Sending product updates and newsletters to buyers and non-buyers
What are Buyer Groups?
We automatically add each buyer's name and email to a Buyer Group list we maintain for each product they have purchased. For checkout methods that support an opt-in/-out selection, the buyer would only be added to your Buyer Group list(s) if they opted-in during checkout. PayPal Website Payments Standard does not have an opt-in/-out function, so those buyers will always be opted-in automatically.
NOTE: We can only send Updates/Newsletters to buyers whose emails are listed in a Buyer Group. Original buyer emails may not be listed in a Buyer Group if their address has since become undeliverable, or if they have unsubscribed from the list, or if they opted-out of joining the list in the first place during checkout.
Sending Updates
Update emails would issue free links to download the latest file you have uploaded for a product. Go to Seller Admin > Send Updates/Newsletter. Select the product you want to send out and optionally enter a custom Subject and Email Message. Select which Buyer Group(s) you want to receive the Update, then press Calculate Cost (see Pricing below). Once you make the payment (via PayPal) using the button provided there, the Update will be sent and you will be informed once that is completed.
If you do not provide a custom message when you send the Update, the product's standard thank-you email would be sent, so in this case first make sure the Subject and Email Message in the product's settings are satisfactory. The link provided in the Update emails will lead to your thank-you page for that product where buyers can download the file, and each recipient's link will expire after the number of Attempts and Hours (whichever comes first) that you specify in the product's settings -- just as if the recipient had actually purchased that product. You can preview the email which will go out, and the thank-you page reached via the link in that email, by sending yourself an email from Seller Admin > Send free download link.
NOTE: Products using any of the following settings will not be available for sending an Update:
- Send Stored/Generated Codes;
- Inventory Control;
- Send Transaction Data to a URL / Payment Variable Information URL;
- Remote Product File URL.
You can send Updates for such a product by temporarily disabling those features in the product's settings, then re-enable them if necessary after sending the Updates.
Sending Newsletters
Go to Seller Admin > Send Updates/Newsletter. Select Newsletter in the menu, then type a Subject and Email Message (plaintext only, no HTML). Select the Buyer Group(s) who should receive it, and press Calculate Cost (see Pricing below). Once you make the payment (via PayPal) using the button provided there, the Newsletter will be sent, and you will be informed once that is completed.
If you need more sophisticated features or more frequent mailings, we can recommend using a mailing list specialist service such as Aweber, MailChimp or GetResponse, which may be cheaper in the long run as well. You can integrate E-junkie with those services to have your new buyers automatically subscribed to a list you maintain there.
Removals and updating contact information
Whenever a payment is Refunded or Reversed, the buyer is automatically removed from the Buyer Group list(s) for the product(s) they'd purchased. To view or edit your Buyer Group lists or export your mailing list to a text file, log into your Seller Admin, and then while you're still logged in, just visit this link:
Before you send the update, you will be shown the cost to send the update in the Admin and you will need to pay it using the button there to send the update. Our pricing for updates is calculated based on the following rules for each recipient:
- For each unique email address in the list:
- 2.0 cents base cost
+ 1.0 cent per file (if applicable)
+ 0.4 cents per MB of the file (if applicable)
NOTES:
- The minimum total cost of sending an update is $1.00 USD.
- We put a delay of 1 second between sending each email.
