top of page
.png)
The challenge
Dealerships have thousands of customers in their CRM. Segmenting lists to reach out to those customers is time consuming and hard to do effectively, and at scale.
The Solution
Use our platforms technology to build out automated audiences and send emails based on shopper intent and data, automatically and at scale.
My Role
I worked closely with PMs, stakeholders and developers to research, plan and help execute this project. As well as all UX/UI aspects and further improvements.
Research Competitive landscape
To get started, I had to understand the competitive landscape, both in the automotive industry and outside of it. Currently dealers (our main persona) were using email tools not specifically related to automotive, such as Mailchimp or Activecampaign.
While these tools are great, it meant that dealers had to export audiences from their CRM and then import those lists into other tools. This is time consuming and hard to do at scale. The current tools aren't designed for the way dealers work.
Non Automotive
Automotive
.png){kind=small}
_001.jpeg)
Research Feature mapping
Despite the fact that our solution was slightly different, it was important to map out the features of competing products to understand what features were needed to be a successful email tool. What was a must for our product and what was nice to have?
Feature mapping of the most popular tools dealers were using
Research Let's talk to people!
No research is complete without talking to the people who will actually use your product. So I booked time with some of our customers to better understand what the problems were with their current solutions, and understand the problems were we trying to solve to ensure the right product market fit.
The key take aways
Dealers had to export audiences from their CRM into various different email tools. This was very hard to do at scale
Sending great looking emails that would get customers' attention was time consuming
Customers were getting emails with new car deals 2 weeks after purchasing a new car
Dealers felt that the places customers were being sent to after receiving an email wasn't converting them to leads
Dealers weren't happy with the email tools from their CRMs. And using multiple tools that didn't talk to each other.
Dealer's were not happy with the quality of segmented data, they were only accessing a portion of their CRM leads
* Research sources were some of our dealership clients as well as open dealership forums
Research Personas
Nurture is just one product in a platform of solutions targeting the US automotive market. Our personas are: 1) The dealer who would send emails and need to get real feedback and ROI. 2) The customer receiving the emails.
Persona 1 The dealer
The dealer cares about the ROI of the product. How are these targeting my customers and bringing me leads and sales. What do I need to do to see better results?
Main motivation Getting more sales
Persona 2 The Customer
The customer receiving the email may not have even thought about a new car. We want them to open our emails, click the link and become a lead. And even better....a sale!
Main motivation Getting the best deal
Persona 2 The Customer
To understand how to best design the emails the customers would receive, I wanted to better understand the shoppers journey end to end. What were their concerns, and pain points?
I researched car buying practices, spoke to consumers and mapped out the customer's experience map to better understand where the pain points and opportunities were. This helped me align the key features needed to create the customer's journey.
The customer needs an easy way to view multiple options for deals.
The messaging should be consistent throughout the customers' journey.
The goal should be to get the customer's details in the most frictionless way possible.
Product Concept Customer journey
.png)
.png)
.png)
1 The customer is added to the relevant audience and receives an email with an offer from the dealership based on their needs.
2 The customer receives a relevant offer to them. A clean, focused design helps get a high click-thru rate.
3 The customer arrives at a landing page on the dealership's website, where he sees the same messaging as in the email. We know who they are so his details are pre-filled making converting to a lead simple and easy.
Product Validation
I designed multiple types of email templates and we tested how customers reacted to each one. Some had multiple offers, or were designed to look like a plain text personalized email. These templates were designed so their content could be adaptable at scale.
We tested dozens of subject lines for different scenarios dealers and shoppers may encounter, and adjusted as we got data back. Using a shoppers first name increased open rate to about 30-40%.
Example subject lines I wrote and tested
Your lease on the {vehicle.model} is about to end, See offers on new vehicles today!
{First name}, don't miss out on this limited time offer on the {vehicle.model}, and you could save {amount.savings}!
Different emails had varying degrees of success depending on which audience received the email
Visual Exploration Wireframes and concepts
After validating the concept and product assumptions, we need a dashboard so the dealer could manage his email marketing, make changes if needed and see important metrics and information.
Because the product was based off of templates without the option to customize it much, it was important to make sure we were explaining the product's core values correctly, so dealers could understand how the emails were helping them sell cars.
The key things we wanted to show dealers were the emails that were being sent, key metrics like active shopper, leads and sales.
.png)
The most important thing about visual exploration was to test and align with key stakeholders to understand what worked and what didn't, and most importantly....why?
Final Design The dashboard
.png)
Multiple types of campaigns target audiences with difference intents
_edited.png){kind=small}
Showing the shopper's journey shows attribution, helping the dealer understand the value of the product
_edited_edited.png){kind=small}
The main overview of the product displays the most relevant information, such as the number sales, the highest performing campaigns and shopper journeys.
Displays all campaigns, for both service and sales departments. Clicking on a campaign directs users to that campaign. Progressive disclosure allows users to view additional metrics about each campaign.
The campaign page displays the information about a specific campaign. Users can view data about shoppers and the emails they received from this campaign.
Under the 'Email' tab, users can see the subject lines and email templates associated with this campaign and make changes if they wish.
Design system
The design system was created in collaboration with the product design team and marketing, to reflect our new branding.
Conclusion What I've learned
1 Start small
We started with as minimal a product as possible in order to validate the concept. I designed super basic emails with very focused goals. Tested, iterated and learned.
2 Focus on what matters
Set a goal and work towards it.
The goal set was to validate if shoppers would buy a car after receiving an email. Only when that goal was achieved, the way forward was carefully mapped out and work on the dashboard was started.
3 Iterate quickly
Subject lines and emails were designed quickly, taking into account shopper needs and pain points. When a subject line didn't work it was changed. Adding a {First.name} value to the subject lines increased open rates to about 30-40%.
.png)
bottom of page