email development | Rooted Elm | Email Marketing https://rootedelm.com Rooted in created outstanding email marketing programs Sun, 30 Apr 2023 02:12:42 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.8.13 https://rootedelm.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/cropped-Rooted_Elm_2c-32x32.jpg email development | Rooted Elm | Email Marketing https://rootedelm.com 32 32 Intentional Email Design https://rootedelm.com/blog/intentional-email-design Tue, 10 Jan 2017 20:55:32 +0000 http://rootedelm.com/?p=3742

In Anne Lamott’s bestselling book Bird by Bird, Some Instructions on Writing and Life she recounts a story of how her brother, aged ten at the time, struggled to complete a report on birds he had put off until the last minute. Her father consoled him by explaining that the task would only get done by taking it, “Bird by bird.”

Sometimes, when we look at our list of emails that need to go out, it can feel overwhelming. But we, too, need to remember to take it “Bird by bird,” or one step at a time. When you design your email intentionally, without rushing, you produce a better email–one that is ultimately engaging to your audience and renders correctly for viewing on all types of devices.

One way to facilitate the process is by creating a template, such as the one used by Hyde Park Jewelers in the three examples below. This template started from a custom HTML email campaign that tracked good results, and the digital marketing team liked the layout. Jason Meeker, Strategic Partner for RootedELM, took his custom design and converted it into a Campaign Monitor template. Jason continues to work with the Hyde Park Jeweler’s internal designer each week on coding and design recommendations. Since then, Hyde Park Jewelers has been able to save time on design and editing because their designer uses the layout specs to create the design assets and messaging.

Once your template is in place, take each email you create and put it through the checklist:

 

    • Determine the CTA: why are you sending the email and what action do you want your viewer to take?
    • Customize your template: each email should be unique with a variation of assets and content.
    • Test for rendering: just because your email looks good on your screen doesn’t mean it will look good in your customer’s inbox.
    • Test links: double check they work the way they should and link to the right URL.
    • Conduct an A/B split test: subject line, time of day or asset placement  – which version received the most engagement? Send to your remaining audience.
    • Monitor results: is the template still producing the results you need? Tweak before your next scheduled send.

As you can see the email layout is the same but the assets changed based on the goal for the email. It’s important to note that all of the text and CTA buttons are text and not images. The subscriber will know what the message or CTA is without having to download an image.

]]> A Campaign to Love https://rootedelm.com/blog/a-campaign-to-love Thu, 14 Feb 2013 14:00:43 +0000 http://rootedelm.com/dev/dev/?p=660 Hyde Park Jewelry can add sparkle to just about any special occasion but Valentine’s Day may be one of our favorites.  We’re in love with how their Valentine’s Day series turned out. We talked to our client Molly Wojcik, Interactive Marketing Director, about Hyde Park’s recent Valentine’s series and the thought process behind her email marketing strategy.

“We take a multi-tiered approach when planning for campaigns leading up to Hallmark holidays,” says Molly. “Our audience is our number one priority, so we strive to keep them top of mind when planning frequency and content.”

Valentine’s Campaign

Valentine’s Day tends to have a much shorter lead-time in terms of messaging (as opposed to Christmas, which builds up for a month or more), so Hyde Park typically begins messaging about 2 weeks out, and tries not to exceed 3 emails per week. “The immediacy and precise timing of email makes it the perfect tool for the gift-giving messaging that we are pushing,” says Molly.

“We take a lot of inspiration from other marketers out there as well, both within and outside our industry. For instance, during the December holiday season, we noticed a trend of category-based emails, so we decided to try this for a Valentine’s Day campaign, focusing on earrings,” says Molly. Using the subject line,  “Make Her Smile from Ear to Ear,” the ad focused on one category and helped take some of the guess work out of gift-giving. Hyde Park saw an immediate reaction after the email send, selling one of the pairs of earrings over the phone within an hour of deployment.

Design

Design of the emails is a collaborative effort. Working with RootedELM, Molly likes to keep the design of the emails clean and simple. “We are a luxury brand, so we never want to compromise our reputation as a fashion-forward, high-end retailer,” she says. “At the same time, we like to add some playful elements into our design concepts, whether it be through the use of clever copywriting, animation techniques or creative use of some of our jewelry imagery (i.e. heart shape using jewelry images).”

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Sweet Success

Success of the campaign is measured in conversions, including opens, clicks, phone calls and store visits. “Since we have a high entry price-point, many of our clients prefer to shop in-store or over the phone with one of their sales associates that they have worked with in the past – they like the personal contact,” explains Molly. “It’s not an exact science, but just like in the story of the customer calling and ordering the earrings after seeing the email, it’s always a great feeling to see a campaign work – from concept to transaction.”

Molly credits the collaboration with RootedELM for the success of her latest campaigns, which feature design consistency across messaging and implementing best practices for placement of design elements. “We are light years ahead of where we were last year in terms of our email marketing,” she says. “This year, our campaigns have been well-thought out with a purpose in mind, and I believe the execution has been fantastic! I’m thrilled with how far we’ve come in such a short time and I’m excited to keep growing in this area!”

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