Meaningful Beautyā¢Ā Simple Beauty Email, FinalĀ -Ā Property of Guthy-RenkerĀ®
Challenge
Sometimes you have to walk a very narrow line between what markets well and what the product owner, Cindy Crawford in this case, is willing to approve. Ā Focused on editorial style creative, the campaignsĀ for Meaningful Beautyā¢ had little in the way of the marketing mechanisms needed to drive conversion. Ā The email campaigns specifically were suffering - so our first challenge was to revamp the Simple Beauty campaign.
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Solution
As it often does, my design workĀ started with a mind map. Ā I began by placing the elements we had gleaned from our UX testingĀ into a hierarchy of importance. Ā I massaged theĀ pieces around until they told the story I wanted and was able to being theĀ headlineĀ copy writing phase. Ā Going for a bit of a gamble, I threw out the headline, "Get Results in just 4 Weeks," and ran with it. Ā Our previous headlines were sentence length - so I was betting that something punchier (and results driven) would win.
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Using this UX blueprint, I was able to dive rightĀ into my high fidelity wireframes. Ā I started blocking out my content using theĀ "Z" pattern of eye flowĀ as a base to guide my mind map.Ā After this was approved, I started fleshing out the final email; going beyond simply "coloring in the lines." Ā I wanted something that matched the current design trends (rather than the dated purple layouts that came before.) Ā The final stepĀ wasĀ to dressĀ the content up with the necessary bursts and CTAs. Ā The final creative out preformed all the previous iterations and became the clear control for theĀ Simple BeautyĀ campaign.
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A/B Testing
Iteration 1: As a requirement set forth by brand, the designers were told to focus on editorial content. Ā This email (seeĀ Meaningful Beautyā¢Ā Simple Beauty Email, Iteration 1Ā below)Ā set the basicĀ typography and colors, but looks like something you would see in a blog post rather than a marketing email. Ā Even so, its numbers warrantedĀ testing.
Iteration 2:Ā In an effort to gently guideĀ the product team towards something more marketing friendly, we started with oneĀ simple change rather than a full facelift. Ā Since the product section really wasn't making much of a sell, I dropped its prominence in order to focusĀ on Cindy's fantastic before and after photos for a decent increase in CTR's Ā (seeĀ Meaningful Beautyā¢Ā Simple Beauty Email, Iteration 2Ā below).
Iteration 3:Ā The product team requested a variantĀ of Iteration 2 that told the story behind Meaningful Beautyā¢ since they were still convinced that editorial content was the way to go (seeĀ Meaningful Beautyā¢Ā Simple Beauty Email, Iteration 3 below). Ā Since we had the luxury of such a large mailing list, it wasn't an issue to test. Ā The results of this test made it clear that editorial content wasn't successful in this channel. Ā In light of those results,Ā the product team gave us the go ahead to do more marketing oriented creatives.
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Iteration 4: Ā This iteration (seeĀ Meaningful Beautyā¢Ā Simple Beauty Email, Iteration 4Ā below)Ā was the full facelift we wanted to try back on Iteration 2. Ā Branching out from the previous editorial content, we wereĀ able to include four popular marketingĀ mechanisms: a model shot, before and afters, factoids, and guarantees. Ā As expected, this combination saw a dramatic increase in CTR's.
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Iteration 5:Ā Taking the base from Iteration 4, we decided to try a more testimonial driven angle - so we could learn what sold best to our audience. Ā This version (seeĀ Meaningful Beautyā¢Ā Simple Beauty Email, Iteration 5Ā below)Ā dropped the before and afters and 60-day guarantee to make room for two customer quotes. Ā As is often the case, part of testing is failure. Ā This iteration saw a dramatic drop in CTR's - so now we knew how to angle our messaging.
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Iteration 6: I pulled out all the stops for this variantĀ (seeĀ Meaningful Beautyā¢Ā Simple Beauty Email, FinalĀ below.) Ā Leveraging in the findings from the previous iterations, I mixed in punchier copy with fresher graphics (no more blah purple backgrounds!) to create something radical, yet in line with brand standards. Ā The success of this creative let us wrap up theĀ Simple BeautyĀ campaign and inspired redesigns ourĀ banners and carts.
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Innovation
- Constructed new, results driven copyĀ rather than recycling from previous iterations sinceĀ copy writing services were unavailable. Ā Going this extra effort really fine-tuned the message and shaped the base for all of Meaningful Beauty's campaigns.
- Reimagined theĀ Simple BeautyĀ campaign with modern graphics and layouts in order to keep the brand relevant with a high end feel.
- Seamlessly incorporated marketing mechanisms (three call-to-actions, bursts, before and afters, etc.) in a way that satisfied the product owner, Cindy Crawford, while effectively driving sales.
Meaningful Beautyā¢Ā Simple Beauty Email, FinalĀ -Ā Property of Guthy-RenkerĀ®
Meaningful Beautyā¢Ā Simple Beauty Email, Iteration 1 -Ā Property of Guthy-RenkerĀ®
Meaningful Beautyā¢Ā Simple Beauty Email, Iteration 2Ā -Ā Property of Guthy-RenkerĀ®
Meaningful Beautyā¢Ā Simple Beauty Email, Iteration 3Ā -Ā Property of Guthy-RenkerĀ®
Meaningful Beautyā¢Ā Simple Beauty Email, Iteration 4Ā -Ā Property of Guthy-RenkerĀ®
Meaningful Beautyā¢Ā Simple Beauty Email, Iteration 5Ā -Ā Property of Guthy-RenkerĀ®
