A case research by Optimum Enterprise Consulting — Stripo.electronic mail

One of many duties of promoting automation and CRM consultants, whose objective is to make purchasers’ work processes extra environment friendly, is to pick handy work programs. Jeff Kemp, licensed advertising and marketing automation and CRM marketing consultant and proprietor of Optimum Enterprise Consulting, shares how they selected an electronic mail builder for a nonprofit group and why they selected Stripo.

Interview Professional

Licensed marketing consultant, Optimum Enterprise Consulting proprietor, advertising and marketing automation and CRM marketing consultant

Concerning the firm

Optimum Enterprise Consulting is a staff of knowledgeable consultants specializing in optimizing advertising and marketing automation, CRM, and CMS platforms. They’ve been licensed consultants for over 10 years and have 30 years of promoting, gross sales, and enterprise area expertise.

They collaborate intently with shopper groups, serving as subject-matter knowledgeable (SME) consultants and a fractional extension of their workforce. Their method combines strategic perception with done-for-you (DFY) and done-with-you (DWY) companies, permitting them to deal with challenges and implement confirmed options.

Optimum Enterprise Consulting affords a complete suite of electronic mail advertising and marketing companies. Additionally they focus on creating and managing advertising and marketing automation workflows in platforms like Pardot and HubSpot and optimizing electronic mail deliverability to make sure messages attain their supposed audiences.

Their various shopper base spans numerous industries, together with enterprise course of administration, SaaS/software program, expertise/IT/safety, skilled companies, consulting/enterprise administration, nonprofits, and fintech.

Problem: To discover a user-friendly electronic mail builder and velocity up electronic mail manufacturing 

One shopper of Optimum Enterprise Consulting is a big nonprofit group. They struggled with creating electronic mail templates inside their present advertising and marketing automation platform, Pardot. They relied on Pardot’s native “traditional” electronic mail builder, which was not very handy for the required duties. The group struggled to create structural layouts and even make primary content material adjustments inside their electronic mail templates.

Their staff created three to 6 electronic mail template variations each day for various segments. Every template contained a number of hyperlinks with distinctive UTMs, including complexity to their work.

The principle points they confronted included:

• problem making adjustments to content material, even when the e-mail merely wanted to be edited or a picture wanted to get replaced;
• challenges in creating new template layouts; 
• a gradual, laborious electronic mail template creation course of, even when cloning present templates. 

All of those struggles diminished their effectivity and productiveness. They wanted to discover a answer to simplify and velocity up electronic mail manufacturing.

The method of choosing the platform for electronic mail constructing

When it got here to deciding on an electronic mail builder for his or her nonprofit shopper, Optimum Enterprise Consulting relied on their experience to establish the perfect answer. 

Key standards for the e-mail builder included: 

• a straightforward drag-n-drop interface; 
• numerous content material parts; 
• reusable content material modules; 
• Outlook assist; 
• easy changes for fonts, colours, and sizes;
• mobile-specific settings;
• a user-friendly preview function. 

Moreover that, the builder wanted to assist full HTML export for integration with different programs, be collaborative, and be cost-effective.

In essence, the selection was between the next choices: Proceed utilizing the built-in however clunky Pardot Traditional electronic mail builder, strive the newer Salesforce Lightning E-mail Builder for Pardot, or strive an exterior electronic mail builder, such because the Knak electronic mail builder or the Stripo electronic mail manufacturing platform.

1. The choice course of rapidly dominated out the brand new Lightning E-mail Builder for Pardot. The first causes have been that the Lightning E-mail Builder was subpar and really limiting in comparison with exterior builders, and the shopper’s IT division was reluctant to implement it on account of setup complexities.
2. Initially, the staff thought-about a builder that built-in straight with Pardot. Nevertheless, they discovered Stripo’s HTML export performance so efficient that they determined towards forcing direct integration, understanding IT approval can be difficult.
3. Optimum Enterprise Consulting carried out a demo of Knak. Though Knak shared many capabilities with Stripo, Stripo was extra reasonably priced and appropriate for organizations of all sizes. 
4. After consultants evaluated a number of choices, Stripo emerged because the clear selection on account of its options and cost-effectiveness. Optimum Enterprise Consulting rapidly discovered that Stripo works very properly with the Pardot Traditional electronic mail builder when Stripo conveniently handles the front-end design facets and the Pardot Traditional electronic mail builder is used to use viewers lists and ship emails.

This affordability and performance made Stripo the popular selection. The professionals and cons of every electronic mail builder they thought-about could be seen in a well-liked article on their web site about the perfect electronic mail template builders for electronic mail manufacturing.

To introduce their nonprofit shopper to Stripo, Optimum Enterprise Consulting initially used their Company account for the primary few electronic mail builds. The shopper was impressed with the outcomes. Regardless of preliminary hesitations from the IT division, the shopper finally secured approval for a Stripo subscription and has been utilizing it efficiently for about two years.

Workflow and manufacturing: Steps and staff collaboration

Utilizing Stripo, Optimum Enterprise Consulting developed an optimized course of for its nonprofit shopper to have a streamlined electronic mail manufacturing workflow. This course of ensures effectivity and accuracy in producing high-quality electronic mail campaigns.

The e-mail creation course of contains the next steps:

1. Template creation: The method begins with the creation of an electronic mail template in Stripo. The template serves as the inspiration for the brand new message.
2. Content material and replica adjustments: All needed copy adjustments, together with preheader textual content, are made inside the Stripo template.
3. Hyperlink era: Distinctive hyperlinks with UTMs are created utilizing an exterior device developed by Optimum Enterprise Consulting. This device makes use of structured knowledge for UTMs and contains required fields and calculations to make sure consistency in naming electronic mail templates to match electronic mail campaigns.
4. Hyperlink integration: The created hyperlinks are added to the e-mail template in Stripo.
5. Preview and testing: The e-mail is previewed in Stripo, with particular consideration to hyperlinks and cell variations for brand spanking new templates.
6. Pardot integration: An present comparable electronic mail is cloned in Pardot, the place the sender info, segments, suppressions, and topic line are up to date. The total HTML is exported from Stripo and used to exchange the present HTML in Pardot.
7. Textual content model updates: The textual content model is up to date in Pardot with minor formatting adjustments. Subsequent, check emails are despatched.
8. Approval: The e-mail is distributed for stakeholder approval. If revisions are wanted, adjustments are made in Stripo, and the method is repeated till approval is granted.
9. As soon as the e-mail is accepted, it’s scheduled for sending.

I educated a few electronic mail marketing campaign managers on the shopper during the last two years. One particular person now handles all the e-mail creation. They have been capable of be absolutely educated in about two weeks from begin to end. Now, I solely soar in often on uncommon events to assist if required primarily based on their workload.

Jeff Kemp,

Licensed marketing consultant, Optimum Enterprise Consulting proprietor.

The staff that works on electronic mail manufacturing is conditionally divided into two teams:

1. The content material staff gives all of the content material, together with the topic line, preheader textual content, and physique copy. This staff can also be accountable for remaining approval.
2. The e-mail marketing campaign supervisor primarily clones present templates for electronic mail creation and goes from there. With Stripo, the E-mail Marketing campaign Supervisor can create new electronic mail templates that require completely new layouts whereas remaining in step with company type guides. So, they solely want one particular person to create electronic mail templates and electronic mail messages.

Right here’s one instance of an electronic mail template constructed into the Stripo editor:

(Supply: E-mail by Optimum Enterprise Consulting)

Points and resolutions

Whereas utilizing Stripo, Optimum Enterprise Consulting encountered some particular points that impacted their workflow, which they labored to resolve with sensible options.

Font hyperlink monitoring challenge: Pardot counts each “@import” font hyperlink as a click on, affecting electronic mail analytic integrity. To take care of correct knowledge, Optimum Enterprise Consulting must manually take away all font hyperlinks from the HTML for every message and revision.

Title tag challenge: One other problem includes the Title tag within the HTML. If not eliminated, the Title tag will seem within the inbox preview as a substitute of the preheader textual content. Regardless of makes an attempt to depart the Title clean or insert an area, the difficulty persists, requiring handbook removing of the Title tag from the HTML for each message and revision.

Total, whereas these points require extra steps of their workflow, Optimum Enterprise Consulting continues to work intently with Stripo and appears ahead to enhancements that would additional streamline their electronic mail manufacturing course of.

Outcomes and influence on electronic mail manufacturing: Constructing emails 60% quicker and with high quality

Since transitioning to Stripo, Optimum Enterprise Consulting and their nonprofit shopper have noticed important enhancements of their electronic mail manufacturing course of. 

Probably the most notable change was a dramatic discount in electronic mail manufacturing time. Total, the method is roughly 60% quicker, factoring in the usage of their customized UTM builder and course of optimization. With out the UTM builder, the time financial savings are nonetheless spectacular, round 40%. This effectivity has allowed the shopper to streamline their operations and cut back reliance on exterior consultants.

The shopper has additionally seen enhancements within the high quality of their electronic mail templates. They now seem clear, vibrant, and cell pleasant, changing the outdated and rancid designs of the previous. This enchancment in visible attraction has contributed to a extra partaking expertise for his or her viewers.

The principle Stripo options that assist to realize these outcomes are:

• user-friendly options and capabilities;
• an modifying HTML module alongside a real-time view;
• the power to edit total HTML (together with tables, rows, divs, and customized code);
• reusable modules;
• full HTML export.

Highlights of working with Stripo embrace the convenience of including and resizing columns to suit particular layouts and the power to combine weblog posts via an information module. These options showcase the device’s flexibility and energy, making complicated duties less complicated and extra intuitive.

We use Stripo internally, syncing our electronic mail templates to ActiveCampaign and HubSpot, and we additionally advocate Stripo to our purchasers for Pardot, Hubspot, and the like, and so they have all adopted it and have been very proud of it.

Jeff Kemp,

Licensed marketing consultant, Optimum Enterprise Consulting proprietor.

Wrapping up

Stripo has confirmed to be a extremely efficient device for Optimum Enterprise Consulting and its purchasers. It has considerably enhanced manufacturing effectivity, improved template high quality, and offered useful options that streamline the e-mail creation course of. The optimistic influence on workflow underscores Stripo’s position as an important part of their electronic mail advertising and marketing technique.