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Email Hub FAQs
Does MemberVana replace Mailchimp or Constant Contact?
Yes. MemberVana has a built in Email Hub that makes it easy to manage your contacts and send email campaigns, including Newsletters, Upcoming Event notifications, and more.
Does MemberVana include a visual email builder?
Yes. MemberVana’s Email Hub uses WordPress’ Gutenberg editor. Gutenberg is a block-based visual editor that makes it simple to design and build emails with text, images, columns, and more.
My plan includes a maximum number of emails per month. What happens if I go over?
You will be charged an overage fee of $0.01 per email. So if you have a 5k email plan and you send out 6k emails, you will receive an overage charge of $10. If you consistently go over your allotment, it would probably be more cost effective to upgrade to a larger email plan.
I have a lot of memberships that come up for renewal in January and several reminder emails, payment confirmations, and invoice emails go out. Do those count as part of my allotment?
No. We classify emails that are sent automatically by our system — receipts, renewal reminders, tickets, invoices, two-factor authentication emails, etc. — as transactional emails. They are not part of your monthly allotment of emails.
I got a notice saying my sending has been temporarily disabled. What happened?
In an effort to curb unauthorized SPAM from our servers, we monitor all outgoing mail. If a large number of your emails are getting refused or marked as SPAM, we may temporarily disable your sending privileges until the issue can be addressed. Our Email Hub is only to be used to communicate with your members or other contacts who have given you explicit permission to send them information or marketing materials. The use of purchased leads or contacts imported from mass market data is explicitly forbidden in our Terms of Use and will result in an immediate suspension and cancellation of your account.
Website Hub
Are there limits to the number of pages I can have?
No, the only things we restrict are the number of members you can have and the number of emails you can send out per month.
What about storage?
There is a 20GB limit on your site. That is more than enough storage for 99.99% of organizations. If you need additional storage, please contact our support or sales department.
What if I need a really high-performance system?
Most MemberVana sites are on what is referred to as a “shared hosting environment”. Your website and system will share resources with many other customers on a single server. We also offer custom options for organizations with specific performance and security needs, including private virtual servers and private servers. If you are interested, please contact our support or sales department.
How secure is my system?
We use best practices for securing both your website and your membership data. All MemberVana sites encrypt web traffic over SSL. Credit card transactions receive an extra level of security and credit card information is NEVER stored on your MemberVana site. The information is used by the merchant processor, and we simply get and store a transaction number with basic information. Although we strive to keep our system as secure as possible, no online system is 100% secure.
Do my members have self-service access?
Yes. Your members can login to My Portal, which gives them access to their account, billing information, and invoices. They can also edit their own member profile and add jobs or classified ads. Members also have access to financial transaction history, so they can download their own invoices for tax use.
Are there any limitations to what kind of content I can post or send?
There are certain types of speech and content that we do not allow, such as hate speech and speech that advocates physical harm to others. Please refer to our Terms of Use for specifics.
Store Hub
Are there limits to how many products I can sell?
No. We don’t limit the number of products or the number of transactions you can perform.
Can a product have multiple pricing options?
Absolutely. Variable pricing makes it easy to create options with different price points.
Can I make a product available to members only?
Yes. You can make a product—or even a specific variable price—available only to members. A member has to login and have a current membership to purchase those products.
What kinds of payments can I accept?
Your Store Hub can be setup to enable check and credit card payments. If you use Stripe—our suggested merchant processor—you may be able to take Apple Pay and Android Pay as well.
What is a “merchant processor”?
To accept credit card transactions, you will need a merchant processor. This is the company that will actually process the transaction by charging the customer’s credit card and depositing the money into your bank account. We use Stripe by default, but our system can accommodate a number of other options if you’d prefer to use PayPal, Authorize.net, or something else.
Can I use a different merchant processor than Stripe?
Yes. We use Stripe by default, but we can setup the system to use PayPal, Authorize.net or several others. Please note that some features and functionality may not work if you choose to use a different processor.
Are there charges to accept credit cards?
Yes, but not by us. Your merchant processor will take a percentage fee of the transaction. In the case of Stripe, the fee is $0.30 + 2.9%. So on a $100 purchase, Stripe will take $3.20 and deposit $96.80 into your bank account. MemberVana does not get any of that transaction, and we don’t charge any fees on top of it.
Does MemberVana automate renewals?
If a new member signs up, they will automatically be enrolled in automatic billing, so you generally have to do nothing as long as they keep their payment information up to date. Our system will start sending your members renewal notices on a schedule, typically 1 month and 1 week before their renewal date. It will also send them emails automatically if their payment couldn’t be processed.
Event Hub
Can I sell tickets to events with MemberVana?
Yes. Once you create an event, it’s easy to create one or more types of tickets. You can set different prices for different tickets, and even restrict a ticket to members only.
Can I schedule ticket sales?
Absolutely. You can set both a start and end time for ticket sales. By default, it is set to start as soon as the event is published, and end when the event starts, but you can change it on each event.
Can I make multi-day events?
Yes, all-day events can span multiple days.
What if I don’t want to sell tickets, but I still need to collect RSVPs?
MemberVana can do either. With RSVPs, there’s no transaction, but they do have to enter their name and email address.
Can I get a list of attendees for an event?
Yes. In the event, you can view attendees, print out a list, or event export the list as a spreadsheet.
Can I check in guests at an event?
Yes. You can use your computer or tablet to check people in by looking up their ticket information, or there is also a free app available for iPhone and Android to scan QR codes on printed tickets at the event. Both require an internet connection. If you will not have reliable internet, you can print out a list and check them in manually.
Pricing
Do your lower cost plans come with limited features?
Absolutely not. As a MemberVana customer, you get the same access to our powerful membership management features whether you have a membership of 10 or 10,000. There are no add-ons for extra features, like email marketing, events, or selling tickets. It’s all included.
So what’s different about your pricing levels?
Our pricing structure is based solely on the number of members you have and the number of emails you send out per month.
What happens if I need to add more members in the future?
Your plan has a max number of members. You can add as many members as you want until you reach that threshold. If you go over, you will need to upgrade your account.
Does MemberVana charge transaction or service fees?
We don’t, but many companies do, especially on so-called “free” plans. They don’t charge you a monthly rate, but instead charge up to 3% on top of your transaction fees. Instead, we charge a set monthly fee based on the number of members you have and the number of emails you send per month.
Do I get charged to accept credit cards?
Yes, but not by us. Unless you request to use a different merchant processor, we will set you up with Stripe. Whenever you perform a credit card transaction — sell a membership, sell tickets, take a donation, etc. — Stripe will take a fee of (at the time of this writing) $0.30 + 2.9% of the transaction, and deposit the remained in your bank account. So on a $100 donation, Stripe will take $3.20 and deposit $96.80 into your bank account. MemberVana does not get any of that transaction, and we don’t charge any fees on top of it. You have control over your Stripe account so it’s 100% transparent.
We’re a non-profit. Can we get reduced credit card processing rates?
Some Merchant Processors — Stripe included — do offer discounted rates for non-profit organizations. There may be restrictions on the types of cards you can accept or other restrictions.
Can we pass on the merchant fees to our members?
Yes, and this is fairly common practice now, especially for non-profits. Most customers recognize that using a credit card is convenience, and many also know that an organization gets charged to accept them as a form of payment. We can setup your system to automatically add on convenience fees. They show in your customer’s shopping cart as a “convenience fee” if they chose to pay by card.