news

The poop emoji has been in the news a lot lately, thanks to Elon Musk setting up an auto-response to any emails sent to Twitter’s press contact address that contains nothing but the swirling brown icon. Don’t believe me? Email press@twitter.com and see for yourself.But that’s “only the tip of a brown iceberg,” as it seems to have gotten Sarah Jeong thinking, how do the courts handle the poop emoji? How often does the poop emoji show up in filings? She’ll answer this and more over on the Verge.She also quotes law professor (and long time privacy/internet/email/spam legal expert) Eric Goldman, and it turns out that he published a whole paper on “Emojis and the Law.” I didn’t know this existed yet I am so glad it does. Eric helps us understand the very real concerns about encoding and compatibility, how intellectual property concerns around emoji art can negatively impact

From Bleeping Computer: A woman in Australia was arrested for sending over 32,000 emails to a Federal Member of Parliament, impacting systems enough that people weren’t able to do their normal jobs as a result. She faces charges that could result in a prison term of up to ten years. Read more.Is 32,000 a lot of emails? I guess so, for a regular mailbox. Here I am today, deleting 12,000 messages out of this mailbox, 6,000 out of that mailbox, times about a hundred, for the various deliverability tracking stuff at work, so it doesn’t seem that overwhelming to me. Back at my last job, I had Gmail test mailboxes that would occasionally fill up and I’d be deleting upwards of 150,000 messages at a time. But still, I probably wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of that have to work around it to get to the emails

The Register’s Thomas Claburn details a recently shared research paper exposing troubling examples of loopholes in email authentication, allowing bad guys to spoof messages via email forwarding. Thankfully, some of the potential loopholes reported have already been addressed by specific email service providers. Some might say “don’t share this, as we don’t want to give the bad guys more ideas,” but I think it’s important for everyone to read and understand potential limitations and/or bugs in how things are implemented today, so that we can focus on addressing those problems, sooner, rather than later.Click on through to read “If you’re struggling to secure email forwarding, it’s not you, it’s … the protocols” over at The Register. (Great title, though it’s not always the protocols — sometimes it’s the implementation thereof.)

Are you getting inundated with calendar spam? Are you annoyed that events from spammers show up on your calendar automatically, even if you didn’t accept the invite and RSVP to attend? Google now has a setting that will configure it to auto-add events to your calendar only if the invitation comes from someone you know. CNBC’s Ashley Capoot explains how to turn this on.

There was a time when paid advertising was king for small businesses. But local TV spots, direct mail, and prominent billboards are now considered costly and difficult to track. Now, traditional advertising has been usurped by email marketing. Its impressive return on investment (ROI) and its ability to amplify other marketing initiatives make it the best channel for businesses at any stage of their growth – including SMBs. Email marketing is easy to implement and deploy, even for beginners. Today, we will walk through the essential tips and strategies every small business marketer should know. Table of Contents Why email marketing is a great tool for SMBs Email marketing is different Main benefits of email marketing for SMBs Steps SMBs should follow to get started with email marketing Building your first email list Designing templates for your email marketing campaigns 11 key email marketing tips for SMBs 6 great email

Here’s your fun fact for today: Rapper Rick Ross has never had an email account. Finally, you can answer the question, “Was that email I just got that claimed to be from the famed hip hop artist known for Hustlin’ legit or not?”The more you know.

When it comes to protecting our planet, every step toward cleaner practices – small and big – counts. So, what if we told you that emailing, as clean and green as it seems, actually has a carbon footprint? We recently wrote about green marketing and the environmental impact our marketing activities have. But what about email specifically? What does the carbon footprint of email look like, and is there any way to reduce it? World Environment Day is just around the corner, and there’s no better time to do an eco-conscious deep dive into the world of email. Let’s explore what contributes to email’s carbon emissions and find ways to help email marketers go green. Table of Contents Email’s carbon footprint What are the main reasons behind email’s carbon footprint? The issue with spam Size matters Servers and network Devices Email Expiration Date: Reducing email’s environmental impact through innovation How…

Have you ever noticed that the way your email campaign looks after you hit send doesn’t quite match what you expected to find? Did you ever see an email display one way in Gmail and another way in Apple Mail or Outlook? Usually, you can blame those types of problems on a lack of email standards. Different mailbox providers have their own ways of rendering HTML and CSS. They also have different levels of support for things like web fonts, interactive elements, and dark mode emails. Those inconsistencies account for some of the biggest email marketing headaches. If your campaign doesn’t render as expected, it could easily mean your subscribers won’t engage and take action. A new group that includes some of the smartest email professionals around aims to fix all that by setting standards for email development. We’re excited to tell you about this community-led initiative. It’s called the…

Spoiler: It’s when Icelandic horses respond to your work emails for you.The blog Government Technology explains in more detail.

We talk a lot about email on this blog, but today, we need to talk about something new and what it means for marketers. Something called conversational customer engagement. The methods customers use to interact with businesses are expanding – and it’s happening quickly. Conversational customer engagement is an evolutionary leap in the way people and organizations connect. So, what’s driving this shift? The short answer is social media and messaging apps. People expect a fast, friendly, seamless customer experience when communicating with and receiving communications from your brand. They also want the ability to engage with brands through whatever channel or application is most convenient to them. According to survey results in a new report from IDC and Sinch, almost 80% of companies have already implemented or plan to start using conversational customer engagement. Many of those companies are exploring what’s known as a communication platform as a service…