If you’ve spent any time in Pardot, MailChimp, Zoho, Airship, or other mass-email management tools, you know that getting the visual design right for all email clients is a frustrating HTML challenge. To add extra complexity to the challenge, an email template also needs to serve email creators, helping preserve brand identity from email to email without any “drift” due to copy-paste.
Over the course of a year, I used simple, kaizen processes to improve a company marketing email template from the version on the left to the version on the right. With each outgoing email, I identified a single issue negatively impacting click-through rates. I adjusted the base template HTML until that factor was no longer negatively impacting clicks, then codified it in the email editor system (Pardot, in this case) to enforce a single design standard for anyone writing marketing emails.
| Issue | Improvement | |
|---|---|---|
| CTA link format | → | • Enforced brand color guideline. • Modified link to appear as a button in both HTML (e.g. Gmail, Apple Mail) and VML (e.g. Outlook) clients • Standardized CTA language by collateral type Improved click-through rate by ensuring link was recognized and clickable in all email clients. |
| Click tracking | → | • Tracked splash clicks separate from text link clicks to determine ideal paragraph body element size. Found that most readers consistently click text CTA rather than splash. |
| Body text size | → | Large, decorative text limited to cases with fewer than 4 lines of printed text (less overwhelming, easier to read) Increased click-through rate on text CTA as button moved closer to top of page. |
| Splash image | → | Standardized image size across all email clients. Reduced stretching and deformation of images, in addition to ensuring full image visibility in all email client window sizes. |
| Text format variability | → | Headings, lists, and paragraphs incorporated for visual interest, information architecture, and document sectioning Increased total click-through rate and repeat-click rate. |
| Sections | → | Primary, secondary, and advertising spaces clearly defined to promote more content per email without becoming a newsletter |
| Secondary content | → | Added additional related links to each outgoing email. Secondary content catches ~3% of total clicks from readers who were uninterested in primary content. |
Results
Sure, I think the new email design looks and feels better, but what do the numbers say?
- Click-through rate has risen from <1% to consistently between 2.5% and 3.0%
- Year-over-year opt-outs have reduced by 30%
- Number of total promotions has tripled without increasing the number of outgoing emails
- Tracking data now includes audiences members who were immediately interested (clicked splash), who were engaged with core promotion (clicked text link), or who were interested in the general subject (clicked any link), leading to further refinement of email lists and content strategy.
