We love hearing from our customers – not just about what you love, but also about what could be better. Your feedback helps shape the way we improve Mailchimp.
Take our email templates, for example. After learning about some of the challenges you’ve faced with our current templates, we got to work. The result? A complete refresh with 250+ industry-specific email templates designed to make your brand and message stand out even more.
Read on as Sarah Mullins from our lifecycle marketing team shares the strategy behind the refresh. Then, hear from Associate Design Director, Lauren Coutts, who explains how an intentionally minimal design puts your brand front and center.
Sarah Mullins
Lifecycle Marketing Director, Engagement & Retention, Mailchimp
What sparked this project, and how did the Lifecycle Marketing team get it off the ground?
My team focuses on all communications throughout the customer journey beyond the onboarding phase. This includes driving customers to engage (and re-engage) with Mailchimp’s sophisticated features; product and feature announcements; retention, education and cross sell and upsell messaging. Our team is unique at Mailchimp because our product is for lifecycle marketers, so we’re a lifecycle marketing team working on a lifecycle marketing product! This provides us with a unique opportunity to provide our expertise and insight to Mailchimp’s product team.
When the decision was made to create new email templates for specific verticals, we brought in our expertise. We kicked off a ‘mission team’ that had dedicated cross-functional resources, from marketing and creative teams to the product team, to be able to really focus and make sure that we were providing our customers the best email templates possible. As an email marketing platform, creating good email templates is one of the most important things we can do for our customers. So it was really important for all of us to get it right.
“Creating good email templates is one of the most important things we can do for our customers. So it was really important for all of us to get it right.”
Can you walk us through the key steps of the process?
We spent time at the beginning going through all of our existing templates and the feedback we've had from customers, both qualitative and quantitative. What was working? What wasn't working? What templates are our customers actually using? What modules are they using? What industries are our customers in? What are the common use cases for each of those industries?
Then, instead of diving straight into design, we started with a wireframe approach. We first focused on the structure of each template, identifying the right modules and content hierarchy for each individual industry and use case. We developed thoughtful and intentional wireframes for each email template and then moved into design. In building each template, we also ensured we were using global styles, and building them in a way that would be easy for customers to edit and customize for their own needs.
Ultimately, this approach led us to developing an incredible product with really easy-to-use, user-friendly templates. I’m so proud of the work that the team has done. It's been an awesome project and I'm so excited for our customers to get their hands on them.
Lauren Coutts
Associate Design Director, Mailchimp
What was the first step in the redesign process, and why?
We had to start with a question: Why? Why are these beautifully designed templates not being used to their full potential? The why factor took us quite a bit of figuring out. But, ultimately, it was about accessibility.
Mailchimp has, historically, built a lot of comprehensively designed templates. Think of them like fully-stylized outfits with accessories, images and colors. But many of our users have found them quite daunting from a usability perspective. It’s similar to looking for a new apartment. If you see an apartment with someone else’s furniture in it, you might think ‘This isn't my style.’ You’re not seeing the bare bones. Well, it’s the same thing with email templates. Our mission was to find an accessible way for our users to think of our templates as super inviting––for them to automatically see their brand in them, no matter what their brand is.
What are the standout design features of the new templates, and how do they enhance the user experience?
From a design perspective, we're going super bare bones, even all the way down to the color palettes. We obviously needed to use some color to differentiate them, but they’re quite gender-neutral. The product photography is really simple, more muted and unassuming. The typefaces are san-serif and consistent. The only variables are in the designs themselves. You’re now able to see the different design features rather than focusing on, for instance, loud pinks and purples. There are fewer bells and whistles which, ironically, actually makes the templates feel more inviting. Ironically, they might look like our least designed templates, but I'd say they’re our most intentional templates in terms of usability and accessibility.
“Ironically, they might look like our least designed templates, but I'd say they’re our most intentional templates in terms of usability and accessibility.”
How do you want Mailchimp users to feel when creating emails with the new templates?
A feeling of opportunity. Or of easily imagining their business or brand coming to life within them. One of the most fun things about Mailchimp’s brand is that it has such a sense of personality and wit, which is rare in the tech space. Many tech brands are now attempting to build a personality that resonates with customers. With this project, however, we’re trying to make our brand just a bit quieter in the templates themselves, to give the opportunity to our customers to let their own brands sing. I’m super optimistic that our customers will see the huge potential in them.