deliverability Diagnostics Tool?

If you are a new customer prior to May 5, 2009, you must turn the feature on in your account. Customers after May 5, 2009 already have the feature turned on.


Turning this feature ON will allow the "Delivery Test" button to appear on the Send Email page:


When you click the "Delivery Test" button, a popup will be launched asking you for your email address and the type of test(s) you want to send:


Checking the "custom" checkbox will send variances of the email campaign that you're currently working with. Checking the "generic" checkbox will send variances of a generic system message from "John Smith".

After choosing your test options and clicking the button, the test emails will be sent. Seven total emails will be sent, each with different tracking, from address, and domain properties to help you isolate which tests are going into the Inbox versus the Junk Mail folder. The subject line of each test email message will be labeled accordingly.


Summary:

The Email Deliverability Diagnostics Tool is just one more tool in JangoMail's arsenal of email delivery solutions. To further optimize your email deliverability, be sure to apply for the Sender Score Certified program and sign your emails with DomainKeys/DKIM and run your email campaign through the Spam Score tool. Additionally, most JangoMail emails are sent through Habeas Safelisted senders.

API/Web Service Enhancement: Two choices for error messages

Users of JangoMail's API / Web Service now have two choices for the format of error messages. Typically, errors thrown by the API result in a plain string, or a .Net exception for those programming on the .Net platform.

As a result of a request of a current client, you can now choose to have XML formatted errors instead. Because we anticipate that this feature will be rarely used, we have not added a screen in the web interface to toggle between the two settings. However, if you do wish to change your API error formatting, just contact Support and we'll make the change to your account for you.

Example of standard .Net-based exception:

JangoMailNamespace.InvalidEmailAddressException: Web Service Exception InvalidEmailAddressException: E-mail address is invalid.
at JangoMailNamespace.JangoMail.GetFailureMessage(Int32 UserID, String MethodName, Exception ex)
at JangoMailNamespace.JangoMail.SendTransactionalEmail(String Username, String Password, String FromEmail, String FromName, String ToEmailAddress, String ToHeader, String ContentType, String Subject, String MessagePlain, String MessageHTML, String RawMessage, String Options)
at JangoMailNamespace.JangoMail.SendTransactionalEmail(String Username, String Password, String FromEmail, String FromName, String ToEmailAddress, String Subject, String MessagePlain, String MessageHTML, String Options)

Example of XML-based exception:

Enhanced redundancy for transactional email marketing

Those clients using the JangoMail transactional email platform can now send their transactional emails with greater confidence, because we've added a layer of redundancy to the sending process for these transactional emails.

Previously, all clients were assigned a single email sender through which transactional emails were routed when calling the API method SendTransactionalEmail. Non Sender Score Certified clients would have their transactional emails routed through sender bombay.jangomail.com, while Sender Score Certified clients would have their transactional emails routed through castle.jangomail.com. But, if that single email sender was down, then calls to SendTransactionalEmail would result in an exception, due to the API being unable to transmit the email message to the designated sender.

Now, all users are assigned two transactional email senders on two separate networks, and if the primary sender is down, the email is automatically routed through the backup email sender.

This is another small step in our goal of building the most powerful, and easiest to use, transactional email messaging platform available. For more information on JangoMail's transactional email platform, see this web page.

New Feature: Only pre-process an email marketing campaign, but never send it

You can now set an email marketing campaign to pre-process only, and never actually send. Just check the box in the Miscellaneous section at the bottom of the Send Email page.


What is "pre-processing" anyway?

There are two steps to processing every campaign in JangoMail: pre-processing and sending. The pre-processing refers to generating a final recipient list, and assigning various email senders to the recipients based on configured rules specific to your account, like whether you're a participant in the Habeas Safelist or the Sender Score Certified programs. In generating the final recipient list, your original recipients are filtered for unsubscribes, bounces, and possibly duplicates. Pre-processing generates the final "send to" list for your campaign. Checking the above checkbox will make it so the "pre-processing" happens, but the actual "sending" never happens.

Why would anyone ever want to use this?

There are several reasons why this feature may be useful:

1. You may want to see what the final recipient list looks like, after all unsubscribes, bounces, and duplicates have been removed. This feature will allow you to see the final recipient list while not actually sending the email to the recipient list.
2. You may want to see how long JangoMail takes to do the pre-processing, so you can time your actual send in the future accordingly.
   

New Feature: Send personalized previews/test messages to a Group

We have expanded the functionality of the Preview/Save button on the Send Email page to allow sending a personalized preview message to an entire Group that has 100 members or fewer. Additionally, a designated Test Group will have a corresponding one-click "send" button on the Send Email page.

1. To designate a Group to be a Test Group, the Group must have 100 members or fewer, and you must check the box as shown below. Go to the Groups and Email Addresses tab, select the Group, and then click the Change Group Name / Test Group button.




2. Check the box and click the button. Now that the Group is designated a Test Group, go to the Send Email page. In addition to the Preview/Save button, you'll see another button for each Test Group in your account. Clicking one of these buttons will send an immediate test email to the Group indicated on the button.


3. Clicking the Preview/Save button will launch the popup as normal, but a dropdown will appear listing the available Test Groups.

New navigation tabs

After 8 years of the same, boring-beige navigation tabs, we've re-stylized them to look totally Web 2.0! We hope you'll find these new navigation tabs visually and aesthetically pleasing.

Regular JangoMail Interface

JangoMail for Salesforce Interface

Bug Fix: Mass email initiations will now work with foreign characters

Tonight we have deployed a bug fix that allows mass email initiations to be sent containing both HTML and Plain Message parts, where the message contains foreign language characters.

Prior to the bug fix, when sending a mass email initiation, if the message contained foreign language characters, the campaign would only be sent if the message was sent as a Plain-Text-only or an HTML-only email. If both MIME parts, Plain Text and HTML, were included, then the email campaign would error out.

Screenshot of a mass email initiation composed using Outlook Express, and the message contains Chinese characters. Outlook Express will send this with both Plain Text and HTML parts.

General Information:
A mass email initiation is an email campaign triggered from a desktop or other email client outside of JangoMail. For example, you can use Outlook, GMail, or Thunderbird to compose an email campaign, send it to your assigned @init.jangomail.com email address, and then have JangoMail send the campaign to your email list. For more information on this feature, see this tutorial.

New Feature: FTP your List import files

You can now FTP files to client.jangomail.com/GroupImportsAutoFTP/ and those files will automatically be processed and imported into a JangoMail List.

You may use any standard FTP client, such as FileZilla, CuteFTP, or even the FTP built into Internet Explorer.

The above screenshot uses the Windows Explorer built-in FTP utility to transfer the file Data.csv to JangoMail. In this example, if an Email List named "Data" already exists, then the email addresses will be imported into this List. Otherwise an Email List named "Data" will be created automatically.

FTP to client.jangomail.com using your JangoMail username and password, switch to the GroupImportsAutoFTP folder, and place any data file there. The file can be of any extension (.csv, .dat, .txt, or anything else), and you can set the row delimiter, column delimiter, text qualifier and other options under Settings --> List Management --> FTP List Import Handling.

Some technical notes about how the FTP List Import feature works:

1. JangoMail will examine your file name, and if a corresponding List exists, then the data in that file will be imported into that List. If a corresponding List does NOT exist, then a new List will be created. The name of the list will be based on the name of the file, but non-alphanumeric characters will be removed.
2. If your file has column names in the first row, those column names will be translated into appropriate List Fields. If your file does NOT have column names in its first row, then field names will be created following this scheme: Field1, Field2, Field3, etc. After the import is complete, you can change these field names to more meaningul names.
3. If your file has column names in the first row, JangoMail will look for a column called "Email" or "Email Address", or similar derivations, such as "E-mail" or "E-mail Address". It will be assumed that this column contains the actual email addresses. If your file does NOT have column names in the first row, JangoMail will look for the first occurence of an email address in your data file, and will assume this is the column containing email addresses.
4. Your file should not have the following field names: confirmed, modified, memberID, uniqueident, submission_date, and email_id. These are JangoMail-reserved words, and files containing these field names may have the fields automatically re-named to something else in the actual JangoMail List that is created, or the file may not process correctly at all, in which case an error email notification will be sent.
5. This feature is foreign language compliant, so you may FTP Unicode files.
6. You may also use a secure FTP client to transfer files.
7. You will receive one email notification when the file is actually detected by JangoMail, and you will receive another email notification when the file is done importing and the data is in your List. 
8. If you FTP a file, and that file name corresponds to an existing List, and the file does NOT have column names, the file will NOT be imported, and you will receive an email notifying you of the error.

New Feature: Quick File Upload

You can now quickly upload a file and have the data converted into a JangoMail Group. The Quick Upload feature is seen immediately after clicking the Groups and Email Addresses tab. If a Group does not exist that corresponds to the name of the file you upload, a new Group will be automatically created for you. The Quick Upload follows the same rules as the new FTP List Import feature.

You can now sort Groups by Date

Need to quickly see which Groups you've recently created? For those clients with lots of Groups, you'll be pleased to know you can now sort your Groups by date, instead of the default alphabetical sort. Just click the "Sort by Date" link at the top of your Group listing. And of course, if you change your mind, you can always toggle back to "Sort by Alphabetical".

JangoMail is on Twitter

We've decided to join the social media revolution and join Twitter. Please follow us at http://www.twitter.com/JangoMail. We will strive to make our tweets entertaining, witty, and informative!

New Feature: The "Update Only" option when importing into Email Groups

JangoMail now allows you more precise control over your Email Group Imports. In the Import Wizard, you now can check a box to tell JangoMail to update existing email addresses rather than add duplicate email addresses, if your imported data contains email addresses already present in the Group.

This is yet another way JangoMail provides complete control and flexibility over your data.

API/Web Service users can call either ImportGroupMembersFromData2 or ImportGroupMembersFromFile2 and set the "UpdateOnly" parameter to "True" or "False".

API/Web Service "Import" methods now support "UpdateOnly" setting

The two API methods ImportGroupMembersFromData2 and ImportGroupMembersFromData2 are updated versions of the older ImportGroupMembersFromData and ImportGroupMembersFromData methods:

ImportGroupMembersFromData2
Imports members into a Group from raw data. Specify whether to add all records or update existing records. Returns a string.

ImportGroupMembersFromFile2
Imports members into a Group from previously FTPd file. Specify whether to add all records or update existing records. Returns a string.

Version 2 of these methods allows the setting of the UpdateOnly parameter to True or False. Setting this parameter to True will cause the JangoMail Group Importer to only update existing email addresses and add new email addresses. Setting this to False will cause the Importer to add all email addresses in the imported data, even if the email addresses already exist in the Group.

New API/Web Service method allows creating Agency Sub-Accounts

JangoMail users who are Master Agency Account users can now create client Sub-Accounts via the API method CreateAccount.

CreateAccount
Creates a user account. Returns a string containing the User ID and Password for the new user account.

One of the input parameters is the SecretToken. If you are an Agency Account wishing to use this method, please contact our Support team for your secret token value.

API/Web Service "Send" methods now support "Template" setting

The following API methods have been updated such that "Template=True" or "Template=False" may be specified within the Options input parameter:

SendMassEmail
Sends a mass e-mail with a plain text and/or HTML e-mail. Returns a string.

SendMassEmailPrevious2
Sends a previously saved mass e-mail to a new set of recipients. Returns a string.

SendMassEmailRaw
Sends a mass e-mail, given a raw message including MIME parts and a MIME boundary. Returns a string.

Setting Template=True within the Options parameter will mark the email campaign as a Template, and will cause it to appear in the "My Templates" dropdown menu in the Send Email section of the JangoMail web interface.

How to Send Automated Birthday Emails

If you're storing your email list in a JangoMail Group, then you may wish to setup JangoMail to automatically send daily birthday emails. To do so follow these simple instructions:

1. Define Field: Make sure that your JangoMail Group has a field defined to store a person's date of birth. In the below screenshot, the field is called DOB.

2. Set DOB values: Make sure your Group members have a "DOB" value set. Use a standard mm/dd/yy format, as shown below.



3. Compose birthday email: Next, setup the email message that you wish to be sent on a person's birthday. Do this under the "Send Email" tab.



4. Filter your Group: Finally, do a "filter" on the Group pulling out just the members whose birthday it is today. Use the exact syntax shown below in the WHERE box:

Month(CONVERT(datetime, DOB)) = Month(getdate()) AND Day(CONVERT(datetime, DOB)) = Day(getdate())


4. Schedule and send: Finally, re-select the message you composed in step 2, put in the scheduling parameters, and hit Send. The scheduling parameters are set to send the email daily, at 3:01 PM, and a box is checked to re-query the Group every day, ensuring that every day, the email is sent to that day's birthdays, rather than the birthdays from the day we scheduled the email.


5. Check your work: You can see the recurring scheduled email you've setup under My Options --> Recurring Schedules:

Non IE browsers will no longer be able to switch to Simple HTML Editor

JangoMail provides two different HTML editors for composing email campaigns: the Simple HTML Editor and the Enhanced HTML Editor. The Simple HTML Editor was the editor we first provided when JangoMail was created, and it only works with Internet Explorer. In 2004, we introduced the option of a much more powerful Enhanced HTML Editor that works with all browsers. You can choose which HTML Editor you want to use under My Options --> Send Email Page.

Previously, a non-IE browser, like Safari or Firefox, a user could choose to use the Simple HTML Editor, and then on the actual Send Email page, an error would be displayed, often times confusing the user. To avoid this confusion, we have now made it so that when using a non-IE browser, you will not be able to select the Simple HTML Editor.

Additionally, if your account is already set to use the Simple HTML Editor, and you login with a non-IE browser, the Send Email section will default to the Enhanced HTML Editor.


Additional Information for Techies:

The Simple HTML Editor is ActiveX based, and therefore only works with Internet Explorer. The Enhanced HTML Editor is a Java applet, and is therefore browser-independent.

New behavior for "Forced Recipients" option

JangoMail allows users to specify up to ten email addresses in a "Forced Recipients" box under My Options. Using this option forces JangoMail to send a copy of every email campaign sent through the account to the addresses specified here.



Previously, these addresses would get filtered out of a campaign if these addresses were also on the account's Unsubscribe List or Bounce List for example. So previously, there were cases where these addresses did not receive a copy of the email campaign.

We have modified the behavior of this feature such that the addresses in the "Forced Recipients" box now override data in the Unsubscribe List, Bounce List, or any other filtering mechanism when sending a campaign.

Therefore, specifying email addresses in the "Forced Recipients" box will guarantee that every email campaign is sent to these addresses.

Group Importer Enhanced

We have deployed a fix to the JangoMail Group Importer that allows the record delimiter to appear in between a pair of text qualifiers, and for all data to be properly imported.

For example, if in an uploaded import file, the record delimiter is the "newline" character and the field delimiter is a "comma", and the text qualifier is a double-quote character, then data my look like:

EmailAddress,FirstName,CustomerFeedback
johndoe@yahoo.com,John,You guys are the best!
janesmith@gmail.com,Jane,You need improvement.
mikejones@hotmail.com,Mike,Thanks for your hard work

This data would always import properly, but if a particular value contained the record delimiter, the data would previously not import properly, even if the value was surrounded by the text qualifier. For example:

EmailAddress,FirstName,CustomerFeedback
"johndoe@yahoo.com","John","You guys are the best!
Thanks for all that you do."
"janesmith@gmail.com","Jane","You need improvement."
"mikejones@hotmail.com","Mike","Thanks for your hard work"

This time Record 1 has a longer CustomerFeedback value. Record 1 of this data has a "newline" in the middle of the CustomerFeedback value. Even though the entire value is surrounded by the text qualifier (a pair of double-quotes), previously, the entire value would not be imported. Now, with our Group Importer enhancement, this is now fixed. Additionally, should the field delimiter appear in between a pair of text qualifier characters, this situation will also be accommodated, as it has always been.

New layout for "Send Email" page coming this weekend

After years of adding new features to the main Send Email page of JangoMail, a new design has arrived to make using these features easier. We will be deploying the new Send Email page this weekend. Attached to this email message is a GIF screenshot of the new layout, showing the re-designed "Advanced Options" section.

Now, the items underneath Advanced Options have been categorized. Each category can be expanded and collapsed using the +/- symbols. Additionally, all categories can be expanded/collapsed at once using the "expand/collapse" links next to the title "Advanced Options".

Some noteworthy changes:

1. The Plain Text Message field has been moved to the top.
2. The Tracking options are now below the Plain Text Message section
3. The Mark as Template checkbox has been moved to the Miscellaneous section.

We hope this new layout will make this page easier and faster to use (click image to see full size):

Upgrade to Enhanced HTML Editor

JangoMail has upgraded the Enhanced HTML Editor to Version 6.6.2.6 of Ephox's EditLive! editor. Released on March 10th, 2009, this latest version of EditLive! fixes a number of bugs. For full details, click here.

Group Imports now support foreign languages

You can now import foreign characters into Groups using the "Import Members" function. Previously, foreign characters imported into Group fields would be garbled. But now, foreign characters are properly stored in Group fields.

Below is a screenshot where data, including Chinese and Arabic characters, will be imported into the Group "Customers":

In this example, the data is copied/pasted into the form, but you can also upload a data file containing foreign language characters.

Uploading Files Containing Foreign Language Characters:

If you upload a file containing foreign characters into a JangoMail Group, make sure the file is saved as a Unicode file, and NOT a UTF-8 encoded file. The below image shows how to save a file as a Unicode file in Windows Notepad (click image to see full size):




API/Web Service Reference:

The Group Import methods, ImportGroupMembersFromData and ImportGroupMembersFromFile have also been enhanced to support foreign language characters.

Bug Fix: CAN SPAM Footer now supports foreign characters

Today we fixed a bug that was preventing foreign characters in the CAN SPAM Footer from being displayed properly.

Now, if you include foreign characters in any of the fields under My Options --> CAN-SPAM Footer, those foreign characters will display properly at the bottom of your email campaigns.

JangoMail Has Upgraded to Newest Version of Ephox's EditLive! Editor

JangoMail has upgraded the Enhanced HTML Editor to Version 6.6.1.41 of Ephox's EditLive! editor. Released on March 3rd, 2009, this latest version of EditLive! supports inline editing for the ASP.NET integration of EditLive! and includes over two dozen bug fixes. For full details, click here.