DadsFam Email Marketing

Changelog

4.0.3 – 2026-11-07

Works better with cache plugins. Nothing changes in how you use it.

• A page address with a ?dadsfam_em= part the plugin does not recognise is now left alone, so a cache plugin can still keep a fast copy of that page. Only the plugin’s own email links (opens, clicks, unsubscribing, confirming) and the email preferences page are kept out of the cache.
• Open and click links in emails sent by version 3 are now kept out of the cache too, like the newer links, so every open still counts.
• Behind the scenes, every number read from a form or a link is now cleaned the standard WordPress way.

4.0.2 – 2026-10-28

More safety work behind the scenes. Nothing changes in how you use it.

• Every button and form on the plugin’s screens now checks its security key and your permission in the very place it reads what was sent.
• The sign-up form now always carries a security key, also on pages a cache plugin keeps for days: it fetches a fresh one just before it sends.
• The buttons on the email preferences page are now handled at an address of their own, instead of being looked for on every page of your site.
• The WooCommerce checkout tick box is now read by WooCommerce itself, together with the rest of the checkout.
• A link in an email whose address starts with a personal tag (such as {{first_name}}) can now only lead to your own site, so nobody can turn it into a redirect elsewhere by signing up with a web address as their name.

4.0.1 – 2026-10-28

Networks of sites, and safety work behind the scenes.

• WordPress networks (multisite): switching the plugin on for the whole network now sets up every site, however many there are. On a very big network the rest carries on in the background, and a site that has not been reached yet sets itself up the first time it is visited.
• Switching it off for the whole network now stops its background tasks on every site, and deleting a site from the network removes that site’s email tables too.
• The Email Marketing box on the dashboard now has a small style sheet of its own, so the plugin’s full styles only load on its own screens.
• The sign-up form now carries a security key for people who are logged in to your site, and it is checked when they sign up. Visitors who are not logged in see exactly the same form as before, so it still works on cached pages.
• Every form field is now read only after its security check has passed, and everything shown on screen or put into an email is made safe at the moment it is printed.

4.0.0 – 2026-10-25

Version 4 is a complete rebuild. Every screen is new, sending is safer, and every feature is free.

A Home screen that tells you where you stand

• The Home screen answers the question that matters in one sentence: is your email ready to go, sending, or in need of something?
• A short setup checklist walks you through the few things worth doing once, and disappears when you are done.
• Big buttons for the things you do most, a live feed of sign-ups, opens and clicks, and a plain-English “If something goes wrong” guide.
• Works properly on a phone.

Writing a campaign

• A new editor with a live preview of the finished email, on a phone or on a computer, that updates as you type.
• Add a button, a personal greeting such as “Hi Jane” or a picture in one tap.
• Your work saves itself as you go.
• Inbox check by DadsFam AI: before you send, it looks for spam-trigger words, a missing preview line, broken personal greetings, link shorteners, pictures without a description and more, and gives the email a score out of 100.
• Send to one group, several groups, everyone except some groups, or only the people who did not open an earlier email.
• Schedule a campaign for later, with a suggested best time learned from when your own readers open their email.

Sending

• Campaigns send in the background at a speed your hosting can cope with, and keep going after you close the page.
• Pause, carry on or stop a send at any time. If the mail server starts refusing emails, sending pauses itself instead of working through your whole list.
• Every email carries a one-click unsubscribe that big inbox providers such as Gmail and Yahoo look for, plus a plain-text version. Both help emails land in the inbox.
• A cleaner email design with your logo, colour, footer, address and social links.

Subscribers and groups

• A faster list with search, filters and actions that work on thousands of people at once.
• People can now be in more than one group.
• Importing a spreadsheet is three steps: drop the file in, check the columns, done. Mistyped addresses such as gmial.com are spotted for you.
• WooCommerce: import your customers, and add a newsletter tick box to the checkout (the classic checkout and the new block checkout).
• A sign-up form block and shortcode, with an optional confirmation email, built-in spam protection and an optional welcome email.
• A preferences page where subscribers choose which groups they hear about, or leave, with an optional reason.

Reports

• Every campaign has a report: who opened it, who clicked, the most popular links and who left.
• A Reports screen shows how your list is growing and how your campaigns compare.
• A list health check finds people who never open your emails, addresses that look mistyped and sign-ups that were never confirmed.

Remote control

• AI assistants and apps can now find this plugin by themselves on WordPress 6.9 and later. In version 3 they were attached to an older hook name that WordPress itself never calls, so assistants could only reach them through the REST routes.
• New abilities: the inbox check, pausing and resuming a send, adding people to and taking them out of a group, the list health check and the best time to send.
• The REST address is now /wp-json/dadsfam-email-marketing/v1/ (it was /wp-json/dfem/v1/). The ability names are unchanged.
• On a new site, remote control stays off until you switch it on.

Privacy and safety

• Works with the WordPress privacy tools, so you can export or erase everything held about one person.
• A link in an email can only ever lead to an address that was in that email.
• Open and click counting can be switched off, and IP addresses are not kept unless you choose to keep them.
• The email preferences page shows one person’s details, so caching plugins never keep a copy and search engines are asked not to list it.

Coming from version 3

• Everything moves across by itself the first time version 4 runs: subscribers, groups, campaigns, opens and clicks, settings and the remote control switches. The old data is left untouched as a safety net.
• Unsubscribe and tracking links in emails you sent with version 3 keep working.
• Every feature is free now, so the licence key screen is gone.