Upgrading to V7

[dawn8]

I am currently using Business V4 and am thinking of upgrading to V7 and have a few queries about what I can achieve with it so would appreciate if anyone could help me out.

1. My client has asked to be able to send out an email to all registered customers advertising new products that have been added, I would like them to be HTML emails if possible - can this be done within Actinic?

2. I use GoLive to build the rest of the site - is there an easier way to inetgrate the design into Actinic or is it the same as in V4 - ie changing the templates already there? Has it been made any easier to change the template files?

3. I am currently using Mac OS 10.4.6 (I will obviously be building on PC though) and am wondering if I set it up a server, is it possible for me to test the website on here before I upload to my current host? I've not used the server feature before on my Mac (or PC for that matter) so will I be making more work for myself. I suppose the easiest way would be to set up a different folder on my current host to test it whilst still running my old site. Any suggestions on the best workflow for this as I want to redesign it too?

4. I don't currently receive emails telling me that I have orders waiting (something to do with sendmail and my host) will I be able to with V7?

5. What are the other advantages of upgrading to V7?

Thanks for any help with this.

Dawn

[wjcampbe]

Is there a pressing need to upgrade now or is it maybe worth hanging out for v8?

[dawn8]

When will V8 be out? I suppose if it's not too long I may as well wait. Any suggestions to my questions on V7 anyway?

[jont]

v8 is supposed to be out this year but nobody except Actinic knows for sure and they will not tell for love nor money!

1. Jan has a plugin over at mole-end.biz for that type of marketing

2. templates are still there in v7

3. pass on the MAC stuff but you can set up a server to test locally or as you suggest upload to a test area on a live server is the easier option rather than getting dirty with server software

4. yes

5. DUPLICATE PRODUCTS ... plus other great stuff such as DUPLICATE PRODUCTS .. it's worth the upgrade alone

If you go with v7 may be worth taking out the cover to get a free upgrade to v8 if released within 12 months of purchase of v7

[dawn8]

Thanks for the reply jont it was very helpful. Just a couple more questions though:

1. Will I be able to use the free version of Groupmail with Actinic or will I need to get the advanced one?

2. Will I be able to use GroupMail for other campaigns too ie can it be used as many times as I like or is it specific to a certain database? Does this make much sense??

3. I'm thinking of just getting the Basic version of the Marketing for Actinic as I figured if I do find I need to upgrade it doesn't actually cost anymore than getting the advanced version straight away - what do you think?

Thanks again.

[remmo]

Hi Dawn,

About Groupmail:
I'm not sure what you want to do but I've bougght the personal version (about $100) which allows me to set up a subscriber newsletter (ie will handle subscribes/unsubscribes automatically). Haven't yet gotten to the stage of importing Actinic data but don't think this will be a problem.

I'm still new with Groupmail but you can set up more than one list of addresses (or groups).

Hope this helps

[jont]

GroupMail is not specific to Actinic but can be used relatively easy with it .. especially if you have one of Jan's marketing tools to extract users names and email addresses.

The free version works very well with just a couple of minor niggles that are surmountable.

1. the group sizes are limited to 100 names - therefore simply create as many groups as you like as mentioned by Remmo and limit them to 99 per group (top tip - keep a master copy with all the names in there and then copy them out to smaller groups - it makes merging the updated imports much simpler)

2. it uses your own SMTP connection which is generally not an issue but the paid for version features its own server and fires out the emails much more quickly. It did a batch of about 600 and it took around 20 mins using SBS server as the free version only open I think 4 connections at a time.

Go with the free version as it does just about everything over the paid for version... then main reason for upgrading (at very little cost) is the size of the groups and the unsubscribe/subscribe facility which should prove very useful and save much time in maintaining the database