Blog: New Features & Updates

If you're used to coding your email newsletters for Gmail, you're probably an expert on inline CSS by now. As our recent CSS research highlighted, Gmail doesn't support the <style> or <link> element. This means if you want your links to be in a size 11 font and a light blue color, you'll need to code something like...

<a href="http://www.campaignmonitor.com" style="font-size:11px;color:#4fb5e9;">Visit the web site</a> to find out more

OK, kind of annoying but it works. But what about our automatically generated links for unsubscribing, linking to a web-based version and adding a forward to a friend link. As you know, these are generated after you import your design from the tags present in your HTML, such as <unsubscribe> and <webversion> and up until now you couldn't add your own inline CSS to them. Well, not until today anyway.

Introducing the style="" attribute

By adding a style="" attribute to the unsubscribe, webversion and forward a friend tags, we'll automatically add that inline CSS to the personalized links we create for each recipient.

Using our example above, let's say we want to make our unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email blue and in size 11 font.

<unsubscribe style="font-size:11px;color:#4fb5e9;">Unsubscribe</unsubscribe> from our monthly newsletter list

We'd get <a href="http://www.unsubscribeaddress.com" style="font-size:11px; color:#4fb5e9;">Unsubscribe</a> from our monthly newsletter list

You can use exactly the same technique for the web version and forward to a friend tags too, such as <forwardtoafriend style=""></forwardtoafriend> and <webversion style=""></webversion>.

We've just pushed a large update to the help system live that should make it much easier to find an answer when a question arises. The old system worked well for us when we launched, as there wasn't a great deal of content in there. Over the last few years we've obviously added plenty of new features with documentation to match, along with loads of tips and how-to's to get the most out of the app.

To make sure you can still get an answer out of the system as quickly and clearly as possible, we've made the following changes:

Categories now have sub-categories

We've split the bigger categories up into small chunks so it's much easier to scan the page. We're also listing a sample of the most popular topics in each category at the top to get answers to common questions fast.

Context-sensitive help

This one was long overdue. If you hit the "Help" link from any page in the app, you'll be taken to the category related to that section of the app. Not only that, but we'll take a guess at the question you're probably going to ask and will highlight that answer at the top of the page.

This change should make it much easier to find the right answer in a single click rather than browse or search the entire help system.

Video walkthroughs

We've put together a series of narrated video walkthroughs (or screencasts, or movies, or moviecast thingies) that cover some of the main functionality in Campaign Monitor. Sit back and relax while we show you how to use custom fields and segments to send targeted campaigns or how you set up report access for each client.

On top of these updates, we've also made a public-facing version of the help system that any one can check out without being a Campaign Monitor customer. Now that these changes are live we'll continue putting together more help content to ensure you can get your questions answered on the spot as often as possible.

If you're like me (or Mark), you like to test each campaign you send fairly comprehensively before you send to your complete subscriber list. In my workflow, this usually involves firing the email off to a number of test accounts I've set up at various ISP's like Hotmail, Yahoo! and Gmail.

I always found it a little annoying come testing time when I'd have to remember each of these test addresses. Sometimes it wouldn't arrive and I'd have to double check the address and re-send. Not a deal breaker, but it was definitely annoying. Turns out this was an annoyance a number of customers also had. Today, we did something about it.

From now on we'll remember the last 5 test email addresses you used for that particular client. Often this might be a contact at the client, and a few of your favourite test addresses. Simply tick the checkbox next to the addresses you'd like to send a test to and we'll do the rest.

We've just pushed an update live that's been a long time coming. From today, you can now include a single click unsubscribe link in the following automated emails:

• The double opt-in verification email - When a new subscriber completes your double opt-in subscribe form, we automatically send them a customizable email with a link they need to click to confirm their subscription.
• The subscription confirmation email - When a new subscriber is added to your list (either single or double opt-in), you have the option of sending them a customizable welcome email (check out these tips on writing good welcome emails)

Including a single-click unsubscribe link in both of these emails is a great way to add another layer of trust with any new subscriber and show them right off the bat how commited you are to respecting their preferences.

As always, you can customize the unsubscribe confirmation page that anyone sees when they click this link so they're redirected to your own (or your clients site). You can head into your "Unsubscribe Settings" for each list to set this up.

We recently made an update to reduce anxiety, but this one is aimed purely at reducing frustration. Previously, when making changes to either the HTML or text component of your email creative from the Campaign Snapshot, you'd be forced to go through the update steps for both.

This became all the more frustrating when you wanted to make a small tweak to the text component of your email, but were forced to re-import your HTML version first. Today I'm pleased to say this annoyance has been removed and as per the screenshot below, you can now make quick changes to either your HTML or text versions in a single click.

This was one of those annoyances that kept getting delayed for bigger updates, but enough was enough!