Freedom

brief and objectives

• Conduct a mobile first audit of Freedom Furniture's email campaign design.
• Present to Freedom Furniture the important of mobile first design, clearly communicate what their competitors are doing and demonstrate improvements that can be made to drive them to invest in design development.
• This was a proactive project with LIDA (M&C Saatchi) providing a broader service offering to persuade Freedom Furniture invest in their email campaign design with them. This is turn aims to drive relevancy and interest to customers of Freedom Furniture, making the brand more competitive.

DESIGN PROCESS AND RATIONALE

• My thinking behind this mobile audit was that I needed to guide Freedom Furniture step by step, answering key questions -  What was the issue and why? How were others solving the problem? How could Freedom Furniture solve the issue?
• The best way to convey this research and analysis was through a visual presentation, concluding with recommendations and a plan of action for Freedom Furniture to pursue development.

KEY CONSIDERATIONS and challenges

• I broke my analysis down into four key areas, highlighting the importance of mobile first design.
• Firstly, What percentage of their email base were viewing on a mobile and how were these performing? - This information could be easily obtained from Freedom's email service provider.
• Secondly, What did the emails currently look like in the mobile view? - As the design was not currently responsive it would either resize to fit the device's screen width or be cut off. I mocked up visuals of this to show how it looked to the viewer. 
• Thirdly, what were their competitors doing? - Taking screenshots of direct and indirect competitor emails, I annotated which design features and layouts worked well in terms of how engaging and easy they were to view on a mobile.  
• Lastly, How could Freedom's emails be improved? - I developed a new email wireframe, product layouts and rules on stacking for a mobile device to create a consistent responsive look.

OUTCOME AND RESULTS

• Although ending the presentation on the new wireframes and rules would have been sufficient, I had worked on several of Freedom's Furniture's emails whilst at M&C Saatchi and as an Email marketing specialist, I saw so much opportunity to improve customer experience and engagement of the long, bulk emails currently being sent (such as the one shown above).
• I annotated the wireframes to include the following:

Data strategy - segmentation and developing data collection plans to gather further information on their recipients such as interest. (eg: Lounge or bedroom furniture) 

Content strategy - personalisation, dynamic content, behavioural (populate sections of email based on their browsing history on the website for example) and contextual (populate sections of email based on the weather, for example if it is hot, feature outdoor furniture).

Social Media integration - Sharing both content of the email to social media followers and potential increase/encourage sign ups and empowering customers act as your brand advocates by enabling social sharing.

Lifecycle and programs - Considering not just an individual email campaign but how it works as a series and planning out the customer's journey with the brand. This includes shopping cart abandonment, welcome programs, inactive recipients and VIP style series'.

• I completed the keynote presentation to be shown to client and guided the team through the audit and recommendations. 
• My analytical work was highly praised by the Head of art and Creative Director, commenting "It impressed even the toughest of clients!"