I’m excited to announce a couple of new Fireside Email™ features that have been widely requested by you! We’re happy that we are able to continue to innovate to meet the needs of all our Congressional clients.

Please keep the feedback coming!

1. The automatic unsubscribe link is now embedded in test messages. This should eliminate the need to use a dummy audience to get a test for franking approval and, in turn, eliminate clutter in the Fireside Email™ Administration page.
2. Ability to disable the unsubscribe link. We’ve heard many of you are using Fireside Email™ to target and track messages to press contacts. Now, you can disable the automatic unsubscribe link in messages to these targets. Look for the checkbox on Step 1 of sending a message.
3. Automatic survey results page. This will be a welcome addition for many offices. Take a look at your Form Administration page and you will see a new column for “Responses.” That gives you a count of the total number of participants. Just click the link to see a detailed report.

We plan to have a couple of more new feature announcements in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

The office of Rep. Peter Roskam recently launched a new initiative on their web site to better interact with their constituents.

The Have you ever thought… page solicits legislative ideas from their constituents:

Roskam will be seeking legislative ideas from all of his constituents on what they believe are the solutions to some of the toughest issues our communities face today. While many of the ideas expected to be received will be Federal in nature, several thoughts may be addressed by the State. As such, Roskam invited all state legislators from both political parties who serve his constituents to join him, in hopes that he can refer any offered solutions onto his colleagues on the State level, where appropriate.

This is a simple and effective device to engage constituents. Well done!