In my past experience, I did not like designing and producing HTML email marketing campaigns. The emails that I created had their conceptual birth in another medium altogether: a Catalog, an Advertisement, or the Website. The concept and strategy was already finalized before it had gotten to me. At that point it was all about production.
How I see email working for 37signals
I want to take a different approach with 37signals email. Because we are not ready to start redesigning the marketing sites, I see an opportunity to use email as a means to experiment with concepts in anticipation of the redesign. That’s right. I am reversing that conceptual flow often practiced at many online retailers. Email isn’t going to follow what’s already been laid out. It’s going to lead the way. This is email as an inexpensive design and content testing platform.
Here’s the original design for the first Highrise email test:
I am hoping to address some marketing site issues with this email. There is no place currently on the Highrise site where customer stories or tips can be found. We have a great Product Blog with stories and tips, but you can’t sign up for Highrise there. It is also difficult to know that we have Basecamp and other products if you’ve come to the Highrise site directly. Maybe Basecamp will suit your needs better. This is how we did it with this particular email. A few emails down the line might take a different direction altogether.
One caveat about using emails as a design and concept testing ground is that email clients are not perfect. The original design had to be adjusted slightly. You can see what we finally ended up with here: http://www.highrisehq.com/newsletters/090908/
Design compromises aside: Email becomes the perfect platform to perform this synthesis experiment. Elements and concepts from the design above may or may not make it into the final site design. That is still a ways away. We’ll cut our concepts for a site redesign over a span of several emails in the coming months. Would you like to see how it comes along? Sign up for our newsletters to see where these emails take us.
Maurus
on 24 Sep 08I see you have a link to a online version. are they still necessary?
It’s a great idea to use email as a test-ground for new designs.
Nick Whitmoyer
on 24 Sep 08Jamie, I’ve noticed a huge improvement in the emails being sent from 37signals recently. I’m curious how you’re addressing the deliverability issues that email marketing is plagued with—specifically degradation in different inboxes.
seth godin
on 24 Sep 08Oh no!
Say it ain’t so, Jamnie.
37signals has a unique relationship with its users. Instead of commodifying it by using fancy html, just send us text.
A human being writing a note to another human being.
That’s the ticket. We don’t need marketing. We need conversations and education and passion.
JD
on 24 Sep 08Seth, It’ll still be a human being writing a note to another human being. Just like we’re doing on this blog and the Product blog. The only difference is that it won’t be in Courier.
GeeIWonder
on 24 Sep 08That’s right. I am reversing that conceptual flow often practiced at many online retailers. Email isn’t going to follow what’s already been laid out. It’s going to lead the way.
If this were a paper review, I would challenge the notion that this is at all novel.
Which is not to say it’s a bad idea, or that it’s not novel to you or novel to 37s.
Unept
on 24 Sep 08Interesting idea. But the purpose of email is different from that of the destination site. Sure, you can test different design/copy elements in the email, but I’m not sure if the test results would be relevant to the destination site.
Cameron Westland
on 24 Sep 08I am also interested to know how you handle degradation in different inboxes. How do you test the email designs? Are you using table-based layout?
JD
on 24 Sep 08Those that are interested in how to produce HTML emails should definitely take a look at Campaign Monitor. I used a different service at my last job, but their app just blows me away. They also have this handy reference sheet for designers that is very helpful.
It is definitely a tricky thing and I can’t say I’m doing it the best way. With each release there will be things that work and things that don’t: design, concept, rendering. We’ll just keep refining. Keep on trucking.
GeeIWonder
on 24 Sep 08Good point Unept. This is, essentially, why it doesn’t work.
Email is not used like websites, or navigated like websites very much at all. The points Cameron, and Jamie himself, raise about non-standardized email clients, spam filters, etc. add more noise to the useability signal, and will skew your sampling. Speaking of which—there essentially is no signal or sampling.
You don’t really learn anything from your audience at all about what is e.g. more useable through this exercise. You do go through more (earlier) design iterations though, and give your team some time to digest, so maybe there’s value in that.
Seth raises good points too. Business-strategy wise, I think the sort of emails that have been the feature of a couple of these now is a big mistake that’s going to hurt your brand.
Cu Bono? Do your customers really want more newsletters or do you want more customers? Do your customers really want a ‘content testing platform’ in their inbox on a regular basis, or are you putting it there for you guys?
Tim Jahn
on 24 Sep 08@seth
I think some people are more visual than others and will appreciate a more graphic filled HTML email vs. the text version. I prefer GUIs anyday over using the command line. Some of my friends swear by the command line.
As long as 37signals allows you to choose which email type you wish to receive, I think that’s fair.
Alan Wallace
on 24 Sep 08It seems impossible to discuss HTML email without some (respected!) people commenting that emails should be just text. Personally i always prefer a well designed html email over plain text, several colleagues prefer plain text. The important thing is too offer a choice.
I’m sure 37signals unique voice will continue to come through even if the format is slightly different.
James
on 24 Sep 08Jamie: I saw this in my inbox the other day: it looks great. Nice job.
Mike Rundle
on 24 Sep 08Looks real nice!
I can see how you’re thinking of evolving the 37s brand through these emails and I think it’s a good evolutionary step. I don’t think 37s marketing/branding needs a revolutionary step as it’s already well-defined in people’s minds. You’re refining the “simple & smart” brand definition through an updated visual design. Very, very sharp.
Ryan
on 24 Sep 08I can understand Seth’s perspective however I believe that sending HTML email doesn’t have to be a marketing gimmick. Sometimes it’s just an issue of improving the usability of the message.
It can be extremely difficult, using simple text, to help the user find what will interest them the most. Once you introduce color, and size, and spacing, it becomes ever so much easier for the recipient to find what they’re looking for.
(Whoa, Seth Godin and I read the same blog… that’s awesome. It’s like I just walked past a celebrity on the street.)
kyle
on 24 Sep 08jamie: beautiful work. thanks for sharing—has given me a couple of ideas for my own work.
cheers, kyle
ROI
on 24 Sep 08text emails is a bore…
SS
on 24 Sep 08All of our HTML emails are sent out in multipart with a plain-text alternative, so if you have your email client set to text-only mode everything will look fine.
Nathan
on 25 Sep 08HTML emails certainly have their place. For example Rumplo ( http://rumplo.com/ ), who send out a newsletter with a round up of latest t-shirts. The email would be far less useful if it was in plain text.
I believe the line is drawn between communicative email, and newsletters / press release / marketing email. The majority of communicative email (and by communicative, I’m talking emailing a client, or friend, or what have you) – should be in plain text. That’s all it needs to be. But moving to html email for the latter should be a matter of what is appropriate.
And Campaign Monitor / MailBuild is absolutely fantastic.
Jake
on 25 Sep 08Hi Jamie, I’m curious if you could tell us what the handwritten font is? Thanks!
Andre
on 25 Sep 08I am no customer but sure like the design. I’m with Seth here, although I appreciate the plain-text alternative.
What platforms do you test these designs on? And how?
StartBreakingFree.com
on 25 Sep 08I would love to see some posts on how you test your emails in different email clients, or best practices to get them consistent.
This has always been frustrating for me and I end up just using plain text.
StartBreakingFree.com
on 25 Sep 08Nevermind, I’m checking out your Campaign monior link from above.
That is a really neat feature where they give you screenshots of how it will look in each client!
david
on 25 Sep 08if you really want to simplify, why not do mobile marketing instead of email? This way, your message is confined to the length of an SMS message. Try something like: www.zenect.com
Ryan Cannon
on 26 Sep 08Funny, the idea of a well-designed HTML e-mail still gives me the shudders. I saw that comp and thought, “no way could they do the shadows—no way could they do that break-out image.” Lo and behold, you didn’t.
It amazes me that despite our browsers racing to Acid 3 compliance, e-mail is still in such a horrific state, that plain text is still an option—let alone the preferred one.
Corey James
on 26 Sep 08Funny, I generally ignore plain-text emails from companies. It’s probably bitterness with spam overload, but if I’ve made the effort to reach out to a company for more marketing info I expect something adhering to their marketing efforts in return.
I like the idea of using email marketing campaigns as proving grounds for design ideas. Just started doing the same last week as a matter of fact.
This discussion is closed.