When the project came my way, two things were already known:
- The current email capture units, pop-up and end-of-article units, were increasingly unsuccessful. Data showed drop-offs in both.
- Qualitative user research told us users strongly disliked the number of pop-ups on the site. We heard it in almost every test we ran.
External consultants also confirmed that intrusive pop-up units could be a possible factor in the site’s inability to rank higher in Google search, something the company was keen on increasing as well.
As I began my research to get up to speed, it showed that the pop-up units were only being served on desktop, greatly limiting the ability to target 80% of users. A mobile-first solution quickly became a top priority.
At the time, there was no scroll-depth data available to understand if users were getting to the current, end-of-article units. Internal conversations also focused on how many decisions the user was being asked to make at the end of an article added to the need to find additional position opportunities. The final goals of the project were:
- increase email sign-ups
- enhance user experience, putting the user first
- champion responsive reusable component(s), with mobile-first approach
Working with the design team, we developed a mobile-first approach to an email capture unit. Opting for a less-is-more approach, it was stripped down to core brand iconography and focused on quick, clear brand language to promote a newsletter. This solution also began to solve a long-discussed problem of time-to-deploy. The editorial or marketing teams could now spin up a quick email capture unit without the need to go back to the design team for branding and to engineering for building.
The final implementation of the project was passed back to the audience infrastructure lead when they returned from leave. When the new units officially launched, they were happy to share the below metrics. A great team effort that had clear user (and business) benefits.
Compass Newsletter: 126% increase in email sign-ups
CoDesign Newsletter: 38% increase in email sign-ups
30-day window, before and after launch
Visualizing existing revenue-impacting units helped us align stakeholders on moving forward with an in-article unit as opposed to something that slid up from the bottom. We agreed to keep a slide-up unit in the discovery backlog, as we liked the idea but would need to work through the logic conflicts with existing units.