Lauren Traudt
Lauren Traudt
Marketing Automation Lead
autobell-birthday-email

Email & UX Strategy

For our B2C client, Autobell, Union was hired to build a new website, launch ppc campaigns, and onboard HubSpot. I was called in to manage the migration, overhaul their email templates, and launch new email marketing campaigns.

 

Before

 

01

StrateGy

Autobell came to us with email templates that relied heavily on images to deliver their e-coupons, resulting in poor user experience and low conversion. I made the following contributions:

  1. Audited their range of email types. I quickly identified that there was no overarching strategy guiding execution from one template to the next. I improved this disjointed user experience by reducing their number of email types and defining goals for each.

  2. Mapped each goal to a key conversion. Almost every email template offered 10 different actions for the consumer to take. I focused the content of the email to drive our primary and secondary conversion and simplified the path to purchase.

  3. Moved from a primarily image-based email format to text-based format. This change rectifies image blocking and reduces file size to improve load speed.

 

02

Execution

I not only managed the migration from their Maripost email client to HubSpot but also managed the design, development, set up and execution of the email templates. Here are a few highlights:

  1. Leveraged the power of the Gmail Promotions tab. Autobell’s primary goal is to drive carwash e-coupon redemptions and e-ticket sales. I incorporated image previews and deal badges into each template to stand out amongst the competition.

  2. Design and development QA. I managed an internal team of two designers and two developers working on this template migration while also serving as the client-facing point of contact. I ensured the templates were outlook-friendly and fully customizable within the HubSpot interface.

  3. Drastically reduced spam and hard bounces. Autobell’s lack of a clear consumer-facing email strategy historically flagged spam filters and resulted in poor deliverability and sender reputation. I implemented a contact strategy and clear protocol to maintain list health.

 
autobellpromotions.PNG
 
 

Results

 

+12.0%

increase in unique clicks for yearly anniversary sale

+5.8%

increase in unique opens for yearly anniversary sale

-47.9%

reduction in number of spam and global hard bounces

ezgif.com-video-to-gif (4).gif

Lead Nurturing Strategy

For our B2B client, Center for Creative Leadership, Union was hired to build and launch paid search campaigns and a lead nurturing strategy for their Emerging Trends Report. I was called in to pitch and develop the lead nurture track, determine direction for landing pages and email templates and guide workflow execution in Watson.

 

01

StrateGy

CCL came to us looking to drive downloads and generate qualified leads for their latest leadership report. I made the following contributions:

  1. Developed the customer journey. Our team identified target buyer personas and I created the framework for the Trends Report customer journey mapping. Using SEM Rush, I identified relevant questions each persona is asking at each stage in their buyer’s journey and then mapped each question back to a keyword focus.

  2. Mapped out the nurturing strategy. Based on the customer journey and lead scoring model, I identified quantifiable criteria to define leads, mqls, and sqls and mapped out the consumer path from initial download of the report.

  3. Created pillar page, landing page, and email wireframes. Part of the organic strategy that I proposed was creating pillar pages to help create a semantic relationship between the “trends” we were identifying and the high-volume keywords our target audience was searching for. I lead the UX strategy for the creation of these pillar pages as well as the paid landing pages and email templates.

 
 
 
 
 
 
email-1-performance
 

02

Execution

I quickly identified that we needed to continue the conversation after download by driving traffic to a free consultation. Here are a few highlights from the execution:

  1. Custom paths based on engagement: I mapped out three interconnected workflows designed to remove traffic from the main Content Offer workflow if the contact either requested a free consultation or showed a lack of engagement with our emails.

  2. Monthly reporting and optimizations. I created a monthly reporting template that directly ties our email and paid search efforts back to our lead criteria strategy and reports on the number of new sales opportunities we have generated. Further, I am the client-facing point of contact for email and I develop new optimizations and A/B tests to run for the upcoming month.

 
 

Results

 

+12.0

new free consultation requests in the first month

+1,410.0

new leads from trends report downloads in the first two months

ccl-email-wireframe

Data-Driven Decision Making

After our work on the Trends Report Campaign, I was called in to help Center for Creative Leadership build a cohesive email and landing page template strategy.

 

Before

 

01

StrateGy

CCL’s existing templates were certainly appealing and not breaking any major email faux pas, which made them all the more interesting to audit from a UX perspective. Here’s how I contributed:

  1. Listened to global stakeholders. As a global enterprise, CCL has a myriad of stakeholders with a hand in the email creation process. I started out by creating a comprehensive questionnaire to help understand primary and secondary goals, audience, enrollment and pain points for each of the 9 templates.

  2. Audited each template and generated hypotheses. I pulled 3-4 samples of each of the 9 templates and compared them side-by-side to look for patterns. Based on these patterns, I formulated key hypotheses to test; but one in particular became apparent across all templates: If we reduce content, then engagement will increase.

 

02

CHALLENGE

A key challenge in the overhaul of these email templates was getting global stakeholder buy-in. Since these email newsletters have had steady growth and loyal readership for over 5+ years, it was given that I needed to use data to inform every decision. Here’s how I did it:

  1. Used click data to create a heat map. For each email type, I exported the raw click data from Watson, tagged each url based on it’s section within the email, and then sorted the spreadsheet by section.

  2. Evaluated content by sections to expose patterns. I evaluated the trends in clicks based on the type of section, it’s position in the email, and how many sections the email had in total.

  3. Ran comparisons to reveal insights in behavior. I saw very high concentration of clicks in the same 3-4 section types and increased user engagement on shorter email layouts than the same newsletter with a longer layout. We used this to inform our decision to reduce the number of sections within each email and maximize the value of sections driving the highest engagement.

  4. Conducted an A/B test to evaluate engagement. We ran a test on their most recent US newsletter to see if our shorter layout would increase engagement.

 
click-map
 
 

Results

At 99% statistical significance, our version of the A/B test saw a 62.2% increase in unique clicks overall, as well as:

 

70.5%

increase in unique clicks to register for webinars & events

87.4%

increase in unique clicks to read featured insights

80.5%

increase in unique clicks to read featured articles

 

Want to know more?