BJ's
Wholesale
Club
Case Study
BJ's
Retail Email Marketing Transformation to Scale
Deliverables
Process Management, HTML Email Development, Design System, Seasonal Branding, Animation
The Challenge
BJ's Wholesale Club faced significant challenges with its email marketing channel. Outsourcing to an agency for HTML email management led to escalating costs and a lack of agility in responding to demands of the business. The existing email design system suffered from inconsistency and rigidity, hampering brand cohesion and adaptability. I was brought on to lead the creative half of bringing the BJ's email channel in-house, a transition aimed to control costs, boost efficiency and speed to market, and elevate the quality of BJ's email marketing. The challenge was multifaceted: overhauling the creative process, streamlining the content production pipeline, redesigning HTML templates, establishing robust design standards, and implementing scalable automations. Each aspect required careful consideration to ensure a seamless transition and improved performance.
Methods
A grid-based framework developed to adapt to content as needed.
BJ's has a wide variety of products and services that it sells and requires a lot of them featured in each email. To ensure that each product and ad could be accommodated and look its best, a bento-style, four-column grid framework fit best.
- The framework was broken into reusable, templated modules.
- Litmus was used as the CMS to store, test and implement the html modules and css for a faster email build process.
Adding in automation.
The budget for additional tools was limited and a home-grown solution was needed. Preferred layouts were broken into standardized 14 grids. Apple Scripts was then used to enable csv imports of product information into the HTML.
Animations incorporated as a standard.
To boost engagement and visual interest, at least one animation in each email was a requirement.
Established a comprehensive training program for the broader creative organization.
- Conducted in-person demos of html email coding techniques, templates and automations.
- Developed design documentation and guides.
- Created training videos.