Introducing MailUp 9

There are times that mark the beginning of a new journey, and today is one of them. We are proud to introduce the new MailUp 9 platform – an easier, more powerful, more intuitive way to create and send, both manually and automatically, beautiful, effective email and SMS marketing campaigns.

There is a reason why we call it a new journey, and not just another product release. From more actionable statistics to better workflow tools and more customizable dashboards, there are many areas where we are introducing new functionality that we will continue to improve upon over the rest of the year.

MailUp 9 was released to all of our users today, February 1st. Let’s dig a bit deeper into what’s new!

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At MailUp we don’t write software: we create tools that help companies reach their customers using email and text messages. They “hire” our software to get this really, really important job done. Much of their success depends on getting the job done right.

Under this broad umbrella, there are many smaller “jobs” that they “hire” our products to get done, every day. Things like…

• Designing a new email campaign
• Checking that it is ready to be sent
• Scheduling when and to whom it should be sent
• Reviewing how it went
• Etc.

Over the last couple of years we worked on many features that help our customers get some of those jobs done better. For example, we introduced a dramatically improved email editor, released new versions of our Jade and Facebook apps, and created a new email sending engine.

One major area that had not been touched in several years, however, was the overall look & feel of the platform. There was no “wow” when logging into MailUp, too many clicks to get certain tasks done, and not enough useful information on key pages such as the recipient profile or the list dashboard.

So we went back to the drawing board and began to rethink the entire system.

The main objectives that we gave ourselves with MailUp 9 were the following:

• Restructure the navigation to make it faster to move around, rearranging pages in functional areas. For those that use the system frequently, saving even a few clicks makes a big difference.
• Improve the recipient profile page, providing more information and separating viewing a profile from editing it.
• Introduce a new system to let people collaborate on a message to get it ready for being sent.
• Give marketers on the go a way to check recent campaign results and other key stats using their smartphones.
• Clean up, simplify, and improve – when possible – frequently used pages, such as the multi-list dashboard, new user dashboard, recipient search, and many others.

Overall, we wanted our customers to log into MailUp 9 and react with a… “wow, that’s cool!”. If even just a portion of our users have that impression when they first log into MailUp 9, we’ve done something right.

MailUp 9 introduces a redesigned navigation, with a much more modern look & feel that makes it quicker and simpler to move around. Among its features:

• It’s collapsible to allow users to maximize the work area, especially key on smaller laptops.
• It’s been simplified, moving some navigation choices directly onto the pages, for quicker access.
• Menu items were reorganized around functional areas, with 2 new menus: Pages and Automation.
• Breadcrumb navigation was added to all pages, so you always know where you are.
• User account management was moved to a new menu in the top-right corner.
• Help resources were also moved to a new menu in the top-right corner.

Three dashboards were redesigned for MailUp 9, in order to provide useful and fresh information from the very first moment our users access the platform.

New user dashboard

When a new user accesses a list – whether because this is a brand new MailUp account, or a new list within an existing account – they will now see a redesigned page that points out a few key steps to get started. The page is shown until a message has been sent to at least 100 recipients.

List-specific dashboard

As one of the most frequently viewed pages in the MailUp system, the list dashboard was in need of an upgrade. In MailUp 9 it was recreated from scratch, with a widget-based approach. Plus, this dashboard is now mobile-friendly, so you can check your latest stats even if you’re not at your desk.

In the next few months we’ll work to make it even more useful and more customizable. For now, widgets include:

• Volume of email and SMS sent over the last 6 months
  Sending enough & avoiding major peaks and valleys is key to effective digital marketing. This widget wants to provide useful data to keep an eye on those metrics.
• Latest mailing
  A quick view of key stats for the latest message sent.
• Recently edited
  A list of recently edited email and SMS messages, for quick access to further editing, etc.
• Recently sent
  A list of recently sent email and SMS campaigns, for quick access to statistics, etc.
• Device report
  How many recipients open an email with a mobile device? MailUp 9 gives more visibility to this simple, yet key report.
• List details
  Some key data about the current list, including total number of subscribers.

Multi-list dashboard

The page that shows multiple lists was a bit hidden in the previous version of the platform. In MailUp 9 we redesigned and improved the page, and made it easier to get to with a “List summary” link in the list navigation menu.

If you’ve ever been involved in the process of creating an email campaign, you know all too well how many back-and-forth calls, emails, comments and requests can happen before the final sign-off is granted. Especially when multiple people are involved (e.g. a multi-person marketing team, or an agency with its clients), getting all stakeholders to provide feedback and eventually give the “ok” on the message can take a long time and be very inefficient (messy notes, misunderstandings, time-consuming meetings, etc.).

With MailUp 9 we are introducing a completely new tool to get this complicated job done – and we named it Collaboration.

Collaboration makes it easy to co-create your campaigns with the members of your team. Ask for sign-off, collect feedback and add notes on the email design and copy, visually and seamlessly.

We are very happy with the way Collaboration turned out. It’s the first tool of its kind built into an email marketing platform, as far as we know, and we can’t wait to see how our customers put it to work. By the way, we shall discuss it in more details next week, in a dedicated blog post. In the meanwhile, why not try it first hand?

Marketing Automation is an area we’ve intensely worked on in the last couple of years. The last platform release already included new features for automatic workflows – now made even more powerful and open to a multichannel approach.

With MailUp 9, text messages can be added to automated workflows, along with emails. So if an order shipped notification needs to be sent, for example, it can now reach your customers both via email and text message. This is done with just a couple of clicks.

• Choose a trigger event
  Sign-up date, birthday, abandoned cart – just choose the event that triggers the campaign.
• Build a workflow
  A drag & drop interface lets you build an automatic sequence of email and SMS messages in a matter of seconds.
• Set the mailing restrictions
  Target specific segments, eclude other, set “do not disturb” time slots, etc.
• Monitor real-time statistics
  Once the campaign is launched, you can monitor overall workflow results and dig into message-specific statistics.

We’ll stop here, but MailUp 9 has a lot more in store for you. In the coming weeks we’ll dive deeper into many of its new features. For now, log into your MailUp 9 account and discover a new, more enjoyable way to get your email and SMS marketing job done!