Essence of Email Weekly

To mark International Women’s Day, we asked some of the women here at Essence of Email to share their thoughts and views on numerous topics. We shared a sneak peek on social media – but we’re now giving you a more detailed look at what our lovely ladies had to say.

‘’Women in the workplace can and should continue to remind themselves just how far we have come and how strong we are as a gender. I don’t mean to sound like a fierce feminist, but I am. Women and their ability to be compassionate and firm at the same time, to keep this balance is astounding and will never cease to amaze me. My advice to them: Practice saying “no” where necessary. ‘’ – Julija, Team Leader @ Essence of Email

“While I do believe a feminine leadership style gets results, a flexible approach is needed for today's complex environment. Being adaptable while being authentic will get you anywhere you set yourself to go.” – Nina, Team Leader @ Essence of Email

“Balancing empathy and ambition is something that women are fantastic at – I think it's what makes women such great leaders.” – Grace, Copywriter @ Essence of Email

“The most inspiring women for me are all those powerless and voiceless women fighting for equality in their own way, every day of their lives. Being able to stand up for yourself in the face of discriminatory gender expectations and bias takes a great amount of courage.” – Marija, Executive Assistant Expert @ Essence of Email

“Never step back because of the little experience you have. The world of digital is open to creative and intelligent people who want to stand out. Find a mentor who you can learn from, read books and always be hungry for more.” – Monika, Growth Team Leader @ Essence of Email

Digital Consumer Trends Index 2021, a study by Cheetah Digital and Econsultancy, has uncovered some interesting findings.

According to the study, 36% of participants said that discounts affected their loyalty to a brand. Speed of service is also important, rising from 13% to 17% in 2020. A significant proportion of people (48%) said that quality products and services keep them loyal (an increase from 41% in 2019). All of the data buzz has its consequences too, as safety is now critical to 26% of respondents – a rise from 10% in 2019.

The respondents had made a purchase via these channels in the past year:

And they are not entirely happy with Facebook advertising – 79% would like brands to spend more on their loyalty programs instead of Facebook. Pair that with the fact that the most purchases were made via email, and you’ve got great news for email marketers.

Here are some additional things shoppers want:

Things brands are failing at:

Postscript, an SMS/MMS marketing platform, raised $35M in Series B funding. This comes after it raised $4.5M back in 2019 for fueling SMS programs for Shopify stores.

With a no-spam policy and a focus on legal compliance and opt-ins, the company grew rapidly during the last year. It jumped from 14 employees and 530 clients to 61 employees and over 3,500 customers. The product evolved too. Initially envisioned as one-way broadcasting for Shopify, Postscript is now working on expanding into a two-way communication channel, allowing customers to reorder, leave product reviews through SMS, and manage their subscriptions.

Focusing solely on Shopify, they’ve been building opportunities for even deeper integrations into Shopify plug-ins through API.

“We’re still focused exclusively there. We think it’s kind of our secret sauce, honestly, because we go so deep with the data and the ecosystem. There’s just a lot of tiny accumulating advantages there. It’s also the platform that’s growing the fastest in e-commerce, so it’s been a good place to be.” said Postscript co-founder, Alex Beller.

Series B funding was led by Greylock, and backed by YC, 1984vc, Ali Capital, Elephant VC, and Larry Fitzgerald. Additionally, Greylock partners Sarah Guo and Mike Duboe will be joining Postscript’s board.

Postscript is Essence of Email’s partner and we can’t wait for the innovations that will help us step up our clients’ SMS game.

Things are heating up!

A Chinese hacking group known as Hafnium is actively targeting Microsoft Exchange servers, exploiting the zero-day vulnerabilities. They ‘’breached as many victims as they could find across the global internet, leaving behind backdoors to return later’’. It is believed that tens of thousands of email servers have been compromised. The group also responded to Microsoft’s patch, which was released last Tuesday, by ramping up and automating their hacking campaign.

The intrusions commenced on January 6, with a significant uptick starting last Friday and culminating earlier last week.

In a press conference last Friday, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, advised those running the affected Exchange services to implement Microsoft’s patch for the vulnerabilities immediately.

The organizations that were compromised were small to medium-sized, including local government agencies, police, hospitals, Covid response, energy, transportation, airports, and prisons. Tens of thousands of Asian and European organizations were also affected, including the European Banking Authority.

But unlike the Russian-related SolarWinds incident from a couple of months ago, this attack has been caught relatively early in its widespread use. This early detection may give the authorities the chance to both patch their systems and remove the hackers before they can take advantage of their foothold inside the organizations.

Read more about the incident here.

Spring is almost here, and that can mean hundreds of things: longer days, pleasant nights, green grass, lush flowers, and a better collective mood. No wonder we’re all feeling renewed and enthusiastic. So, it might be the perfect time for a bit of... spring cleaning, right?

Food52 inspires us yet again with subtle, pleasant visuals and a friendly, warm copy. Just look at that hero image! It makes us want to grab our sketchbook and doodle all day long.

And the copy? **Chef’s kiss** The perfect proof that blog titles don’t have to be boring, templated strings of words. These short titles are brimming with personality and we love it!

This entire email looks like a huge, implicit call to action. It’s enthusiastic and entices us to get up from that chair and get stuff done! Not to mention its perfect structure. Who knew kitchen cleaning could be so pleasant, huh?

Source: ReallyGoodEmails