MailChimp Newsletter Sidebox

[swguy]

The MailChimp Newsletter Integration has been updated to allow customers to signup for your newsletter at account creation time. PLEASE READ THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY; there are a couple of new steps due to changes in the API. Note that if you are also running Newsletter Discounts for MailChimp, you must upgrade that module too.

[ts232]

Hi swguy,

Thanks for the update! I installed the new version over the old and made changes. The sidebox signup is working great. However the signup with account creation did not propagate over to the mailchimp as a subscription. The MailChimp signup shows up fine on the signup page, but after creating the account the signup never shows up over on mailchimp. When checking customer details within zencart, the subscription status checks out fine.

Any ideas on what to check?

Also, I have a more general question on how best to use this. I had been planning to offer a free shipping coupon in the sidebox signup as an inducement for customers, and then mailchimp sends the coupon code on the "Subscription Confirmed" email. But what happens for the customer who signs up for the newsletter via the sidebox, and then again from the zencart Create Account page? Will two mailchimp subscribers be created with the same email address, or is the system smart enough to deal with the duplicates?

[swguy]

The signup at account create is also double-opt-in, so the email address you used has a confirmation mail outstanding. Once this confirm link is clicked, you will see the email address in your MailChimp list.

[ts232]

The problem is that I am not getting that opt-in confirmation email when using the Create Account signup. It shows up fine with the sidebox signup.

One thing I noticed is that there is no visible difference in the CreateAccount process when including the

if ((int)$newsletter >= 1) { 
    mailchimp_add($email_address, $email_format);
} 

fragment in create_account.php. Is this a sign that the mod is not registering on that page? Should there be a visible difference?

[swguy]

There is no visible difference.
Did you follow all the installation steps including getting an API key?

[ts232]

There is no visible difference.
Did you follow all the installation steps including getting an API key?

Yes, I generated a new API key for the install. I am guessing that the code fragment above is adding some hidden form fields to the Create Account page that would show up when looking at page source?

I did a View Source and diff on the Create Account page with and without the

if ((int)$newsletter >= 1) { 
    mailchimp_add($email_address, $email_format);
} 

fragment included, and saw no difference between the browser output.

[swguy]

There's no additional output. This is a PHP function call.

Please look in your cache directory to see if there's a MailChimp.log file.

[ts232]

OK, I found the problem, and it was mine.

I had inserted the php code into the wrong location in create_account.php.

Everything seems to be working beautifully now. I did a signup via the sidebox, and then later for the same email address via create_account and mailchimp (and your mod) seemed to handle it perfectly. (i.e. no bounce on "this email already exists", or requirement to reverify email address).

Thank you so much for this great mod. I hope to start getting my newsletter act together with it finally.

[ts232]

So what do folks think about fields to use for the mailing list? I am debating if it is worth modifying this mod to include collection of first (and maybe last) name also.

On the one hand, email opening and reading rates go up significantly when the recipients first name is included in the subject and body of the email.

On the other hand, people are more likely to fill out the subscribe form if there are fewer fields to fill out.

Opinions?

[swguy]

Not a big fan of extra fields. KISS.