New connection requests: The best ways to request an integration to your email service provider

We get a lot of email service provider (ESP) integration requests and look seriously into each one of them. Here are some common scenarios we encounter and what you can do to significantly increase the likelihood of getting your ESP connected.

We’ve already planned it for the upcoming quarter

This is the best case scenario: The ESP you’re requesting is already on our roadmap and it’s just a matter of time before we integrate with them. As a guideline, we typically add new 2-5 ESPs at the end of each quarter.

What you can do:

Feel free to email us to ask which ESPs we are planning to integrate for this quarter. Or follow us on Twitter to keep up to date on our latest integrations.

Not enough people have requested this ESP right now

We try to add 2-5 new ESPs at the end of each quarter.

Which ESPs and how many we implement depends on:

• The popularity of the ESP and how frequently it’s requested
• How difficult it is to integrate (this depends on the quality of the API and documentation)

What you can do:

Feel free to email us to request your ESP or ask us which we are planning to integrate this quarter. Or follow us on Twitter to keep up to date on our latest integrations.

If you have friends who would also like to use this ESP, get them to email us too so that we have a better gauge of how popular the request is.

Sometimes, even when we want to integrate with an ESP, our hands are tied, which brings me to the last scenario…

Your ESP is missing necessary API endpoints

It’s also common for an ESP to be missing the necessary API endpoints. This prevents us from connecting with them.

When this happens, we often reach out to the ESP and let them know what we need in order to connect with them.

Customers can also ask the ESP directly, which might motivate them to prioritise building the necessary features.

What you can do:

First, you’re always welcome to email us directly and request a new connection.

But if you’d like to get a quicker answer yourself, you can check out the ESP’s developer docs to see if they have the necessary API endpoints which allow us to connect with them in the first place.

Here’s what you should look out for:

1. Send campaign immediately to specific lists or segments. (Ability to select more than one segment at a time is a bonus) (compulsory)
2. Accept full custom html (compulsory)
3. Verify email addresses programmatically (important)
4. Send test email to any email address (important)
5. Save campaign as draft in the ESP without sending it (important)
6. Mergetags for email personalisation (important)
7. Ability to set preview text (bonus)

If they’re lacking these endpoints, it’s unlikely we can connect with them.

In which case you can either let us know and we’ll get in touch with the ESP on your behalf once enough people have requested for it.

Or you could email your ESP to let them know which API endpoints they need to build. This is helpful because these API endpoints are not special to Newsletter Glue and it’s likely that other customers have already requested similar endpoints which greatly increases your chances of them building it.

Here’s a script you can use to send to your ESP: