Big news: MailBuild merging into Campaign Monitor

Posted by David Greiner on November 17, 2008 3:15 PM

OK, so this isn't just big news, it's really really big news. In just under 2 weeks time, the entire MailBuild feature set will be merged with Campaign Monitor to create the ultimate email marketing application for designers. You can send campaigns for yourself, your clients and let your clients send their own campaigns, all from the same easy to use account. The best part is, you don't have to lift a finger. It's all being done for you behind the scenes.

What's new?

There's lots of great stuff packed into this upgrade, but here are a few of the highlights.

Improved interface - We've made some big improvements across your account to make it easier to use and more powerful.
Huge reporting overhaul - Your clients are going to love the new great looking reports that make it easier to see the numbers that matter.
Full design and spam testing - Let your clients see screenshots of their campaigns in more than 20 email clients and run it through popular spam filters before they send. They can even pay for each test at a price you set.
Import your own creative - On top of our template functionality, you can now import campaigns from the web or your own system with a single click.
Google Analytics integration - Automatically tag links in your clients campaigns to track the visits, sales and conversions on their site.

How will this impact my clients?

Other than a shiny new interface, your clients won't notice much difference. We've worked hard to make this migration as smooth as possible and minimize any changes your client will experience. They'll still login from your site address (or your own web site) and all existing drafts, campaigns and lists will be right where they left them.

You might want to let your clients know they won't be able to login to their account over the weekend starting 9pm on Friday 28th November (US Eastern standard time - see in your own time zone). Everything else like subscribe forms and sent campaigns will still work behind the scenes, and they'll be able to login again on Monday December 1st.

See screenshots and learn more

Instead of packing every little detail into this blog post, we've we've put together a detailed preview site where you can read all about the updates and check out screenshots and screencasts of what's coming.

See what's new - www.thenewcampaignmonitor.com

So what happens to MailBuild?

While the MailBuild brand will be gone, all the great features that you and more than 30,000 other customers rely on will live on within Campaign Monitor. Once we launch the new version, we'll be running everything from the new campaignmonitor.com web site, which will also be going live that day.

We're really happy with the finished product, and can't wait to see you guys using it.

16 total comments:

Paul November 17, 2008 4:57 PM

Wow this is great news!
there have been a bunch of api calls from CM i have been wanting to use in MB

I can't wait! :)

Dave Greiner November 17, 2008 5:37 PM

Great to hear Paul, the API updates are one of the other big pluses I didn't get to mention above.

Chris McMahon November 17, 2008 5:43 PM

I was just wishing for something like this to happen.

Excuse me, I've got to go wish I win the lottery.

Alex November 17, 2008 11:36 PM

Great news. Will this mean that the subscriber control panel you rolled out for CM a while back will now be available for mailbuild, so people can manage their subscription options.

Thanks

Davis November 18, 2008 3:19 AM

This is great news, although i really wish the update wasn't scheduled so poorly. Why not do it a week earlier or a week later? Seems like a strange choice, as that weekend is the time clients would be working on putting together their monthly newsletters for delivery early Dec 1st.

John S. November 18, 2008 3:46 AM

Dave, can you expand on the other API enhancements?

Mike M. November 18, 2008 7:04 AM

+1, additional info on API enhancements would be super helpful.

Dave Greiner November 18, 2008 8:49 AM

Davis, while your clients won't be able to login over the weekend, they can certainly work right up until Friday evening, and even schedule any campaigns to go off first thing Monday morning. We do realize the timing isn't ideal, but we really wanted to get these new features out to everyone before the end of the year.

John and Mike, while everything will remain backwards compatible, you'll now have access to all the functionality we have in the Campaign Monitor API. If you have any specific questions, don't hesitate to ask away here or get in touch with support.

Matt November 19, 2008 4:51 AM

Dave--

This is great news. I am one of the people that use both products and have encountered the "which one should I use" issue (and also have wanted to use the more enhanced CM API for MB clients).

A question--I have purchased MailBuild credits. Will these be moved over to the new "combined" account?

Thanks,
Matt

Matt November 19, 2008 4:52 AM

PS -- does anybody else have problems adding comments to this blog using Safari? I just get sent to a blank page (http://www1.freshview.com/mt/mt-comments.cgi)

Matthew November 19, 2008 6:12 AM

Could anyone else here benefit from a Client.Create method in the API? I know I sure could...

Dave Greiner November 19, 2008 7:17 AM

Hey Matt, great to hear you won't be torn any more. Both of your accounts will remain separate and will both be upgraded to the new version, they won't be combined.

You can always manually move clients from one to the other, but unfortunately that won't include sent campaigns. Also, if you have credits in both, we'd be happy to move them between accounts for you.

Apologies for the speed of the blog too, Movable Type is really struggling to keep up these. We're switching to Expression Engine for the new site launching in a couple of weeks, and everything will fly then.

Matthew, cheers for the API request, that's one we see quite a bit and are considering supporting.

Kate November 20, 2008 5:46 AM

David - thanks for all the info, the only worry I have is that we'll get access to the new improved version at exactly the same time as our clients - and it's possible that we'll be snowed under with calls from them, asking us about stuff we're only just seeing for the first time too. Any chance there's a beta version somewhere we could get access to earlier, just to get a sneak preview and prepare ourselves?

Dave Greiner November 20, 2008 4:40 PM

I'm afraid not sorry Karen, but I'll explain why. The merger of both products means we have to do a lot of big changes behind the scenes to the database structure, code base, etc. Because of this, we can't actually have both versions running concurrently.

This is also the main reason we put together a more details site about the merger, than just a straight up announcement. Of course, if there is anything specific you would like to know more about, ask away.

Mark November 21, 2008 1:33 AM

Will the new Mail Build allow us to give permission to clients to upload their own templates? That would be cool!

And add my vote to the Create.Client API (and an upload templates one too!)

Dave Greiner November 21, 2008 8:13 AM

Hey Mark. Templates will stay admin only right now I'm afraid, but this update was really about combining the products, not adding loads of new features (which we'll get stuck into as soon as we re-launch).

Consider your vote added ;)