Cross Bulk Mailer 5.4 User Guide

Cross Bulk Mailer 5.4

User Guide

http://DnnModule.com Cross Software, China

Table of Contents 1. Background ... 3 2. Introduction ... 3 3. What’s new in v5.4 ... 5 4. Requirements ... 5 5. Quick Start ... 5

5.1 Step 1: Install/Upgrade module ... 5

5.2 Step 2: Add CrossMail_Admin sub module to manage data ... 7

5.3 Step 3: Configure SMTP servers or Amazon SES ... 7

5.4 Step 4: Add Categories ... 8

5.5 Step 5: Add Newsletters ... 9

6. Advanced Features ... 10

7. CrossMail_Opt-In sub module ... 12

8. How to write template ... 13

8.1 Template are ascx files ... 13

8.2 Template directory structure ... 13

8.3 Template created steps ... 13

9. Uninstall Module ... 14

10. About Us ... 14

1. Background

Email marketing is very popular and important today. It can help you improve both relationship building and communication for your business to prosper. As we know, DNN provides a simple newsletter module to let site administrators send bulk mails (by click DNN built-in menu “Admin – Newsletters”). This module works when you have small recipients (e.g. 100-200 email addresses). However, when you try sending over 500 emails use this module, it doesn’t work as well as expected due to the follows:

1. This module will try sending all bulk emails at one time by using host defined SMTP server. However, nearly 100% email service providers have quota limitation. For

example, Google GMail account allows you send up to 500 mails per day, 100 mails per hour; Yahoo mail allows up to 200 mails per day and 100 mails per hour; MS hotmail allows 100 per day and 50 per hour; Our mail server provider (mail.DnnModule.com) allows us sending 500 mails per day and 60 mails per hour.

This means most of your emails are abandoned by mail server. For example, when we click “Admin – Newsletters” module to send mails to over 8000 registered users of http://DnnModule.com for the first time, nearly 99% mails are abandoned by our mail server. And our hosting vendor warned us not do that again, otherwise our mail accounts will be closed.

Please note, the abandon is controlled by mail server, DNN is not aware of that. And DNN just think mail is sent successfully.

2. Email sending is a resource consumes action. It consumes many cpu and memory resources while sending bulk emails together. Because most websites are hosting on 3rd hosting vendors and don’t have too much cpu and memory quota, your site may be recycled or even shutdown while sending emails.

3. As mentioned above, “Admin – Newsletters” module using host defined SMTP server to sending mails. This is a big problem if you have multiple portals which belong to different companies on same DNN instance. Even these portals have their own mail server, they still have to rely on same SMTP server to send mails. This will make host defined SMTP server overload quickly. We strongly recommend super user remove “Admin -Newsletters” page/module for all portals in this instance.

………..

In one word, DNN built-in “Admin - Newsletter” is not an ideal module to processing email. If you need a more powerful module to handle your email marketing, Cross Bulk Mailer is one of the best choices for you.

2. Introduction

Cross Bulk Mailer is an enterprise-level email processing module for DotNetNuke. By fully utilizing DNN schedule job, it can help you send over 100,000,000 emails easily than ever. It has many cool features which help you to process email marketing as easy as ABC, as follows:

1. Multiple portals support, super use can enable / disable email sending for each portal, and control other options like maximum mails per day / sending interval / mails per time and whether they can use host defined SMTP server.

2. Multiple SMTP servers support, site administrators can create their own SMTP servers, and specify properties like server priority / maximum mails per day, etc.

3. Amazon Simple Email Service (Amazon SES) support. With Amazon SES, you can send huge emails (e.g. 5,000,000) per day in Cross Bulk Mailer module.

4. Group newsletters with categories. Each category has its own recipients and suppression addresses. It can be bound to certain user roles and automatic retrieve recipients from them. The recipients can also be imported from MS Excel documents and csv files (or exports as Excel file to download). And it doesn’t require you install MS Excel on web server.

5. A newsletter can have multiple attachments. The newsletter content can be generated from external url / RSS feed / site page / site module, or copy from an email template / an existing newsletter. It also supports token replacement to personalize email content.

6. Email read / open tracking. You can track whether email is open / read by recipients, and adjust your email marketing plan.

7. Hyperlink tracking. You can create specific hyperlinks (e.g. http://DnnModule.com) and insert them into newsletters, module will track who (and when) click them while reading emails. This is a great way to verify the effect of your email marketing. 8. Automatic send birthday greeting emails to related recipients.

9. Common features like Opt-In/Opt-Out, subscribe/unsubscribe and view mail online are also available.

10. Bounce mail address (invalid mail addresses) automatic detection.

11. Template based for CrossAdmin_Opt-In sub module, you can create your own mail Opt-In/Opt-Out display interface.

12. Uses DNN schedule jobs to perform all background actions (send bulk mails / synchronize recipients from roles / check bounce mail addresses, etc.). All you need to do is provide valid SMTP servers, create newsletters which need to send, and then let Cross Bulk Mailer module handle other jobs. It will send only certain amount of emails, but keep on sending every hour, so it will delivery all your emails at last, but not break your SMTP servers capacity.

………..

test on your site. The trial edition has all features like official version and can be installed on official domain names.

Note: v5.4 requires DNN 7.x to run. If your sites are still under DNN 6.x, please check http://DnnModule.com for other versions.

3. What’s new in v5.4

1. Redesign the email-sending schedule job mechanism. 2. Remove some unnecessary buttons.

4. Requirements

2. Sql server 2008/2012 or sql express 2008/2012 3. Asp.net framework 4.0+

5. Quick Start

The typical scenario involves the following steps: Step 1. Install/Upgrade module.

Step 2. Add CrossMail_Admin sub module to manage data. Step 3. Configure SMTP servers or Amazon SES

Step 4. Add categories. Step 5. Add newsletters.

5.1 Step 1:

If you already bought module, unzip package which you got, you will see

CrossBulkMailer 5.4 Pa (standard).zip (or CrossBulkMailer 5.4 Pa (enterprise).zip if you bought enterprise edition), choose it as install package.

If you want to trial module first, you can download “CrossBulkMailer 5.4 trial edition (unzip me).zip” at http://DnnModule.com/FreeDownload.aspx, unzip it you will find CrossBulkMailer 5.4 Pa (trial).zip. The trial package can be installed on official domain names for 60 days.

Click “Host - Extensions - Install extension wizard “to install module. After installation, you will see 2 sub modules.

Install via Ftp

The install package is about 4mb in size. If you have problems uploading by clicking “Host - Extensions - Install extension wizard”, you can use another way to install it, as follows:

1. Upload CrossBulkMailer 5.4 Pa (standard).zip to Install\Module folder of your site using ftp tools.

2. Click “Host – Extensions”, select “Available Extensions” tab, choose

“CrossMail_Admin” which under “Modules” section, click “Install” button to install.

Upgrade

When upgrade from trial edition to official edition (or upgrade to new version), you don't need uninstall previous module first. Simply reinstall the official edition (or new version) will keep your existing data.

Note, when you upgrade from v5.0/5.1, you need update web.config file to support email read / open tracking manually. As follows:

1. Open web.config file, locate < system.webServer > - < handlers > section. 2. Add <add name="CrossMailTracking" verb="*"

path="*/desktopmodules/crossmail/images/logo/*"

type="Cross.Modules.Mail.Business.TrackingHandler, Cross.Dnn.Modules.Mail" /> node. See below image as example.

If you directly install 5.4 or upgrade from v5.2/v5.3, you don’t need do this.

5.2 Step 2:

CrossMail_Admin sub module is used to manage all data related to Cross Bulk Mailer package. You only need 1 instance per portal.

All features in CrossMail_Admin sub module are self explanatory. We recommend you login in as super user (host account) if possible. Because some features, like “Admin Control Panel – Host Features – Portal Rules”, are only available for super users.

5.3 Step 3:

SMTP (Simple Message Transfer Protocol) servers are used to send emails. You must create at least 1 server before sending bulk mails. By default, module will automatic create a SMTP server based host SMTP server settings (which under DNN built-in menu "Host - Host Settings - Advanced Settings - SMTP server settings"). If the

host SMTP server is invalid, you can create other SMTP servers by click

"CrossMail_Admin sub module - Admin Control Panel - Configurations - SMTP Servers".

Expand “New to SMTP server? Expand here to see how to configure it” section if you are not familiar with SMTP server. Please take care of “maximum mails per day / per hour” values, they are very important.

Expand “What's the ‘Bounce reply subject’? How to get it?” section to see how to configure “Bounce reply subject”, this is the key to find out invalid mail addresses (bounce mail addresses).

In v5.2, we also add Amazon SES support. Amazon Simple Email Service (Amazon SES) is a highly scalable and cost-effective bulk and transactional email-sending service for businesses. The great advantage of Amazon SES is that it allows you send huge emails per day (e.g. 500,000) in theory, while most email providers only allows hundreds of emails per day. For more information, please visit http://aws.amazon.com/ses/

It is easy to use Amazon SES in Cross Bulk Mailer module. If you have huge emails to send (e.g. you need send 100,000 emails per day), we recommend you sign up an Amazon SES account and configure it here. Note, your SMTP servers will be ignored if you have Amazon SES configured (you don't need create them).

5.4 Step 4:

Categories allow you to group the newsletters easily. Each category has its own recipients and suppression addresses. Click “Admin Control Panel – Data Manager - Categories“ to create categories.

Category can be bound to certain user roles and automatic retrieve recipients from these user roles. It can also import email addresses from MS Excel documents (or export as MS Excel files). Please note, it doesn’t require you install MS Excel application on web server.

5.5 Step 5:

Now you can click “Admin Control Panel – Data Manager - Newsletter “to add newsletter which will be sent. The mail content can be generated from Rss feed / external url / a page on your site / a specific module on your site, or copy from an email template / an existing newsletter. It also supports token replacement to personalize email content.

You can click “Send test mail” button to test if newsletter content is display correct in mail.

Click “Available Tokens” tab to find detail description of tokens. Please be aware of the usage of following tokens:

[Unsubscribe:Begin] ,[Unsubscribe:End],[ViewOnline:Begin],[ViewOnline:End]. They are the keys to provide unsubscribe link and view mail online link.

Congratulations, now everything is ok. Module will use DNN schedule job to perform bulk mail send actions, wait a few minutes you will see the results. If you are a super user, you can click “Admin Control Panel - Host Features - Process Right Now “to tell module process schedule jobs right now.

6. Advanced Features

As you can see in CrossMail_Admin sub module control panel, it offers more interesting features than we mentioned in “Quick Start” chapter, like specify send rules for each portal, send birthday greeting mails, bounce mail addresses detection etc. Instead of write a long and complicated help document to explain every detail of them, we choose to integrate these information directly into module interface. And try our best to make every feature self explanatory.

For long help information, we use DNN expandable section (or a separate tab page) to hosting them. For example:

Expandable help section

Separate tab help page

For short yet important help information, we use DNN standard help style to display on edit interface. For example:

Display help information on edit interface.

And we provide detail information for every field using DNN help label. Whenever you feel confused, just click the help icon of that label, you will see similar information like below:

We also provide a “Quick Start” and “Help” section in “CrossMail_Admin sub module” control panel.

Help in control panel

7. CrossMail_Opt-In sub module

Besides CrossMail_Admin sub module, Cross Bulk Mailer package also contains CrossMail_Opt-In sub module which can be used to collect mail subscribers (or let user unsubscribe). Unlike CrossMail_Admin sub module, the CrossMail_Opt-In sub module can be put on multiple pages.

Add CrossMail_Opt-In module instance to a page, click “Opt-In settings” to

customize it. Please note the “Confirm Subscribe” and “Confirm Unsubscribe” options, normally we don’t recommend check on them because they will make

8. How to write template

8.1 Template are ascx files

As you can see in “CrossAdmin_Opt-In sub module – Opt-In settings – General - Template” section, this module is template based, you can create your own mail Opt-In/Opt-Out display interface. Please note, templates are ascx files, you need to be familiar with asp.net syntax to write.

8.2 Template directory structure

Template files should be put in the DesktopModules\CrossMail\Template\OptIn\ folder.

8.3 Template created steps

1. Create a folder under DesktopModules\ CrossMail \Template\ OptIn, named it as MyTemplate as example.

2. Copy DesktopModules\CrossMail \Template\ OptIn \default\App_LocalResources directory and DesktopModules\CrossMail \Template \ OptIn \default\

OptIn_Standard.ascx file to MyTemplate folder.

3. Change OptIn_Standard.ascx file name as your wish, for example, MyTemplate.ascx. Of course, you can keep its original file name if you wish.

4. Open MyTemplate.ascx file via Visual studio 2008 or something else, change its content. Note, you need be familiar with asp.net syntax before change it.

5. Click “CrossMail_Opt-In sub module – Opt-In settings”, in “General – template”, select “MyTemplate.ascx”.

6. Now module will use your own template to display.

Of course, you can put your own templates under DesktopModules\CrossMail \Template\OptIn \default directory if you like.

9. Uninstall Module

Click “Host - Extensions“, then click the button to uninstall CrossMail_Opt-In and CrossMail_Admin module one by one.

10. About Us

DnnModule.com is build to provide quality dotnetnuke modules and skins, some of them are free, some not. We wish these stuffs (free or not) can be useful to you. Note, nearly all modules of us provide free trial editions, you can download them at http://DnnModule.com/FreeDownload.aspx. Followings are parts of our released modules:

Cross Bulk Mailer 5.4

Classified Pro 7.9 (dnn 7.x store, auction, classified ads module) Cross Article 7.5 (dnn 7.x news article/blog module)

Cross Video Gallery 6.4 (dnn 7.x video/audio/youtube module, html 5 & flash based) Ultra Flash Player 7.9 (22-in-1)

Cross Photo Gallery 5.6 (dnn 7.x photo/flickr/picasa module) Cross Image Slideshow 5.2(18-in1)

Silverlight Photo Gallery 5.7 Silverlight Carousel Magazine 4.0

Silverlight Panorama Viewer 2.0 YouTube Sidebar 4.2

Cross Visitor Tracking 5.0 (free) Cross Skin Chameleon 5.3 (free)

Yahoo Media Player for DNN (free) Flash Numeric Rotator 3.3 (free) Child Page List 3.0 (free)

Please visit http://DnnModule.com/Store.aspx for more detail...

11. Support

Visit our support forum at http://DnnModule.com/Forum.aspx or mail to [email protected] for directly help.