Email Marketing Campaign Software?

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lummis
 
 
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Re: Email Marketing Campaign Software?

Post by lummis »

I know what you mean, Colin but just look at it like any other software - you could say that WWB is a one time payment (rather than subscription). I think that they have used that terminology just to differentiate themselves from those that charge a monthly fee. But in the end you have to go with what suits the client.

Brian
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ColinM
 
 
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Re: Email Marketing Campaign Software?

Post by ColinM »

lummis wrote:I know what you mean, Colin but just look at it like any other software - you could say that WWB is a one time payment (rather than subscription). I think that they have used that terminology just to differentiate themselves from those that charge a monthly fee. But in the end you have to go with what suits the client.

Brian
All very true Brian, although Pablo has an ongoing revenue stream with new versions and paid for extensions :D - thank you again for your input 8)
Yours truly
Colin M
Western Australia
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alex4orly
 
 
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Re: Email Marketing Campaign Software?

Post by alex4orly »

Hi Colin,

Just looking for creating an email template to send from within WB
Did you manage to do it? How?
The contact form is just plain...

All the best for 2018

Alex
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protectourlands
 
 
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Re: Email Marketing Campaign Software?

Post by protectourlands »

I have been providing HTML emails for clients for about 10 years now. Truth is I hate them and try to avoid them by hoping to convince the client to use an email service like Mailchimp. They are often more of a pain than they are worth. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose.

I do not recommend using WB for creating emails. That is not a slam on WB - just the opposite. WB is too sophisticated and HTML emails must be written as primitive as possible to increase the chances they will view properly and get past most spam filters. I use an HTML editor and start and end the document with <html> </html> tags. I keep the emails at 600px wide or less.

If you think dealing with all the different browsers and their unique ways of displaying code is a pain, wait till you have to consider all the different email programs and whether or not they can read various tags common in web page design. Browsers are way more sophisticated than email programs so what looks good in a browser will not necessarily look good in an email display. Email programs are essentially very unsophisticated browsers for the most part.

Some things I have learned: I keep all styles inline. There are pluses and minuses to this. Here is a great article explaining these https://emails.hteumeuleu.com/should-we ... 3b64f0d407

It is also best practice to post all images used in the email to your server, then use full paths to call on them in the email. (ex: http://www.yoururl.com/images/house.jpg). I use tables for the email structure. This will give you the best chance your email will display as intended in the all-too-many email programs out there. I try to keep everything old school. I suppose you could try using WB by setting the page properties for table layout instead of CSS layout in Miscellaneous and avoid external sheets. I have never tried this so if you do try this and it works please share the project.

Once I get the html finished I publish it as a web page, then provide a link to it at the top of the email. Even the big boys like Mailchomp and Constant Contact still do this. No matter what I do there are still some people using email programs that cannot read the email as intended. I usually expect between 5 and 10 percent, so providing this link is highly recommended. Mobile email apps are notorious for not reading HTML emails well.

Here is an email I built for a client recently: http://www.oldcapitalmuseum.org/depot_email2.html
Feel free to look at the source code. Simple table layout - nothing sophisticated. Funny thing is they use Mailchimp for their campaigns so we load the html into their Mailchimp acct to create the custom campaign. They maintain their list with Mailchimp.

I hope some of this helps.
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ColinM
 
 
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Re: Email Marketing Campaign Software?

Post by ColinM »

alex4orly wrote: Sat Dec 30, 2017 8:18 pm Hi Colin,

Just looking for creating an email template to send from within WB
Did you manage to do it? How?
The contact form is just plain...

All the best for 2018

Alex
Hi Alex,
Sorry haven't been in here for a while due to other calls on my time and the impact of the Festive Season - and happy new year to you too :)
So, no not yet, but the input from protect... is great.
Mailchimp is very popular - but of course you have to accept that you are putting your Client contact list in the database of a very large hacking target.
Always a trade off.
Totally agree with Protect... on trying to use WB.
Yours truly
Colin M
Western Australia
ALWAYSLEARNING
 
 
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Re: Email Marketing Campaign Software?

Post by ALWAYSLEARNING »

I rarely post on this forum, but I do visit it quite regularly. Anyway, I am interested in the Senblaster solution, but I am not sure about investing on a product that may not be around very long. I understand that even large companies are not immune of it either.

Anyway, I like the idea of purchasing a software that can reside on my desktop instead of the cloud, but I share the same feelings as ColinM regarding the one time purchase deal. I visited their Sendblaster Facebook page, and it seems that some customers weren't too happy with the company's support system. I also like the idea of having a list of e-mail contacts residing on a desktop instead of the cloud, but that's my personal opinion.

If any Sendblaster user is currently using the application and would like to chime in, then that would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
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Bluesman
 
 
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Re: Email Marketing Campaign Software?

Post by Bluesman »

ALWAYSLEARNING wrote: Mon Nov 19, 2018 11:49 pm I rarely post on this forum, but I do visit it quite regularly. Anyway, I am interested in the Senblaster solution, but I am not sure about investing on a product that may not be around very long. I understand that even large companies are not immune of it either.

Anyway, I like the idea of purchasing a software that can reside on my desktop instead of the cloud, but I share the same feelings as ColinM regarding the one time purchase deal. I visited their Sendblaster Facebook page, and it seems that some customers weren't too happy with the company's support system. I also like the idea of having a list of e-mail contacts residing on a desktop instead of the cloud, but that's my personal opinion.

If any Sendblaster user is currently using the application and would like to chime in, then that would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Hi Alwayslearning. I wrote in the beginning of this thread. I can as I did then... recommend SendBlaster. Just like with WWB I like to have my important work locally on the computer (not in a cloud). So Sblaster is a good option, any detail you want to know about?
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ALWAYSLEARNING
 
 
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Re: Email Marketing Campaign Software?

Post by ALWAYSLEARNING »

Hi Bluesman,

Thanks for your quick reply! I have spent the last few days doing research on some e-mail marketing tools, and I totally agree with you when it comes to keeping the list of e-mail addresses on a hard drive (including a backup copy) instead of the cloud. I looked at SendBlaster's Facebook page, and I read that some customers were upset about customer support. That is a reason to be concerned about, especially since I am not familiar with this type of tools. I would hate to purchase the program/app to find out that it is won't be developed anymore, or that it is not up-to-par with with the other know tools in the market.

SendBlaster doesn't have a forum page where users could discuss the various issues (if they have any). Their website doesn't seem to have a news section either, and on top of that if they are slow or don't respond to their customers, then it may end up being a deal breaker for me. I do appreciate the company offering a free version for evaluation, so that is a positive.

My current questions are the following:

Have you had to contact SendBlaster for support, and has their response time been reasonable in your opinion? ( I know that Pablo has spoiled WYSIWYG users with his extremely fast support, which is totally appreciated!!)

How often do they publish bug fixes?

I downloaded their software, and I will test it and see how it goes. Thanks again for your feedback, and I may come back to ask more pertinent questions in the future.

Thank you,
Still learning and I have a long way to go.
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Bluesman
 
 
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Re: Email Marketing Campaign Software?

Post by Bluesman »

ALWAYSLEARNING wrote: Tue Nov 20, 2018 4:36 am Hi Bluesman,

Thanks for your quick reply! I have spent the last few days doing research on some e-mail marketing tools, and I totally agree with you when it comes to keeping the list of e-mail addresses on a hard drive (including a backup copy) instead of the cloud. I looked at SendBlaster's Facebook page, and I read that some customers were upset about customer support. That is a reason to be concerned about, especially since I am not familiar with this type of tools. I would hate to purchase the program/app to find out that it is won't be developed anymore, or that it is not up-to-par with with the other know tools in the market.

SendBlaster doesn't have a forum page where users could discuss the various issues (if they have any). Their website doesn't seem to have a news section either, and on top of that if they are slow or don't respond to their customers, then it may end up being a deal breaker for me. I do appreciate the company offering a free version for evaluation, so that is a positive.

My current questions are the following:

Have you had to contact SendBlaster for support, and has their response time been reasonable in your opinion? ( I know that Pablo has spoiled WYSIWYG users with his extremely fast support, which is totally appreciated!!)

How often do they publish bug fixes?

I downloaded their software, and I will test it and see how it goes. Thanks again for your feedback, and I may come back to ask more pertinent questions in the future.

Thank you,
Still learning and I have a long way to go.
Hi. I had some contact with their support (helpdesk) years agoo. They answered and solved my issues that were my misunderstandings… and after I have had no more contact because it just works as it shall :D
No bugs that I know about. I'm so satisfied with this software (almost like WWB) :wink:
But as I wrote... was a long time since I had any issues for support, so I don't really know how their support is today. I'm surpriced if it's bad.
"Make My Day"

See my Website
ALWAYSLEARNING
 
 
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Re: Email Marketing Campaign Software?

Post by ALWAYSLEARNING »

Hi Bluesman,

Thanks for your feedback! I am right now going through the help pages to learn more about the program. Glad to hear to that you are satisfied with this software, and that you are not having issues with it. I am going to spend some time learning it as I am absolutely not familiar with e-mail marketing apps at all. Maybe I didn't look hard enough on their website, but I couldn't find a step by step tutorial on how to get things right the first time. I'll keep digging into the help files, and see what happens.

Thanks!
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zinc
 
 
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Re: Email Marketing Campaign Software?

Post by zinc »

You can always use this if you are going to use MailChimp...

http://www.fabioquarantini.com/formchimp/

Have suggested this to pablo for an extension...
Running WYSIWYG Web Builder since 2007...
ALWAYSLEARNING
 
 
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Re: Email Marketing Campaign Software?

Post by ALWAYSLEARNING »

Hi Zinc,

Thanks for the link; it seems that it would be nice to have it inside WB. Maybe Pablo can get around it some time to include it in one of the future releases.
I dabbled a bit with SendBlaster yesterday evening, but their support/learning page is left to be desired when it comes to guiding new users on how to successfully create and deploy an e-mail marketing campaign. I had to look on YouTube for a tutorial that describes the process in details to accomplish the task.
I just wish that the company could publish a How-To tutorial that can show the process from start to finish as an incentive to acquire more customers. I think as of today, I am leaning towards the purchase of SenBlaster as my e-mail marketing campaign tool.
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zinc
 
 
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Re: Email Marketing Campaign Software?

Post by zinc »

Yes I have tried SendBlaster but I prefer MC as it seems to be quite straight forward....
Running WYSIWYG Web Builder since 2007...
ALWAYSLEARNING
 
 
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Re: Email Marketing Campaign Software?

Post by ALWAYSLEARNING »

I am actually testing MC, and I admit that it seems more straightforward as compared to SendBlaster. I personally would rather use a piece of software that resides on my computer/s than the cloud. The problem with Cloud Computing is that you just don't know when they decide to remove features, or change their plans... Reminds me of my old Windows phone; they would remove apps when updating the phone, and suddenly there would be tiles missing on my "desktop/dashboard whatever you call it".

I am still playing with SendBlaster, so it is still too premature for me to have a fair opinion of the software. So far I was able to successfully mass mail (a few e-mail addresses). My next step is to use WYSIWYG to create a template, and see what happens.

Don't get me wrong, the Cloud is nice for some people and for some applications, but for others it may not be an ideal solution.

Right now, my biggest problem with SendBlaster is their support page. They should ask for some feedback from people who are new to the software, and then "tool" their support page to reflect the changes made based on that feedback.
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Bluesman
 
 
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Re: Email Marketing Campaign Software?

Post by Bluesman »

ALWAYSLEARNING wrote: Wed Nov 28, 2018 11:11 pm I am actually testing MC, and I admit that it seems more straightforward as compared to SendBlaster. I personally would rather use a piece of software that resides on my computer/s than the cloud. The problem with Cloud Computing is that you just don't know when they decide to remove features, or change their plans... Reminds me of my old Windows phone; they would remove apps when updating the phone, and suddenly there would be tiles missing on my "desktop/dashboard whatever you call it".

I am still playing with SendBlaster, so it is still too premature for me to have a fair opinion of the software. So far I was able to successfully mass mail (a few e-mail addresses). My next step is to use WYSIWYG to create a template, and see what happens.

Don't get me wrong, the Cloud is nice for some people and for some applications, but for others it may not be an ideal solution.

Right now, my biggest problem with SendBlaster is their support page. They should ask for some feedback from people who are new to the software, and then "tool" their support page to reflect the changes made based on that feedback.
Did you watch this intro video for Sendblaster:
http://www.sendblaster.com/video/SB4/?v ... ro&subs=sv
"Make My Day"

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ALWAYSLEARNING
 
 
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Re: Email Marketing Campaign Software?

Post by ALWAYSLEARNING »

Hi Bluesman,

Thanks for the link! I visited their website a few days ago, but didn't see that intro video to SB. The video tutorials under their support page gave me the following message: "Apologies, but no results were found". Good thing that I just found their official channel on Youtube; so I will be watching those videos this week.
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Bluesman
 
 
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Re: Email Marketing Campaign Software?

Post by Bluesman »

One of the most important issues, is to know how many emails your provider allows with smtp. So that you setup the right amount in SB.
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ALWAYSLEARNING
 
 
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Re: Email Marketing Campaign Software?

Post by ALWAYSLEARNING »

Hi Bluesman,

Sorry for the late response; I have been very busy the last few days. Anyway, you're making a very good point, and I will have to check with my provider to see how many e-mails I can send with smtp (which shows you how much I know about e-mail marketing).

I also got an e-mail from SB, and it looks like they are trying to promote their cloud solution. Does that mean that they are planning to drop their desktop version soon? Will SD remain functional, say in the next couple of years or longer?

I actually send them an e-mail last week, but I have yet to hear back from them. This doesn't seem like a good way to attract potential customers, and as I said before, customer service is as important and if not more than the software itself.
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