Consuming the JangoMail API in ASP.Net

It's easy to start integrating the JangoMail API into your company's .Net software. Start by adding a service reference to your project. Right click on the project in the solution explorer, then click "Add a Service Reference". Under Address, enter http://api.jangomail.com/api.asmx?WSDL and click "Go". Then change the namespace to JangoMail and click "OK". This will add the files necessary to reference the JangoMail web service within your application or website. Then you can call all the JangoMail/JangoSMTP API methods from within your software.

In this two line example, a JangoMailSoapClient object is created, then used to invoke the method that gets a list of the email lists on your account. Download the source code for this example then start your own integration!

// first create the JangoMail soap client object
JangoMail.JangoMailSoapClient j = 
    new JangoMail.JangoMailSoapClient("JangoMailSoap");

// then call the getlist method and display the results
Result.InnerHtml = 
    j.Groups_GetList_String("Your JangoMail/JangoSMTP Username", 
                            "Your JangoMail/JangoSMTP Password", 
                            "<br/>", " - ", "");

How to select images for your marketing material

Guest post from Fotolia, a leading provider of royalty-free images.

Adding visual appeal to all kinds of material from campaigns to blogs to newsletters grabs the audience’s attention. That’s why marketing professionals rely on imagery to enhance their campaigns and overall messaging strategy.

Here are 5 tips to help you select the perfect fit for that added, and much deserved, side of “visual punch”.

Rule # 1: Use your image to communicate

A picture is worth a thousand words, and is indeed a clever and fun way to help your content speak volumes. The right image will not only complement what you have to say, but the message you want to deliver. Keep in mind that you want your image to make a statement. Choose one that is unique and specific to the feel and tone of your content.

Rule # 2: Be bold

This is your opportunity to think outside the box. Avoid taking the easy route of choosing an image that has a direct correlation with your topic. Consider other angles. There are millions upon millions of royalty-free images available to you, so have fun with your image browsing and dare to be different.

Rule# 3: People like to look at people

Consider using images that feature people as an effective way to reach your audience. Studies show that one of the reasons Facebook is such a hit is because of people’s fascination with looking at other individuals. For the most part, human beings feel a need to relate to others.

Rule # 4: Mind your colors & contrast

Aside from selecting an image that suits your overall theme and message, pay attention to colors and contrast – they’re both very important key factors in conveying the “wow” appeal you’re aiming for. The colors delivered in your image should complement the remainder of your content, including font styles and other colors that you may be using.

Rule # 5: Customize

This is where you can have the most fun with your images, stand out from the competition and be unique. Who’s to say that all you see is all you get? Modify your image to suit your needs, as long as you have the rights to do so. Turn your image into something that completely embodies what you want to communicate. The avenues for creativity are limitless and you better believe no one else will have an image like yours.

Special offer: For a limited time, buy a one-month Fotolia subscription and get a second month free! E-mail corporates@fotolia.com and mention this offer to find out more.

Integrating the JangoMail API Into a Java Application

If you want to integrate JangoMail's web service into your company's existing Java software, this example will show you how to hit the ground running. This example relies on Java's built-in library for processing soap requests javax.xml.soap. Download the source code for this example here.

In the first part of this example, the SOAPMessage is created. In this case, we will call the Groups_GetList_String method, which will return a list of groups on your account. Make sure to set the SOAPAction header to indicate which method you want to call.

// create the connection
SOAPConnectionFactory soapConnFactory 
    = SOAPConnectionFactory.newInstance();
SOAPConnection connection = soapConnFactory.createConnection();

//Next, create the actual message/request
MessageFactory messageFactory = MessageFactory.newInstance();
SOAPMessage message = messageFactory.createMessage();
          
//Create objects for the request parts            
SOAPPart soapPart = message.getSOAPPart();
SOAPEnvelope envelope = soapPart.getEnvelope();
SOAPBody body = envelope.getBody();
  
// set the SOAPAction Header to the desired request
MimeHeaders headers = message.getMimeHeaders();
headers.addHeader("SOAPAction", 
    "http://api.jangomail.com/Groups_GetList_String");

Next, the message is populated with our parameters and sent to the JangoMail servers.

// Populate the body of the request
// create the main element and namespace
SOAPElement bodyElement = body.addChildElement(
        envelope.createName("Groups_GetList_String", 
                            "", 
                            "http://api.jangomail.com/"));
   
// add the parameters
bodyElement.addChildElement("Username")
    .addTextNode("Your JangoMail/JangoSMTP Username");
bodyElement.addChildElement("Password")
    .addTextNode("Your JangoMail/JangoSMTP Password");
bodyElement.addChildElement("RowDelimiter").addTextNode("\n");
bodyElement.addChildElement("ColDelimiter").addTextNode(" - ");
bodyElement.addChildElement("TextQualifier").addTextNode("");
   
// save the message
message.saveChanges();
   
// Send the message and print the reply
// set the destination
String destination = "http://api.jangomail.com/api.asmx";
// send the message
SOAPMessage reply = connection.call(message, destination);

Finally, the response is received and printed.

//Check the output
System.out.println("\nRESPONSE:\n");

//Create the transformer
TransformerFactory transformerFactory 
    = TransformerFactory.newInstance();
Transformer transformer = transformerFactory.newTransformer();

//Extract the content of the reply
Source sourceContent = reply.getSOAPPart().getContent();

//Set the output for the transformation
StreamResult result = new StreamResult(System.out);
transformer.transform(sourceContent, result);
System.out.println();

Make sure to Download the complete source code for this example and populate it with the values from your JangoMail or JangoSMTP account.

Easier account upgrades

We've made it dead simple to upgrade your account.  In the past, if you were a trusted user with a sending history with JangoMail, you had the ability to upgrade your account by yourself through the UI.  If you didn't have an established sending history, you had to contact Support, type out a message to request an account upgrade, and then wait for your support ticket to be answered. This was a cumbersome and frustrating process for users that needed to send more emails instantly.

Now, all users, regardless of sending history, can upgrade their account on their own through the UI.  If you're a trusted user, then your account upgrade will take effect instantly.  If you're not a trusted user, then you can still use the upgrade process in the UI, but your upgrade request will be reviewed by a support team member before taking effect. The review process will only take a few minutes, requests are monitored 24x7.

New feature: Store your Salesforce login credentials with JangoMail

You can now store your Salesforce authentication credentials in your JangoMail account, allowing you to pull email lists from Salesforce Leads, Contacts, and Campaigns, even if you're not logged into Salesforce.

The JangoMail for Salesforce app is an email marketing app that allows you to use JangoMail from within Salesforce. When installed, JangoMail shows up as a separate tab within the Salesforce UI.  You can then connect to Contacts, Leads, and Campaigns.

Now, you can pull the same data from Salesforce without being logged into "JangoMail for Salesforce".

To store your Salesforce authentication credentials with JangoMail, go to Settings --> Integrating JangoMail With Other Systems --> Salesforce Accounts.  On this screen, enter your Salesforce username, password, and Security Token.

You can retrieve your Salesforce API key from your Salesforce account under Setup --> Reset my Security Token.

Once your Salesforce credentials are stored, you can access the same Salesforce functions in JangoMail that would normally be disabled unless you were logged into JangoMail through Salesforce.

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. Is storing my Salesforce login information in JangoMail safe?

Yes. Your Salesforce authentication information is protected with the same level of security that other sensitive account information like usernames, passwords, and credit cards, are protected.

2. Do I have to store my Salesforce credentials with JangoMail in order to access Salesforce data from JangoMail?

No, you don't.  If you've installed JangoMail for Salesforce, and you have the "JangoMail" tab visible from within Salesforce, then you can already access your Salesforce data from JangoMail.  You only need to store your Salesforce credentials with JangoMail if you want to connect to your Salesforce data from JangoMail without being logged into Salesforce.

3. What are the other advantages of storing my Salesforce data with JangoMail?

In the future, we'll be releasing tighter Salesforce integration options, including the ability to write subscriber activity data, like opens, clicks, unsubscribes, and bounces, back to your Salesforce account. In order to write data back to Salesforce, your Salesforce authentication credentials will be required.

Using the JangoMail API in PHP

Since PHP 5 provided developers with the SoapClient class, it's a snap to consume SOAP-enabled web services in a PHP script.

This example demonstrates how to connect to the JangoMail API in order to get the email lists on your account. Download the source code for this example, insert your own JangoMail credentials, and you're ready to start integrating the JangoMail API with your php website.

// create a SoapClient object for the jangomail aPI
$client = 
    new SoapClient("http://api.jangomail.com/api.asmx?WSDL");

// set the parameter array for the
// Groups_GetList_String method
$param=array(
 'Username'=>'Your JangoMail Username',
 'Password'=>'Your JangoMail Password',
 'RowDelimiter'=>'<br/>',
 'ColDelimiter'=>' - ',
 'TextQualifier'=>''
); 

// using the JangoMail API
// call the Groups_GetList_String method
$result = $client->Groups_GetList_String($param);

// print the groups that were returned
print($result->Groups_GetList_StringResult);

Enhancement: Attaching files to email campaigns

We've improved the process to attach files to your email campaigns in the new user interface.  If you have Flash running in your browser, then attaching a file to your email campaign is as simple as clicking the "Upload" icon, choosing the file from your computer, and then watching the progress bar until the file upload is complete.

If you don't have Flash running, then the file attachment feature deprecates to standard HTML upload functionality.

In either case, attaching files to a broadcast email campaign is easy. You can attach up to 20 files to a single email campaign.

Here are some other nifty things you can do with email attachments:

1. You can also FTP attachments ahead of time to ftp://client.jangomail.com/Attachments.  Just use your JangoMail account credentials to login to the FTP server.
2. Soon, we'll be launching an API method to upload file attachments as well.
3. You can also send personalized attachments, where the attachment file name corresponds to a field associated with the email recipient.  For example, if you wish to attach PDF files in the format of %%LastName%%.pdf, where each recipient is receiving a PDF based on his/her last name, you can accomplish that. Tutorial on personalized attachments
   
   
   
   
   

Press Release: JangoMail Unveils Sleek New Interface

The completely redesigned interface streamlines workflow, adds new features, and increases usability.

Dayton, OH - February 15, 2012: JangoMail (www.jangomail.com), an industry leader in permission-based email marketing, unveiled a new user interface for its JangoMail and JangoSMTP services. The redesigned interface significantly improves JangoMail's functionality and navigability, giving clients deeper features, streamlined workflow, and an easy to use, "point and click" interaction.

"This is the single biggest improvement we've made to the product," said Ajay Goel, JangoMail founder and CEO. "It's sleek, it's more intuitive and user friendly, and it adds a number of new features to the JangoMail suite. We're excited to unveil it and will continue improving and tweaking the UI in coming months to make it even better."

The new interface focuses on improving the overall user experience. Highlights include updated dashboards for composing and data reporting, streamlined navigation, a clean, modern aesthetic, and newly added deliverability tools. New features include:

• An enhanced rendering tool that shows previews in 15 different browsers
  
• A robust spam scoring tool with scoring from 10 different spam filters
  
• The ability to append in-depth social data to email lists
  
• Upgraded delivery optimization tools

User response has been overwhelmingly positive, with testers calling the new interface highly navigable, easy to use, and aesthetically pleasing. Client Gregg Stebben of Press4 wrote, "As long-time JangoMail clients, we've always been knocked out by the quality of their UI and performance, their customer support's rapid responsiveness, and how eager they've been to implement suggestions we've offered for making their service even better. Their new UI has raised the bar even higher. There's lots to like and love there!"

Users can expect continued enhancements in coming weeks, as JangoMail releases new features, adds help text and documentation, and incorporates improvements based on customer feedback and suggestions. Clients are invited to share their responses. New users can sign up for a free trial at https://www.jangomail.com/ and http://www.jangosmtp.com/.


About JangoMail
JangoMail leads the permission-based email marketing industry, offering services for transactional and marketing emails. Over 4,000 organizations on six continents rely on JangoMail and its transactional service JangoSMTP to stay in touch with their customers and prospects. JangoMail offers flexible pricing and unique features for entrepreneurs and businesses of all sizes and industries. Customers include Washington Gas Energy Services, the Children's Hospital of Atlanta, New York Road Runners, Spirit of America, the San Jose Police Department, and Reuters. To learn more, call 1-888-GO-JANGO or go to https://www.jangomail.com/ and http://www.jangosmtp.com/.

Where things are in the new user interface

Most elements are in the same place in the new interface as the old interface. The most significant changes in the new interface are the eye pleasing aesthetics and improved workflow. A few functions have been moved though, so I'd like to highlight those here.

Upload Images is now Assets

You used to have to navigate to the Messages section to upload images which would be used in your email campaigns. Now all images, documents, and other files are managed from the "Assets" main section, and all of these assets are available to insert into your Messages via any of the available HTML editors, TinyMCE or EditLive.

Old Interface

New Interface

Simplified navigation of Messages

There used to be multiple dropdowns, one for templates, one for FTPd files, and one for your main email campaigns. The Messages main screen has been simplified. It starts showing all of your existing messages, which can be filtered using the Search box. And if you wish to start a new message, you can start from scratch, or from a template.

Old Interface

New Interface

Database Connections are under Lists

All database connection functionality is under Lists. We've consolidated JangoMail-hosted Email Lists with external database connections into the Lists main section. Under Lists you will find two tabs, Lists and Databases.

There used to be a separate "Connect to My Databases" section. That section has now been merged with Lists. So whether you're using a JangoMail-hosted List to store your email data, or connecting to an external database, you do all of this under the Lists section.

Old Interface

New Interface

New features in the new user interface

As of 3:00 PM EST today, the new user interface available for use, and I want to highlight some new features that are now available.

1. A better email preview rendering tool -- we've integrated with a third party service that renders screenshots of what your email will look like in 20 different email clients. We have replaced our internal rendering tool with this third party service.
   
2. A better spam scoring tool -- we've integrated with a third party that provides more robust spam scoring and spam scoring from 8-10 different spam filters. This will replace the old JangoMail SpamAssassin scoring system in the old user interface.
   
3. Switch HTML editors on the fly -- while designing your email campaign, you can toggle between both HTML editors that we provide, EditLive and TinyMCE. In the old interface, you had to choose one editor or the other in Settings, and then that editor would load in the Send Email section. Now you don't have to choose, and you can toggle between the two.
   
4. Attachments will be uploaded prior to hitting the Send button, and will be remembered when you re-select an old message with attachments.
   
5. Hosted opt-in form with form designer. In the new interface, you can easily customize an opt-in form with the colors, fonts, headers, and footers you want, and you have the option of having JangoMail host the form or you can generate HTML code to host on your own web site.
   
6. Auto-save when composing Messages.  No more fear of losing your work.  JangoMail will auto-save a message you're working on every fifteen minutes.
   

New Feature: SpamAssassin spam score now available for every email campaign you send

Every email campaign you send through JangoMail will now be scored by SpamAssassin. That score, and the reason behind it, is now available through Reports and through the API. In Reports, you'll find the score next to each sent campaign, as shown below.

[Click the score to launch a popup showing the breakdown of the spam score.]

The scores are based on SpamAssassin's scoring engine.  SpamAssassin is one of the world's most popular spam filtering system.  For more information on SpamAssassin and its rulesets, visit http://spamassassin.apache.org/

You don't need to enable any settings for the spam score to be generated.  All test emails and regular mass email campaigns will be automatically scored, and the score will appear in Reports.

API method to retrieve spam score

You may also call the API method, GetSpamScore, to retrieve the spam score and the breakdown for any email campaign in your account.  The inputs and results are as shown in the test form below.

New API method to share campaigns on social networks

We've launched a new API method, GetViewAsWebPageURL, that retrieves a URL for a campaign that can be shared on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.


Below is a screenshot of how to call the method from our test form at http://api.jangomail.com/api.asmx?op=GetViewAsWebPageURL

The result is a string which is the URL that can then be shared.

In this case, the URL generated is http://x.browniekitchen.com/w.z?j=7B6617DFC5D14C45B3978D191AD9AEC9. This URL can now be shared on social networks.

Additionally, if the EmailAddress input parameter is identified, a URL customized for that particular recipient will be generated.  In addition to the j= parameter, an m= parameter will also be present in the URL's querystring.  For mass sharing, however, the most common use will be to share without personalization specific to a recipient.

Why is this useful?

If you use the API to create campaigns on the fly, using the SendMassEmail method, then the API will return the campaign ID to your application.  You can then use that campaign ID to immediately generate a URL for that email campaign that can be shared.  This is analagous to the "View as Web Page" link that you can insert at the bottom of an email campaign when using the web interface.

Salesforce integration upgraded to new user interface

Users of our Salesforce integration can now take advantage of the aesthetics and features of the new user interface.  If you're still using "JangoMail for Salesforce" on the old user interface, make the switch! There are many new features available only in the new interface.

Just click on the New UI link when logged into "JangoMail for Salesforce".

The new welcome screen looks like this:

To create a Salesforce connection profile, go to Lists, then click the Databases tab, and click the + sign to add a new Salesforce connection profile.

Additionally, if you've installed the custom JangoMail buttons throughout the Contacts, Leads, and Campaigns tabs, you can select which contacts to email right from within Salesforce's interface.

After you've pulled contacts/leads from Salesforce, you'll be taken to the Messages screen where you can compose a new campaign or select a prior email campaign for sending.

Additional Resources:

1. Install JangoMail for Salesforce now

2. More information on JangoMail's Salesforce integration

3. How to install the custom buttons in Contacts, Leads, and Campaigns

Enhancements to recurring email campaigns

This weekend we simplified and enhanced how recurring email campaigns operate.

One of JangoMail's unique offerings has always been the ability to set emails to send on a recurring schedule.  For example, you can have an email campaign send every day, every month, or every four hours.  You can define any recurring schedule you like for your campaigns.  Recurring campaigns are useful in cases such as:

• Sending a daily birthday email to members of your list whose birthday it is on the current day
• Sending a daily email from a salesperson to everyone that has demoed your software in the last 24 hours
• Sending a monthly email to your employees reminding them to submit their expense reports

In the past, the user interface for defining recurring campaigns was confusing, because of the misinterpretation of the "Start Date". The old interface looked like:

Old UI, old way of defining a recurring campaign

The first email would actually be sent at the defined frequency after the Start Date.  So if the Start Date was set to 1/1/12 2:00 PM, and the frequency was set to Daily, the very first email would be sent on 1/2/12 2:00 PM, not 1/1/12 2:00 PM.  Confusion around this led us to clarify the instructions on the pages setting recurring campaigns.

Now, you specify the date/time for which would like the first email to be sent, and then the interval for all subsequent sends.  The new instructions should eliminate confusion as to when the first email will be sent.  Both the old interface, and the new interface have been updated with this change.

Old UI showing new language

New UI showing new language

Additionally, the new User Interface allows you to define the frequency of email sends in minutes, in addition to hours, days, weeks, and months. Lastly, the new User Interface requires you to define recurring campaigns under Settings --> Recurring Schedules.  The old UI allowed you to define a recurring campaign either under Settings or on the Message composition page, and users found this confusing as well.  To simplify the new interface, recurring campaigns are controlled only from one area now, Settings.

Secure click-tracking with base-64 encoded URLs and MD-5 hashing

We have introduced two new settings that control how click-tracked URLs appear in your email campaigns.  The new settings, base-64 encoding and MD-5 hashing, make click-tracked links look more professional and operate more securely. When an email campaign has click tracking on, the URLs are converted into trackable URLs that typically look like this:

http://x.browniekitchen.com/y.z?l=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.browniekitchen.com&e=1&j=269829603

This URL is problematic because it exposes the destination URL and is subject to alteration by a malicious phisher.  We've introduced two new settings, the ability to base-64 encode the URL so that it doesn't reveal the destination URL and another to add an MD-5 hash, such that the redirect to the URL will fail unless the hash matches the URL.

A click-tracked URL that is both base-64 encoded and includes the MD-5 hash will look like this.  Notice the addition of the h= parameter and that the l= parameter is now a base-64 string:

http://x.browniekitchen.com/z.z?l=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5icm93bmlla2l0Y2hlbi5jb20%3D&e=1&j=269829534&h=6f5c4e957783bf712c74f80f1fb083fa

A click-tracked URL that is NOT base-64 encoded but includes the MD-5 hash will look like this:

http://x.browniekitchen.com/z.z?l=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.browniekitchen.com&e=1&j=269829571&h=6f5c4e957783bf712c74f80f1fb083fa

Base-64 encoded URLs look more professional and give recipients greater confidence when clicking. Un-encoded URLs clearly show one URL that has another URL as a parameter, and the appearance of this structure can prevent a recipient from clicking it. The addition of the MD-5 hash prevents tampering with the destination URL.  If the l= parameter is altered, and the link contains the hash, then the user will NOT be redirected to the destination URL.

To set click-track settings, go to Settings --> Tracking --> Click Tracking

Note that this setting applies to click-tracked links in both broadcast email campaigns and transactional email messages. Also note that in the examples above, a branded tracking-domain, x.browniekitchen.com, is used.  We recommend that all of our users setup a branded tracking-domain based on their organization's domain.  To read why, see this blog post on tracking domains.

All new JangoMail accounts will have both of these settings on by default.  We recommend that you enable both settings on your own, but in case you don't, all existing accounts will have these two settings enabled automatically over the next few weeks..

API Change: Timestamps returned from the Reports methods now in include time zone

In our latest update to the API, we decided to make a change in the way timestamps are returned. Previously, a call to Reports_Transactional_GetOpens_String for instance might return data like this:

example_address@nowhere.com
75.149.211.42
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US;)
09/14/2011 4:26:00PM

That's OK... but what timezone is that? The time being returned is ambiguous. Is that in the user's local time? JangoMail time? Furthermore, the timestamp is formatted as per the custom in the US - not very good for our international customers.

Therefore, we've decided to fix the issues listed above. From now on you should now get back timestamps that include a timezone and are formatted in a manner useful for an international audience.

Using the example above, you'll now see this:

example_address@nowhere.com
75.149.211.42
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US;)
2011-09-14T19:26:00.00+00:00

That's much better! It's clear that this timestamp is in UTC, and it's in a much more internationally friendly Year-Month-Day format.

Interview with Robin Sukhadia: artist, musician, and JangoMail customer

We recently had the pleasure of catching up with longtime JangoMail customer Robin Sukhadia, a musician, artist and the man behind www.tablapusher.com. Robin has used JangoMail to send monthly newsletters to his audiences for the past six years and shared some great ideas for using email campaigns to build strong relationships and create personal communication that distinguishes you from the noise and impersonality of online spaces. Here's what Robin had to say about his experiences using JangoMail.

Photo by Neelanjana Banerjee. Learn more about Robin at www.tablapusher.com.

JangoMail: You've been using JangoMail to market your music and art. Could you tell me a little about yourself and your work?

Robin: I am a musician and an educator, focused primarily on tabla, a percussive art form that evolved on the Indian subcontinent over thousands of years. In addition to performing and teaching in India and the United States, I also travel internationally to set up and monitor innovative music education programs for poor children around the world. Most recently, I spent a year in India on a Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship, to research the impact of music education on the lives of street children. Music is simply an evolved form of communication… one that reaches the heart of a human being and can empower and heal in profound ways. I love seeing the impact that music has on the process of healing and learning, especially the underserved.

Photo by Neelanjana Banerjee. Learn more about Robin at www.tablapusher.com.

JangoMail: Your blog and website are both really interesting. How do you use email marketing to promote your work and complement those sites?

Robin: For the past 6 years, I have been using Jangomail to compose a monthly HTML newsletter that reaches 1000+ of my supporters/fans/students. I use email marketing to update them on the progress of my international music education work, inform them about upcoming concerts, and to share images and video from my travels. Because music can be abstract, and my work is culturally different than Western musical traditions, I rely on vibrant HTML emails to make the music more concrete and more engaging to my fans. I also use email to draw people back to my website, Twitter, and Facebook accounts. Information gets easily buried on my website, because so much is going on each month. But an HTML newsletter helps keep my message fresh and relevant and directs my fanbase towards what is most current in my work.

I design the emails myself, which always feature original photography and perspectives on how music in empowering communities worldwide. The emails usually result in loving and engaging personal responses from recipients, and it helps build traffic back to my website, www.tablapusher.com. Many new opportunities for work and collaboration have resulted from this consistent HTML email strategy. I can’t count the number of times that I have been able to secure a performance or lecture opportunity because someone has forwarded my HTML newsletter on to a decision-maker.

Photo by Siddharth Stathelkar. Learn more about Robin at www.tablapusher.com.

JangoMail: You've been a JangoMail client for several years, and it sounds like you've been traveling around the world for performances for a good bit of that time. Can you tell us about your experiences using JangoMail over the last few years?

Robin: I've been using JangoMail for over five years, and my email list has been growing steadily over that time. JangoMail’s intuitive interface and tools have also evolved over that period of time. The HTML editor and image hosting capabilities make it easy for me construct an email and rapidly get it out to my lists. I just copy my most recent campaign, which contains a header and format, and then just upload new pictures and text, swapping it for the old. Within an hour or so, I can craft, preview, test and finally send out an email to my list of 1000+ recipients. I can do this from any computer or mobile device in the world, which has been a blessing for me as I travel quite a bit. The reporting tools help me see how many of emails get opened, what the impact has been, and how my list is growing. The latest UI update is a major improvement over the existing interface. I love the new search feature, which helps me filter and manage my email subscribers. I can see duplicates and add notes, and then filter lists by city. It is very easy to create customized lists for just a particular city like Los Angeles, for example.

JangoMail: What do you see as the benefits of using email newsletters to market your music? What has helped you to be successful?

Robin: I think that understanding that audiences want to stay in touch with an artist is critical for success. They want a personal communication, and they want to have insight into an artists’ creative process and development. They want to know that you are still evolving, that you are still active. While this can be done through Facebook and Twitter, an HTML newsletter can actually be more personal, more engaging and vibrant in today’s noisy digital environment. For me, I have stuck to a monthly communication schedule. No matter what happens, I try to always stick to a consistent schedule. I try to make each HTML newsletter a work of art, one that gives the reader something deeper to think about, a perspective that might not come from anywhere else… It might be through my writing, my photography, or a link to a related piece of music or news. I want to reward my supporters with a newsletter that is worth reading. Lastly, I always respond to anyone that writes to me after receiving an email from me. I do it in a timely and genuine way, because I value each and every person that reads my newsletter. I want them to feel lucky to be on my list, and hopefully share it with others because they value being on it. I want them to know that I am accessible.

Photo by Neelanjana Banerjee. Learn more about Robin at www.tablapusher.com.

JangoMail: Is there anything else you'd like to tell us and other JangoMail clients about?

Robin: Consistent and clean design is critical to building a strong email newsletter that results in growing your list. Good photography and quality graphic design is essential. It doesn’t have to be extravagant or expensive; it just needs to be clean and have space. Adhere to style guides for your newsletter, so that over a period of time, your audience recognizes your identity through your masthead, your fonts, and design aesthetic. It helps them see you as more grounded, more clear in your message. JangoMail makes it easy to do all of this. Create a simple template and formula for your design, replicate it, and integrate valuable information each time making your HTML newsletter a joy to read!

JangoMail: Thanks for the great ideas, Robin! Your newsletters really are a joy and we enjoyed getting to catch up with you!

Thanks to Robin for sharing his time and thoughts about music, email marketing, and how newsletters can help you build and strengthen a fan or customer base. If you'd like to learn more about Robin's work, visit his website: www.tablapusher.com. We hope you enjoyed hearing what he had to say - and remember that we always love to hear from our customers. If you have an interesting story about using JangoMail, let us know!

We are Hiring! We are Looking for a Rockstar Sales/Support Rep (Work from Home).

Are you a highly motivated email marketing expert looking to work from home and delight your customers? JangoMail is seeking a detail-oriented and experienced rockstar Sales and Support Rep to join our tight-knit, nimble, unique, and fun team. If you enjoy and excel at customer service, understand email marketing concepts, have a solid sales foundation with both prospective and existing clients, and are proud of your web savviness, we want to hear from you!

My name is Ajay, and I'm the founder and CEO of JangoMail, a small but quickly growing web-based email marketing plaform. What is JangoMail? JangoMail is a highly profitable, rapidly growing and successful web-based email marketing system that allows businesses to create, send, and track email campaigns. JangoMail was launched in 2001 and has over 4,000 customers worldwide in a variety of sizes and industries. JangoMail is strictly opt-in and does not allow the use of purchased, rented or harvested lists with our system. We offer two services: http://www.jangomail.com and http://www.jangosmtp.com. You would assist customers with both services.


WHAT WE NEED:

As our resident rockstar Sales and Support Rep, you would be responsible for helping us grow our client base by developing great customer relationships and turning prospects into customers. At JangoMail, we use a customer-initiated sales approach so we're not looking for someone to just coldcall prospects and see who bites - we want someone who has the trifecta of sales experience, customer service excellence, and tech support ability to answer product and pricing questions from prospective clients, demo the product and explain how our features meet their technical needs, and get a trial user confident enough to convert to a paying client. Prospects come to us with interest and questions: you close the sales. Though you don't necessarily need a tech support background, you must be an exceptionally skilled user who can explain the product to new non-geek users, answer questions about technical specs, and help clients understand how our software meets their needs. Our ideal candidate would also have the solid sales background to help guide and improve JangoMail's sales strategies. You can be located anywhere in the country provided you have a suitable home office from which to work.


PRIMARY JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

*Answer customer sales inquiries via phone call and email.

*Explain features of JangoMail to interested parties and proactively demonstrate product value to potential and current customers.

*Develop good customer relationships and increasing brand loyalty.

*Help new customers gain confidence in product use and work to move trial users to paying customers.

*Proactively reach out to current clients about deeper product features to improve their experience and develop product loyalty.

*Identify new potential product features and developments based on customer needs.

*Manage customer requests for upgrades, product pricing, and product overviews.


REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

*Superior written communication. (This is one of the most important qualities when I hire.  You must have a strong command of the English language.)

*Experience using email marketing products and knowledge of email marketing concepts like "open-tracking," "click-tracking," and "deliverability."

*Excellent customer service skills. You can't just be a sales whiz; you also need to genuinely enjoy helping customers and have the knowledge and personality to teach the technology.

*A mastery of Windows and Microsoft Office, especially Word, Excel, and Access.

*The more technical and web savvy you are, the better. You need to know the client side of email marketing and have some background in SaaS applications, HTML, and software support or sales. You get the point: non-geek sales people need not apply.

*Amazing multitasking skills paired with incredible organization and attention to detail.

*The ability to lead and carry out tasks independently from a home office. JangoMail is based in Dayton, Ohio, but this particular associate can work from anywhere in the country provided a proper home office environment is available.


To apply, please email your application to sales-search at us.jangomail.com (Replace at with an @ sign.). Your cover letter should be the body of the email message, and you should attach your resume in .rtf (Rich Text Format) format. I love detail -- the more detail you convey about yourself in your cover letter, the better!


Afraid you're seeing this posting too late? Check the status of the job here: http://www.jangomail.com/Sales-Rep-Search-Status.asp

Your reporting data will now last longer

I've spent the last few days analyzing and re-tooling our algorithms which purge data from your account after its reached a certain age.  In the past, we've had some hard rules, like mass email campaigns are deleted after they're one year old, and the list of addresses that opened are deleted 90 days after a campaign.  While this kept the size of our database manageable, it was frustrating to lower volume users who needed the data longer than we made it available.

We've now changed our data retention scheme such that the less data there is in your account, the longer it will last.  Specifically, the following rules for data retention will apply:

1. Email Campaigns: Users with over 10,000 campaigns in their account will have their campaigns deleted after the campaigns are one year old.  Users with less than 10,000 campaigns will have the campaigns preserved indefinitely. Only about 1% of JangoMail users have more than 10,000 campaigns in their account.  Email campaigns include the content of a campaign and the summary stats for that campaign, such as total opens, unique opens, total clicks, etc.
2. Detailed Recipient Data: Users with over 10,000 campaigns will have this data retained for 90 days.  All other users will have this data retained for 180 days.  Previously it was 90 days.  This includes the final recipient list for an email campaign.
3. Detailed Open Tracking Data: Users with over 1,000 campaigns in their account will have detailed open tracking data purged after 90 days.  All other users will have detailed open tracking data purged after 365 days.  This data includes the email address that opened, along with the time, IP address, email client, and location.
4. Detailed Click Tracking Data: For all users, detailed click tracking data will be available for 180 days.  Previously it was 90 days. This data includes the email address that clicked, the URL, the position, HTML or Plain Text message, the IP address, browser, and location.
5. Detailed Web Site Activity Tracking Data: For all users, detailed web site activity tracking data will be stored for 365 days.  Previously it was 180 days.  This data includes the page on your website a recipient visited after clicking a link in an email, along with the IP address and browser used, along with any custom tagging applied to particular web pages. PDF on activity tracking
6. Transactional Email Data: For users with more than 100,000 total transactional emails, this data will be available for 120 days.  For users with fewer than 100,000 transactional emails, this data will be retained indefinitely.  This includes the recipient address, from address, from name, subject, size, and other properties of transactional email but does NOT include the body of each transactional email.  We never store the content of individual transactional emails.  This also includes detailed open and click tracking data associated with transactional email. Web page on transactional email
7. Email Lists: All of your Email Lists are maintained indefinitely while your account is active.
8. Unsubscribes, Bounces, Complaints, and Survey Data: This data remains indefinitely while your account is active.
9. Incoming Email Data: Incoming email messages, such as replies, bounces, manual unsubscribe requests are stored for 7 days, and is unchanged from before.  This includes the full content of all replies that are gathered after an email campaign is sent.  This includes the content of the bounced message and the content of the unsubscribe request, but this does NOT include the actual bounced email address and the actual unsubscribed email address, which are both stored indefinitely.
10. Autoresponder, recurring, confirmed opt-in, trigger, and forward-to-friend campaigns: This data is stored for 30 days, and is unchanged from before.. 

We know that having access to historical data is important, as it allows our users to send campaigns based on historical data.  We're always working on ways to improve our data storage and efficiency, and if you have any particular storage needs related to your account data, let us know, and we'll do our best to accommodate you individually.

Interview with Josh Malks, author of Cord Complete

Recently we had the pleasure of catching up with JangoMail customer and classic car buff Josh Malks. Josh is author of Cord Complete and a first time JangoMail client who saw great success promoting his book via email. After selling on web marketplaces for over a year, he sold out all remaining copies of his book using an email promotion - no mean feat! We enjoyed talking to Josh and are excited for his next book (and email) project. Here's what Josh had to say about his experiences:

JangoMail: Hi Josh. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us. You have been using JangoMail to market your new book. Could you tell me a little about your book?

Josh: My book is a huge "coffee table" reference work on the Cord automobile. Sounds a bit esoteric, but the car has a large following and the book itself is just beautiful. See www.cordcomplete.com.

JangoMail: It sounds like your book sold out pretty quickly! Congrats. What did you do to advertise it and what made you try email marketing?

Josh: The book as been on sale on the above website, on Amazon, through bookstores, in car museum giftshops, etc, for about 18 months. There were still several hundred left in stock that I wanted to clear out.

JangoMail: Could you tell us how you used email marketing to help with your sales? Were there any newsletters that were particularly successful?

Josh: I decided to use the thousands of names of purchasers of my previous six books on antique cars to drive potential purchasers to the website, where a final clearance sale is being held.

I have never used a service like JangoMail before. I found the system to be simple to use, and Anne's support was outstanding. If/when I write again, I will use JangoMail at the beginning, not just at the end!

JangoMail: We are happy to hear that! Thanks again for taking the time to speak with us!

Thanks to Josh for sharing his experience. If you have an interesting story on how JangoMail has helped drive your sales, we'd love to hear it!