As I kicked off last week in Connections Extreme Makeover: The Email Design Competition Results, our next few design blogs will focus on each of our Design Solutions teams’ redesigns for AAA Ohio, Pier 1 and Marketing Experiments.
So let’s get right to it: AAA Ohio’s Annual Membership Renewal email. AAA's current email was being sent to members annually to prompt online, phone or in-store renewals. After our first meeting with AAA, we realized that members could benefit from AAA in many life activities, which in turn fueled their customer loyalty. Thus, our “Renew Your Journey…” design was born. After brainstorming on the idea and experience of a AAA member’s journey, we saw the opportunity for a wide-format email. Yes, I said wide-format email, a.k.a. “the horizontal scroller”. Some might despise the idea of side-scrolling, others may love it, but we couldn’t know for sure without a test! And test we did.
Out of the three redesigns tested in the competition, our design outperformed the control CTR by 26% and outperformed the projected revenue of the 2nd place finisher by 4%.
The beauty in this horizontal format design is that subscribers choosing not to scroll will not miss the main message or click-through opportunity. These subscribers are still able to view the header, footer and primary call to action. Therefore, nothing is withheld from the subscriber choosing not to scroll. Instead, scrolling only adds to the email experience while revealing added benefits of membership. This format also made sense because it created brand synergy with AAA Ohio’s wide format web and print elements.
In the screenshot at right, you’ll see we optimized the preview pane view with an html text preheader linking to the AAA renewal webpage, browser view and mobile version; all elements that are visible when images are off. We added the AAA logo at left for immediate brand recognition as well as navigation to AAA’s core business segments and contact link within the header.
Our primary “Renew Your Journey” call to action is also visible within the preview pane. It is supported by three main values of membership followed by an html text button. Once the email is opened, contact information and CAN-SPAM compliant footer are included as well as the bold arrow image with instructions for scrolling.
Once subscribers choose to scroll, the photography illustrates member benefits in travel, entertainment, roadside assistance and dining as demonstrated in this screencast. A final opportunity to click-through to the renewal webpage wraps up the journey.
Overall, we were confident this design would increase subscriber engagement. The format was non traditional, but in this case made perfect sense for the concept and type of email. Stay tuned next week to learn about the Marketing Experiments redesign.
Anna Meier
Design Consultant
ExactTarget Campaign Solutions Team
So let’s get right to it: AAA Ohio’s Annual Membership Renewal email. AAA's current email was being sent to members annually to prompt online, phone or in-store renewals. After our first meeting with AAA, we realized that members could benefit from AAA in many life activities, which in turn fueled their customer loyalty. Thus, our “Renew Your Journey…” design was born. After brainstorming on the idea and experience of a AAA member’s journey, we saw the opportunity for a wide-format email. Yes, I said wide-format email, a.k.a. “the horizontal scroller”. Some might despise the idea of side-scrolling, others may love it, but we couldn’t know for sure without a test! And test we did.
Out of the three redesigns tested in the competition, our design outperformed the control CTR by 26% and outperformed the projected revenue of the 2nd place finisher by 4%.
The beauty in this horizontal format design is that subscribers choosing not to scroll will not miss the main message or click-through opportunity. These subscribers are still able to view the header, footer and primary call to action. Therefore, nothing is withheld from the subscriber choosing not to scroll. Instead, scrolling only adds to the email experience while revealing added benefits of membership. This format also made sense because it created brand synergy with AAA Ohio’s wide format web and print elements.
In the screenshot at right, you’ll see we optimized the preview pane view with an html text preheader linking to the AAA renewal webpage, browser view and mobile version; all elements that are visible when images are off. We added the AAA logo at left for immediate brand recognition as well as navigation to AAA’s core business segments and contact link within the header.Our primary “Renew Your Journey” call to action is also visible within the preview pane. It is supported by three main values of membership followed by an html text button. Once the email is opened, contact information and CAN-SPAM compliant footer are included as well as the bold arrow image with instructions for scrolling.
Once subscribers choose to scroll, the photography illustrates member benefits in travel, entertainment, roadside assistance and dining as demonstrated in this screencast. A final opportunity to click-through to the renewal webpage wraps up the journey.
Overall, we were confident this design would increase subscriber engagement. The format was non traditional, but in this case made perfect sense for the concept and type of email. Stay tuned next week to learn about the Marketing Experiments redesign.
Anna Meier
Design Consultant
ExactTarget Campaign Solutions Team
Comments for Connections Extreme Makeover: AAA Ohio Redesign
blog comments powered by Disqus