Announcing the all new Campaign Monitor
Published November 17, 2008 by David Greiner
Today I'm super excited to announce a massive upgrade coming to your Campaign Monitor account at the end of this month. We're packing a lot of great stuff into this new version, but first the big news...
Campaign Monitor and MailBuild become one
Our goal at Freshview has always been to create the best email marketing software in the world for web designers. Campaign Monitor is great for designers sending for themselves and their clients. MailBuild is great for letting your clients send their own email campaigns. The problem is, many of you have a mix of clients that fall into both categories.
We saw this issue coming a while back, but didn't want to merge the products until we were 100% confident we could do it right. The combined product had to be just as easy to use for any type of designer, whether you're sending campaigns or have 100 clients sending their own. So, we went back to the drawing board, literally.
After lots of sketching, prototyping and passionate discussion, we knew it could be done. For the last 4 months, we've been hard at work bringing the functionality of both products together into a brand new interface. We think you're going to love it. Here's a quick screenshot to whet your appetite.
Instead of going into every detail here in the blog, we've put together a detailed preview site where you can read all about the updates and check out screenshots and screencasts of what's coming.
The merger will be taking place over the weekend starting 9pm on Friday 28th November (US Eastern standard time - see in your own time zone), so both apps will be taken offline for that weekend. We'll still add any new subscribers and track your campaign activity, you just won't be able to access your account until the shiny new version is here on Monday December 1. It's exciting stuff and we can't wait to see you using it.
Posted in: New Features & Updates
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42 Comments
Ricky
November 17, 2008 5:49pm
Wow congratulations that looks truly impressive. I’ve been wanting features from both systems for some time now and love using Campaign Monitor.
I really wish I could say I would still be here at the end of the month to use it. But the reality is, my clients want the best price possible. They send a lot of campaigns and although they’ve spent a lot of development time and money integrating their web application with the Campaign Monitor API, they’re willing to scrap that and start again with something else like Chimp Mail that charges a flat monthly fee, based on the number of subscribers, rather than the number of Campaigns sent.
Pure and simply because it works out so much cheaper, for clients that send a regular flow of campaigns. I believe they also have a discount rate for non-profits.
Sadly the Campaign Monitor pricing model can’t compete with that.
Bert
November 17, 2008 5:55pm
Congrats on the merge! Can’t wait to use it.
I would echo Ricky’s comment that I have had clients looking for a different pricing model. They send multiple campaigns over the month so the monthly fee model fits their budget better. It would end up costing more to use CM.
It would be great if you could figure out a threshold from which you could offer a tiered monthly rate structure for clients who send more than “x” number of emails per month to ‘x’ number of subscribers.
Dave Greiner
November 17, 2008 6:07pm
Guys, thanks for the great early comments and also constructive feedback on pricing. We’re definitely listening on both fronts.
I completely understand that our simple pay-as-you-go approach doesn’t work for every situation. We might review this in the future, but right now we’re focusing on making the new Campaign Monitor as awesome as can be.
B
November 17, 2008 6:55pm
You’re really going to shut down the site before the traditionally biggest shopping week of the year?
And you’ve got what sounds like 2 great advocates willing to sell your service to clients, and you don’t even try to work something out?
Dave Greiner
November 17, 2008 7:13pm
B, looking at historical activity for that weekend, it’s actually a quiet one for us. Plus, everything will still work behind the scenes for all customers. We also didn’t want to delay the launch any further and make customers wait until next year, as there are some highly requested features in there.
As for not working something out, as I mentioned in my comment, we listen to all the feedback we get and will certainly take that into account.
Morgan Roderick
November 17, 2008 7:50pm
Will the new Campaign Monitor be API compatible with the old Campaign Monitor, or will there be a new API?
Dave Greiner
November 17, 2008 8:15pm
Sure will Morgan, everything will be backwards compatible. There are some updates being made which we’ll explain more about soon, but I can confirm everything will be compatible.
Stig
November 17, 2008 9:38pm
This is looking absolutely bananas :) Campaign Monitor + MailBuild = a killer app, and Freshview + Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain = about as good as it gets.. Congratulations!
Vince
November 17, 2008 10:52pm
Great news.
Especially pleased that you prove you do listen to your users, as I also suggested merging the two products was the way forward.
MB features well short of CM
http://www.campaignmonitor.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=496
Using Campaign Monitor or Mailbuild?
http://www.campaignmonitor.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=429
As to the pricing, also discussed before, and looking forward to a flexible model that would allow both options to our clients.
Keep up the great work
Alex
November 17, 2008 11:54pm
Great work guys, looking forward to it.
I don’t suppose there’s an iPhone interface tucked away in there? It’s the only thing that tempts me to try MailChimp…
Dave Greiner
November 18, 2008 12:03am
Thanks Stig and Vince, appreciate the kind words. Alex, now that the merger is complete we plan on getting back to a long list of cool new features we’ve been planning for a some time now. The new version won’t have an iPhone interface for launch, but it’s definitely something we’re considering.
Julian Wellings
November 18, 2008 12:10am
I became a CM convert earlier this year as it’s perfect for managing my clients for whom I send montlhy e-newsletters here in the UK. Looking forward to getting behind the wheel on 1st Dec!
Alex
November 18, 2008 12:12am
Brilliant. I sent my first email with Campaign Monitor recently (after poking around in it and reading your blog for a while) and was blown away by how good it is.
I’ve persuaded the design agency I work for to adopt it, so I look forward to putting v.2 through its paces :)
James
November 18, 2008 12:46am
Wow wow wow! And there I was thinking the other day that there wasn’t much development going on with the MailBuild front!!
Great work guys!
Ed Henderson
November 18, 2008 12:54am
Great news guys, I look forward to it. How will this affect the Resources for reselling CM and MB (screenshots, benefits, etc.) Will these be redone as well?
James
November 18, 2008 1:26am
Just had a thought here… is there anyway of seeing a preview site with test data before it goes live??
Just thinking that after you’ve changed everything over we could easily be in the situation whereby our clients are ringing up asking us about new features/different look and feel and we won’t even have experienced it ourselves!
Quite hard to say to a client that we’ve implemented an upgrade to the system without even having seen it beforehand!
Joseph Manna
November 18, 2008 6:44am
Congrats on the merge!
Synergies like this help remind the industry how easy (yet, complex) e-mail marketing can be. A number of our clients have recommended Campaign Monitor for e-mail previewing/testing and now it looks even better for combining analytics into the mix. I love the interface, a must-see for anyone who loves Google Analytics.
Good job CM, keep it up!
~Joe
Dave Greiner
November 18, 2008 8:19am
Ed, we’re reworking all of our resources for the relaunch of the web site, and most, if not all will be available as soon as we go live. Of course, if you need anything in advance that might help managing the change with your clients, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our support team. We’re happy to help and provide anything you need in advance.
James, I know exactly what you mean there. Unfortunately that won’t be possible before launch because of the significant database changes we’ve needed to make behind the scenes around the merger. Basically we can’t have the old and the new running at the same time. But, you could definitely jump in for a peek on Sunday 30th to get a good feel for everything before any clients log in. Of course, if you have any specific questions about the upgrade the the mini site doesn’t answer, fire away here or get in touch with support.
Joseph and everyone else, thanks for the words of support guys.
Dan
November 18, 2008 10:56am
This is excellent news. I am a big Campaign Monitor fan, and look forward to the merge, as well as all the exciting new features we’ll see soon. I have full confidence that Freshview will impress us yet again.
I am very excited about the new analytic interface.
Bart
November 18, 2008 11:03pm
I’m a Campaign Monitor fan as well and really looking forward to the merge! I agree on the flat fee pricing model and for that reason I’ve been looking into Mail Chimp as well (but didn’t switch yet). I also wonder whether the new CM supports transactional sending.
Frato
November 19, 2008 5:33am
Congrats for this impressive release. I would love to use CM for my clients, but they don’t speak english… I know you’re working hard adding features, but will we see a translated interface in the near future ??
Danny Foo
November 19, 2008 5:37am
I am SO LOVING the new stuff! :D
But I was looking forward to being able to change the currency to MYR (Malaysia Ringgit) too.
Joe
November 19, 2008 6:32am
No monthly pricing model - bleh. Seriously guys - your ideas and your product rock - but this one you missed the boat and doesn’t seem that complicated to make a priority. You’re loosing customers and will loose more. Add the monthly option, and you’ll have the market cornered.
m
November 19, 2008 9:32am
I agree - adding a monthly pricing model would be very good. It would also be good to add a simple free plan that allows folks to send to a maximum number of folks (50-100 would be good) and only a certain number of times per month. Great for soccer teams and whatnot… I would use it for self promotion for my own email marketing services.
Chris
November 23, 2008 7:41am
Hi guys, a MB user here. In the new merged product, will it be possible to let clients send mails the CM-way, that is: referring to online webpages with an URL? We’re a CMS/webdevelopment company and are having visions of creating website templates for our clients that they can fill with selected news items that can be sent by email using the new CM.... O, sweet dreams: having our clients deploying the same content in both their websites and email newsletters.
Dave Greiner
November 23, 2008 10:02am
Hey Chris,
You’ll be pleased to know that yes, your clients will not have the options of sending via a URL, or uploading a HTML file and zip of all images from their local machine. Templates will be the default option, but the other methods will definitely be available.
Chris
November 23, 2008 11:24am
Great Dave! You just made me very happy ;-)
Rachel Lehman
November 24, 2008 7:36am
Very exciting, I’m happy to see CM going this direction. Great work!
alrasbi
November 24, 2008 4:58pm
Hi,
Great news. I really love the idea that I don’t have to re-upload everything because the client forgot to add a “comma” :)
With regards to the pricing model, I really do like the current model, it would be difficult for me to explain to my client that they have to pay a monthly fee regardless if they send something or not, which is not really fair.
At what time will it be live on the 1st of December?
doug
November 26, 2008 5:59am
I am looking forward to seeing what you do with the new interface, but without an adjustment to your pricing model, pitching to anyone but the smallest clients who send an occasional newsletter will be a no go. I am sending over 100,000 emails a week for one client, and your current rates are astronomically high for that type of client. I could bring that client over to CM in a second, if I could give them a flat rate. Instead, I have to use the horrible CC interface and tools.
My suggestion would be to create a flat/tiered “wholesale” model aimed at designers. So, I am not suggesting you compete with CC, chimp and others with their lowball rates aimed at the DIY market, but higher flat rates for people sending decent volumes and reduce cost per mailing based on a tiered volume not per client, but the designer’s overall account volume. This would allow designers to charge flat fees to clients. Your business would grow dramatically. Maybe that is the unspoken problem, I don’t know, that you are concerned about the increase volume activity and not being able to keep up. There is a thing as too much business when you do not have the resources to keep up.
I wish I understood your side of the business better because this seems like a no-brainer. I might would post a sound business explanation why that type of pricing model does not work for your service. Some of the responses you have posted in response to flat pricing requests come off as quite dismissive.
David Greiner
December 1, 2008 10:51pm
Feels so good to have this puppy live. We’ll be posting plenty more here tomorrow. It’s been a long 3 days for the Freshview team, we hope you like what you see.
Sarah Tredsta
December 1, 2008 11:44pm
Congrats guys, this is looking so awesome.
James
December 2, 2008 12:09am
Good stuff guys!!
Dimitris Rakopoulos
December 2, 2008 2:32am
Great, it looks great!
I noticed that the sample email template is missing!
Jake Ingman
December 2, 2008 2:50am
Beautiful design! Really, top-notch work - makes it all the more appealing for designers and clients alike.
Roy Rubin
December 2, 2008 2:52am
Congrats guys! Absolutely stunning work - you picked the right man with Jesse for the job :)
Anna Yeaman
December 2, 2008 4:29am
Looks stunning, I was worried about getting up to speed, but I’m having no problems navigating my way around so far...Congratulations guys!
Mitchell Cooper
December 2, 2008 6:34am
Fantastic work and what’s even more impressive was how transparent and well executed the transition was. Top marks as always.
Gavin Wray
December 2, 2008 7:14am
Really good work! The new interface is very straightforward to use and I’m impressed with the new reports. It’s going to be great having MailBuild and Campaign Monitor clients all now in the same place. You’ve got a great new website design too.
Rimfya
December 2, 2008 7:35am
Can I be extremely nit picky? The Icon on the front page for money has American green backs, where’s the Aussie appeal?! I know it’s a more international product, but still Aussie Aussie Aussie, right?
David Greiner
December 2, 2008 9:21am
Thanks for the all *very* kind words guys, much appreciated. @Rimfya, we actually debated that one internally. Truth is, about 4% of our business is home grown and more than 60% is done in the US, so it was a bit of a no brainer.
Rimfya
December 4, 2008 7:51am
I figured as much, doesn’t detract from the mad site overall though. Awesome work.