Back in September, we introduced a name for submissions to our 2022 Email Excellence Awards. We obtained 116 responses from our very gifted email neighborhood—and the creativity, technique, talent, and energy that went into the work they nominated didn’t disappoint!
After a virtually one month lengthy judging course of carried out by a panel of email specialists, the winners of 4 classes have been chosen for:
And due to votes solid by our Litmus Weekly publication subscribers utilizing reside ballot performance powered by Litmus Personalize, the “Litmus Choice” winners for Best Email Design (B2B) and Best Email Design (B2C) had been chosen, too!
Without additional ado, please be part of us in congratulating our 2022 Litmus Email Excellence Award winners. We hope you’ll be as impressed by their work (and the tales behind their profitable emails) as we had been.
Drum roll please…
Most Innovative Personalization (B2B)
Winning Company: Zendesk
Submitting Team: Anne Tittensor, Deepali Kerai, Bhavika Jagwani
Submission Title: CX Classroom 2022 with Buying Stage Specific Targeting
This submission from the Zendesk workforce claimed our B2B Most Innovative Personalization award this yr. They needed to develop personalised content material that may additional interact with EMEA EN, DACH & BENELUX audiences, utilizing email to drive visitors to touchdown pages that hosted present content material from core world, EMEA-specific, and native campaigns/occasions. They aimed to drive individuals down the funnel in an attractive manner with the theme of “school.” The marketing campaign adopted a advertising funnel method, the place emails had been personalised and featured dynamic content material based mostly on the recipient’s purchaser stage.
Zendesk selected which components to personalize based mostly on:
1. Database audit
In addition to primary personalization components like identify, salutation, and trade segments, the workforce carried out an intensive database audit to evaluate viewers measurement in every purchaser stage, and common engagement charges for the final 12 months in comparison with benchmark. This helped the workforce establish the areas the place email engagement might be improved.
2. Insight from cross-functional groups
The email workforce partnered with cross-functional companions together with buyer and regional advertising, social, model, and public relations to grasp developments and subjects surrounding buyer wants. With this data, the email workforce prioritized which kinds of content material ought to be included within the emails, and the easiest way to current it.
3. Email narrative
The workforce thought of the email recipient journey by adjusting the quantity and sequence of touches (distinctive to every shopping for stage), to ship a related narrative all through the marketing campaign.
The workforce’s main targets in utilizing email personalization had been to:
- Increase model consciousness
- Establish trade experience
- Increase total email engagement metrics towards benchmark
The overwhelming majority of emails within the marketing campaign exceeded benchmarks for distinctive open price, distinctive click-through price and click-to-open price. Thanks to the touchdown web page visitors generated by means of the emails, common session length elevated by 255% and the bounce again price decreased by almost 27%!
Most Innovative Personalization (B2C)
Winning Company: HH Global (for consumer Purina)
Submitting Team: Helena Symons, Leanne Moore, Vitanee Oliver, Sarah Harris, Chris Bamford, Karen Bailey, Tony Collinson, Neil Bursnoll, Aileen Raynos
Submission Title: Driving Engagement with Purina Pet Avatars
HH Global claimed our B2C Most Innovative Personalization award for its work with Nestlé pet meals model Purina. Beginning in 2021, Purina labored with HH Global to plan a knowledge seize marketing campaign to drive sign-up to the CRM program, interact and excite present customers, and seize pet information.
To do that, the workforce created an interactive digital expertise that provides customers the chance to create digital Avatars of their pets. The pet information captured through the Avatar construct course of is loaded into Purina’s CRM database, permitting the model to construct significant relationships with customers by means of tailor-made recommendation and presents.
For this email, the workforce dynamically populated customers’ personal Pet Avatars into the email’s hero module by programmatically producing the picture hyperlinks within the email, utilizing customers’ Pet Avatar IDs. The module targeted on the completely different wants of canine, driving visitors to an academic touchdown web page particular to their pet. In addition to the Avatar picture, copy was personalised with the pet’s identify and breed.
HH Global selected which components to personalize based mostly on:
1. Consumer and pet information fields
The workforce audited and segmented to grasp which fields drive response and are most dear to Purina and the patron when it comes to the power to personalize communications.
2. Defined set of standards
The thought of criterion wanted to construct core pet information profiles, together with the kind of pet (cat or canine), identify, age, and breed. It additionally arrange a decrease precedence set of information fields (like pet gender, colour) and indoor/outside (for cats) that might be used for future personalization.
3. Data seize methods
Purina sought to drive personalization by means of first-party information seize to spice up engagement with the model’s email program. These methods had been based mostly on the info fields to enhance the standard of client info, together with the introduction of the Pet Avatar Creator.
The success of Purina’s information seize technique has enabled the model to ship over 400,000 personalised emails every month, with as much as 14,000 combos of content material served by means of a single dynamic email template. The August publication surpassed Purina’s benchmarks throughout click-through and open price, and personalization constantly delivers a 150% uplift in response. The Avatar Creator has additionally been a number one driver of database acquisition for Purina and offered an ideal start line to construct an ongoing relationship with customers.
Best Data-Informed Email Transformation
Winning Company: InImaginative and prescient
Submitting Team: Emilie Vachon, Trina Ng, Stephanie Esplin, Mike MacFarlane, Chris Vandermarel
Submission Title: Using Product Data to Help Increase User Engagement by 42% in Lifecycle Programs
The InImaginative and prescient workforce’s main onboarding program’s objective is to activate customers and retain them in its platform. To measure enchancment in its email program, it checked out open charges, click on charges and product exercise; it chosen core product actions, paired with product logins, as key indicators of success.
It then utilized this information to see what was working properly (and wasn’t). To enhance email engagement, it examined content material, format, sender identify, and language throughout the emails (all at completely different instances), to see which variations elevated engagement. The workforce additionally highlighted completely different use circumstances and product actions to see what would drive customers into the product for activation.
Key takeaways from testing:
- Reducing the quantity of calls-to-action (CTA) in email elevated the probability of clicks
- Getting customers into the product in the beginning of their journey is important
Best Onboarding Email Series
Winning Company: NCSOFT
Submitting Team: Marianne Ng, Rachel Kamel, Lina Eriksson, Thomas Caprel, Pedro Cano
Submission Title: NCSOFT’s 2022 New Player Journey For Guild Wars 2 Increased Logins by 46%
As a online game writer and developer, NCSOFT is understood for video games like Guild Wars 2. They embrace loads of choices for brand spanking new gamers–however that may be overwhelming and trigger churn. To fight that, NCSOFT’s onboarding email sequence for the brand new participant journey guides gamers on what to do at completely different participant stage set off factors. From the day they log into the sport for the primary time, the consumer will get an email letting them know the simplest and quickest strategy to get began, together with tutorial info and hyperlinks to community-driven participant guides.
To make this journey priceless, the workforce’s method was to assist gamers perceive:
- What to do once they start the sport
- Where to go (the in-game world contains many choices)
- How to get there in essentially the most environment friendly manner
To do that, CTAs linked out to neighborhood assets for gamers who want an in-depth information, and provided previews of what to stay up for as play continues. (For instance, reaching sure milestones provides gamers rewards and tools). It additionally created dynamic CTAs by viewers. If a participant had not but chosen a personality, for instance, the email would characteristic a CTA to customise their character and find out about every occupation.
The onboarding journey is predicated on information behind participant conduct to research how gamers transfer by means of the sport–and the place they have an inclination to get caught. Its new participant journey has elevated logins by 46% and incremental gross sales by 48%—within the first half of this yr!
Litmus Choice Winners
The winners of our Litmus Choice Best Email Design class (for B2B and B2C) had been chosen by the readers of our publication Litmus Weekly.
Using reside polling performance powered by Litmus Personalize, the email neighborhood solid their vote based mostly on steered concerns like:
- Does the email have a transparent format and hierarchy?
- If relevant, does the email have attractive imagery?
- Does it use easy-to-read fonts and typography?
- Are there clear CTAs?
- Is the email accessible?
Here are their picks for the 2 profitable email designs in B2B and B2C.
Litmus Choice: Best Email Design (B2B)
Winning Company: Ally Financial
Submitting Team: Cara Couture, Michelle Long, Brianna Batton, Rakeem Anderson, Matt Jerdan, AJ Wood, Taylor Mitchell, R/GA digital design company
Submission Title: Ally Bank – October Savings Toolkit
With 53% of the vote, Ally Financial gained over Litmus Weekly subscribers to say the title of Best Email Design (B2B).
Litmus Choice: Best Email Design (B2C)
Winning Company: Lev
Submitting Team: Kelly Minnick, Cassie Becker, Taylor Comeau, Cat Mears, Frida Salmon, Kate Tinklenberg, Klarissa Smith, Rachel LaFreniere, Sonos CRM and Brand Teams
Submission Title: Sonos Roam Shoppable Email
Lev gained over Litmus Weekly subscribers with 80% of the vote to say the title of Best Email Design (B2C).
Thanks to your submissions!
Thanks once more to all who submitted their work to our 2022 Litmus Email Excellence Awards.
Want an inside have a look at what makes a profitable email? We break it down on this weblog submit.