Essence of Email Weekly

Campaign Monitor analyzed over six billion emails and published an in-depth email marketing benchmark report to show how year-over-year metrics have been affected by COVID-19.

Here’s what you can take from it:

1. More people are opening emails during the COVID-19 pandemic than ever before

2. Best days to send are non-peak days, but this depends on your brand’s audience

3. Essential industries, like healthcare, government, financial services, and nonprofits send more emails, get landmark opens, and fewer unsubscribes

Take a closer look at the full email marketing benchmark report.

On May 19, Facebook launched a new commerce toolkit – ‘Shops’. The new feature reflects a revamped model for how the company fits into the current online shopping landscape.

Shops will give small and medium businesses, merchants, and product companies the ability to set up a virtual storefront across Facebook’s apps. Unlike previous Facebook and Instagram commerce tools, Shops will be native to the platform, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s video announcement.

An Instagram product ad won’t link to an unknown or inconsistent mobile site. Instead, it’ll load a Facebook portal that incorporates product catalogues and stores credit card data – if that user has ever made a purchase on Facebook or one of its apps.

As Shops is built into the Facebook business platform, products can be added to a cart on Instagram and purchased later on Facebook, or across Facebook’s apps.

Another important difference from the previous commerce initiatives is that Facebook previously required small businesses to solely use the platform’s tools. This meant that they were prevented from accessing other services.

Now, Facebook is letting businesses use the platform for free and is partnering with tech companies to provide back-end eCommerce services. As Zuckerberg explained, “Rather than charge for Shops, we know if it’s valuable they’ll want to bid more for ads.”

The anchor partner for the announcement is Shopify. With “a couple clicks,” Zuckerberg said sellers could start operating a Facebook Shops account through the Shopify platform.

“It’s an incredible new reality in the retail space to have these tools natively in the Facebook platform,” said Shopify founder and CEO Tobi Lutke. He believes that what small businesses and sellers need right now is ways to find new buyers.

We think Shops has the potential to benefit numerous businesses and we are looking forward to sharing the news with our clients.

More than half of US states have legalized cannabis in some form. Currently, 1 in 5 Americans lives in a state where they can use cannabis recreationally, without a doctor’s note.

Email marketing has the potential to be a significant growth channel for cannabis and CBD brands. The brands may want to take a look at this recent article from Email Vendors which outlines the features of a few email marketing software options, as well as smart business strategies.

Email is a channel that can help any business grow. But to avoid potential email problems, such as account cancellation, random suspensions, and marketing restrictions, you need to choose a cannabis-friendly email service provider (ESP).

Before choosing software for a business in this industry, it’s also important to look out for unclear rules and unspoken policies. Email Vendors reviewed 7 ESPs, including Moosend, MailerLite, Klaviyo, Automizy, Omnisend, Ongage, and dotdigital. As is the case when choosing the right ESP, you need an eCommerce platform that supports cannabis sales.

When it comes to paid advertising, tech giants like Google, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter don’t allow ads for these cannabis products. So, shifting your marketing focus to other activities is essential for success.

Strategies suggested by Email Vendors include SEO and content marketing, organic social media content, and advertising on niche websites.

Take a look at the full post here.

Have you ever chosen a restaurant based on how many rave reviews it had on social media, or decided to subscribe to an online business because of its impressive following? If so, you’re not alone! People trust people much more than ads or self-promotion.

Luckily, adding a dose of social proof to your emails doesn’t have to be hard. There are many ways to do it and one of them is using this template that Essence of Email’s designers created for Privy’s email template gallery for inspiration.

Whether it’s ratings, reviews, shares, testimonials, case studies, or another form of social proof – it all matters. Show the world what your customers say, think, and feel about you!