Apparatus and Method for Interactive Email

• US 20110252103A1
• Filed: 04/07/2011
• Published: 10/13/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Groupery, Inc.
• Original Assignee: The Groupery, Inc.
• Inventors: Beyer, David, Lancaster, Darren, Frivold, Thane
• Granted Patent: US 9,471,899 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases

Abstract

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium includes executable instructions to deliver to a community of users an email with a widget including a graphical user interface that solicits input. Solicited input is collected from the community of users via the widget. The email is revised to dynamically display at least a portion of the solicited input.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions to:

deliver to a community of users an email with a widget including a graphical user interface that solicits input;

collect from the community of users, via the widget, solicited input; and

revise the email to dynamically display at least a portion of the solicited input.

2. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the email has a plurality of optimized formats for a corresponding plurality of email handlers.

3. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 2 wherein an optimized format of the plurality of optimized formats is inferred by the address domain of an email address of a recipient.

4. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 2 wherein an optimized format of the plurality of optimized formats is inferred by behavior of a recipient of a prior email.

5. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 2 wherein an optimized format of the plurality of optimized formats is inferred by email delivery problems to a recipient.

6. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 2 wherein an optimized format of the plurality of optimized formats is selected based upon at least one of a user preference and user feedback.

7. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 2 wherein an optimized format of the plurality of optimized formats is selected from an HTML form, a single image and a structured arrangement of images.

8. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 7 wherein an image has its own link.

9. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 2 wherein an optimized format of the plurality of optimized formats includes Javascript instructions.

10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to form a plurality of sub-communities.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10 further comprising executable instructions to deliver content tailored emails to the plurality of sub-communities.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10 further comprising executable instructions to form an email address qualifier for each sub-community of the plurality of sub-communities.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 12 wherein the email address qualifier is derived from solicited input or a pre-selected list of sub-communities.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 12 further comprising executable instructions to evaluate logical operators and primitives of an email address qualifier.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 12 further comprising executable instructions to evaluate a variable of an email address qualifier.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein the variable is selected from an answer to a question, a pre-selected subset of the community of users and an email response identifier.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 12 wherein the email address qualifier specifies a future time for delivering an email.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the executable instructions to collect include executable instructions to form a response database to store the solicited input.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11 wherein a sub-community of the plurality of sub-communities is designated by a widget state value.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 19 wherein the widget state value is selected from a testing state and a published state.

21. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to render a web page corresponding to the email.

22. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 21 further comprising executable instructions to delivery the web page to a user of the community of users in response to an invoked link within the email.

23. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 22 wherein the web page is a copy of the email.

24. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 23 wherein the web page includes interactive components.

25. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 22 wherein the invoked link includes security information to confirm that a user utilizing the invoked link is a member of the community of users.

26. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 25 wherein the security information is selected from an email address, a web page identifier, a widget identifier and a secure hash.

27. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to collect an action identification and action variables associated with solicited input from the widget in the email.

28. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 27 wherein the action variables are selected from system variables, user variables, family variables, site variables and group variables.

29. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 28 wherein the action variables represent a cumulative value measured in units.

30. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 29 wherein the units are selected from money units, time units and credit units.

31. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 29 wherein the cumulative value has an associated target threshold.

32. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 31 wherein the target threshold is selected from a target funding level, target volunteer hours and target donation level.