Barack Obama Fundraising Campaign Chooses CakeMail!

I am pleased to announce that Opera Strategies & Corchia-Woliner-Rhoda (the group behind AnObamaMinute.com) has chosen CakeMail as their email marketing platform. In their effort to raise over a million dollars in 1 minute, at 1pm (ET) on April 21^st, AnObamaMinute.com is using CakeMail viral email marketing to help spread the word & drive new participant registrations. Within the first 24 hours of its launch on Tuesday April 8th, the An Obama Minute campaign generated over 4,200 page views and over 430 new opt-in email addresses. Special thanks to the whole team for making it happen: Scott, Michelle, Todd, Adam & Vic.  At this rate, hitting their goal should be a piece of cake!

Check it out here.

CakeMail Launches Website Redesign

Following the successful launch of CakeMail Version 1.3, CakeMail and The Code Kitchen are happy to announce the launch of the redesigned CakeMail website: www.cakemail.com. The overall objective of the redesign is to make the CakeMail website content easily accessible, more concise and more inclusive to our different user groups. We believe this updated look and structure will allow visitors to find the information they need fast, without heavy marketing jargon.

First, you will notice a new lay-out we believe is less cluttered and makes more effective use of space. We have modeled the new website after the stock CakeMail user interface; easy, clean and concise. Of course we have kept the corporate Cake color scheme, but we believe the information is now laid-out in a much more intuitive manner.

The new structure maintains a good working balance between CakeMail’s key products and services, news content, developer material, and an overall view of the business of email marketing. It clearly highlights our programs such as Open CakeMail (you host your interface), Hosted CakeMail (we host your interface), as well as our API. Also, it more clearly highlights many important features such as our forum, key downloadable information as well as our new CakeMail blog!

CakeMail’s open-innovation approach extends to our marketing effort. So please check-out our new site, and as usual, let us know how we can improve it. In the coming weeks, there will be more blog posts to update you on new and exciting additions to our site, and product line. So if you haven’t already, I strongly suggest you subscribe to the CakeMail RSS feed. There are lots of exciting things cooking!

Release 1.3 of the CakeMail Interface

CakeMail is pleased to announce its latest release of the CakeMail open interface, version 1.3. All CakeMail hosted interfaces are updated automatically. If you are hosting your own interface, you can download it at: http://www.cakemail.com/download/

Template creation & management

To help speed-up the mailing creation process, CakeMail users can easily create professional templates, and then access them through their template library. CakeMail Resellers can use the CakeMail template management tool to reduce demands on creative resources, by offering their clients a set of system- or user-based mailing templates.

Improved reporting

CakeMail reporting is more powerful than ever. With a simple mouse click, CakeMail users can download detailed mailing results information like who opened the mailing, who clicked on a link, and which email addresses are no longer valid. Leveraging the data from prior mailings, users can instantly generate open and click-through lists and use them to ensure timely, personalized and relevant responses.

Automated install script

There is great news for CakeMail resellers who host their interface on their own servers. CakeMail now has an install script that will automatically validate server pre-requisites, install the UI, and look for recent updates. So now you don’t have to worry about manually searching for and installing updates, all you have to do is run the CakeMail install script!

Job offer: Marketing Manager

CakeMail is an open-architecture, multilingual email marketing platform. CakeMail’s layered design is specifically meant for interactive marketing agencies, software companies, and web firms looking for an easy way to add email automation to their offering, synchronize data sources, reinforce their own brand, and add to their bottom line.

What you’ll do

• Work with Sales, and Product Development groups to drive projects.
• Define and implement a customer communications and lead generation strategy.
• Contribute to the product improvement process.
• Manage CakeMail’s main web property, www.cakemail.com
• Blog.
• Track and improve the conversion rate of website visitors and product trailers.
• Develop marketing plan in conjunction with sales department.
• Collaborate with PR resources.
• Determine ROI on marketing operations.
• Report and present competitive intelligence.
• Define market research studies to gain knowledge about user attitudes and behavior.
• Develop collateral that optimally positions the strengths of our products.
• Analyze potential partner relationships.
• Contribute to industry discussions online, such as the Email Marketer’s Club.

Essential ingredients

• BA/BS degree, MBA a plus.
• Four plus years experience in product marketing, direct marketing, marketing program management, or consulting.
• Knowledge of the Email Marketing industry.
• Outstanding written and oral communication skills.
• Focused on results.
• Attention to detail and organization.
• Strong organizational and analytical skills.
• Strong aptitude for determining the optimal way to position products in the market.
• Understanding of the search and online advertising market.
• Understanding of CakeMail’s strategic and competitive position.

Compensation

• Competitive salary.
• Generous options package.
• Possibility of working remotely from anywhere in the world.
• Cupcakes and cool T-shirts!

Release 1.2.0 of the CakeMail Interface

Version 1.2.0 of the CakeMail interface is now ready for download at
http://www.cakemail.com/download/

All hosted reseller interfaces has been updated.

New features

• Added default permission groups for new accounts for easier rights management (Create Mailing, Send Mailing, Mailing Stats, Manage Lists, View List Members, Create User, Set User Permissions)
• Changed themes structure to allow easier interface upgrade

Changes

• Image upload is now limited to 200 KB per image
• We’ve hidden the mailing list selector on Mailing Overview page when no other mailings are there to be selected
• We’ve added the “Search” permission in ClassList in Group edit page
• We’ve removed “alt text” on logo image

Bug fixes

• List upload is now working with register_globals on
• CSV import now supports fields enclosed by double quotes
• UTF-8 support fixed on list renaming
• Corrected display of “Preview in Web Browser”
• Removed confirmation when no test emails are checked
• Hide completely the List submenu when there are no Archived lists
• Validates for empty of the import list form
• Corrected position where the error template is included in some templates
• Fixed mime-type in CSV export (now fully supports UTF-8)
• Signup email copyright link fixed
• Mailing delivering progress bar fixed

(Originally posted in our forum)

End-User Documentation for CakeMail Interface v1.1

We’ve posted end-user documentation here:
http://www.cakemail.com/download/documentation/

The document, available in Word and OpenDocument format, can be edited, re-branded and redistributed to clients in any format by CakeMail Resellers.

Suggestions and contributions are welcome.

(Originally posted in our forum)

Release 1.1.0 of the CakeMail Interface

The CakeMail Interface release 1.1.0 is now available here:
http://www.cakemail.com/download/

New features

• added “Insert/Edit Image” icon to the Fckeditor and support for individual client’s image folder and absolute urls for images
• upgraded HTML Editor (works on Safari and Opera too)
• added “LIKE %..%” option for sublists (segmentation)
• added new types for the new fields of a list (available now: text, integer, timestamp)

Changes

• emails for sending the tests in mailing step 3 are not checked by default

Bug fixed

• validate empty campaign and mailing names
• encoding special chars when previewing the HTML/TEXT messages in mailing step 3
• Ajax utf8 display in Safari
• URL encoded and HTML encoded all the content that is displayed (against XSS attacks)
• no slashes in campaign names for some characters (e.g.: quotes) when renaming
• displaying the returned exception when trying to create a group with an empty name
• using double quotes in group names, user names and client page
• replaced hardcoded htdocs/ paths with BASE_PATH
• lists loading stopping on click, in create mailing step 1 (recipients)
• update saved forward page
• mailing stats page title
• font path for graphs is now defined in global file

(Originally posted in our forum)

CakeMail Customer Hub

We’re releasing today the CakeMail Customer Hub at
https://hub.cakemail.com/

This interface allows CakeMail’s customers to:

• List their opened client accounts
• View their client’s monthly email volume
• Manage their client’s sending limits
• See their billing history with CakeMail

This is just the beginning. In the next months, we’ll add more and more features to this interface, thereby allowing our customers to sell the service more efficiently.

As usual, we welcome suggestions and comments.

Job offer: Deliverability Manager

We recently doubled the staff at our Montreal office with the addition of a sales and account management team, and welcomed an additional programmer to our development group in Eastern Europe. This brings us to a total of 11 people in the combined family of The Code Kitchen and CakeMail.

But we’re not stopping there! We’re seeking a Deliverability Manager to build on our in-house expertise as we expand. We’re offering a year’s worth of email delivery (150,000 sends/month) and CakeMail schwag for a successful referral, by the way!

Why join CakeMail?

• Belong to a friendly, tight-knit team of talented, entrepreneurial people.
• Be part of a stimulating startup.
• Work with a truly innovative email marketing platform.
• Blaze new trails by forging relationships beyond the major ISPs worldwide.
• Telecommute from anywhere or come enjoy the great quality of life and culture that Montreal has to offer.

What you’ll do

• Build on the ISP relationships established since 2002 during our founder’s previous venture.
• Maintain feedback loop programs and white listing.
• Resolve email filtering and blocking issues.
• Monitor black lists and sender reputation.
• Augment delivery-related data analytics.
• Work with account managers to prevent, communicate and resolve deliverability issues.
• Keep abreast of industry best practices, trends and legal changes and share this knowledge with team members and resellers.
• Participate actively in the email marketing and anti-spam communities.
• Contribute to industry discussions online, such as ReputationWiki.org and the Email Marketer’s Club.
• Collaborate with in-house and third-party developers to hook various deliverability services into the CakeMail API.
• Aid resellers in adopting best practices for content, creative, timing, data and trust-building.
• Propose inventive ways to improve deliverability.
• Have fun doing what you do!

Essential ingredients

• Experience in ISP relations (2 - 5 years preferred).
• Familiarity with delivery policies and procedures at major ISPs.
• Technical knowledge of email delivery, filtering and authentication.
• Familiarity with privacy and anti-spam policies and laws.
• Strong problem-solving skills.
• Attention to detail and organization.
• Effective interpersonal communication skills.

Icing on the cake:

• Excellent written English, and a strong interest in blogging.
• Knowledge of other languages.
• Experience with Linux and DNS administration.
• Enthusiasm for open source and the collaborative Web.

Compensation:

• Competitive salary.
• Generous options package.
• Possibility of working remotely from anywhere in the world.

Please send your CV and any other pertinent information or links to jobs@cakemail.com and let us know your salary expectations and (re)location preferences.

New API beta release

Our API build 4153 in entering testing period on https://beta.api.cakemail.com.

This API being completely distinct from the live one, new accounts needs to be created to be able to test it, as well as API ID and Key if you wish to hook up to it directly (contact us at hi@cakemail.com).

This version of the API can also be accessed through our interface installed here:
http://beta.cakemail.com/.

Here are the new features in this API release:
o DKIM & DomainKey Support (configuration needed)
o Improved mailing performance
o Added information in headers
o Possibility of external MTA relay servers

Comments are welcome as we’re eager to put this release live.

(Originally posted in our forum)