ServiceLink Auction Email Experience

Designing an email system through a data driven and iterative approach.

Project Overview

Role: Designer + Email Developer
Client: ServiceLink Auction
Partners: Marketing Director, Asset Manager, Data & Analytics Team, Development Team
Duration: 3+ years (2019 - Present)
Deliverable: Enhanced Dynamic Emails, Email Design Library

Problem Statement

ServiceLink Auction is missing a cohesive email experience that provides their users with personalized updates and marketing materials, causing email fatigue and users unsubscribing. There is a need for ServiceLink Auction to improve their email experience in order to increase site traffic and bidding activities.

Solution

The email experience was enhanced by adding more visual elements and dynamic, personalized content through an iterative, data-driven process. Additionally, a drag-and-drop component library was made to facilitate the creation of effective, high-quality emails, which enhanced both the internal and external experience and increased email engagement metrics.

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Overview

With over 50+ years in the real estate auction industry, ServiceLink Auction provides a platform that hosts foreclosed properties and is used to facilitate real estate auctions. Having different marketing channels and solutions is key to driving traffic to the site and increasing bidding activities.

The Process Overview:
Below is an overview of the process taken to design the ServiceLink Auction Email Experience. Click on a block to jump to that section in this article.

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Mockup of someone holding phone with email on it

Design Process: The 2 Phase Approach

Phase 1
Research
Create email strategy
Redesign emails
Start building design/ component library

Phase 2
‍Enhance emails
Add dynamic content
Conduct test on emails
Collect more data from emails

Key Contributions
Collaborated with stakeholders and several teams to ensure emails met project and legal requirements
Advocated to consistently enhance
‍Iterated on emails through a data driven UX approach
‍Leveraged my knowledge in HTML and CSS to design and create emails, email templates, and editable content blocks
‍Created a drag and drop design library to streamline email creation
‍Empowered members of my team to independently create emails that followed design guidelines

Goal
Create an email ecosystem to streamline email creation with an improved email experience for the users in order to increase site traffic and drive bidding activities.

Original Email Design

Redesigned Dynamic Email

Solution Preview
Enhancing the email experience resulted in significant improvements to the design and functionality of the emails. A data-driven and iterative approach was taken to incorporate more visual elements, like images and clear call-to-actions, and to implement dynamic content personalized for each recipient. Testing and analysis led to informed decisions on how to optimize the emails for maximum impact. The email creation process was streamlined with the creation of a drag and drop component library of editable components, available to the internal marketing team. This allowed for the creation of high-quality emails that met design standards, resulting in both time and efficiency savings. The outcomes included a noticeable increase in email open rates, click rates, page views, and bidding activities.

Redesigned Emails

Dynamic Emails

Improved Stats

Design Library

Situation (Research)

In order to develop a thorough understanding of the target audience and the industry, as well as to learn more about emails, program capabilities and features, efficient email practices, user-friendly designs, and ways to improve the recipient experience, research was constantly ongoing and essential to the entire project. Analyzing both direct and indirect competitors helped us stay on top of the competition. Through collaboration with various teams and leveraging everyone’s skills, it allowed us to push the email enhancements further.

Understanding the Business
ServiceLink Auction is a real estate auction company that works with banks, lending institutions, and asset management companies to provide an efficient and effective solution for the sale of properties. With thousands of properties available on their platform, their goal is to provide reliable and efficient services to their clients. They host properties from various program types, such as foreclosures and bank-owned properties, and utilize multiple marketing channels to get attention to the properties.

Competitive Landscape
The email competitive landscape was analyzed through intensive research and competitor analysis (direct and indirect). The research resulted in a list of key features that create an effective email experience. The analysis revealed gaps in the current email approach and showed the extent of work required to catch up and surpass the industry standards.
Key Features in Competitor Emails

Personalized Content

Clear Messaging

Clear Call To Actions

Easy To Read

Consistent Branding

Device Responsive

Dark Mode Optimized

Timely Notifications

Consistent Schedule

Audience
Who are our users?

Real Estate Investor
Individuals or organizations who invest in real estate properties for the purpose of generating income or for capital appreciation.

Home Buyers
An individual who is buying a new house. They have specific needs and a set budget for the property they want to buy.

Real Estate Brokers
Professionals who work with clients, both buyers and sellers, to navigate the real estate market and help them achieve their goals.

Collaboration
Collaboration with various teams within the organization was key in improving the email experience. The Data Analytics team provided insights from the data, the Development team created dynamic emails and notifications, and the Marketing team strategized the emails to be sent and updated them based on data and feedback. The customer service team was also involved in collecting user feedback via phone calls and emails.

Data and Feedback
The email experience was continuously improved by monitoring different metrics like open rate, click rate, website conversions, and bid activity based on the properties featured. In addition to user feedback gathered from emails and phone calls received by the customer service team, data was gathered through tracking user devices and email providers. Multiple iterations of the emails were developed using the information gathered, focusing on areas that could use improvement based on the data and user feedback. Understanding the components of the emails that required the most attention and making decisions about where to allocate resources for design and development were made possible thanks to the insights from the data and user feedback.

Challenges
At the start of the project, the organization underwent a migration to Salesforce Marketing Cloud for their marketing software, requiring a significant amount of time to be spent learning the software and its capabilities. Along with gaining knowledge on Marketing Cloud, I was new to email design, so I had to familiarize myself with email best practices and optimizations for a successful email experience. Being the sole designer on the project also posed a challenge, as there was no one to collaborate with, discuss ideas with, or learn from. This made it difficult to approach problems and make necessary changes, but I was able to overcome these challenges through extensive research and utilizing data to make informed decisions.

Main Challenges:

Limited Team: Working within a limited team required thinking outside the box for solutions
Salesforce Marketing Cloud: Learning about Salesforce Marketing Cloud's capabilities and how to leverage it in the emails
Salesforce Data: The team had to determine how to use existing audience segments and existing user databases using the Salesforce data and documentation that was already available.
Limited Budget: Working within the available company tools and were unable to acquire new tools
Limited Team: With a limited team, it required everyone involved to leverage their skills and think outside of the box for solutions

Problems Identified

The initial email had a number of problems, including sending a large number of redundant emails, lacking design elements that led to an unfriendly layout, no clear call to action, a low click rate, and static information that was irrelevant to most recipients. Additionally, there were minimal copy, which increased the rate of unsubscribes.

Initial Email Designs
Lack of design language
Inconsistent layouts
Text-heavy and missing images
Missing Call to Actions

Many emails to be sent
‍Not all information were relevant to the user
Too many emails caused users to unsubscribe
Users felt bombarded with emails
Reduced interest in email content

Graphic showing user and emails being received

How can we create a streamlined experience with a variety of emails without exhausting our recipient?

Users were overwhelmed with emails that lacked relevant information, poor design, and clear call-to-actions, resulting in a high rate of unsubscribes and frustration. This led to emails being ignored due to previous negative experiences and confusion over the sender.

Iterations

Approach
Due to limited resources, I approached the email project in smaller, iterative steps. I gathered data through customer feedback and email data reports, continually adding enhancements based on research and data. By frequently going back to active sends to optimize with the latest learnings, we were able to increase click rates, open rates, and website visits. I updated the email designs in iterations, tackling one problem at a time. As the project progressed and the emails gained in complexity, more complex tracking was incorporated. The data we gathered gave us insight on which improvements we should focus on, helping us to prioritize our efforts and allocate resources more effectively.

Iteration PhasesThe email redesign and enhancement were done in phases, with each phase incorporating enhanced tracking and data collection. The team constantly incorporated their learnings from consistent email research, prioritizing enhancements based on user feedback, business requirements, and the data collected. The email design was also updated from its original design, with each iteration tackling one problem at a time. The project faced additional challenges with three organization rebrandings due to the company's acquisition process.

Overview of the iteration phases:

Example: Upcoming Auction Events EmailThe upcoming auction events email campaign promotes and features properties from various program types that are either about to go to auction or end their auction period. It's one of the longest running campaigns, initially sent out weekly but now biweekly to reduce email fatigue. Over time, the emails have consistently improved. Initially, only one version of the email was sent to the entire customer base, but eventually, the team became more granular and started sending region-based emails. The eventual goal is to send user-specific emails based on the user's profile and activity. However, the organization doesn't have enough properties for users in some states, and a recommendation engine would require more dynamic coding to achieve this goal.
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Problem:
The original upcoming auction events emails had several problems. They were too generic, resulting in low conversion rates and lacked data collection. Additionally, the emails lacked consideration for the user experience.

Goal:
The goals of the upcoming auction events emails are to drive user traffic to properties and increase bidding activity, have dynamic content so that properties are relevant to the users, increase the conversion rate of users from email to site to bidding activity, and increase tracking efforts to gain more insights.
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Solution:
The current solution for the upcoming auction events emails involves regional emails that draw properties from specified regions (Northwest, West, Midwest, Central, Northeast, and Southeast), a redesigned layout of emails, and incorporating email banners to utilize available marketing space for new and ongoing initiatives.

Original Email Design

Version 1

Version 2

Version 3

Current Design

Original Email Design: The original emails were designed with all parts of the email as images and sent out using an old email platform. This approach caused visibility issues for some users who had to accept downloads of the images due to security concerns. Additionally, the use of so many images increased the risk of the emails being marked as spam. Overall, the original email design was not efficient.
Version 1: Revision 1 involved translating the original email design from the old email platform to Marketing Cloud. The goal was to improve upon the design by utilizing text fields instead of relying solely on images, which caused visibility issues and could trigger spam filters.
Version 2: Redesigned layout of emails, featuring 2 properties per row to get more properties visible above the fold and allow for more properties to be featured in general
Version 3: tried out using top space for call out banners for important messages, attempted to use new hero image styling, introduced property call outs
Current Design: incorporate property's county to property information, optimized accessibility of the email (dark mode optimization, alt text incorporation, detailed linking)

Email Ecosystem

New Email EcosystemWith an iterative process, the email system has undergone substantial changes over time. Multiple teams are involved in the new ecosystem to ensure a seamless process that takes into account both internal and external users. The process includes the building of emails and the recipient's experience, with constant optimization based on feedback and data. Establishing this ecosystem has enabled a smooth process of creating emails and has created a working process between the teams.

Design + Development‍

Designed the email and created easy-to-use templates
Used Salesforce Marketing Cloud and developed the email by leveraging HTML/CSS knowledge and research
Created templatized emails for the team to use
Developed a design and component library to establish a consistent design language and user patterns throughout all emails
Created a robust customized drag-and-drop component library for easier development and maintenance of the emails
Conducted ongoing competitor analysis and research to stay updated on industry trends and best practices

Email Strategy

Objective: Educate buyers, support business goals, establish brand awareness
Distinguish between marketing and essential emails
Use user location and account activity to send appropriate emails
Focus on important initiatives and provide relevant information to users
Create a system to choose properties and prevent duplicates
Enhance the preference center for more customized choices
Send relevant emails based on target audiences
Evaluate performance and readjust accordingly.
Add: conversion points > where are trhe major touch points / sources?

Key performance indicators
Email health

Team‍

Design team: responsible for designing emails using the design library, creating easy-to-use drag-and-drop templates, and ensuring all outgoing emails meet design and usability standards.
Data & Analytics team: responsible for creating the data and audience segments to create dynamic emails, as well as reviewing and synthesizing the data received.
Development team: assists in creating complex codes needed for dynamic emails.
Marketing team: responsible for creating emails based on the templates created and leveraging the component library to easily edit emails. They are also continually updating the email strategy to drive brand awareness and sales of assets.
Business team: responsible for establishing business goals, determining which properties need to be focused on, and creating financial incentive events to drive sales of assets.

Email Recipient‍

Objective: to recommend relevant properties to motivate users to submit a bid and win a property
Recipients receive more relevant emails through dynamic emails
User viewing and interaction with the email is considered (device type, email client, situation, clickable areas, etc.)
Preference center allows for customized email preferences
Responsive emails optimized for different email providers and dark mode users
Users receive different types of emails (education, dynamic property recommendations, newsletters, announcements, etc.) to stay informed about relevant property matches and industry updates

Design Templates + Component Library

Templates

Component Library

Drag and Drop Components

Editable Components

PurposeThe design templates and component library created for the email ecosystem were aimed at empowering the marketing team to create emails with minimal assistance from the design team. These templates and libraries were designed to make the creation of new emails and templates more accessible and reduce the time required to do so. With the component library, anyone could drag and drop pieces into an email. The goal was to keep the brand, visual voice, and design patterns consistent throughout all emails, ensuring that emails are of consistent quality.

Tools

Salesforce Marketing Cloud: the email platform that the team uses to send emails to buyers. It hosts the marketing team's design and component library and collects data on email sends (such as open and click rates).
Ampscript: a Salesforce Marketing Cloud scripting language that is used to create dynamic emails by communicating data from Salesforce to Marketing Cloud.
Google Analytics: used to track website click rates from traffic driven by emails (and other sources), it helps analyze the success of each email campaign and identify areas for improvement.
HTML/CSS: used to create drag-and-drop components for the component library, make emails responsive, meet design standards, and create customized emails.
Figma: used to create designs and prototype emails, it allows for a better understanding of sizing requirements as well as examining the design's CSS to translate into Marketing Cloud.
Miro: used as a repository for research findings, because it allows for the storage of images and links. Emails are also documented to keep the team organized.

Challenges
Creating a design and component library in Salesforce Marketing Cloud was a challenging 3-year task for the team, which had to learn to work with the new tool and build the entire library from scratch. Before the library, designing emails was difficult and time-consuming for the team. Developing user-friendly components within Marketing Cloud required creative thinking and leveraging the platform's capabilities, aided by my HTML knowledge. The result was a library that empowered the marketing team to create emails independently, ensuring consistency in brand, design, and quality across all emails.

SolutionThe component library and email templates created include easy-to-use templates and a drag-and-drop component library with over 20 components that can be edited and reused in any email. The components include property feature components, email banners, text components that align with design standards, and image components. Existing basic components were utilized to create a design that is easy to edit on the user's end and save as a customized component. A variety of templates were also created to work with the component library and account for several email types. The templates and components work together to allow for an infinite number of possible emails to be created. The benefits of this solution include saving time for future emails and templates and providing independence for the marketing team to create campaigns impromptu due to constantly changing business needs.

Solution

The New Email Experience
The email experience was improved through a cohesive and data-driven iterative approach, which included introducing new dynamic emails.

Examples of the before and after

Redesigned Emails
Redesigned and continued to enhance the email design to make it more user-friendly, based on user feedback and data gathered.
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Benefits:

Improved user experience reduces unsubscribes
Brand recognition
Clear messaging
Improved email performance

Example of a dynamic content in an email

Dynamic Content
Personalized content based on the user's activities and profile, which allows for a wider range of properties to be featured and related to the user's interests.
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Benefits:

Content relevant to user's profile
Increased website conversions
Increased properties recommended to user

Example of an email journey you'd enter once you create an account

Email Journey
The email journey consists of sending out a series of emails based on different digital touchpoints and accounts for each step in the buyer journey, including welcome emails, property recommendations, and reminders.
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Benefits:

Cohesive experience
Accounts for each step within the buyer journey
Incorporates educational content and property recommendations
Streamlined emails sent

Example of how the Guest Photos would look like in the reviews page of a stay.

Component + Template Library
A design library with easy-to-use component and templates that empowered others on the team to build out emails independently.
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Benefits:

Reduces time needed to create new emails
Empower others to create emails from templates
Easy to use templates and components

Solution Summary

Email Redesign
Redesigned previously existing emails and built a design language for entire email library

Dynamic Emails
Emails featuring content based on user's location, profile, and website activity

Email Journey
A series of emails sent out at different touch points in the buyer's journey

Design + Component Library
Easy to use components and templates used to create emails with consistent design quality

Impact

External Impact - Customer SideThe emails' impact on the customer side has been significant, with exponential increases in email performance since the project began. The team has seen a decrease in unsubscribes and an increase in bidding activity, with a 179.5% increase in unique opens from cold users between Q3 and Q4. Continual experience enhancements, such as dynamic content, mobile responsiveness, and dark mode optimization, have contributed to the increase in email open rates, resulting in increased website traffic and sessions and, ultimately, an increase in bidding activity on the ServiceLink Auction platform.

Note: An increase in unique opens from cold users is a positive sign for email campaigns, as it indicates renewed interest from users who may have lost interest in or stopped engaging with previous emails. This can lead to increased website traffic and business activity.

Internal Impact

While redesigning and enhancing the email experience had a positive impact externally on the users, there was also a significant internal impact within the organization. By creating a design library, team members are able to build out emails independently, and dynamic emails reduce the workload of creating multiple emails each week, streamlining the building process. The design library empowers others to create emails independently, because it removes the need for HTML knowledge and it's a simple process of dragging and dropping, editing, and creating an email based on existing templates. Overall, my contribution had a positive impact on the team's efficiency and productivity.

Streamlined Email Process
Email design library allows for emails to be created with easy to use drag and drop components

Empowered Others
Others are empowered to create emails without needing HTML knowledge

Time Saved
Several hours a week are saved for the team with dynamic emails.

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