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I thought we’d kick off what should be a particularly fruitful new year by introducing a useful integration - Digital Delivery App. For those planning to sell digital content like eBooks, a Louis CK-style video or software, or paid subscriptions, this is a full-featured and remarkably easy-to-use service at a modest price. With Campaign Monitor integration built-in, this app can automatically add email addresses of paying customers to a subscriber list, which is ideal if you’re planning to send post-purchase autoresponder emails, notifications and product-related campaigns.

What’s better, the Digital Delivery App team offer fairly comprehensive support, via both their site and email. We took a moment to set up an account, upload products and get both Campaign Monitor and PayPal integration happening. Now, if only we really had something fancy to sell...

Add a 'Buy Now' button to your site in 10 minutes

The loveliness of Digital Delivery App is that it asks for so little, yet gives so much in return. Upon creating an account (free for the first 30 days), you are run through initial setup process that sorts out the fundamentals of selling content online - namely, selecting a payment gateway and adding something to sell. The fastest way to get up and running is to have a PayPal, Google Checkout, AlertPay or Stripe account already linked to the email address you signed up with... And of course, to have that ‘something’ either ready to upload, or already hosted somewhere.

What we found particularly generous is that the app offers to host your sellable digital content. Once you upload your files to the app, simply take the ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Add to Cart’ button code it generates for each product and add it to an existing site. It even generates license keys to prevent software products from being looted.

Alternately, you can host everything yourself and only use Digital Delivery App to handle the transaction side of things.

Once you’ve gotten to this point in the setup process, you probably would have noticed how all-encompassing the app is. It unfurls like a flower as you click on top-level options, revealing the facility to offer discount codes, create referral codes, send post-purchase order emails, sell packages of products and view detailed reports. There’s even an API and web interface for webhooks. While Digital Delivery App shares much in common with the big-name shopping cart and e-commerce apps out there, it does so without feeling bloated, or requiring you to install anything on your end.

Automate your post-purchase email marketing

Digital Delivery App scratches two little itches that we’ve had for a while now, being the sending of transactional email and pushing email addresses from checkout to subscriber list. As mentioned earlier, the app handles the sending of customizable, plain-text order emails, with a link to the digital item the customer just purchased. As a template already exists in Digital Delivery App for this, the app will automatically start sending these personalized emails from the very first order.

Secondly, once you’ve set up Campaign Monitor integration, you can count on Digital Delivery App to add the email addresses of new customers to an existing subscriber list in your account. All you need is your account’s API key and a List ID.

As a result, you can start sending a series of autoresponders upon purchase - for instance, polling new customers for feedback - or simply add email addresses to a ‘Paying customers’ list to receive relevant updates (taking into account permission, of course). Digital Delivery App also offers subscription-based transactions, meaning that you can offer paid newsletter subscriptions, access to exclusive tutorials or similar paywalled content for a recurring fee.

No win, no fee

Just like those legal practices you see on late-night TV, Digital Delivery App doesn't charge unless you make a sale during the monthly billing cycle. So if you take a few months off selling things, you don't have to cancel your account. All accounts come with a 30 day free trial (during which you don't have to commit your credit card/PayPal details), after which your plan comes into effect. With monthly plans starting from $9 USD per month, it's not exactly a wallet-burner, either.

After spending a few entertaining moments setting up a faux store for Minecraft maps, it was fairly clear to us that this will be a useful integration to customers who would like to offer paid content without having to use a fully-blown eCommerce platform. If this sounds like you, swing on over to their site, take a tour and give it a try. After all, good content sells - just ask Louis CK.

As you (and probably your wallet) know, this is the season for giving, as well as reflecting. So while the tinsel gets taken down for yet another year at Campaign Monitor -sponsored Xmas events like WebBlast Sydney, lets look at some of the events we've supported via our Giving Back Program and hopefully, get you involved in the year ahead.

Our Giving Back Program has supported dozens of web design and development events for close to three years now, plus offered free accounts to select email senders. So if you're running an event in the new year that you think could benefit from pizza, beer, a tweet-out and free email credits on us, it's a great time to get in touch.

What kind of events do you support?

Since our first event in 2009, Campaign Monitor have powered our email newsletters and helped cover our running costs. We don't advertise, so it's only through word-of-mouth and email that we can spread the news. We wouldn't be able to run Ignite Sydney without their support.
- Stephen Lead, Ignite Sydney

Our Giving Back Program is all about returning the favor to the web designers and developers who have stood by us since Campaign Monitor's humble beginnings back in 2004. Since the Program's launch, we've had the pleasure of getting behind events that resonate with us and our customers, including Semi-Permanent and both Refresh and Ignite internationally. We even power newsletters for SXSW... And attend!

That said, you don't have to run a high-profile conference to qualify - smaller design-focused gigs like BAMMD and user groups like EEUK very regularly get a hat-tip from us.

How can I get involved?

If your event could benefit from a free Campaign Monitor account, a modest bar tab (like our friends at the Portsmouth Freelancers Meet, pictured) or email credits as a door prize, let us know and we'll be sure to give it a look. We're especially keen to visit your website and get the lowdown on previous events, so be sure to pass on those details, too.

Finally, a huge thanks to everyone who has invited us to support their gathering, or attended an event that we sponsored this year. As the Giving Back Program continues to gain momentum, we're looking forward to enlivening more design nights, dishing out more pizza and giving more to people like you.

We're keen to explore other meaningful ways we can give back to the web community, so if you have a suggestion as to how we can make a positive impact on what you do, from providing more design resources, to getting the word out about your design meetup, pop us a line, or let us know in the comments below. All of us here are looking forward to making 2012 an awesome one for you and your clients!

With only a few days to go before Christmas, I suspect a few of you are scrambling to get your campaigns out before we all tune out for the holidays. So we've collected some of our favorite seasonal campaigns and ideas in a last-minute holiday email round-up, to get you fired up during this last sprint. After all, it's not too late to create and send your email greetings, especially when using our template builder!

But that's not all - we've also got an easy-to-use 'Season's Greetings' email template, free to use and tweak. Plus, if you send a holiday-themed campaign in December, you will also go into the running to win our annual holiday email competition, so hop in your sleigh and go!

Nine inspiring Christmas email designs by our customers

From animated GIFs to pixel art, here are some of our old and new favorite Christmas email designs, including a template builder creation by Tangelo, tees by Threadless and image-free pixel art by Style Campaign. Click to view these campaigns:

Thinking it may be too late to send your own design? Up next, we have an email template that you can load up in your account to share the love.

Send a sprinkle of snow with our holiday email template

Last week, we added a charming 'Seasons Greetings' design to our collection of 100+ free email templates. Featuring pure CSS animation and rock solid email client support, it's great for sharing a sprinkle of holiday cheer!

Even if you caught it back then, it's worth getting the refreshed version for the recent updates, including smoother snow in Chrome and snow in Firefox. With hardly a day to lose before Christmas, it's time to get started on your holiday campaign!

Finally, our holiday email competition for 2011

As is our tradition at this time of year, we've got a sack-load of goodies to give to our customers in our annual holiday email design competition. One lucky winner will receive a:

• Kindle Fire *
• FitBit Ultra, or ~ $100 to back the Kickstarter project of their choice
• 50,000 email credits

* For non-US customers, we can arrange an alternative prize

In addition, 3 runners up will receive a prize of 10,000 email credits each. That's a lot of free emails to kick off 2012!

How to enter win

To go into the running, simply send a holiday-themed campaign during December - if you have already, then you're in it to win it! Our team will be sifting through and shortlisting Christmas campaigns as part of their regular review process, then selecting our winners in early 2012. If you've got an outstanding campaign that you think should make the cut, you're welcome to send us a link, too!

Finally, we're not looking for Hallmark card tackiness, just technically and visually awesome HTML emails. If your email campaign displays nicely across the major email clients, has a few mobile optimizations and is an actual email design, not an awkwardly resized website, then there's a great chance that it will be shortlisted. Image-only emails may look nice at first glance, but aren't likely be chosen by the guys and gals here.

Now we've got you inspired, templated up and motivated, it's time for you to crank out those end-of-year campaigns - good luck and happy sending!