DEVELOPING BEST-IN-CLASS EMAIL TEMPLATES
TO ACHIEVE CUT THROUGH IN BUSY CUSTOMER INBOXES
With customers receiving between 20 and 90 emails a day, and an average read time of less than eight seconds, Westpac’s emails need to work harder than ever to capture their customers attention. Furthermore, with over 14 million customers and a range of banking services, their emails need to be sufficiently flexible to engage and serve a diverse audience.
THE CHALLENGE
To develop Westpac’s next generation of brand eDM templates that are engaging, enhance the customer experience, are best in class and sustainable across the entire business.
MY ROLE
Following a proactive design proposal, I was invited by Westpac to spearhead the development of a new suite of email templates. Leveraging my experience in email development and passion for email best practice, I led a lean project team consisting of a UX & Design lead and Graphic Designer and myself to develop Westpac’s new modular email template.
Working closely with Westpac’s Brand team, I oversaw the development and delivery of the project, undertook user, accessibility and technical stakeholder interviews and project managed the delivery of the new email suite.
THE SOLUTION
Following an analysis of emails from across industries we identified what worked and what didn’t. We examined Westpac’s current emails to understand the volume of content, key message and layout challenges and usage of imagery and icons.
A design exploration sprint enabled us to stress test the hero area across various typographical styles, image placements, graphics and module heights. With the hero area set, a second design sprint addressed the subsequent module designs to complete the emails with rules developed communicate best practise for Marketing teams who would use the templates.
The final template designs were tested using live content to ensure they were feasible for users and reviewed by Westpac’s Digital Team to ensure they were compliant with their email production and delivery systems.
THE PROCESS
DISCOVERY
Understand business & customer perspectives
Understand technical requirements
Current-state communications audit
Best practice review
Competitor review
Design study from outside the sector
DEFINE
Synthesise findings
Plot content pillars
Set design principles
Plot content pillars
Requirements identification
Technical specification
Design brief
DEVELOP
Develop layout structure
Module design ideation
Content testing
Technical validation
Accessibility testing
Stakeholder reviews
Design refinement
DELIVER
Prototyping using live communications
HTML development
QA & UAT
Guidelines creation
User presentation & handover
User support
Design Study
Design exploration
Device testing
Guideline development
THE OUTCOME
Through the application of direct marketing best practise communications, UX and design together with close stakeholder consultation, we developed an adaptable suite of email modules that met Westpac and their marketing teams needs.
The email templates were embraced by the business and we were invited to extend the remit of the project to include Westpac’s newly developed sub brand design language which we gladly accepted.
The new templates are being tested in parallel with the current designs and we hope to see the results soon.
