The Napa Institute came to Yellow Line Digital for a Digital Light to revamp their emailing campaigns. Previously, there was a high volume of emails going out to a large audience. Instead of simply getting the emails out, however, we conducted a full analysis to come up with an effective strategy, best practices, and tools. Yellow Line then executed the new strategy, resulting in a fresh redesign and improved performance.
The Best Practices
After examining metrics on the Napa Institute’s audience profile, open and click rates, and top performers, we came up with a specific and detailed set of best practices. Here are a few highlights:
- Avoid email blasts because Google recognizes these. Instead, segment: send tailored emails to fewer people.
- Focus on opens when opens matter and clicks when clicks matter.
- As much as possible, more text, more personal touches, less HTML and fancy meaningless catchphrases. It should look like it was written by a person, not a design software. Human is essential. Beauty is powerful. Simplicity is key.
- Promo terms like “free,” “offer,” and “discount” are promotional, so they’ll likely trigger spam or promo tabs.
The Redesign
We incorporated visual best practices to come up with a sleeker, more polished look while still adhering to the Napa Institute’s brand. Take a look at the difference!
Before
After
The Goal
We expected metrics to reflect the new strategy being implemented. With that, we set the following metrics as goals:
Newsletters: 25% open rate, 1.5% click rate
Campaign emails: 30% open rate, 2% click rate
The Results
We either met or exceeded our goals for both the open rate and the click rate:
Newsletters: 53% open rate, 1.5% click rate
Campaign emails: 30% open rate, 2.4% click rate
Conclusion
YLD is honored to work with the Napa Institute to preach Christ in culture, economic life, and public policy. By improving the beauty and value of their email communications, we strengthen connections with their audience and build a compelling reason for future audiences to join.
