Designed interactive emails for Salesforce’s first streaming service

a tablet, desktop and mobile device displaying the same email

Project

Salesforce+ is a streaming service that offers original series about business topics. The service is free to anyone who subscribes.

I designed the newsletter journey that subscribers receive after signing up.

Roles

  • Design
  • UI
  • UX
User clicks the sign-up button to register
a photo from our initial white boarding session
User is then prompted to sign up for trailblazer.me

the challenge

Trailblazer.me is the name of Salesforce's single sign-on profile. You have to create a Trailblazer.me account to access Salesforce+. But the user flow didn't make this connection clear.

Should we welcome subscribers to Trailblazer.me or Salesforce+? Should we try to bridge the gap between both sign-ups? These were our initial challenges.

AB testing

We AB tested two approaches. One introduced subscribers to Trailblazer.me and the different content offerings it unlocks. The other focused solely on welcoming subscribers to Salesforce+.

The Salesforce+ focused email had a 43% higher engagement rate. That told us that first-time users of Salesforce+ were more interested in content specific to the streaming service.

A
Previous site design
image of the previous site design's home page
B
Redesign
image of the redesigned site's home page
a photo of a sketch in a notebook of an email audit

Design Approach

We started our design exploration by conducting an analysis of emails sent out by popular streaming services. We identified visual patterns and evaluated which to include in the welcome email.

I designed several versions of the newsletter based on this initial research and the Salesforce+ style guide.

The Salesforce+ platform uses a bold dark background, and I included this in the email. This visual motif is popular among the email communications of many streaming services.

Interactive Carousel

We wanted to mimic some of the interactivity on Salesforce+ in the welcome email. This was, after all, introducing our subscribers to Salesforce’s brand new streaming service and we wanted to impress them.

Interactivity in email is limited and unreliable due to a lack of coding standards. So, we implemented a new coding framework released by Google, AMP, that delivers modern interactive features to email.

best email design award

Litmus, the premiere voice for email marketing, ran a contest for email design. Litmus readers were polled and asked to choose their favorite design, among several submissions, for the B2B category.

Hierarchy, appealing imagery and accessibility were some of the considerations readers were asked to use. We didn’t win but our Salesforce+ welcome email came in third place, a notable achievement nonetheless.

Image of the awarded digital medal

Recurring content highlights newsletter

After launching the welcome email we set to developing a monthly recurring send. This newsletter highlights Salesforce+ content.

The newsletter uses the same visual language as that from the welcome email. It also includes several hover effects that help make the email feel more dynamic.

The desktop version of the Confirmation Email