Epro Email Newsletter Design: A Fresh Look for Monthly Engagement

Creating a new design for Epro Newsletter

Epro, a valued client using HubSpot for their email marketing, approached us with a significant challenge: their monthly email newsletter performance had plummeted. A recent redesign attempt resulted in drastically lower open rates, and deliverability issues meant their message wasn’t even reaching a substantial portion of their 1600-person subscriber list. With less than 1200 emails delivered (despite accounting for spam and bounces), and persistent difficulties with contact status within HubSpot, Epro needed a solution. This blog post details our UX/UI design process, from understanding the problem to delivering a high-performing email newsletter.

The Problem (Client’s Perspective):

Epro’s previous redesign attempt wasn’t gaining any engagement, leading to a sharp decline in open rates. Coupled with this, deliverability was a major concern. They stated:

This new one I tried to redesign, and the opens dropped like crazy.

My UX/UI Design Process:

1. Discovery & Research:

• Client Interviews: We began by thoroughly understanding Epro’s goals for the newsletter. What did they want to achieve? What kind of content did they want to share? What was their brand identity?
• Audience Analysis: We discussed their target audience. What were their interests? What kind of email design would resonate with them?
• HubSpot Platform Audit: Crucially, we investigated Epro’s email marketing platform. This included reviewing their contact list management, segmentation, and deliverability settings. We suspected the “marketing contacts” issue was a key factor.

2. Define:

Based on the research, we defined the core problems:

• Design: Epro expressed a desire to move beyond the standard HubSpot templates and create a more modern, sophisticated email design that reflected their brand and resonated with their audience.
• Deliverability: The low delivery rate indicated potential problems with the contact list, email platform settings, or email content triggering spam filters.
• Contact Management (HubSpot Specific): The “marketing contacts” issue pointed to a potential technical problem within the platform.
• Maintainability: Epro needed a system that would allow them to create and send future newsletters efficiently and independently, without requiring ongoing design or development support.

3. Ideation & Design:

• Visual Design: We developed a visual design that aligned with Epro’s brand guidelines, using a consistent color palette, typography, and imagery. We focused on creating a clean and professional look, moving away from the more generic styling often associated with out-of-the-box HubSpot templates. The visual design also needed to be flexible enough to accommodate the modular content blocks.
• Content Strategy: We collaborated with Epro to refine their content strategy, ensuring the newsletter provided valuable and engaging information for their subscribers. We also worked with them to define the types of content modules they would typically use (e.g., featured articles, product spotlights, event announcements).

4. Prototyping & Testing:

• Email Template Development: We built a functional HTML email template based on the approved design. To ensure cross-platform compatibility and streamline development, we leveraged MJML, a responsive email framework.1 This allowed us to create a robust and consistent email experience across various email clients while significantly reducing development time. Critically, we developed the template using modular components, allowing Epro to easily assemble and rearrange these modules within HubSpot.
• Deliverability Testing: We utilized HubSpot’s built-in email testing tools to assess deliverability and identify any potential issues. Furthermore, we employed Litmus, a comprehensive email testing platform, to ensure the email rendered correctly across a wide range of email clients and devices.

5. Implementation & Launch:

• HubSpot Integration: We integrated the new, modular email template with Epro’s HubSpot account, providing clear instructions and documentation on how to use the modules to create future newsletters.
• Deployment (HubSpot): We launched the redesigned newsletter to a segment of their list within HubSpot initially to monitor performance.

Retrospective or Conclusion:

I helped Epro give their email newsletter a complete makeover. By focusing on what their audience wanted and fixing the technical glitches in HubSpot, I created a design that’s not only beautiful and engaging but also incredibly easy for Epro to use. They can now build their own newsletters each month thanks to the modular system I put in place, which is a huge time-saver. Plus, open rates and deliverability are way up!