WordPress Newsletters

Jeff Riedl and myself discuss why you need a newsletter and how to best achieve it using both solutions baked into WordPress and solutions outside of WordPress.

Transcript

1. WordPress Newsletters Jeff Riedl Patrick Rauland Appleton WordPress 2013/12/13
2. Connect With Us • Web - meetup.com/Appleton-WordPress/ • Twitter ◦ @AppletonWP ◦ Hashtag - #awp • YouTube - http://www.youtube. com/channel/UC_e4PGv9xxprYSgNqu- PrwA
3. Upcoming Events • January - Automate the Web w/ Elliot Christenson • February - Introduction to BuddyPress w/ Boone Georges • March - ?? • April - Sell Anything Online with WooCommerce w/ Patrick Rauland
4. Upcoming WordCamps • Phoenix WordCamp ◦ http://2014.phoenix.wordcamp.org/ ◦ January 17th & 19th
5. Other Meetups • Web920 ◦ http://www.web920.com/ • Fox Cities PHP ◦ http://www.meetup.com/fox-cities-php/
6. Why e-mail newsletters? • It’s your “second chance” with new site visitors • It’s a way to stay in touch with current clients • Increases site traffic • Keeps your brand “Top of mind” • Nearly free advertising!
7. But does it work? It sure did for AgilityEvents.net! Startup with 0 subscribers to over 1,000,000 page views in a year … without ANY paid advertising. Just word of mouth and a twice-weekly newsletter.
8. History
9. History Startup site - (pre-Wordpress) hand coded site with a simple php script that send out the messages As the list grew and php matured to include OO classes, I included phpMailer class to help send more efficiently
10. History Startup site - (pre-Wordpress) hand coded site with a simple php script that send out the messages As the list grew and php matured to include OO classes, I included phpMailer class to help send more efficiently Enter Wordpress & Newsletter “Plugins”!
11. Newsletter plugins - Pros • Form on a page, or in a Post / Widget • Double Opt-in handling • “Hands free” subscription management • Some send recent Posts on a schedule • Attractive Newsletter Templates
12. Plugin Challenges Over 300 “choices” in the repository - Where to start? Need to change to a new plugin? - You need to ‘move’ all your subscribers! Volunteer developers or “development teams” - Pitfalls = weak coding / abandoned project
13. Plugin Challenges But the biggest challenge of all doesn’t have to do with which plugin you choose! It’s about what happens to your newsletter after you hit “Send” ...
14. SPAM Filters On a shared hosting plan? - Bad neighbors can give YOU a bad “rep”
15. SPAM Filters On a shared hosting plan? - Bad neighbors can give YOU a bad “rep” One “bad” link in your content can crush you!
16. SPAM Filters On a shared hosting plan? - Bad neighbors can give YOU a bad “rep” One “bad” link in your content can crush you! ISP filtering can be like playing “Whack a Mole” … recently a solution has become available.
17. 3rd Party SMTP Services! • SendGrid • Amazon SES • Mailgun • Mandril They pre-screen you, so ISP & Receiving Mail Services give e-mails from these service a “pass” on some of the filtering.
18. Jetpack • Incredibly easy to email new posts • Free • Uses WordPress Email Servers
19. MailPoet
20. MailPoet - Newletter Stuff • Lists • Subscribers • Double Opt In • Built in Signup Forms • Signup in Comments
21. MailPoet - Costs • Free up to 2,000 subscribers • Premium is $99/year for unlimited subscribers • MailChimp Costs are $30/mo for 2,500 subscribers
22. MailPoet - 3rd Party SMTP • 3rd Party SMTP costs are ridiculously cheap • 10,000/mo = free • 100,000/mo = $45
23. MailPoet - Premium Features • Unlimited subscribers • Link Tracking (within the email) • GA Tracking (once the user get’s to your site) • Bounce Removal • One click updates
24. MailPoet - WordPress Based • Very easy to hook into with other plugins ◦ Gravity Forms ◦ Ninja Forms (hey that’s my extension!) ◦ Contact Form 7 (coming soon) • Can be used for transactional email
25. MailPoet • coupon: AppletonWordPress