our journey to 1 million customers — Stripo.electronic mail

Why do you do what you do? How typically do you replicate on why you selected your job?

Folks normally have a number of potential causes, however usually, in a method or one other, all of us wish to be useful. If we glance past this, we wish to do one thing that may assist others — and if we dig even deeper, to create one thing that may change the world. Ask your self: Do I wish to go away a mark in historical past? Sure? How?

In 2016, in an attractive metropolis on this planet’s bravest nation, Ukraine, an entrepreneur with a need to unravel the issues of a large number creates a product…

I’m certain many books about unbelievable manufacturers begin this manner. However this isn’t a ebook; that is only a easy sketch, and it began very otherwise.

Stripo historical past: The way it all started

Q: Dmytro, why did you create Stripo? Did you wish to make one thing unbelievable to assist many professionals?

Working with one other system, I typically needed to cope with code throughout the electronic mail, so each marketer needed to have a good quantity of technical information. This was fairly irritating for me. So, I wished to vary that. I assumed this could be a challenge lasting not more than 2 years, however now we have already got improvement plans for 10 years!

Dmytro Kudrenko,

Founder and CEO of Stripo.

Okay, you can say, “That is simply the story of an extraordinary startup.” Possibly — however give it an opportunity!

Dmytro Kudrenko: Have been there some other editors in addition to ours? Completely! However sooner or later, every of them began branching out in several instructions, and it was the editor itself that bought misplaced. We selected the trail of working particularly with the editor and bettering it.

I as soon as realized that to create a very nice product, you have to do the next:

• deal with one factor (in our case, it’s electronic mail advertising);

• perceive your consumer’s drawback;

• discover a option to remedy it;

• and remedy it in such a approach that the consumer can’t think about their workday with out your answer.

While you’re constructing a product, probably the most difficult half is creating one thing that didn’t exist earlier than. A very powerful second is fixing the consumer’s drawback in such a approach that they’ll grasp the answer and begin actively utilizing it. And probably the most fascinating story tells us how you can transition from complexity to simplicity.

This has been Stripo’s most important objective from the very starting and our focus all this time.

I’ve been concerned in advertising for fairly a while, and you recognize what I at all times lack? Time! I at all times want that there have been a number of extra hours within the day. However how way more time do those that create emails want in a day? What if they’ll’t code? What if it’s an bold startup with a small group, the place one particular person handles a number of duties?

By the best way, here is an instance from our COO, Dmitry Kulaksyz:

Q: Dmitry, what was the largest problem?

Dmitry Kulaksyz: Within the early phases of product improvement, the group was very small. There have been about six of us, together with our chief, Dmytro Kudrenko.

Maybe probably the most difficult process at the moment was discovering the steadiness between amount and high quality. We always needed to make selections, even when they turned out to be improper, draw conclusions, and transfer ahead, typically into uncharted territory.

The stakes had been excessive, and we could not afford to spend our finances recklessly. We had been at all times studying on the fly and from our errors. It was concurrently tense and galvanizing like strolling a path along with your eyes closed in quest of a approach ahead. We at all times ran out of time, and we needed to change our focus dozens of occasions a day.

Dmitry Kulaksyz,

COO at Stripo.

Returning to the time scarcity concern, are there any instruments that can assist you optimize it? In fact! Do all of them really remedy this drawback? In fact not.

Q: Dmitry, you talked about that you just wish to remedy the viewers’s drawback by saving them time on routine duties and permitting them to deal with extra fascinating and essential ones. How?

Dmitry Kulaksyz: Modular electronic mail design. Nicely, you see, it wasn’t our invention. However we’ve targeted a lot on modules that now our customers can change any electronic mail factor they want with out shedding any important information.

Once we had been creating modules, they didn’t exist in any editor but. Nonetheless, they had been utilized in web site improvement, and that’s precisely what we used as the idea of the concept. We had been those who launched the modular system into emails, and now it’s a compulsory function in all places.

I consider that coding electronic mail templates is just not one thing entrepreneurs needs to be doing. As an alternative, they need to focus on advertising methods. Our modules are what is going to allow them to make it occur.

By making a module as soon as, a specialist can use it an infinite variety of occasions whereas altering any factor they want with out affecting the general modular framework. And since you’ll be able to create an infinite variety of modules for any unit or process as soon as and use them always, it reduces the time it takes to create an electronic mail by a number of hours, simplifying communication between enterprise items or challenge contractors.

In fact, we take a look at every little thing ourselves, and we have described how the modules work and the way they save time in our case research.

I’m writing about this with delight, and also you may suppose I’m boasting. I’m! As a result of once I talked to the group that has been engaged on this from the very starting, I used to be amazed by their calmness.

Anton Hrynenko, CTO at Stripo:

Anton Hrynenko: I’m a perfectionist, so it was initially very difficult for me to mentally alter to the product-oriented strategy to work. The seek for “product–market match” led to fixed modifications that generally didn’t match into the preliminary structure in any respect.

To place it merely, think about that simply yesterday, we had been creating the right automotive, and this morning, I used to be sharpening this automotive to make it shine within the solar and catch the enchanted gazes of passersby. After which, after lunch, we determined that we would have liked the automotive to fly within the air, and we urgently needed to punch a gap within the roof and determine how you can connect a propeller. It was solely with time that I noticed that that is how masterpieces are created.

Anton Hrynenko,

CTO at Stripo.

It seems like an motion online game, doesn’t it? By the best way, have you ever ever seen that we reside each second of our lives as if we had been enjoying an infinite recreation?

Right here’s a quest for groceries; there’s a shootout for a reduced merchandise. In truth, life itself is one large simulator. However for advertising, video games are the most effective mechanics for interacting with the viewers.

Stripo and electronic mail gamification

Entrepreneurs have been actively utilizing video games for a very long time every time they’ll, and Stripo makes this potential in emails. Interactive video games for electronic mail campaigns are certainly one of our distinctive choices.

You will discover extra particulars about gamification in electronic mail advertising right here, however we’d wish to share some details about our video games:

• that is what our first recreation seemed like — recipients needed to click on on completely different components, and after that, they acquired predictions about electronic mail advertising. This gamified electronic mail generated twice as many clicks as a daily one;

• that is what our most not too long ago launched recreation appears to be like like.

What’s extra:

• we realized that recipients like our video games;

• in consequence, we created our eBook on gamification in electronic mail advertising;

• Dmytro Kudrenko has spoken on this subject at 20 completely different occasions;

Liubov Rolenko, developer accountable for designing all recreation mechanics at Stripo

Q: What had been your ideas once you created your first recreation?

Liubov Rolenko: I wished to create one thing fascinating and acquainted, just like the previous video games from childhood, however in a less complicated model. One thing that might present just a little distraction and convey again the childlike pleasure and pleasure in the midst of a workday.

Work can generally be gloomy and routine, and it may be exhausting. However think about that at such a second, you obtain an electronic mail with a small recreation proper in it! I hope it sparks shock, curiosity, and pleasure. So, I merely wished so as to add a contact of one thing unbelievable to our lives.

Liubov Rolenko,

Developer accountable for designing all recreation mechanics at Stripo.

Q: Are you able to inform me, what’s your favourite recreation of all time?

Liubov Rolenko: I’m a gamer, so I’ve been enjoying video video games since childhood, and I nonetheless do it. Video games have at all times been part of my life.

Truly, I don’t have a favourite one as a result of I like range. Nonetheless, I keep in mind my first recreation. In class, throughout a pc science class, a trainer confirmed us a recreation the place there was an animal in a maze, and also you needed to enter instructions specifying the path and the variety of steps, like “5 steps proper.” You needed to information the animal out of the maze. It was whereas enjoying this recreation that I noticed I wished to turn out to be a developer.

Stripo schooling

The whole lot at all times begins with schooling. Maybe not all of the information we acquire at school will probably be helpful sooner or later, however that’s the place we purchase the important components of our future life: a information base, associates, and allies, in addition to assist.

Though we at Stripo have already got a wonderful 24/7 assist service prepared to help you, we’re creating our information base, the place customers can delve into all of the intricacies of utilizing our product. Our assist group is at all times able to reply your questions, however exploring the tutorial database will provide its personal fascinations.

Maryna Krivenets, the top of buyer assist at Stripo

Q: Maryna, do you suppose the information base will change buyer assist?

No, by no means. Our assist isn’t just about answering questions. It is all about care. And our information base may help customers navigate the editor and hone their electronic mail advertising abilities, even when they’ve by no means achieved it earlier than of their life.

Maryna Krivenets,

Head of buyer assist at Stripo.

This can be a photograph from the shoot of our Udemy course, which is appropriate for all inexperienced persons and has already been accomplished by practically 2,000 college students.

If you would like to take certainly one of our programs, you are able to do it proper right here. You may also observe this hyperlink to discover a information with 94 electronic mail advertising assets for inspiration and work.

And if you would like to go away a evaluate of us, you’ll be able to simply do it on G2 or Capterra. Consider me, our complete group is over the moon after we see your opinions! Your suggestions is extremely inspiring to us.

Stripo and interactive content material in emails

By the best way, do you know that inspiration is certainly one of our group’s core ideas, and everybody strives not solely to create one thing new however to do it in a approach that conveys a chunk of their inspiration?

For instance, whereas engaged on this text, I used to be impressed by the tales of the individuals who created (and proceed to create) our product. After one other dose of inspiration, I turned to Roman, our head designer and the one that remembers the very first template that appeared in Stripo.

Right here it’s — our first electronic mail template, which was used 450 occasions.

Roman Burdyga, product designer at Stripo

Roman Burdyga: Hey! I’m Roman, a product designer at Stripo. I used to be additionally the developer of the e-mail template format construction, which is the idea for all templates within the system. Now, let me share some historical past…

Earlier than Stripo was launched, I labored on the identical factor in one other product, the place there was additionally a template editor, and gained all my expertise in creating templates there. I created templates for our shoppers and realized all of the intricacies and subtleties of electronic mail format. Since I’m a designer, I mixed this expertise with my information of template creation to strengthen Stripo.

As Stripo started to take form, my group and I noticed that our customers would want one thing that will encourage them, one thing they might take a look at and use of their electronic mail campaigns, a spot the place they might discover concepts for his or her business. That is how the Stripo Template Library was born.

Roman Burdyga,

Product designer at Stripo.

By that point, I had a number of colleagues who began creating templates and have become the primary authors of this library. These colleagues embrace Liubov Rolenko, who initiated this nice challenge and later turned a mentor to different colleagues. Afterwards, Ruslan Trepuhalov and Oleg Ponamarchuk joined us, including a distinct perspective and concepts and accelerating the library’s progress. A 12 months later, Anastasiia Babintseva joined us along with her sense of magnificence and inventive abilities.

All of them made a big contribution to the template improvement, and every of them is exclusive of their type, abilities, and views, which is why the templates are so numerous and fascinating.

At the moment, in fact, I used to be creating templates rapidly as a result of I used to be the writer of each the template editor and the template code. The primary problem was discovering concepts, designing, selecting themes, and turning every little thing right into a completed template.

What I keep in mind most had been a number of of our electronic mail campaigns in the beginning of our interactive content material improvement at Stripo:

1. A Christmas electronic mail for our shoppers with an interactive coloring function that collected information and reproduced all of the customers’ drawings. We acquired quite a few wonderful drawings, fastidiously chosen the most effective ones, and despatched because of our artists.

Whereas creating the design for that electronic mail, I inspired my little one to make use of the coloring function and provided his drawings for example of what might be created. It was very fascinating and satisfying to obtain such suggestions and encouragement from our shoppers.

2. Then, we had the concept to create a crossword puzzle straight within the electronic mail. It was extremely cool, though fairly difficult and time-consuming to implement. Nonetheless, it was completely price it, and we acquired many constructive responses.

3. One other memorable mechanic was a quiz the place I labored on the design. It was an interactive chat throughout the electronic mail. It felt such as you had been having a real-time dialog with somebody who was responding to you. It was extremely cool.

These interactive components had been extensively mentioned within the electronic mail neighborhood as properly.

Stripo’s plans for the longer term

Nicely, I’m getting carried away with the previous. Now we have one million customers. One million. For me, that’s an unbelievable quantity. After I requested everybody concerned on this article what they’d say to our million customers, all of them replied: “Stick with us! We’re getting ready quite a lot of fascinating and helpful issues in your electronic mail advertising campaigns!”

For instance:

• a new editor;
• real-time co-editing and commenting;
• integration with Figma;
• enhancements in AI performance inside Stripo’s construction;
• collaboration instruments;
• electronic mail accessibility precheck; 
• darkish mode UI for electronic mail preview; 
• new video games, templates, useful guides, and way more in your emails.

For those who’ve learn this far, I wish to personally thanks in your time. On the very starting of this text, I discussed how we at all times appear to lack time. However we’re always working to release as a lot of it for you as potential!

Volodymyr Kreshchenko, CMO at Stripo

Q: What do you suppose makes Stripo distinctive?

There are various issues, however I consider the primary uniqueness lies in our imaginative and prescient and deal with time-saving. Whereas others increase their spheres of exercise and pursuits and enterprise into new territories, we’re solely targeted on emails. The emphasis is just not on amount however on high quality and evolutionary improvement.

Volodymyr Kreshchenko,

CMO at Stripo.

Q: What has shocked you probably the most throughout your total time working at Stripo?

Volodymyr Kreshchenko: What shocked me probably the most is that within the firm, there are various individuals who genuinely care about our customers’ issues and the bugs that come up, they usually attempt to repair them as rapidly as potential. It’s very nice to work collectively on one thing when individuals are keen about what they do.

It’s possible you’ll ask — why not increase our horizons? Partly as a result of the deal with one thing is an infinite horizon itself.

Ivan Burban, former CMO at Stripo

Q: Ivan, what was most difficult in the beginning of the journey? What did you consider in?

Ivan Burban: Essentially the most difficult factor was understanding how you can stand out from different merchandise. At the moment, we positioned ourselves as an electronic mail template builder, and we turned a platform three years later. Throughout this transitional interval, we had been looking for this positioning and had many conversations with customers and market consultants.

I believed within the group that was creating Stripo primarily. The CEO and Product Proprietor/Supervisor appeared to me the strongest professionals I had ever met, and this opinion has not modified to at the present time. The entire group, from improvement to assist, actually wished to make the most effective product, which may be very uncommon. We had little question that we might attain a million after which ten million customers.

Ivan Burban,

Former CMO at Stripo.

Q: What do you suppose it takes to go away a mark in historical past?

Ivan Burban: I consider that to make a mark in historical past, it is advisable change the strategy to a selected course of, not simply enhance it barely. Within the case of Uber, they reimagined the method of calling a taxi. Within the case of Stripo, I feel you’re on the proper path, and you cannot solely change the strategy to creating emails but additionally make this advanced process extra accessible to a broader viewers. Our inboxes will turn out to be interactive and simple to understand.

Wrapping up

Will we go away a mark in historical past as an entire group? I don’t know. However I do know that in the event you ask the query, “Do you employ Stripo?” virtually everybody within the digital market will reply: “In fact!” So, we positively don’t begin our day with group conferences for nothing!

We’re the most effective as a result of we care concerning the electronic mail drawback and its answer day-after-day!

Dmytro Kudrenko,

Founder and CEO of Stripo.

We thank every certainly one of you for being part of Stripo.