To celebrate the new year, Vision 6 is proud to announce the delivery of a new whitepaper:

Understanding and Improving Email Deliverability

The whitepaper has been written to simply and clearly explain the topic of email deliverability in a non-technical way as well as providing practical tips on how you can improve your own email deliverability. We hope you find the whitepaper useful and please feel free to refer it to a colleague.

A video presenting the content of the whitepaper is also available for your convenience

Sat, 22nd November 2008
6:00am-3:00pm AEST (7am-4pm AEDT)

During this time you will not be able to log into the system. However all data from web forms, unsubscribes, and update profiles along with email tracking statistics will still be collected.

Scheduled messages and system emails (including subscriber and update profile notifications) will not be delivered during this limited access period — we recommend that you do not schedule messages to be delivered at this time.

We thank you for your patience and if you have any questions please contact us.

We are pleased to announce an outstanding lineup for this event. Below you will find an introduction to some of the speakers who will be presenting at EMSA 2008. To view the full speaker lineup visit the EMSA website.

Seats at this event are limited so reserve your place now to avoid missing out.

Google Australia | Tony Keusgen | Australian Sales Manager for the Technology Industry

In Tony’s role as the National Manager of Technology Industry Sales for Google Australia, he advises leading telecommunications, technology, commerce and consumer electronics businesses about the benefits of online advertising and search marketing.

Fairfax Digital | Scott Grasso | General Manager Database Marketing

Scott has 15 years experience in direct marketing, working both on the client and the agency sides. Scott’s speciality is targeting communications to different customer segments, including implementing Test and Learn methodologies.

Australian Communications and Media Authority | Julia Cornwell McKean | Anti Spam Team Manager

Julia has been at ACMA for three years, and prior to joining the Anti-Spam Team worked on telecommunications consumer protection issues with a specific focus on the protection of personal information. Julia has also managed systemic investigations for the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, and held management roles at TabCorp and Foxtel.

View the full speaker lineup

1. Create the HTML form and display the Fields

I could have chosen to create the forms manually, entering all the Field names I had created and their associated attributes. Instead I chose to retrieve the Fields in the Database using searchFields(). With the results I got back, I was able to dynamically create the HTML form elements including their type, name and attributes. This meant that when we came to add new Fields, it was a very simple process requiring little modification to the underlying code as the forms were all dynamic.

2. Save the attendee data

There were some challenges involved with saving the data for the registration process. It wasn’t just a matter of saving a record for each attendee. Instead we had to keep track of the “Main Contact” and their “additional” attendees. In a traditional database structure such as MySQL this may be done with the use of a second table and using a parent ID as foreign key. This is not possible in a flat database structure however, so I worked around this problem by adding an extra Field called Main Contact ID. As the “Main Contact” is the first Contact to be saved in the process using addContacts() (which returns an array containing the unique IDs of the Contacts added) it was a simple process of recording this returned ID and adding it to the “Main Contact ID” Field for subsequent attendees. This made retrieving data a simple process, as I could just use searchContacts() and search for contacts using a given Main Contact ID value.

3. Triggering Campaigns

Triggering the associated Campaigns was a very simple process. The campaigns were created in the system as per usual — we had various campaigns set up to send invoices to Contacts depending on their payment method (a Field name we had created). To trigger the campaigns all you need to do is pass “true” as the (optional) 3rd parameter to the editContacts() method. More often then not campaigns sending incorrectly are due to a missing action or incorrect trigger in the campaign itself, and not when you have actually chosen to trigger it in your code. Just remember to pass “true” at the right time; so you don’t have campaigns sending all over the place and you’ll be fine.

So there you go — a brief look at how the Registration System for EMSA 2008 was creating using the API. I found using the API really was a simple process; spend a little time planning early instead of diving right in and you’ll breeze through it. The EMSA 2008 Registration System was creating using only 5 API methods:

• searchFields()
• addContacts()
• editContacts()
• deleteContacts()
• searchContacts()

Please feel free to contact us for more information on this process or the API in general.

The summit is designed to bring together Australia’s leading email marketers whilst simultaneously providing a rare opportunity to those new to the industry to gain a wealth of insights and understanding.

EMSA 2008 will be run over 2 days:

Day One is a Certification Course and will focus on best practice Email Marketing in the electronic marketing mix — specifically looking at Promotion, Landing Pages, Email Design and Database & Analysis.

Day Two will be an intense day with sessions ranging from traditional marketing subjects such as design and behavioral marketing for email through to specific technical knowledge sessions such as SPAM Compliance and Data Privacy.

View the full program on the EMSA website

Speakers for the two days will again include a combination of industry leaders as well as current email marketing users who will outline a number of best-practice case studies. The day will be chaired by 2007 Keynote Speaker Rob Hudson, Digital Manager at GPY&R Brisbane.

Some other speakers to be featured include:

• Fairfax Digital — Scott Grasso, General Manager Database Marketing
• Australian Communications & Media Authority — Julia Cornwell McKean, Manager Anti-Spam Team
• Dialect — David Blakers, CEO
• Advantate — Lisa Watts, CEO
• Circul8 — Alana Stocks, Managing Director
• Pure Profile — Ian Lyons, Communications Manager
• Dick Smith Electronics — Luke Hilton, Web Development Manager
• Vision 6 — David Smerdon, Head of Strategy
• Photon Group — Caitlin Millar-Jack, Divisional Managing Director Internet Marketing and Communications

Event Details

• Date: Thursday, November 6th — Friday, November 7th 2008
• Venue: Royal Pines Resort, Gold Coast, Queensland
• Cost: $695 Early Bird (Until 30th September), $795 Full Fee

Places are strictly limited, so do not delay — reserve your place at this unique Australian event!

EMSA 2008 is brought to you by Vision 6.

As of this morning you will also notice a new help icon in the top right hand corner of each screen. By hovering over this icon you will be presented with a list of tips that are relevant to the tasks you may carry out on that page.

Image of the Context Sensitive Help icon in the system

Simply click on the Tip which relates to the task you are going to perform and a pop up window will display the Tip you have selected.

Login Now to see the tutorials in action

I hope you find this new feature useful! As always if you have any queries, please do contact us.

New tabbed interface for the “Home” module — Click for a closeup

Now at a glance you’ll be able to see your account status (days remaining on your trial account, or your current outstanding balance) and any recent invoices you’ve received or payments you’ve made in the past week, plus we’ve added some new sensibly-grouped “tabs” containing some quick tips on getting started, and links to download any supporting documents or other resources you may need to get the most of out of the system and your eMarketing practices.

We’re hoping that you’ll find this a useful “mini-upgrade”, and as always please contact us if you have any questions!

The A–Z of Email Design

Concise enough to be read whilst enjoying a cup of coffee, The A–Z of Email Design provides a step by step guide on how to design your emails, including:

• Planning the Email
• Design and Construction
• Completion, Testing and Send

Download the Whitepaper now

We hope you find this Whitepaper useful!

“After attending VeMail Training, I learned that VeMail is easy to use — the features are clear and simple enough for anyone to be able to pick up — not just the IT department! The trainer explained the process really well, demonstrating the system as she went and answering all questions thoroughly. Her friendly relaxed approach made the session much more than the average training seminar.” — Louise Woodcroft, Ordyss

I can’t say it better myself! If you’d like to find out how to really harness the power of VeMail for your own eMarketing, our next Sydney training day is happening on Thursday 15th May, 2008 — and there’s still time to register!

View the ‘Scheduling Message Sends’ Tip (Flash required)
Download the ‘Scheduling Message Sends’ Notes (1.3MB PDF)

Also, a reminder for all Sydney and Melbourne clients, don’t forget our training opportunities coming up in May and June.

As always, please contact us if you have any feedback or queries.

It must be Thursday (Thursday is the new Thursday, which was the old Friday).

EDIT: 11 Apr 2008 8:29am AEST — All queues to the 2 domains mentioned above have cleared overnight.

• Uploading Contacts into your Database (view the Flash presentation, or download the PDF notes)
• Updating and editing your Contacts (view the Flash presentation, or download the PDF notes)

The report includes data from over 103 million messages from 46,000 campaigns sent by over 5,500 business users across 25 different industries for the second half of 2007. As with the first and second reports, the following key metrics are focused on:

• Open Rates
• Click Through Rates
• Bounces
• Most Popular Days
• Metrics by Industry
• Metrics by Domain
• Open Rate Latency

Download the Report Now

(For those interested, the majority of “problematic content” comes from copying and pasting message content directly from rich-text sources like Microsoft Word — a simple step to reduce or even eliminate this is to first paste the content to a plain-text editing program like Notepad, then copy and paste from there into the Email Message editor.)

Why VeMail Training:

• Learn the best practices of eMarketing
• Achieve exceptional results from your campaigns
• Improve your campaign results
• Create long term client value in your eMarketing programs

When: Tuesday 11th March 2008
Where: Cliftons, 200 George Street, Sydney CBD
Cost: $450 per attendee ($350 per additional attendee from your company in that session)

Places are limited, ensure you book now to guarantee your place.

If you are unable make this session but would still like to be trained in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane, we also have a 2008 schedule which may provide you with a more suitable session time.

Of course, if you have any queries at all please do contact us at your convenience.

A few notes on our training sessions:

1. Payment is due within 48 hours of booking. Your place is not secured until payment is received.
2. Attendee name changes are permitted.
3. Cancellations must be made 7 days prior to training for a full refund. Cancellations made 72 hours prior to training are subject to a 50% cancellation fee.
4. Minimum numbers must be achieved to run a session. Vision 6 reserves the right to cancel a training session. If cancellation does take place either a refund or alternate booking date will be arranged according to your preference.

Hi guys. Am pasting the JavaScript for a Web Form into a DotNetNuke portal, which appears fine — however when I hit submit, all it does is refresh the page. Any suggestions?

The (somewhat) short answer is that certain web development frameworks and Content Management System (CMS) applications do not correctly support embedding HTML forms into page content. For example, Microsoft’s Visual Web Developer framework, and some CMS applications such as DotNetNuke will not accept the placing of JavaScript or HTML form code successfully within the page body, as effectively the entire page content is wrapped in a FORM element (used by the application to handle its “VIEWSTATE” and “POSTBACK” parameters to determine the visitor’s browsing history, among various other things).

What to do? The “quick fix” for getting your embedded Web Form to work on one of these pages is to simply place a closing FORM tag before the Web Form SCRIPT code, like so:

</form>
<script type=”text/javascript” charset=”utf-8″ src=”http://www.vision6…

This may potentially have adverse effects on items “below” the Web Form on the page (e.g. not navigating to other pages), and should be used with caution. Of course, you can always contact our Support Team for more assistance if you think your Web Form is being affected by one of these server apps.

In this month’s iUpdate newsletter you will find:

Database Maximisation — Keeping Your Data Fresh and Up to Date

The next time you’re about to send an email, take a moment to pause and look at your contact list. There’s a good chance that you’ll have hundreds of names, email addresses, phone numbers and other fields in there which theoretically should be great. After all, the more contacts you have, the more successful it shows you are, right? Not necessarily.

Vision 6 Launches a Sydney and Melbourne Training Schedule

Vision 6 is pleased to announce the launch of a regular VeMail training schedule in Sydney and Melbourne. This new schedule will complement the training currently provided in Brisbane and will be a great opportunity for VeMail users to develop their system knowledge and understand the key best practices to achieving eMarketing success.

120 Day Database Backup

Reduce the risk of accidental or malicious data loss by backing up 120 days of all data created and stored in VeMail.

Monthly Best Practice — Teach International

This month’s thanks must be extended to Fiona Pollock at Teach International for her excellent Best Practice Submission.

Teach International provides people with the opportunity to travel overseas, experience another culture and the chance to make new friends, whilst earning an income as a teacher of English.

Best Practice Submission — Your 15 Minutes of Fame!

A regular iUpdate feature each month is to provide a constructive critique on a chosen email submitted by you. Not only do we think this is a great opportunity for you to show off a little, but more importantly it’s a chance to learn from each other’s successes.

If you have something you would like to show off, please feel free to submit your Email or Campaign for consideration, and stay tuned.

One of the most common issues when pasting content from external applications is that fonts may not appear correctly across various email clients, and “highly” invalid markup — or personal information that wasn’t intended to be shared — may also be copied into your content, “breaking” your layout in some cases. The biggest, and most common, culprit is content originally created or recently edited in Microsoft Word, although this applies equally to many other sources of content.

To reduce the likelihood of this happening in your VeMail email messages, we’ve come up with a few simple steps for using our simple “Clean Text from Microsoft Word” feature.

View the Copying From Microsoft Word Tip

• File Upload Fields: Allow contacts to upload files to Business Builder via your Web Forms
• Multiple File Upload: Upload numerous images and files to Business Builder in a single seamless process
• New Features for Designers: Create HTML messages in a web design program of your choice and then simply import the entire message and images into VeMail
• Resizable HTML Editor: Customise the width of the WYSIWYG editor for HTML and Multipart Email Messages

You will find a more detailed outline of each of these new features below as well as training demonstrations of how to use them (Flash required), and we hope you enjoy using these great new features!

File Upload Fields: Allow contacts to upload files to Business Builder via your Web Forms

• Add one or more File Upload Fields to your Databases and Web Forms, to capture files into VeMail (in a folder you specify) to allow for easy retrieval
• Restrict file types and sizes so that Contacts must conform to your requirements
• Manage files associated with Contacts
• Ability to delete associated files when removing either Databases or individual Contacts

View the File Upload Fields Demo (Note: Your Account will be allocated 50MB of free file storage per month. Each MB over and above this charged at 10c/MB per month.)

Multiple File Upload: Upload multiple images and files to Business Builder in a single seamless process

• Select multiple files you wish to have available in VeMail and upload them to with a single click
• Manage duplicate filenames intelligently with overwrite, rename and skip functionality

View the Multiple File Upload Demo

New Features for Designers: Create HTML messages in a web design program of your choice and then simply import the entire message and images into VeMail

• Create your Email Message in a design program such as Dreamweaver and import the entire message, including images, into VeMail in a streamlined process

View the New Features for Designers Demo

Resizable HTML Editor: Customise the width of the WYSIWYG editor for HTML and Multipart Email Messages

• Customise the width of the WYSIWYG editor and save these settings per Account User
• Drag the Resize toolbar left and right to change the WYSIWYG editor width in realtime, with a tooltip indicating the new size (in pixels)

View the Resizable HTML Editor Demo

• Web Form Autofill: Save your contacts the time and frustration of entering information repeatedly by automatically populating new Web Forms.
• HTML Tidy: Ensure your email is cleaned of any unwanted code that may distort how it appears to the end recipient.
• 120 Day Backup: Reduce the risk of accidental or intentional data loss by backing up 120 days of all data created and stored in VeMail.
• Complaints Reporting: Understand how many people are registering your emails as “junk mail” when they receive it.

More info will be posted after the release date — we think you’ll find these new features invaluable!