The document discusses how an email newsletter has become an effective way for a company to communicate with its large user base. Testing of different design elements, content types, and user segments showed that the newsletter was highly engaging, with open rates of over 75%. This high engagement with the newsletter translated into increased engagement with the company's product and services, including higher retention and conversion rates. The key learnings were that email is an efficient channel to reach many users, and that ongoing testing and optimization is important to continue improving results.

1. WHY I LOVE THE CONTENT
EMAIL NEWSLETTER
(and you should, too!)
DANA PALMIE

2. WE HAVE A LOT OF CONTENT TO OFFER.
Loveable brand
 Consumer tips
Product features

Security Alerts
 Resources
Thought leadership


3. HOW DO WE COMMUNICATE
WITH OUR USERS?

4. 30,000
60,000
90,000
120,000
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH
FACEBOOK ENGAGEMENT SLIDESHARE VIEWS TWITTER ENGAGEMENT
HOW DO WE COMMUNICATE WITH OUR USERS?
Facebook is a great platform, but there is a lot
of competition for attention and its algorithm
is somewhat unpredictable.

5. 30,000
60,000
90,000
120,000
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH
FACEBOOK ENGAGEMENT SLIDESHARE VIEWS TWITTER ENGAGEMENT
Twitter is great for quick hits but we’ve never
built a huge user following, so it’s not the best
way to communicate with our user base.
HOW DO WE COMMUNICATE WITH OUR USERS?

6. 30,000
60,000
90,000
120,000
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH
FACEBOOK ENGAGEMENT SLIDESHARE VIEWS TWITTER ENGAGEMENT
SlideShare has proven to be a great way to present
more complex topics, but our users don’t live there
— we have to send people there.
HOW DO WE COMMUNICATE WITH OUR USERS?

7. WE’RE DOING WELL WITH SOCIAL MEDIA,
BUT THERE WAS STILL A HUGE NUMBER OF
USERS WE WEREN’T TALKING TO

8. SO WE BUILT A NEWSLETTER

9. 4.5%
9%
13.5%
18%
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH
CLICK RATE OPEN RATE
WHAT’S RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS TREND?

10. TEST, TEST, TEST
Design
!
• Templates
• Gifs
• Buttons

Segmentation
!
• Paid vs. organic
• Carrier
• Premium vs. free

Content
!
• Feature info
• Security content
• Contests

We test different variables each month, which
means the newsletter is always getting better.

11. We used an agency to create 3 templates, tested those, chose the one that
got the most engagement, and have optimized that in-house.
Design: Templates, gifs, buttons

12. October December January
Design: Templates, gifs, buttons

13. October December January
2%
65%
1%
19%
3%
1% 1%
9%
38%
0%
15%
6.5%
0%
2%
5%
4%
67%
17%
1%
2%
1%1%
EXACT TARGET HEAT MAP LETS US SEE WHAT’S WORKING.

14. Design: Templates, gifs, buttons
We know the general layout that performs well, and we
know that we can optimize by sending different content to
different segments, so how can we scale this?
Content blocks

15. Content: Feature info, security content, contests
There are a lot of different types of content we can present to our
newsletter recipients. We’ve tested which type of content encourages the
most clicks, engagement with the product, and conversion.
 
• Product features
• Security thought leadership
• Videos
• User stories
• Survey data
• Lookout in the news

16. Content: Feature info, security content, contests
Including a Tech Hero call to action in the December newsletter
had a measurable impact on the campaign’s success.

17. Content: Feature info, security content, contests
And this happened again. And again.
SlideShare traffic

18. 30,000
60,000
90,000
120,000
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH
FACEBOOK ENGAGEMENT SLIDESHARE VIEWS TWITTER ENGAGEMENT
REMEMBER THAT SOCIAL MEDIA GRAPH?

19. 400,000
800,000
1,200,000
1,600,000
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH
FACEBOOK ENGAGEMENT SLIDESHARE VIEWS TWITTER ENGAGEMENT EMAIL OPENS
IT TURNS OUT THE SCALE IS RELATIVELY SMALL
100,000

20. 400,000
800,000
1,200,000
1,600,000
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH
FACEBOOK ENGAGEMENT SLIDESHARE VIEWS TWITTER ENGAGEMENT EMAIL OPENS
EMAIL ENGAGEMENT IS OFF THE CHARTS

21. 400,000
800,000
1,200,000
1,600,000
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH
EMAIL CLICKS EMAIL OPENS
WE’RE ENGAGING WITH A LOT OF PEOPLE EACH MONTH.

22. 75% OF ALL USERS WHO HAVE
RECEIVED THE NEWSLETTER HAVE
OPENED IT AT LEAST ONCE

23. THAT’S
7,538,920
UNIQUE ACTIVE FREE, PREMIUM
AND INACTIVE USERS

24. It takes 2 or 3 emails before most users engage.

25. It takes 2 or 3 emails before most users engage.
1st
Send
2nd
Send
3rd
Send
4th
Send
5th
Send
6th
Send

26. Active Free Users Who Perfomed Locates
1.25%
2.5%
3.75%
5%
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER DECEMBER JANUARY FEBRUARY
BASELINE RECEIVED EMAIL, DIDN'T OPEN OPENED EMAIL
HOW DOES THIS TRANSLATE INTO ENGAGEMENT WITH THE PRODUCT?
Locate CTA

27. Active Free Retention
25%
50%
75%
100%
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER DECEMBER JANUARY FEBRUARY
BASELINE RECEIVED EMAIL, DIDN'T OPEN OPENED EMAIL
HOW DOES THIS TRANSLATE INTO ENGAGEMENT WITH THE PRODUCT?

28. Conversions from Active Free
0.3%
0.6%
0.9%
1.2%
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER DECEMBER JANUARY FEBRUARY
BASELINE SENT, BUT NOT ENGAGED ENGAGED
HOW DOES THIS TRANSLATE INTO ENGAGEMENT WITH THE PRODUCT?
Product hero
Product hero
Product hero

29. LEARNINGS
• Email is an effective way to communicate with a large portion of our users. Most
users will open at least once.
!
• The email newsletter is improving engagement with the product.
!
• It is important to scale the program now as segmentation gets more complex.
!
• Users like clean email layout, with content including videos, product features,
security thought leadership and animated gifs.
!
• Email effectively drives users to Lookout content on other channels.

30. WHERE CAN WE APPLY THESE LEARNINGS?
Product development
 Social media content
  
Product messaging

Customer support
 Partner relationships
Customer research
