Newsletter special fields like #unsubscribe#

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2/13/2012 1:59:43 PM
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-- Joe

Newsletter special fields like #unsubscribe#

I was wondering if there were any other special fields available in the Newsletter - maybe something like #displayname# or #emailaddress# ?

Having that would make it possible to personalize the newsletter like: 

  • Hi #displayname#, we wanted you to know that pictures from our latest event have been posted on our website.

Would result in text like this:

  • "Hi Joe, we wanted you to know that pictures from our latest event have been posted on our website."

If this is in the online documentation I cant find it - so a link to that info would be appreciated!

2/20/2012 8:06:23 AM
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Re: Newsletter special fields like #unsubscribe#

I've added a ticket in our project tracker to add tokens for email and display name. Not sure how soon we'll get to it but we will get to it.

Best,

Joe

10/29/2012 9:21:02 AM
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Re: Newsletter special fields like #unsubscribe#

Hi Joe,

Any thoughts on when you might implement this feature?  The ability to personalise newsletters would be great.

Thanks,

Michael

10/29/2012 9:26:34 AM
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Re: Newsletter special fields like #unsubscribe#

Hi,

#displayname for example is only a property on users who actually register on the site, but people can subscribe to the newsletter without registering.

Similarly people have asked for tokens for First and Last name which are relatively new properties (again on site members only) and may or not be populated for site members and will not be populated for subscribers who are not site members.

How do you propose we handle it if the newsletter contains a token and we have no value to populate/replace it with?

Best,

Joe

 

10/29/2012 9:52:51 AM
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Re: Newsletter special fields like #unsubscribe#

+1 for firstname and lastname being usable tokens in the username (I suppose title would be usefultoo so we can have "Dear Mr Smith")

I suppose the ideal would be to be able to use any user profile entity as a token (plus firstname and lastname from the users table of course!)

I'd prefer blank if there's nothing to replace the token with, although I suppose the cherry on the cake would be some kind of conditional clause so that you could use one bit of text if the token existed and another if it didn't...

10/29/2012 10:24:29 AM
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Re: Newsletter special fields like #unsubscribe#

Hi Joe,

I must admit I didn't know you could subscribe to a newsletter without being registered! 

A fairly simple substitution ought to suffice, so 'Dear subscriber' rather than 'Dear Joe' would be displayed where someone had not filled in the first name / last name on their profile.  If you were sending out a newsletter where you know that non-members have been allowed to subscribe then I don't think you would want to try to personalise it anyway. 

10/29/2012 12:34:05 PM
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-- Joe

Re: Newsletter special fields like #unsubscribe#

Using "subscriber" would work for me. 

Even better would be a setting in the feature or in the User.Config that could be changed from "subscriber" to something else like "fan" or "patron".

 

10/29/2012 12:58:41 PM
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Re: Newsletter special fields like #unsubscribe#

I suppose if we were able to have it use any profile entity, we could then add a tag along the lines of 'defaulttext="patron"'...?

10/29/2012 1:05:27 PM
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Re: Newsletter special fields like #unsubscribe#

Sorry but even if we add a few more tokens we are not likely to ever add custom profile properties. Those arbitrary properties are in a separate table and we would not want to look them up for each user as we loop through thousands of rows to send a newsletter.

The only tokens I'm considering at this time are for things in the mp_Users table like displayname, email, first name and last name.

Best,

Joe

10/29/2012 1:18:57 PM
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Re: Newsletter special fields like #unsubscribe#

No worries worth a try ;-)

11/3/2012 3:46:07 AM
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feet planted firmly on the ground

Re: Newsletter special fields like #unsubscribe#

Regarding what to do if the referenced property is empty, there could be a simple convention in the token, such as #firstname#subscriber# or #firstname#valued crustomer#  where the optional second element is used to provide the text that would be used if the property was empty.

11/3/2012 7:27:51 AM
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Re: Newsletter special fields like #unsubscribe#

we're doing simple text replacement ie

string firstName = "joe";

 

letterText.Replace("#firstname#, firstName);

we are not parsing the tokens and cannot manipulate them or have extra params embedded in them, to replace them we need to know exactly what they are ahead of time. Any default raplacement values would need to be stored somewhere else, possibly as new properties on the newsletter definition.

Best,

Joe

11/6/2012 3:19:15 PM
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Re: Newsletter special fields like #unsubscribe#

fyi, I've completed the work to add tokens for #displayname#, #email#, #firstname#, and #lastname#

The fallback values can be configured on the newsletter definition edit page.

So, this will be in the next release. It is also now on the demo site though smtp is disabled there to prevent the demo site from being hijacked to send spam. But you can see where the fallback properties are and you can check the updated help links that explain the tokens.

Best,

Joe

11/9/2012 9:59:29 AM
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-- Joe

Re: Newsletter special fields like #unsubscribe#

Thanks Joe!  You continue to rock!!

11/13/2012 5:49:46 PM
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Total Posts 41

Re: Newsletter special fields like #unsubscribe#

Indeed - thanks Joe!  This sounds like the perfect solution; not over-engineered and will satisfy 99.99% of peoples' requirements I'm sure.

I'm getting quite close to buying you a beer.....!

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