New updates
- Compatible with the last versions of WordPress: It makes implementation easier and avoids any kind of technical conflict.
- Renewed interface: The new console to send campaigns, besides having a more user-friendly design, is very intuitive, so it will speed up when sending your email marketing campaigns.
- Customization of the campaigns' name and subject: Until now these elements were fixed for all campaigns, so we are gaining flexibility.
- Sending newsletters to segments instead of complete lists of subscribers: One more step into the personalization which is essential to build marketing programs adapted to each stage of the customer journey and more effective communications.
- Sends newsletters to more than one segment or list simultaneously: Certainly one of the most celebrated updates that will make the marketer work much easier.
- Scheduling an article or post published on the website to be sent and being able to do it at a future date-time: Perfect solution to schedule the content of campaigns on special dates or to specific users.
- Selection of a template and a different sender for each campaign.
- Including placeholders in the templates to be able to update the content with the images added in the posts of the blog. This option needs a previous design of the template that will be used in all campaigns.
- Multi-language: the plugin is now compatible with multilingual WP and allows sending newsletters for each language set up in the system.
- It allows you to send test emails.
Settings tab
A. Log into your MDirector account and access to ‘Settings ’ >’API Info’. If you have a freemium account you will have a 15 days API trial. In case your account is either Advanced or Premium you will have unlimited API access.
B. Copy consumer-key and consumer-secret values.
C. Access to the plugin’ settings tab and enter your consumer-key and consumer-secret to activate the plugin. It is necessary to click on ‘Save changes’ to apply the changes. Once this is done, the plugin will be activated and automatically detect every language has been enabled.
Then the system will automatically create as many pair of lists in your MDirector account as languages are activated, each pair being one for the weekly subscribers and another for the daily ones.
Example: If you WordPress is just in Spanish, two lists will be created: one for the weekly campaigns and another one for the daily campaigns.
nombre-de-mi-blog-daily-es
nombre-de-mi-glog-weekly-es
If you have set up three languages (Spanish, English and French), the system will create 6 lists: three for weekly campaigns and three for the daily campaigns.
nombre-de-mi-blog-daily-es
nombre-de-mi-blog-daily-en
nombre-de-mi-blog-daily-fr
nombre-de-mi-blog-weekly-es
nombre-de-mi-blog-weekly-en
nombre-de-mi-blog-weekly-fr
D. In the step 2 you have to mark the checkboxes for the campaigns that you want to be sent automatically, both daily and weekly. In addition, you can indicate the MDirector list the campaign will be sent to: it is possible to use either the lists the default ones the plugin has created in your account or the list you have already prepared.
If you want to find the list IDs, go to the ‘Contact’ tab and place your mouse over the name of list you want. The ID will show up in a tag. It can found at the bottom part of the screen:
E. In the step 3 enter the sender’s name.
F. Activate the step 4 if you wish to send weekly campaigns. You can choose to send the same subject every week (FIXED) or send a dynamic subject every week. This last option will be built up with a fixed part and the first or latest post of the week. Day of the week and time must be selected too.
G. Activate the step 5 if you wish to send daily campaigns. You can choose to send the same subject every day (FIXED) or send a dynamic subject every day. This last option will be built up with a fixed part and the first or latest post of the day. The time must be selected too.
H. Then you can also select those categories you want to exclude from automatic campaigns.
I. Save the settings for the plugin at bottom of the page.
J. If you want to create a test to see how your campaign would look like just before sending it, use the ‘Test’ tab. From there, you can select the alternative lists to send to.
K. Once it is set up, you can send your campaign immediately or wait until the scheduled. If you do not want to wait, just press ‘Send now’ or ‘Send test now’ from the according tab.
L. The step 9 “Reset date of the last daily and weekly campaign” is used to reset the date of the campaign so even tests have been sent, the system does not take them into consideration for the next scheduled date.
M. Now you can place the form/widget in your blog. Go to ‘Appearance’ > Widgets in your WordPress Menu and drag the MDirector widget to your sidebar. You will be able to set up a title, a description/summary that shows up on top of the form and a link and checkbox for the privacy policy and legal terms. It is ready! Your users can start subscribing.
N. Besides the widget, you can use a shortcode to place in the subscription form on any of your websites or any post of your blog. In order to do it, just add [mdirector_subscriptionbox] to the content of your webpages or posts. If you wish to edit the fell and look of the form, follow the next steps.
O. You can customize the appearance of a newsletter template sent to the contacts by creating a new template from the examples provided. You just need to create a new folder in the route /templates/ of your plugin directory following the guide so the system recognizes it (HTML/CSS knowledge required).
P. The plugin uses WP Cron, the scheduling time-based task system of WordPress, to send campaigns. WP Cron just works when the website receives visits, so the implementation in the scheduled time may not be accurate.
Additional notes
- If the plugin is updated it is probably that it will be necessary to set up any of the new features before using it again. So it is highly recommended to check the plugin settings after every update if you have scheduled any campaign.
- If there are no new posts during the indicated frequency of the campaigns (day or week), nothing will be sent. This applies to tests and alternative lists as well.
Tests tab
From this tab you can send tests to the lists indicated for the different languages as you can do in the same way in the Configuration tab, step 2. In case tests are activated, the campaigns will not be sent to the real lists indicated.
Modifying CSS styles of the subscription widget in WordPress
In order to modify the styles of the widget included in the MDirector plugin, different types have been added so the styles you want can be applied to each one.
If you wish to make any aesthetic changes (knowledge in CSS is required), follow the next steps:
1. Find the file .css on our website. This file is normally located in the active theme, in a route similar to the following one:
\htdocs\wordpress\wp-content\themes\MY_THEME\style.css
2. Open this file with an editor to add the needed styles to customise it.
3. If you wish to change the design of the form so it will look alike the website, new classes can be added to the style sheet for each element.
The predefined classes for each element are:
|
HTML CLASSES |
ELEMENT DESCRIPTION |
|
.widget-title |
Title |
|
.md__newsletter--description |
Title description |
|
.md__newsletter--form |
Form area (input, select, checkbox y button) |
|
.md__newsletter--area__input |
Area input |
|
.md_newsletter--email_input |
Email input |
|
.md__newsletter--area__select |
Part area of select |
|
.md__newsletter--select |
Checkbox of the daily or weekly newsletter |
|
.md__newsletter--area__suscribe |
Subscription area (checkbox, text y button) |
|
.md__newsletter--area__accept |
Checkbox area with the policy text |
|
.md__newsletter--accept.md__newsletter--accept |
Privacy Policy text |
|
.md__newsletter--area__button.md__newsletter--area__button |
Subscription button area |
|
.md_newsletter--button |
Subscription button |
Example
CSS code
.md_newsletter--email_input {
background-color: white;
width: 70%;
}
.md__newsletter—area__suscribe {
position: relative;
}
.md__newsletter—accept {
font-size: 11px;
}
.md__newsletter—area__button {
position: absolute;
right: 10%;
top: -60px;
}
.md_newsletter--button {
display: inline-block;
text-align: center;
padding: 12px 30px 13px;
-webkit-border-radius: 5px;
border-radius: 5px;
line-height: 1;
transition: all ease .3s;
background: grey;
color: white;
}
.md_newsletter—button:hover {
background-color: darkgrey;
}
NOTE: It should be taken into account that to see the form properly in a mobile device, the styles must be adapted.
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