Our mission
was to introduce an email communication and content framework that would best support our goals of a larger, more engaged customer base. One of the key strengths of Mito Group is that it covers a very wide range of competencies, so it can fully carry out a customer's problem from strategy to implementation, as it happened in this project.
How we prepare an email marketing strategy:
- We define the objectives and goals together with the client team
- Then take a closer look at the audience characteristics
- Based on the audience data, we define segmentation opportunities
- Combining the above, we develop the content strategy that fits both the client’s goals and the audience
Newsletter marketing strategy
1. Objectives & Goals
There are some “evergreens” when it comes to email channel performance KPI-s. Fine-tuning email deliverability; improving the average open-rate of emails – they may sound all too familiar, right? In Auchan’s case, these newsletter performance indicators were in most cases above industrial benchmarks, but we had yet to put more emphasis on lowering the number of unsubscriptions as well as further strengthen the long-term subscriber engagement. The goal was clear, but like many times in marketing, the answer was not trivial and we came up with multiple potential solutions that could improve our subscribers' overall experience. For this reason, we settled on an A/B testing approach with the email content elements, while also determining that the message layout needed to be revised as well. This was the part where we started collaborating with Mito Digital.
2. Understanding Your Audience
We analyzed which topics and formats resonated the most and the least with our target audiences, then we chose the best performers. At the same time we looked closely at age, gender, shopping habits and other data. By combining insights from content performance and demographic analysis, we were able to gain a deeper understanding of the layers & complexity of our audience.
3. Audience Segmentation
Segmentation is a tricky topic when it comes to real life strategy implementation, in theory there are many ideal ways to segment your audience, but in practice, there are usually some limitations based on the data we can access to use for segmentation purposes. Read more about how we streamlined Auchan’s CRM data model.
We utilized Auchan’s specific segmentation criterias to ensure consistent CRM-based marketing activities across channels. On top of that, we mapped the relevant and available segmentation options, combined with industry best practices to further enhance the effectiveness of this channel.
4. Content Strategy
The question is: can we provide personally tailored & relevant content on a weekly basis?
Rationalized email communication to reduce contact load
To optimize email communication, we merged 4 newsletters into 2 without losing relevant content. How could we achieve this?
One of our tools for that was the Dynamic Content Block feature in Salesforce. These blocks allow content segmentation based on specific subscriber attributes and preferences. For example this block can display different product offerings based on the location of the recipient. We could enhance the signal-to-noise ratio for subscribers by experimenting with this feature, greatly reducing the contact load of emails.
Elevated email content with personalization
Our other priority was to provide more relevant information individually for our subscribers. The key here is also the segmentation by age, product affinity, purchasing behavior, etc. Sending relevant content to different audience segments helps build stronger relationships with customers and earn their loyalty. (Check our case study on Auchan’s Loyalty App)
So now that we had the framework outlined, it was time to create an eye-catching design for the emails.
Auchan has an ongoing initiative to unify all of its digital channels' visual identity and experience. This is called the Digital Harmonization Project, and Mito’s contribution to it started with a redesign of Auchan’s webshop (check our case study), followed by the auchan.hu website and now the newsletter.
Newsletter design
Why is it important for users to encounter a consistent visual identity across all of Auchan's digital platforms?
- Navigation: Users need to encounter a familiar visual identity between platforms when they navigate from email to the site.
- Recognition: Users should be able to make the connection effortlessly and they should recognize that they are viewing an Auchan platform.
- Brand Awareness: Consistency between the two platforms is essential for strengthening the brand and maintaining brand loyalty.
Let’s dive into the design aspect of this project. The email channel is predominantly an online experience, so the components must be designed accordingly. This channel acts as a bridge between the customer and the online platforms.
Newsletter layouts
The approach
1. Follow previously established design system to maintain visual consistency
2. Modular approach to cover a wide range of newsletter types and scenarios.
3. Specifying a guide that enables the creation of a robust outcome
The product card:
The product card is one of the most important modules because it drives conversion and grabs the attention of most users, so the prominent part of the design process revolved around this.
We created an in-depth guide for product cards and created modules that can be used universally to display a quite broad range of products Auchan offers.
This guide serves as a comprehensive reference for both in-house and external vendors who are involved in the email marketing processes.
The end result
On the right side, you can see the old newsletter, and on the left side the redesigned one. As you can see:
- The new design allows for easier information comprehension.
- Colors are aligned with brand guidelines.
- Highlights are well-balanced for improved readability.
- Call-to-action elements are noticeably displayed.
- And it clearly indicates which products are discounted and which offers are exclusive to loyalty card owners.
What have we learned?
- Good work takes time: at first glance, creating a newsletter strategy and design may seem to require less time and resources than it actually does. However, many aspects converge here (brand, segmented communication, prices, design, etc.), and the user's attention must be captured in a very short time. So even the smallest details can make a big difference.
- Desk research: the underrated hero. Let’s not hesitate to spend time on research; let’s look at the trends and best practices we see among competitors and leading market players. Our main goal is not always to dictate trends; sometimes we benefit more by finding our own voice within the trends.
- Personalized content is not a feature anymore, it’s a must. Subscribers are expecting tailor-made content and will get frustrated if a brand fails to deliver. At the same time, they also expect the utmost relevancy and bite-sized content formats which are easy to digest. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all, lengthy emails!
- Testing: we are never fully done with the job, and that’s by design. Without testing, there’s no feedback or lessons to be learned, which we can use to fine-tune our strategy and its specific elements over the long term.