Mass Mailer 4.0: Set Conditions to Execute Newsletter Cycles

[ᴡᴅツ]

It would be very useful for marketing or sales purposes to include newsletter cycles in the IP.Board Mass Mailer, just like how aweber does. For example, I would like to send already written articles to newly registered users for the first 5 days they register.

Another example would be if a user buys a special book program from Nexus. They would be promoted to a secondary group for 1 month, and then demoted. But since they're in a certain secondary group, the mass mailer executes a corresponding newsletter cycle to them which sends an automated email each day of a chapter of the book (in this case, the book will have 30 chapters).

I would also like to send congratulation emails such as "Congratulations on passing your first 100 posts. Here is a custom coupon you can use in our store: XYZABC" or anything of that sort, just to create a better business/community to customer bond/interaction.

[Wolfie]

It would be very useful for marketing or sales purposes to include newsletter cycles in the IP.Board Mass Mailer, just like how aweber does. For example, I would like to send already written articles to newly registered users for the first 5 days they register.

For what you're wanting, I believe that would be better as a 3rd party add-on. However, I think being able to schedule emails, just like you can schedule blog entries, would provide a major improvement. Not only that but when previewing the mail, be able to selectively remove members ('x' their names) from the list, despite matching the previous criteria. Also be able to manually add in names. Of course, if the member has it set to not receive emails, then obviously they won't receive them, but be nice to add in people manually without over matching a lot of people.

[ᴡᴅツ]

I suppose it could be a 3rd party addon, but all it contains is the execution of packaged emails. I just think that given how prevalent email newsletters are, it could be considered a core feature.

In other words, instead of scheduling emails separately, you could schedule email packages. You can commercialize this by using group permissions (look at my original post for the example). It's also useful for sending emails to newly registered users at periodic intervals with pre-written emails to help them get acquainted with the site.

It also wouldn't be a bad idea to have other email parameters such as "if the user hasn't logged in for XY amount of days, send newsletter #54" and newsletter #54 could say something like "I noticed you haven't logged in user XYZ, bla bla bla. Here are some updates to the site: [insert dynamic content here like latest articles or posts]"

[Wolfie]

I suppose it could be a 3rd party addon, but all it contains is the execution of packaged emails. I just think that given how prevalent email newsletters are, it could be considered a core feature.

For 'manually' made newsletters, I think it's pretty much available as-is. Just needs some improvements to make it easier to manage and such.

You can commercialize this by using group permissions (look at my original post for the example). It's also useful for sending emails to newly registered users at periodic intervals with pre-written emails to help them get acquainted with the site.

For that, where you might have an email sent out about weekly deals and such, that would be a good idea for an enhancement with Nexus. That would definitely have potential. Especially if it looks at a persons buying/browsing history and sends customized emails per person.

It also wouldn't be a bad idea to have other email parameters such as "if the user hasn't logged in for XY amount of days, send newsletter #54" and newsletter #54 could say something like "I noticed you haven't logged in user XYZ, bla bla bla. Here are some updates to the site: [insert dynamic content here like latest articles or posts]"

There is an app, "Manage Inactive Members" that you could use for this part.

[ᴡᴅツ]

I really like your suggestion regarding Nexus + newsletters. It would be useful to have some algorithm that checks browsing history and purchases, and makes suggestions. Even better, there could be rules set to auto-generate discount incentives for users. An example scenario would be a customer that bought a product a month ago, and tried to buy another today but abandoned the shopping cart. An hour or day later, Nexus could email the customer about the abandoned shopping cart and could also include an auto-generated coupon code. While I'm on the subject, it would be a neat feature to have auto-generated coupon codes for select items at select parameters after a user made a purchase. It would give incentive for repeat purchases, e.g., "Oh, you bought Widget A, well here's a $5 coupon you can use on your next purchase!"

[Wolfie]

I really like your suggestion regarding Nexus + newsletters. It would be useful to have some algorithm that checks browsing history and purchases, and makes suggestions.

When you say browsing history, I take it you mean packages within the Nexus store. Something like that, except maybe having a more deliberate trail, where it keeps track of how many times they viewed an item and how long ago.

While I'm on the subject, it would be a neat feature to have auto-generated coupon codes for select items at select parameters after a user made a purchase. It would give incentive for repeat purchases, e.g., "Oh, you bought Widget A, well here's a $5 coupon you can use on your next purchase!"

Can already do that in a way. Just make it so that they get a discount if they already own another (specific) item.

[ᴡᴅツ]

When you say browsing history, I take it you mean packages within the Nexus store. Something like that, except maybe having a more deliberate trail, where it keeps track of how many times they viewed an item and how long ago.

Can already do that in a way. Just make it so that they get a discount if they already own another (specific) item.

Having trouble copy/cut pasting the quote block rather than doing it manually, so I'll respond as follows:

1) Yes, I mean it might be a good idea to track the user's behavior through Nexus (and maybe even flagged articles?) as to guage product interest. The end result would be to automatically send suggestions to the user/customer so the admin doesn't have to do that work. That's the beauty of an autoamted turn-key solution.

2) Yes, the feature is there, but it's not apparent to the customer. I never take the developer's perspective when it comes to user experience. I put myself in the mindset of the customer so I can figure out how to make the site better. In this particular scenario, the customer needs notification that there is a new discount available. The best way is through email and unobstrusive site notifications, like a temporary fade-in/fade-out modal that lets the user know about the discount.

I just like to have Nexus and the Mass Mailer do automated tasks like auto-generate coupons based on certain rules and send out dynamically generated newsletters in this particular discount-award scenario. This is slightly off-topic to what I was initially suggesting (and still am), about triggering email packages to start based on certain parameters (e.g., date from which the user gained a primary/secondary group status, have they already received this newsletter package, date from first registration, etc.).

This is also GREAT for content producers if they want to keep building the email package. This way, they can write newsletters in advance and allow them to be sent at its own daily/weekly/monthy pace.