Overview
For our fourth phase of newsletter development and distribution, we’ve recommended a re-design and split test based on previous email newsletter distribution statistics. The new newsletter template design encompasses a clean-cut, blog style list with a clearer emphasis on events and accommodation deals. Our previous statistics indicated a poor click-through-rate on the photo competition module, so we have made the call-to-action for this model more prevalent within the center of the newsletter.
How it’s going to work
We’re going to run with a 15/15 % split, covering round about 12,000 subscribers. At the end of the split-test, we’re going to select one lucky winner to be the newsletter template that we use for future mail-outs. Who will it be!? We’ll soon find out! In the mean-time, what do you think of the new design?
Design Objectives
The main reason behind the re-design of the newsletter was the layout of the previous template. We put together a list of elements we thought could use a bit of re-work to improve the click through rates (CTRs):
- We wanted to make the content key – this involved coming up with a layout that didn’t incorporate the ‘block’ style model of the existing template
- Again, with content forming the base of the newsletter, we wanted to highlight the most important parts so we can achieve concentrated clicks on certain elements. To do this, we’ve highlighted 3 top events to place strategically towards the top half.
- The Fallback position of the template – The previous newsletter design looked great, but we wanted to make things easier on the eyes with a solid fallback template that would display things more clearly while images weren’t being shown.
- The photo competition – We needed to break up the competition, as well as make it standout on its own as a unique element. This was pretty easy, we just added a grey accent (part of the brand colours) to make this section stand out from the other segments.
- Bolder phone number call-to-action – In the existing template, the phone number for the contact centre was pushed to the far right out of the user’s line of vision and was not emphasized throughout the template. We’ve improved this by including a bold phone number centered and above the fold. It is also repeated at the very bottom of the newsletter when the user scrolls down.
- Branded colours – In the new template, we’ve used the brand colours sparingly to enhance the readability of the content and create a smoother document flow through the newsletter – it also ties in nicely with the Fallback. The main point of different is the black text on white, replacing the previous white text on navy.
Desired outcome of re-design:
- Higher click through rate
- More enquiries via call-to-action mediums
