Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Happy New Year

By: Melonie Mottice
Marketing Specialist



Today is New Year's Eve, which means 2013 is almost over. It's also a good time to sit back and reflect on the year.

In 2013, JangoSMTP has continued to grow. We have a lot to celebrate as we look back at our many accomplishments.

Here is a list of our top five blog posts of the year:


JangoSMTP is getting better every day, and 2014 will be no different. Our team is not only bright, but driven to provide you with the best transactional email service out there.

Don't see what you need? Just ask. Contact us at: 1-855-709-4099, or submit a ticket at jangosmtp.com/support.We're always open to new ways to stay ahead.

Thank you for your business in 2013 and Happy New Year!


-The JangoSMTP Team

Friday, December 13, 2013

Gmail Now Displays Images by Default

By: Chris Reibold
Senior Email Analyst


You may have heard this week that Google made some changes to the way Gmail displays images in their emails. Previously, Gmail would make a request for an image every time an email was opened, but now they temporarily store those images, including the one we use for open tracking.

What does this mean for our users?

To facilitate open tracking in emails, we embed a transparent image (1x1 pixel) in each email, hosted on our servers. When you open the email, JangoSMTP knows that unique image has been accessed, and can then tell the sender their email has been opened. While using cached images is great idea for Gmail, it does create a problem for any Email Service Provider (ESP). Mainly that, with this new image caching system in place, location tracking won't be available for Gmail addresses.

However, there are always two sides to the coin – we have done some tests here at the office and actually are happy to see that open tracking appears to be more accurate with Gmail addresses now. Additionally, this should not affect POP or IMAP mail clients in anyway. For forwarded messages or multiple opens, Google will need to load the image at least that first time before they can cache it. When a customer comes back and re-opens the email, or forwards it to additional address, that’s where you’ll possibly miss some of the tracking, but that doesn't affect that first/unique open.

Image Source: Official Gmail Blog
When Gmail users open up their web interface, they are now presented with an alert regarding this new change. They now have the option to turn images on or off by default. Leaving images on enables image caching, but still lowers our ability to track repeat opens. Turning images off, however, allows users to open messages without downloading our tracking pixel.

Remember, this doesn't affect the number of subscribers actually reading your email, it simply makes the unique
opens more accurate.

If you have any questions regarding the change contact us at: 1-855-709-4099, or submit a ticket at jangosmtp.com/support.

Monday, November 25, 2013

Hey Griswold, The Little Lights Aren't Twinkling

By: Melonie Mottice
Marketing Specialist



It's that time, Christmas time is here
Everybody knows there's not a better time of year
Hear that sleigh, Santa's on his way
Hip, Hip Hooray, for Christmas Vacation

It is that time of the year! Not only is watching National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation a must, but so is decorating your home for the holidays. While the sound of “250 strands of lights, 100 individual bulbs per strand, for a grand total of 25,000 imported Italian twinkle lights,” might be overwhelming, a lot of us like to show our holiday spirit with outdoor Christmas lights, and JangoSMTP can make it easier!




Throughout the 1989 movie, the main character, Clark W. Griswold, is on a mission to host 'the most fun-filled old-fashioned family Christmas.' Clark escapes his in-laws by putting up Christmas lights on nearly every inch of his house, but can’t get them to work. When they finally turn on, his family is ecstatic to see the house...everyone but his father-in-law, Art. Art immediately notices that the little lights aren't twinkling – a minor detail in the whole elaborate display.

Fast forward to today. If Clark had the technology we have, he wouldn't have to rely on Art. Instead, he could connect all of his outdoor timers to an SMTP server like JangoSMTP. Any time the little lights weren't twinkling, he would be notified via email on his smartphone.

Nowadays, some houses and even neighborhoods decorate every inch of their lawn. There are sensors, timers, and heck, you can even program your lights to the sound of Christmas carols. Even if you aren't going all out like Clark, you can set up email notifications confirming the activity of your lights, indoor and outdoor, using JangoSMTP.

Before Aunt Bethany thinks your house is on fire, or Art informs you the little lights that aren't twinkling, connect your Christmas light timers to our SMTP server. Try a JangoSMTP 30-Day Trial and send up to 500 emails for Free.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

JangoSMTP Maintenance Notification, Stage 2: Saturday, November 2nd at 10 PM EST / 7 PM PST

Thank you for your patience during our scheduled maintenance on Sunday. The first stage in prepping for our Backup Data Center was a success! We are one step closer to upgrading our system, however, we need a little more time to conduct our final tests. The JangoSMTP team is working around the clock to make sure everything is perfect before our launch.

This post is to inform you that JangoSMTP will be offline for maintenance this Saturday, November 2nd 10 PM EST / 7 PM PST. The maintenance window is very short, and is scheduled for only one hour. We anticipate being offline for at least the first 30 minutes of the one hour window. Again, all JangoSMTP services including the website and API will be inaccessible during this time period, although access to some services may be intermittent for the last 30 minutes of the maintenance period. Any previously scheduled campaigns will resume sending once maintenance has been completed.

As always please contact us by replying to this message or opening a support ticket from within your account if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,


The JangoSMTP Team
Contact Support
1-855-709-4099 (TOLL FREE IN USA)
+1-937-701-7140 (OUTSIDE USA)

Friday, October 18, 2013

JangoSMTP Maintenance Notification: Sunday, October 27th at 3 AM EST / 12 AM PST

The JangoSMTP team is working hard to make our Backup Data Center a reality. There is one more critical step that must be done prior to getting the second datacenter online - another upgrade of our SQL server.

This post is to inform you that JangoSMTP will be offline for maintenance on Sunday, October 27th at 3 AM EST / 12 AM PST. The maintenance window is scheduled for two hours. We anticipate being offline for at least the first 30 minutes of the two hour window. All JangoSMTP services including the website and API will be inaccessible during this time period, although access to some services may be intermittent for the last 90 minutes of the maintenance period. Any previously scheduled campaigns will resume sending once maintenance has been completed.

As always please contact us by replying to this message or opening a support ticket from within your account if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,


The JangoSMTP Team
Contact Support
1-855-709-4099 (TOLL FREE IN USA)
+1-937-701-7140 (OUTSIDE USA)

Friday, August 9, 2013

Baby Come Back: Measuring Upsells in Transactional Emails

Pat yourself on the back, marketing genius. A customer has visited your website and made a purchase. If they've gone that far through the funnel, you're definitely doing something right.

Thanks to JangoSMTP triggers, your customer receives an email confirmation of their order soon after the transaction. As they'd expect, the confirmation includes all the usual suspects - item(s) or service(s) ordered, pricing, shipping method and address. And if you're really on the ball, their estimated ship date.

To this engaged customer, you may have even included a thoughtful "thanks for your business" or "please visit us again." And while that's a step in the right direction, why stop there to secure a repeat customer?

Consider a cross-sell while customers are in the mood
To make the most of your JangoSMTP experience, consider a cross-sell. Not a follow-up email or customer service outreach but an offer right inside the transactional email. You know, that expected outreach they're expecting and sure to open.

Cross-sell content, images and offers are commonplace in transactional emails these days. Customers expect to see them, so it's totally fine to deliver upon those expectations, especially if it means the potential for another transaction.

Cross-sells can not only show customers that you want to ensure they get the most from their product or service purchased, but also that you know them personally. If they purchased exercise gear, highlight water bottles. If they ordered tickets to a movie, educate them on upcoming releases. If they opted into your quarterly newsletter about knitting, ask them to opt into other lost arts email groups. The more products and options that are relevant and public to them, the more likely they'll respond to both of your mutual benefits. Grow their attachment to you ... grow more lists and sales for your business.

Careful placement is key
Unobtrusive is typically the key. Make sure the important information is the most obvious (what was ordered and how much it costs, anticipated ship date). Place the upsell imagery or content low on the email or to the side within a margin. Be discrete, yet eye-catching and attention-worthy. This is a value-add, not an anvil to the head. Highlight related items, services, coupons for future purchases, newsletter or blog opt-ins to horizontally grow your lists. Try testing upsell sizing. Does smaller work better? Do customers respond better to one item or three? If you're a JangoSMTP customer, testing and tracking is a snap ...

Track and attack: The JangoSMTP difference
JangoSMTP, unlike many other services, offers open and click tracking features on transactional emails. So you can see how successful your transactional emails are at encouraging customers to come back. Are customers clicking on the promoted sections of the email or just parts related to the order? Mystery solved - all the information you'll need to determine what's working and what's not is at your fingertips.

Order to ship: Stay with engaged customers
Order confirmations are just the beginning. Include cross-sells in shipping confirmations, too. Use tact. If recipients have already received cross-sells and not responded to this tactic, try another strategy. Perhaps their shipping confirmation updates include a coupon or discount for future services or product purchases. Try testing these options by switching out which cross-sell will be presented to different groups first. Based upon those test results, you'll discover a winning strategy that reaps the most ROI. Do different blast times make a difference? Higher or lower purchase levels? Test again and nail down your winning path.

If you have any questions about making the most of your transactional emails, contact us any time. We're here to help!

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Don't you have better things to do than babysit your SMTP Server?

Check out our latest video:

 

What will your IT team do with their free team after signing up with JangoSMTP?

Let us know what you think and sign up for a free account here!

Monday, May 20, 2013

For Maximum Visibility, Push Events To Your Own Server

If you haven't made use of this cool JangoSMTP feature, you should give it a long, hard think.

Our transactional email event API is a system that can call a web service or web page on your server when triggered by any of these transactions within and around your emails. (And we're sure you're watching these pretty closely):
  • EMAIL SENT
  • OPENS
  • URL CLICKS (interior content)
  • UNSUBSCRIBES
  • BOUNCES
  • COMPLAINTS (via Feedback Loop)
This key event data in the life cycle of your email is pushed - in real time - directly to your server. So, you're always in the know about the overall success of your transactional email. Plus, you can make adjustments and improvements on the fly to strengthen ROI.

How to set up your event-based push
  1. Go to Settings > Advanced > Transactional Event API
  2. Click on the tab for every event you want a call to your web service or page
  3. Enter the details for your web service or page


Try this while you're there
Custom coding can be used to create unique notifications, logging or custom integration into your own back end. We're always up for developing new ways to help you make JangoSMTP your own - so ask us to jump in and help any time.

For the record
Transactional email event API is a relatively new feature for JangoSMTP. We've had a Standard email API, which you can learn more about in this PDF tutorial.

Here's the key difference between the two: The Event API pushes event data (opens, clicks, etc.) to your system as the event occurs. The Standard API needs to be pulled by your system to retrieve open or click data. Before you consider the new API a "lazy man's lobster" version of the old, remember that technology evolves. And as it does, we're on the lookout to bring it to you fast. But everyone has a preference, so it's up to you to choose what works best for your company.

If you have any questions about Event API or any other JangoSMTP features, hit us up. We'd love to hear from you.

Until then, have a great rest of the week!

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

This message opened by ... Anonymous

Email Address Privacy
We had a prospective customer recently come to us with an interesting request with regard to the privacy of their email recipients. They wanted the actions of their email recipients to be anonymized in such a way that in no way would it be possible for anyone to determine which specific email addresses opened, clicked, unsubscribed, or experienced a bounce in a given email.

The prospective customer had a real concern for the privacy of their recipients but still desired the aggregate reporting metrics that make things like measuring the effectiveness of a group of emails possible. Total clicks? Great. Who clicked on which link? Gone.

We were happy to custom-develop this feature for the customer. And since we developed the software to do it for them, we can make it available to you  upon request.

The feature ensures that the specific email addresses are purged from the database and removed from the SMTP logs after receipt, ensuring they cannot be retrieved or compromised by anyone. The total actions for each transactional group are still aggregated and made available via reporting. 
 
This feature is a good example of how we're willing to go lengths to fulfill the needs of a customer who knows what they want. While this may seem obscure, if you'd like this feature added to your account, or have another custom feature in mind, please don't hesitate to ask.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Upgrade your emails with vBulletin

The first step to maximizing the effectiveness of popular forum software, like vBulletin, is to enhance them through configuration with JangoSMTP or JangoMail.

vBulletin is a helpful forum software package that facilitates online community discussions related to your business. The system also sends a variety of transactional emails: new registration confirmations, topic reply notifications, PM notifications, and more.

So how can JangoSMTP improve your vBulletin account?
JangoSMTP offers more email reporting features than what you will find in vBulletin's package. JangoSMTP's email delivery and tracking capabilities ensure that your signup confirmation emails will go through the first time and be open and click tracked. It's a common issue with forum software - if a user doesn't receive their confirmation email, they can't use your forum. As a result, users need to contact your forum administrator to activate their accounts manually, which is not ideal, especially if you have a large forum.

Here's how to set it up:
1. Log into your vBulletin Admin CP
2. Go to Settings - Options - Email Options - Edit Settings
3. Scroll down to choose the following settings:

  • SMTP Email: Yes
  • SMTP Host: relay.jangosmtp.net
  • SMTP Port: either 25, 2525, 587 or 465 for SSL/TLS connections
  • SMTP Username: use your JangoSMTP username
  • SMTP Password: user your JangoSMTP password
  • SMTP Secure Connection (can be enabled if port 465 is used)

vBulletin can also be used to send mass email newsletters to your users, to keep them engaged. To do so, go to Users - Send Email to Users within your Admin CP and configure it with a JangoMail account.

As always, if you have any questions or need extra help configuring your vBulletin account with JangoSMTP, contact us at any time.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Quick Account Usage Info at Your Fingertips

We added a quick go-to menu, accessible at the top of every JangoSMTP page that shares some of your account's vital statistics at a glance.

(displayed on mouse-over "13 days until,..")

When you are logged into your paid account, you will now see a link at the top of every page identifying how many days are left in your usage cycle. Mousing over the link produces a dialogue with stats including:

  • # of Messages used
  • # of Messages remaining
  • Volume of Data used
  • Volume of Data remaining
  • Messages and Data Available in the next cycle

Monday, January 28, 2013

2 Cool New Features You Should Know About

How are things? We've just a couple announcements for you this week–2 new features we think will help you make the most of your JangoSMTP emailin' experience.

Clear Your Bounce Addresses

Remember, bounces occur when you try to send an email to an email address and for whatever reason, it doesn't go through. This could be for a number of reasons including:

  • The recipient email server could be permanently down
  • The recipient email server could be temporarily down
  • The recipient email server could be in a transitional state
  • The recipient's email address could be temporarily locked (mailbox full, temporarily suspended etc.)
  • The recipients email address could be unavailable (user's email doesn't exist, permanently suspended, etc.)
Many of the potential reasons for a bounce are temporary. As a practice at JangoSMTP, we stop sending email to an addresses after it has experienced a bounce three times. This is sufficient for most users. But if you want to maximize your potential reach, it makes sense for many users to clear some or all of their bounced addresses periodically to reattempt sending unless they've determined the email address to be permanently closed.

To clear your bounce addresses, go to "Settings-->Authoring-->Clear Bounce Addresses" make your selections and click "Save'.


Choose a time frame you wish to clear bounces from and click "Save" to clear your bounce addresses and reattempt sending to those addresses in future emails.

 

Download Customer Receipt PDFs

Here's a feature we released for JangoMail a while back but didn't announce to the JangoSMTP crowd. Until now.



For every invoice you receive, enjoy the option to download a PDF version for your records. Who doesn't like to fire up the old Adobe Acrobat Reader every now and again? It prints out rather nicely too–

That's It

Short and simple this time. But don't worry, there will be plenty more for you on the way. We're always working to innovate. We've been doing a lot in the back end in recent weeks. We're re-writing code, optimizing and ensuring redundancies are in place to give you the fastest, most reliable service possible. We wish you the best and please contact us should you need anything.