We have made a number of improvements to the product. Automation is the guiding force behind the changes, to ensure your marketing campaigns are intuitive, manageable, and easier to deploy.
This is a detailed list of the most important changes we’ve made to the product in the first quarter of this year.
Templates
The search function is available on email templates.
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You can search for templates using template ID, template name, template description or the email subject line.
Previous Messages as Templates
All previously sent messages are used as templates when creating emails. During Template Selection, click Previous Messages for a list of the last 60 email messages you’ve sent. The feature is available in email creation, Drip Campaigns, A/B Campaigns, and Autoresponders.
All properties from the original message will be carried over; including the message subject line, message description, and message content.
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Composition Option
Above the email messages is a filter for the composition tools used for each email. The numbers beside the composition method show the number of emails that use that particular composition method.
Switching Composition Options
When you have selected a different composition method to the one used in the email template, the system will switch you to the email’s original composition tool.
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The Builder
The Builder interface has received a number of visual changes to provide more design space when composing messages. The Customise sidebar has moved into the tabs section, and the Add Attachments button has been placed to the left side of the screen.
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Drag-and-Drop
The drag-and-drop function is re-styled to not only look better, but work more intuitively. We have re-designed all icons and placeholder images. Improvements made to placeholders representing the Layout/Content blocks . When switching content, the placeholder displays the text “Swap Content” for a clearer visual representation.
Dynamic Attachments
Dynamic Attachments implemented in 2016 allow you to link multiple attachments to a single email. For example, when sending statements to your customers at the end of the month, each customer will receive the statement specific to their account.
The system uses URLs to fetch the attachments, and custom fields to attach the correct attachment to the intended contact.
Since its implementation, the number of services you can use has expanded. You can now upload the attachments to your own hosting provider such as a content delivery network, Cloudfront, Amazon’s Storage service, or popular cloud storage services Google Drive, and Dropbox.
Google Drive sharing must be set to “Anyone with a link.” for the attachments to work.
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Changes to the interface for adding Dynamic Attachments show as a vertical list. You can select more than one custom field at a time.
You can test dynamic attachments using the systems personalisation test.
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Standard Campaigns
A standard campaign allows you to create multiple email messages and group them as a series. These are sent as needed, and reports generated showing the effectiveness of the campaign.
Creating a Standard Campaign
We made minor changes to creating a standard campaign .
The campaign properties page no longer has emoji, and only the campaign name is required. An Add Messages button replaced the Next button. You can add both email and SMS messages with the Add Messages button to the campaign.
You can select more than one message at a time, with the Add to Campaign button updating according to the number of messages selected.
You can also filter by list, message type, and message status. The search button allows you to look for a specific message.
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Standard Campaign Listing
We have redesigned the History page of Standard Campaigns to show more information on the preview panel.
Deleting the campaign no longer deletes messages linked to the campaign.
The Add Message button is available on the quick links section of the listing page. Click the Plus to open the modal and add more messages to the selected campaign.
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Standard Campaign Reports
Standard Campaign reports are useful for comparing messages that aren’t part of any other campaign. The reskin includes Email Stats and Mobile Stats tabs for an overview of email messages and SMS messages in the campaign.
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All messages added to the Standard Campaign are displayed in the reporting page. You can filter your messages by Sent and Unsent.
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Drip Campaigns
Drip Campaign Listing
The History page of Drip Campaigns now matches the styling in the rest of the product.
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The preview section now provides some basic details on your selected campaign. Each icon displays a tool tip for more information:
- The name of the Campaign.
- The creator of the campaign, and the date and time the campaign was created.
- The lists the campaign was sent to.
- The From email address used in the campaign.
- The trigger action, and the initial date the campaign was sent.
- The Contacts the campaign was sent to.
- The number of days the Drip Campaign is running.
- The valid days and times the campaign will be sent.
The usual statistics are still displayed below the preview section.
Sending Options
Anniversary/Birthday, and Once-off Start Date both include Basic Options and Restricted Sending Times.
Anniversary or Birthday
Contact date field: Select which date the contacts on your lists will receive this message.
Contact birth date: If you have this information about your contacts, they will receive a message on their birthday.
Contact create date: Your contacts will receive a message on the day they were added/subscribed to the list.
Custom Field: A custom date field can be used to set your Anniversary campaign date.
Restricted Sending Times: Works the same way as the Subscription Event sending times.
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Once-off Start Date
Specify a date to trigger your campaign: Messages will be sent to all contacts on your list from the selected date. Any new contacts added once the campaign is running will not receive these messages.
Restricted Sending Times: These settings allow you to limit the days and times that emails in your campaign will be sent to subscribers.
A/B Campaigns
A/B Campaign Settings
We have restyled the A/B campaign message settings. The composition method still follows previous steps: Create A/B Split Test
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A/B Listing Page
The A/B Campaign history page displays both A and B messages with stats for both on all sent messages.
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A/B Properties
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A/B Campaign properties now include a ‘Reply To’ field. The ‘From Name’ and ‘From Email’ are no longer required. Personalisation and emoji have been removed.
Custom Fields
The ‘Large Number’ custom field stores long numerical digits for I.D number.
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Filters
Filters allow you to create segments in your lists so that you can send targeted communications. You can use filters to send birthday messages or interest-specific product catalogues.
You can create email filters based on specific contact activity. For example, you can create a filter for contacts who have not opened an email from you in the past 14 days. Creating a filter
Filtering contact activity by messages now lets you select more than one message. Click Filters > Contact Activity > Contact > Select messages to open the modal.
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In the modal you can search and filter for specific messages. For example, you can filter by lists, message type, or message status. A counter on the Add Selected Messages button show the number of messages selected.
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Once you select the messages, the tool tip above the text box shows a full list of the selected messages.
Imports
- The Import First Row option is now always available.
- Import reports now display the same headings on both email and on the system
- Import stat accuracy has also been improved for multiple list imports.
New list subscription text has been changed to ‘Existing contacts added to lists’.
- Imports files still composing after 30 days are now marked as expired and cannot be edited.
API
Transactional emails, sent using a transactional template without a subject line, will use the transactional email’s subject line by default.
Attachments can now be added via the API when creating a new email campaign. The following code will have to be inserted.
{
"files":
[
{"filename":"test.csv",
"content":"base64 data here"
}]
Read our Create a New Email Campaign API documentation for more information.
Quota
The Quota page has been re-designed with a new layout.
SMS
SMSes now support more special characters and symbols.