This one is really simple; After someone completes the subscription form that you’ve setup in your website or on your Facebook page, this trigger automatically sends them the email that you have setup in the system. Once again, this can be immediate or time-delayed, it can be a simple ‘welcome and thanks for subscribing’ or it can include links to products/services on your website

This works the same way when one of your readers clicks the unsubscribe link, TriggerMail can be set to dispatch an email confirming their request.  The datasets are updated automatically, ensuring that your lists are always up to date.

Congratulations, you are now fully up to speed and date with our new set of TriggerMail features!  (If there’s something you’ve missed, scroll down and read the previous entries of.)   All while saving you time, effort and money.  We’ve even impressed ourselves with this one.

Well there you are; the complete 6 Triggers. With so many options, your clients cannot fail to be impressed by your new, wonderful communication skills – and how you always seem to know exactly what they want! It also shows how effective and easy TriggerMails are to set up - and once you’ve set them up - they do the work for you! 

…………………  Coffee anyone?

By now we know that you’re impressed by the endless possibilities that triggerMail offers – but here’s another one…….

Email Open triggers

This trigger works, as you have no doubt guessed, from the point that your subscriber opens their email and can be time-delayed to dispatch your TriggerMail after a specified interval after the subscriber has opened your email newsletter. 

There’s a real benefit here to ensure that your email ‘promo’ does not get overlooked because your reader is busy and unable to respond to the ‘Fantastic Reductions’ that your newsletter is promoting. You can use this trigger to send out a reminder email a couple of days later that nudges them with a subtle…….. “Just a reminder not to miss our ‘Fantastic Reductions’, they end in 3 days time”

Let’s face it, times are tough and not all your subscribers can react at the instant that they read your newsletter - and, on the point of tough times, this saves on your email marketing costs, because these follow-up emails only target those subscribers who have already showed an interest – with no send credits wasted on those who didn’t.  After all, your send credits are precious.

A welcoming end to invitations and RSVP’s getting lost.
RSVP triggers are very similar to Link Click Triggers as they are also activated by clicking on a link in your newsletter, but instead of linking to an automated email, the trigger updates one of your datasets.
You can perhaps see the benefit to this already…….before this update, maybe you would send out a newsletter /flyer notifying your subscribers of an upcoming event that they are invited to. Now, with RSVP triggers, you can add two links ‘Yes, I will be attending’ and ‘Sorry, I am unable to attend’ and set a dataset to track who will and who will not be attending.

It gets better! The RSVP triggers can be set up from a Link Click trigger too. It works like this:

You’ve got a reason to celebrate and want to share it with your distributors/customers and intend to send out an email newsletter to invite them all.  In the invitation you ask them to click either the “Yes” or the “No” link.  Using TriggerMail, you set up Link Click triggers for both the “Yes” link and the “No” link so that readers who click on the “yes” link receive an automated email that thanks them for confirming their attendance and giving ‘How to find us’ directions, whilst those who click the “no” link, receive an email saying how disappointed you are and hope they can attend any future events. It’s a good idea when setting up the Link Click triggers, to select a column in your dataset to be updated so that you can track attendance – same as the RSVP trigger.

Now that you have this new contact and tracking capability, maybe you’ll start looking for reasons to Celebrate!

If Triggers are grabbing your interest, then Link Click TriggerMails are really going to get your attention. This feature comes into its own when you setup links that allow your readers to ‘drill-down’ into the details of separate and specific products/subjects in your newsletter. You ‘Trigger’ these links using TriggerMail to automatically send a follow-up email providing the in-depth detail specific to that subject. You can even set the time-delay from immediate to ‘x’ hours after the link was clicked.

 A Car Sales Showroom can send out their general newsletter with lots of graphic images showing a wide range of car-styles; Sports cars, UPV’s, 4X4’s etc. each with a ‘Triggered’ link – those with an interest in a particular car-style; say the 4X4, click the 4X4 link and it sends them to the relevant section of the Company website – and dispatches the TriggerMail Newsletter giving in-depth information of the vehicle together with an invitation to call into the showroom for a personal viewing. A trigger can be setup like this for all models meaning that your emailed newsletter becomes a highly efficient sales tool.

This scenario can apply to any business

When a reader clicks the link to view that information, a follow-up email is sent to them 24 hours later You may also wish to offer incentives; perhaps receiving an email offering them a 10% discount a week later will give them that little extra push to rekindle their interest and make the sale.
Maybe send out a voucher to draw in business during those quieter periods. The automated follow-up can be a simple thankyou or information on a related product.
It’s easy to see now how these TriggerMail features all serve not only to advance your email marketing campaigns but also to increase sales.  Maintaining this regular communication with your readers will not only develop greater customer relationships, it will also cater for, and respond to, their individual interests making it even more likely that they will respond positively to your marketing approaches.

Not only is it very simple – it’s also very, very useful!

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if you could smooth out the peaks and troughs of the day and arrange your email newsletter mailing to go out at the time when it was most convenient for you – you know, when it’s quiet and you can concentrate. But that doesn’t usually coincide with the time that you want to send it, does it? Well, that’s where Graphicmail comes to your rescue again! We’ve created an autopilot mode for your email communications and it’s something that you can totally rely on to send out your emailer at the time that you want it to go, even if you’re not there to send it – it’s scheduled triggers :

You use a scheduled trigger to send your automated emails on a set date or at different intervals.  Sound familiar? Yes, of course ! Scheduled triggers are similar to the Anniversary Triggers in section one, but they’re even more specific. 

Remember those late payers who ‘forget’ that they are due to pay your monthly, quarterly or 6-monthly bill ? Well now you can send them invoices or payment reminders – or both by accessing TriggerMail from your account and setting it up to dispatch an email on the date or a few days before just to ‘nudge’ their memory. So even if Mr Hartley’s payment is due on the 9^th & Miss Robinson’s is due on the 27^th and you’ve setup your system to send 2 days before, Mr H receives his on the 7^th and Miss R receives hers on the 25^th. Alternatively, as you’re in control of the dates, you could arrange for them both to go out on the first of the month.

Sounding good?  It gets better! scheduled triggers can even be set to the time that you want the emails to be sent, which can ensure that memory-joggers to work colleagues, payment reminders and/or invoices to clients or any other automated emails will reach their intended recipient at a time that will be convenient for them - and you - allowing you to ‘drop’ that email mid-morning, after that 3pm meeting or even during the evening for those who you know do their office work at home.

All achieved without lifting a finger or checking a calendar/diary.  Well now that the peaks and troughs are looking smoother just remember that you need credits in your account to be sure that your emails are sent - even automated ones!  But, of course, you can do that at anytime 24/7 as well! So check the send credit level before setting those triggers.

TriggerMail Series - Part 1

It’s a well known fact that the Tech-Team are constantly improving the GraphicMail product to add value to your email marketing and, to re-enforce that, we have a new Graphicmail feature called: TriggerMail.

It was born from the desire to expand upon the auto-responder service. TriggerMail steps beyond the automated email functionality, allowing you to choose or create a ‘trigger’ or ‘prompt’ to dispatch an email automatically.

Sounds exciting? Read on………there’s a complete suite of categories for the TriggerMails and we’ve listed them all separately below :

Let’s start with - Anniversary triggers.

As you would perhaps expect, the prompt to activate the Anniversary Trigger is the date. This can be any date; a client’s date of birth, the renewal date of their annual subscription or, indeed, any recurring date; weekly, monthly, whatever! You choose - and set the Anniversary Trigger to dispatch that ‘Birthday’ wish or ‘thanks and please re-subscribe’ message every year on that date – or, in the case of a subscription renewal, a few days before; just to ensure that their renewal does just that… Renews!

Is it your responsibility to manage the job applications within your company – or are you currently seeking a job change yourself ?

Job applicants are left with a feeling  of being in limbo as with no follow-up after the interview whilst employers complain that they do not have sufficient time to respond to all of the applicants who were not successful. Although applicants do not want rejection, it is a vital part of the recruitment process to keep all of them; successful and unsuccessful, informed and the way you do this has a direct effect on your company’s reputation. So, how can you keep everyone informed in a time efficient way ?

I think we may be able to assist. GraphicMail offers an email marketing solution that gives you the ability to automate your communications using personalised emails. You can also keep a close watch on the communication flow with the free reports and analytics tool available on each account.

It works !

Just post your job advert online and add a subscription form which will capture all the vital data, such as email address, name, surname, educational degree and area of expertise. This information is then sent automatically to your GraphicMail account where it is added to your mailing list, with all the additional data collected. You can organise it so that the applicants instantly receive a thank-you note using a triggered-email setup and scheduled beforehand.

Having done that, you can screen the information according to education and area of expertise. You can set up an mail campaign for those who you are further considering, and one for those who have not been successful. In the email to the suitable candidates, you can ask them to then submit their CVs to you - which is a much more efficient and time saving way than obtaining CVs from every original applicants and then having to labour through them as attachments! You can then send an email of rejection to the rest of the candidates. To maintain a high level of respect and to keep the communications personal in spite of the automated process, you can personalise each mailer and, furthermore, send it from your own personal email address.

Why should you consider using Graphicmail in this process ?

Reputation, reputation, reputation; because, not only are today’s candidates selling themselves to you, you must also sell yourself to them in your response. Your company image is never more in the spotlight! You can never be sure that today’s rejected applicants are not going to become tomorrow’s new employees, and even if they don’t, it’s your company’s reputation that is at stake. In a time when consumers rely heavily on the testimonials and recommendations of other consumers, it is imperative to communicate timely and in a highly professional manner. Remember that we live in a world, where everything can be published in an instant - and by anyone – there are ever-growing social networks and blogger sites !

Even before the sound of those New Year Bells has subsided, people in their millions have already begun to break one or more of those resolutions that have become a familiar part of the season’s activities; the resurgent desire to improve upon the past year, be that our health, wealth or emotional standing. To be fair on ourselves, maybe some of those ‘promises’ were just too unattainable to be called ‘Resolutions’ but, at least the good intention was there. On that same theme, here is a short list of email resolutions that you may want to sustain. Hopefully, unlike the ones we’ve just talked about, you will find these easier to follow – mainly because they are more a recap of important email marketing advice

1. Wealth – cleanup your mailing list and save money

Don’t continue wasting your send credits on those recipients who don’t read your email. Some can’t be bothered to unsubscribe, others have forgotten their subscription and now consider you as spam. So now’s the time to check your Reports and Statistics and make that decision about which of those ‘offenders’ to delete. If you delete any that haven’t read your newsletter for 6-months but are truly interested, you can be sure they’ll track you down and re-subscribe
If you have become too attached to any and can’t let them go then send them a nicely worded email asking if the still want to receive your newsletter and if they don’t ask them for reasons that they don’t – you’ll probably pickup some great tips + hints – you may also retain some of them.

2. Emotional - make use of the advanced features and Save time,
Take full advantage of the powerful advanced features on the GraphicMail system - they’ll save you time and make your life a great deal easier.

Some of the advanced features are :
a)  Subscriber Segmentation: A powerful tool which allows you to profile your customers according to criteria you have set. Use the tools that allow you, for instance, to send a newsletter about animals to just subscribers who are interested in animals. You’ll need to test it to find out more!

b)  Connecting to an external datasource: This allows you to link to your database and pull out information needed for your email campaign. With this function you don’t need to upload your datasets and maintain your data in more than one place.

3. Emotional - Stay "cool" - integrate your email newsletters with social media
For those of who you do not have a social media strategy in place – now is the time to get one! You can start with the two most basic & popular websites – Twitter and  Facebook. With GraphicMail you are can easily integrate your subscription form onto your Facebook page. By Including social media links in your email marketing message you can gain subscribers through your own social media pages.  These are two free reach extenders that will yield fantastic results. The rumour is that 2010 will be the year of the application and social media, even more-so than 2009 so now is a good time to start and tweak your current campaigns.

4. Emotional - Save face, monitor your Reports & Stats, check for hard bounces and make improvements

Being marked as a spammer will get you get a bad reputation. To avoid this nasty label spend some time deleting old subscribers from your mailing lists - they could be marking you as spam. Time spent analysing your stats carefully and studying ways to improve your open rates is never wasted. Personalise your subject lines making sure you avoid using use key spam terms with words such as "free", "bonus" or "order now". The only way you could possibly get away with using these words is if you combine them with strong keywords – or maybe create an image to display to word instead of text. And NEVER, NEVER put your subject line in capital letters. I also advise that you ensure that your recipient/s know who the email is from. Do this by amending the “from” line.
Analyse the design of your email to improve click-through rates. Do your links stand out? Are they clear? Do they look like links? Do they give your reader a reason to click them – use words of encouragement, even enticement!

5.  More Emotion - Check your image, engage your subscribers

There are lots of ways to engage your subscribers – you just need to think outside the box! Focus on the content. Is it well written and funny? Or is it long and dreary? You need to grab your audience straight away – your readers will not waste time reading a newsletter that is uninteresting or boring, so use bold headings in articles and use bullet points as they’re easier on the eye and more simple to read. When using images, use strong and emotive ones; a stretched, pixilated image looks very poor and unprofessional – also ensure that you have a good balance of both text and images.

Conduct a few tests. Send out one newsletter with a quirky subject line and look at your stats. The next time you send, use a longer subject line and cross compare the two.

Think about other aspects : the time of day you send your newsletter. Are people going to open your newsletter at 5 pm on a Friday? No! The most faithful of your subscribers is probably halfway out the door by then - and come Monday morning your newsletter is lost amongst the hundreds of emails that have made their way onto his monitor screen ( probably to be deleted on the basis that “If it’s important they’ll send again” ) they won’t have the time to read a newsletter. Any later than that and they have forgotten about it!

So - spend some rewarding time working on that subject line!

6. Wealth – Make savings - use new metrics such as the ROI calculator

Use GraphicMail ROI calculator to determine the Return On your Investment from each campaign. All you need to do is fill in the fields in the calculator; and the more accurate your numbers, the more realistic and meaningful will be your result.

7. Wealth - Retain your popularity - Get more subscribers

Offer competitions, promotions and viral campaigns to draw in the masses. Promote these on your website to build your own brand awareness.  The result will be an increase in your readership !

8. Health – Save your sanity – set reminders
This is a really good idea ( which also works well for other lifestyle activities ) - Enter an aide-memoire notes within your diary– at 3-month intervals, “Re-read my email Resolutions list” – this will just give you a nudge which will make sure you at the top of your game with these ‘Resolutions’ 

Good luck - Make 2010 your year!

Listen up all you Joomla users! Using a new Joomla extension you can now add a signup form for your GraphicMail mailing list – it’s easy and it’s quick!
The VERY BEST way for you to gather new subscribers is through a Subscription Form on your site - especially since this method supports opt-in email marketing, an approach that GraphicMail strongly advises

After you have completed the installation, you will be asked for your Login information; the next step prompts you to select the mailing list that you want your users to subscribe to and then it is only takes a few

seconds to add the extension to your site. The whole process is speedy and should take less than 5 minutes from beginning to end – and there is no file editing required…….. absolutely everything can be done via the Joomla Setting!

Keep watching this space for more open source Plug Ins from the GraphicMail Lab!

Let us know what you think about it – post a review in Joomla.

What is Joomla?

Joomla is an award-winning content management system (CMS), which gives you the ability to build Web sites and powerful online applications. Joomla has become one of the most popular website software applications mainly because of its ease of use and extensibility and, being an open source solution, it is freely available to all.