IT’S A WRAP! And THEN we crossed the finish line for 2023, a really PANG year with both highs and lows. Much has happened during the year, not only at Rule, but around the world and in our society, which has affected us all in different ways. And now it’s time to wave goodbye to 2023! But before we close the door completely, let’s take a moment to look back and summarize the past year at Rule. This is what it has looked like:
This was Rule 2023:
Strong growth with profitability
We are incredibly honored to continue our growth journey, both internally and in our customer base. This year we have reached a milestone of over 2000 customers, which is incredible! The most humble thanks go to you, our customers, for choosing us as your supplier and for trusting us. We stand by our inclusive philosophy where all companies, regardless of industry or size (in turnover and number of employees) are welcome to use Rule to create successful digital communication and increase their growth.
Many new faces
In 2023, we have had the honor of hiring several new colleagues in our teams. We have recruited well and now have:
- Three new salespeople, which means we have a complete Outbound Sales Team.
- A new Customer Success Manager and a new Support Representative to help our customers develop our platform.
- Several new members of our Tech Team working to develop our platform.
- A new PR & Press representative and a Brand Ambassador for Denmark
With these additions in place, we have been able to develop and grow at the rocket speed we have. It has been a real team effort, GO TEAM RULE!
International expansion
We explored new ground this year and stepped into our neighboring countries of Denmark and Norway. It was an obvious next step for us to take, as we already have a well-established customer base in the Nordic region and have a platform that meets the needs of many other Nordic companies. In connection with this, we have, as mentioned above, hired a Brand Ambassador for Denmark and further down in the post we tell you more about our starting shot for Norway.
Updates and improvements in the platform
Those of you who have already seen our Rule Wrapped, are aware that we have made 286 releases in Rule this year! It can only be said that our tech team has worked at a rapid pace to meet customer expectations and wishes in Rule. We thought that last year would be hard to beat in terms of number of releases, but we were wrong. Here is a selection of the biggest releases of the year:
Rule Free
The first of the year, and one of the biggest launches for 2023, is our free version of the platform which aimed to lower the barriers between business and success. Rule Free is for all businesses, regardless of size or cash flow, who want to take their digital communication to the next level! With Rule Free, customers can upload unlimited customer data, easily create and manage engaging campaigns, analyze and optimize strategies and communicate with their target audience in a successful way – completely free. Try Rule Free here if you have not already done so!
Brand Style
The next big release this year was when we launched the Brand Style i Rule platform, a revolutionary feature that makes it easy for our customers to customize their templates according to their brand guidelines, completely automatically. The idea of Brand Style was that we wanted to shorten the time from when your account is created to when your first mailing goes out. We have examples of customers who were up and running in 5 minutes and made their first send out. This has always been our ambition and our goal!
Month in Review
Statistics, analysis and follow-up have been a hot topic at Rule this year and to make it even easier for our customers to interpret their performance, we started sending monthly summaries, so-called “Month in Review”. In this summary, the customer can see their best performing campaigns for the month, how their mailings performed compared to the previous month and get lots of insights on how to optimize their strategy.
Rule Analytics
We have long worked to simplify and improve how customers can work with their own data and want our customers to be able to quickly and easily see trends, but just as effectively segment on certain groups of users, to achieve better results. Why we developed Rule’s new statistics function Rule Analyticswhich is designed to give clients a better understanding of how their campaigns are performing, engaging recipients, and generating results.
Multilingual communication
We have taken another step this year to become best in class by communicating in more languages, both in our mailings and on social media. In Rule you will be reached by campaigns in the language you have set in your account and Rules LinkedIn is now available in English as well. This means that our communication is even more relevant to each individual recipient and easily accessible to all our customers, regardless of their demographic position.
Rule form 2.0
One of our latest releases for this year is the registration form which we developed and released in the new design in Rule. The updated feature aims to provide a new more intuitive look and a more seamless experience, as well as a brand new button for the single/double opt-in. This update takes the user experience to a new level and gives you much more flexibility in how you can build your subscriber list.
Image bank 2.0 in the new Rule
A relatively small but oh so popular feature in classic Rule, we are talking about the image bank. We have now developed the image bank and implemented the updated version inside the new Rule. In the new image bank, you can work with folders and easily navigate through the content you previously uploaded in Rule. Another feature that ensures that what you need to create valuable content quickly and easily is readily available.
Design, branding & visual identity
2023 has brought a lot of cool updates to the Rules design and interface. The majority of our decisions are based on extensive research and requests from both customers and partners. We have not only simplified existing features, but also developed new ones to help our customers navigate our platform more easily.
Rule.no
We have given our website a Norwegian makeover! Now you can enjoy the content in your own language – we speak Norwegian! Exactly, that’s right. In connection with our entry into the Nordic region, we have also translated our website into Norwegian, you can reach it at www.rule.no. Besides the fact that Norwegian can be one of the most beautiful languages, we translated our website to make it easier for our Norwegian customers to navigate our website and features. So now the Rules website is available in Swedish, Norwegian and English.
New interface - new Rule
Everything has its time, even the classic Rule. We have worked hard during the year to enable our customers to work in as intuitive and user-friendly an interface as possible and to make that experience complete, we will begin to shut down “old” classic Rule. The new Rule has all the features of the classic Rule and more. The significant difference for you as a user is that you will work in a completely new, user-friendly and seamless interface with more innovative features that will help you take your communication to the next level.
Lecture at the IHM
In November, the Rules Customer Success Team was invited to give a full-day lecture at the IHM Business School to the class of Custom Experience Specialists. It was a day filled with many lessons, insights and exciting questions from hungry students who are soon ready to enter the job market. Once again, thank you IHM for having us and good luck to all students in the future! We look forward to coming to speak with you again soon.
Partnerships and integrations
2023 has offered many new collaborations with partners, something we both value incredibly highly and think is really fun. Great focus this year has been on developing standardized methods for our connections to Rule, so that our customers can smoothly and efficiently use the power of their platforms in their daily work. Many of our new partnerships and integrations have given us the opportunity to reach customers and businesses in new industries, which is great.
Fairs, events and webinars
It really shows that humans are pack animals and that we are in need of human and social interactions, because OJ what a social year this has been. The pandemic took a toll on people and now they want to make up for lost time. We have not only been to a lot of events, fairs, AW’s, seminars and functions – but have organized several of them ourselves. Here are some highlights from Rule’s social year:
Sales & Marketing Expo 2023
We kicked off the exhibition year at Kistamässan, where we exhibited at Sales & Marketing Expo 2023. Again, we put a lot of focus on making our stand stand out, and it really did! As usual, we met many nice customers, prospects and partners during these days and the fair in general was a success. Of course, we also offered the world’s best ice cream from Lejonet & Björnen!
D-Congress 2023
Traditions are not meant to be broken, so we once again took our Rule hoodies down to the west coast and exhibited at D-Congress 2023 in Gothenburg. It was as successful as ever! These two days were a great time to hang out and mingle with partners and customers, listen to interesting panel discussions and enjoy a nice closing dinner on the last day with good company. We are exhibiting again at D-Congress 2024, hope to see you there!
100 joint customers with Centra
In April, together with our partner Centra to a customer event to celebrate 100 joint customers! A milestone that we have all worked hard for and are incredibly proud of. This evening and this event was something out of the ordinary. As well as having over 100 fantastic customers in attendance, we gave away lots of great prizes in our raffle, enjoyed great food, had a live artist in attendance painting people on the spot and then danced into the small hours. Thank you Centra and our customers for making this possible together!
Kick-Off in Amsterdam
We kicked off the fall by taking the entire Swedish Rule to wonderful Amsterdam! It was, to say the least, three fast-paced and packed days of exciting workshops, good company and team building. Full focus was on planning and setting goals for the last quarter of the year and we have to say that we set really good goals, considering what a great fall we had!
Loyalty Day Oslo
At the end of the year, we moved into the neighboring countries of Norway and Denmark, starting with Loyalty Day in Oslo, where we participated as an exhibitor. Loyalty Day is Norway’s most important meeting place for those who work with loyalty, CRM and 1-1 communication and is organized by our partner Oculos and ANFO. It was a very successful event and we are already looking forward to next year!
What is to come?
After the turn of the year, we will eventually shut down classic Rule, as the entire new interface is now in place with all the features of the new Rule. We are incredibly excited to get you into the new Rule and present a world of innovative features and tools that will help you take your digital communication to the next level.
You can prepare and think about this now:
- Start using the new interface and the features available there.
- Discover the same features as the classic Rule, but updated and much better in the new Rule.
- Access our training and guidance material in our knowledge bank.
- Look out for notifications and updates to the platform.
- If this is your first time logging in to the new Rule, you will be guided through all the features with the help of an interactive onboarding assistant.
Enter and discover the new Rule here!
In conclusion, we would like to say:
We want to round off the year with a few well-chosen words. THANK YOU dear customers and partners for a fantastic 2023, none of this would have been possible without you! This year it really feels like a lot has fallen into place and the best proof that we are doing something right is that so many of you are with us on this journey. The sky’s the limit and that’s where we are heading with you. And with that said, we close the 2023 chapter and welcome the new year with open arms. 2024 – let’s go!
Do you want to get started with digital communication? Explore Rule free of charge for as long as you like or contact us and we’ll tell you more!
