Overview

VerticalResponse is an email marketing company that provides "self-service email marketing", online surveys, and direct mail service. VerticalResponse works directly with email providers such as Yahoo!, Google, and AOL to ensure the highest possible delivery rates for their users. Their platform includes powerful list management tools and detailed delivery reports, both of which are available through the VerticalResponse Enterprise API.

The Drupal VerticalResponse module provides an interface through which administrators can easily deliver content generated on a Drupal website to any number of mailing lists subscribers using VerticalResponse. This article will provide a brief history of the module's development, highlight some of the functionality that is currently available, and begin a discussion about which features and feature refinements are still needed.

VerticalResponse for Drupal

The Drupal VerticalResponse module began as a simple utility that allowed users to signup for a VerticalResponse mailing list. In the first round of development this feature was constructed out of a CCK field formatter. Administrators would create a content type specifically for describing a mailing list or lists and add the VerticalResponse CCK widget. In the final step, administrators would create a mailing list node and select which lists should be associated with that node. The CCK field formatter would then display the related mailing lists as a signup form on the mailing list node. This approach provided a signup page on the mailing list node, and potentially a signup block using views.

The second round of development added simple list management, which basically recreated some of the list management features that were available in VerticalResponse such as "create" and "delete" operations for lists and "add", "remove", "suppress", and "unsubscribe" operations for list members.

It soon became apparent that it was necessary to create a tool that would allow administrators and developers to quickly map properties of a Drupal user object to VerticalResponse list member fields. We chose the Views module to act as a field mapper for the VerticalResponse module. Once added, administrators could use a view to describe complex user objects in Drupal, and then map the object's properties to their corresponding list member properties in VerticalResponse.

The most recently added feature allows administrators to compile new mailing lists from existing lists. The feature compiles list members from several mailing lists based on a common criteria. For example, an administrator might compile a mailing list of all Pennsylvania residents by querying all of their mailing lists for individuals with an address that contains "Pennsylvania" or "PA." This feature is commonly referred to as "list segmentation".

Finally, the Drupal VerticalResponse module can be used in conjunction with the Basic E-news module to create campaign content, which can then be sent to list members from many lists (as seen below).