Case Study - Creating a Custom Email Template for Sno Falls Credit Union

The Project

We interpreted Sno Falls Credit Union’s new brand to their email channel with a custom HTML responsive email template that renders well across all email platforms, helping to reinforce stronger relationships with their customers while streamlining the email creation process for their team.

Sno Falls Credit Union is a full-service, northwest-based financial cooperative that opened its first branch in Snoqualmie Valley in 1957. 

We had previously given Sno Falls’ website an extensive overhaul, wherein we established a new visual formula for the client. We went on to complete other related projects, like updating Sno Falls’ print ads and outfitting their physical business locations with window decals, all styled in this new visual formula. Sno Falls’ customers were beginning to have a cohesive updated experience across all their channels, with one notable exception: email.

Goal

Thus, our goal was born: interpret Sno Falls’ new brand to their email channel with custom HTML templates that render well across all email platforms.

But in this era of countless email service providers stocked with pre-built email templates, why invest in a custom template? Great question!

Email is a key pillar of interaction between a business and their customers. Successful businesses have a resonance between the rest of their brand and their email. Their customers have a shared, refined, intentional experience across all channels that builds trust and positive impressions. Unfortunately, pre-built email templates are rarely versatile enough to fully represent a brand in this manner.

For example, pre-built templates may not provide the ability to host your brand’s custom fonts in html email. Or their header, footer, and button options fail to match your company’s content strategy or brand’s personality. 

Clyde Golden’s Principal and Creative Director, Tim Yeadon, elaborates:

“You work hard on your website and your brand so that everything has clarity and feels refined. But it's very difficult to express that in a pre-built template. It's harder to accommodate things like nav structure, custom hosted brand fonts, and the appearance of visual elements like buttons. Custom HTML templates are actually rather reasonable to create and maintain. You may not have the same plug-and-play experience with a custom template, and you might need to learn a little HTML, but your emails will be more refined and on-brand, and it's worth it.”

In fact, once you’ve invested in a custom template, your company can continue to use it through your preferred email service provider. In the case of Sno Falls, they were already using Robly, and they wanted to continue using it with their new template. 

Needs Assessment

Sno Falls’ updated template would require:

• Inclusion of their signature ‘hero’ / headline font, Gotham Ultra

• An intentional content strategy, including separate nav structures for promotional vs. transactional-type emails, and a repeatable layout that makes for easy swapping in and out of assets in future emails

  • A ‘promotional’ template has all the bells and whistles (think eye-catching imagery, or descriptive body copy, etc.), whereas a ‘transactional’ email is more subtle, less flashy, and has a more specific purpose — to update the viewer on one specific thing with minimal distractions. ‘Transactional’ emails are designed with more humble choices to avoid being filtered by  users’ email preferences.

• Header and footer designs that:

  • Are visually cohesive with the new website

  • Look good on both mobile and desktop browsers

  • Contain key links that boost Sno Falls’ share of wallet and meet the actions that customers take most often

  • Contain crucial legal elements, like disclaimers and icons that designate their NCUA and Equal Housing Opportunity status

• Elements like buttons that mirror the website experience

• Intentional space for images in Sno Falls’ signature visual style – a key component in standardizing their brand experience across channels

• Ensuring that the custom template is still easy to update and refresh in their preferred email service provider (in this case, Robly) each month

• Ensuring that the template looks and performs/loads equally well on variety of screen sizes. In the case of banking, a mobile-friendly experience would be especially crucial

Strategy

Our strategy would be as follows:

1. Consult with Sno Falls to gain an understanding of their audience’s uses of specific devices, operating systems, and other demographics that may impact our design choices. We also also consulted on ‘must-haves’ – things like which links their customers use most often and are expecting in the header, vs. which can be left out, etc. 

2. Research and analyze elements of the Sno Falls website that we can transfer to the custom template, such as the appearance of buttons, links, and the layout of header and footer elements 

   • This includes research into how certain elements are implemented. For example, in the case of their signature font, Gotham Ultra, we researched the legality, cost to client, and logistics of use in their email template.

3. Build mockups and share them with Sno Falls

4. Refine mockups based on Sno Falls’ feedback

5. Handoff to our developer for template construction

6. Test the template’s performance across a wide range of browsers, devices, and email clients, and work out any kinks

7. Handoff and training with Sno Falls to demonstrate how they can build future emails with our template in their preferred email service provider’s builder (in this case, Robly)

What We Made

The header for Sno Fall’s custom template contains similar styling to their site, as well as the two most important links (‘View Rates’ to help increase conversion on loans, and ‘Online Access’ for customers seeking to access their accounts after reviewing the email). 

The body of the email contains bespoke elements like custom buttons and specific headline and body copy fonts that mirror the site experience. Meanwhile, the simple-yet-elegant 1-column design ensures that the email’s appearance is consistent and flexible across a wide range of devices and email clients.

A key aspect of our template design is that it is easily updatable by the client. In addition to ensuring that the template works well within their preferred email service provider (Robly), the body of the email template makes it easy to swap in new assets each time. In this case, we went with a formula comprised of image–headline–body copy–CTA button/link. 

The footer of the email contains evergreen links that will be most helpful to both Sno Falls (increasing their share of wallet) and the customer (i.e. help them locate an ATM), regardless of the email’s specific content. 

The custom footer illustration done in Sno Falls’ trademark visual style brings the viewer further into Sno Falls’ world, and also creates a smooth transition from the white background into the ‘legal’ portion of the footer. This is where specific terms related to the email’s offers can be placed, and Sno Falls can display their NCUA and Equal Housing Opportunity status.

Project Results

Customers now enjoy a cohesive view of Sno Falls’ brand across channels, helping to build trust and a positive impression of the business. Their emails are more streamlined and easier to digest, with improved access to key links and resources.

Internally, the email creation process is now easier for Sno Falls’ team. They can quickly swap in new assets and copy to create a new email, all while maintaining thoughtful branding and a cohesive appearance with past emails.