Discount Newsletter - Making the Employee Discounts Newsletter Personalized to Each User

Introduction

This article offers information on the Discounts Newsletter which is sent to employees on a weekly basis. Some of the key features of the newsletter are listed. This article is designed for Clients and Employees. 

Background

Employees registered on the SmartSpending employee Discounts platform will receive a revamped weekly email, updating them on the latest discounts and offers available to them on their Discounts platform. Not only will the email look and feel more engaging than ever before, but the content has been overhauled to be tailored to each individual user.

Here's a summary of the key features of the new newsletter:

1. Branded to Match the Employer Brand

We will be able to match the entire color of the email to the client's program branding, to ensure continuity and further connection with the employer brand.

2. Improved User Experience

We’re always looking to improve the email spam and usability performance, reducing image heavy templates in favor of text-led content. In a nutshell, it means members will be able to download the email quicker on their Smartphones and get a good understanding of our great offers without having to necessarily download the images. Many of our members who use the discounts platform access it using a smartphone or tablet, so we needed to adapt our newsletter for mobile success!

3. Cleaner Design

One unanimous piece of feedback received through UX testing was the need for a cleaner, smarter, and slicker template. We’ve stripped back the offers to focus on the main call to actions such as the offer and the offer type. Let’s be honest, a saving of 10% is worth making the most of, but add the fact that it’s an Instant offer and life just got so much better.

The Deal of the Week placement has also had a complete refresh. No more image-led banners – instead the text has been separated from the image entirely. Like we mentioned above, this means the offer is visible even if the images aren’t.

4. Announcements Section to Highlight New Retailer Additions

Another exciting addition is the Announcements section that allows us to shout about all the cool new additions to SmartSpending. Whether it’s a brand-new retailer, another offer going Instant or simply some advice on how best to use your Cashback – we now have a section to shout about it.

5. Hot links

The hot links section is another brand-new addition to the newsletter. One of our key goals is to increase click-through rates, directing users from email to SmartSpending. One of the ways we’re hoping to achieve this is by including hot links at the bottom of the email, enabling users to click through to various sections of the SmartSpending site, such as My Account.

How Will These Changes Improve Engagement?

Improving engagement isn't just about keeping our regular savers interested, it’s also about re-engaging those members who haven’t logged in to the platform either for while or at all. Making improvements to the email’s overall engagement potential should help move in-active members down the funnel and get them engaging regularly with SmartSpending as a product.

Since the launch of our personalized Solus emails, we’ve seen a boom in the engagement rates, with an average open rate of 44% across our Solus campaigns. Huge stats considering the average UK open rate for Offers emails is 26%,  so it’s a no-brainer that our newsletter should reflect this demand for personalization and a more targeted approach.