NEW YEAR, NEW INBOX

Launching an in-app event that increases usage of core Edison Mail features and gets us noticed by Apple.

SUMMARY

PRODUCT
iOS

ROLES
UX writer
Copywriter
Project manager
Apple POC

TOOL
Adobe Xd

CONTEXT

Edison Mail is an independent email app used by millions worldwide to manage multiple email accounts in one place. During my time at Edison, I worked cross-functionally with the design and engineering teams to create UX copy and campaigns that promoted the usage of new and existing features.

I led this project from start to finish and it resulted in 1,500+ additional downloads of Edison Mail.

THE PROBLEM

For our users: Too many marketing emails at the end of the year. 

For us: Some users were unaware of our One-Tap Unsubscribe feature, and we wanted to get Apple’s attention.

THE SOLUTION

Create a timely in-app event that links the new year with the concept of “cleaning house” (i.e. new year, new inbox). Keep our Apple point-of-contact updated on our in-app event usage.

WHAT I DID

  • Introduced the idea and planned the campaign from start to finish

  • Project managed the deadlines of all deliverables across departments

  • Drafted copy and worked with design to plan the in-app flow

  • Provided feedback on designs

  • Worked with the engineering team to time our release with an app update

  • Alerted our Apple partner about our upcoming launch

IMPACT

1,500+ additional app downloads, a 685% increase in usage of our One-Tap Unsubscribe feature, and a long coveted feature highlight on the Apple App Store.

INTRODUCTION

THE PROBLEMS

We all know what our inboxes look like towards the end of the year. It’s filled with company after company bombarding you with their latest sales in an effort to get you to spend money. Suddenly your unread email count jumps from 20 to 200, you’re learning that the store you shopped at 7 years ago kept your email on file, and you feel like you’re drowning.

This is a problem that can be fixed through the use of our hallmark feature, One-Tap Unsubscribe. However, despite our best efforts, there was a subset of users who didn’t even know this feature existed.

Lastly, our team had been trying for years to get featured on the App Store to no avail. And as I was the one responsible for managing our relationship with the Apple developer relations team, this goal had become my white whale. However, in recent meetings, our Apple POC had informed us that Apple wanted to highlight apps that used features such as in-app events for in-app challenges. While we’d previously used them for app updates, a challenge was a new one for us.

Uninformed users

+ A subset of our users were somehow unaware of our Subscriptions tab

Email overload

+ Overflowing marketing during the holidays

App Store feature

+ We had been trying for several years to get featured on the Apple App Store

MY IDEA

Taking all of these problems into consideration, as well as the fact that there was a bit of a lull in major app updates scheduled for the end of the year, I came up with the idea to launch a themed in-app event: new year, new inbox.

THE PROCESS

GETTING EVERYONE ON BOARD

As this project was fully my idea, and because we had never done something like this before,  I had to convince stakeholders from the design, engineering, and marketing departments that it would be worth our time and effort. I was ultimately able to do so after discussing how:

  • The new year is a great time to convince people to clean up their old habits

  • This project could get us noticed by Apple

  • I would do as as much of the work myself as humanly possible

After a meeting or two, they were convinced. I also left our talks with some additional goals:

  • Increase usage of One-Tap Unsubscribe and Delete by at least 30%

  • Get 300 additional downloads from the in-app event

  • Make the in-app popup as minimally invasive to the user as possible

MY APPROACH + ITERATIONS

After doing some further research into other in-app event campaigns from competitors, I mapped out the timeline and the deliverables we needed to have this project go live by the new year. I partnered most closely with our senior UX designer to figure out exactly what we wanted it to look like. I worked closely with our senior UX designer to iron out the flow we wanted for our users.

Initially, inspired by Duolingo’s streak pop-up, we had the idea of rewarding our users who unsubscribed from 3, 5, and even 10 emails. However, we realized that this may start to feel too much like work for our users and that they would likely feel a bit annoyed by the process.

Initial pop-up idea

Instead, we decided to stick with an initial in-app pop-up that would encourage users to unsubscribe from junk followed by another screen that would auto-dismiss after a few seconds congratulating them for doing so. We mapped out two user flows: one from the App Store and the other from the app itself.

In flow one, users would click on the in-app event in the App Store, be taken to their Subscriptions tab, and see a pop-up about the event.

In flow two, users who opened their app as normal would be shown a pop-up that, when selected, would take them to the Subscriptions tab.

From there, both sets of users would be encouraged to unsubscribe from one newsletter, see a new disappearing pop-up congratulating them, and then be taken back to their Subscriptions tab.

User flow mock

Then came the process of figuring out what we wanted these pop-ups to say. I worked with my manager on a few different ideas until she encouraged me to stick with a headline that had a hard stat that would drive home to the user why it’s important to unsubscribe from junk mail. Below are some iterations we went through.

Pop-up copy ideas

We also spent some time discussing what the eye-catching headline would say in the in-app event. Eventually, we realized that the simplest option would be the best and went with “Clean Up Your Inbox!”

In-app event copy headline ideas

THE END RESULT

This ended up being an incredibly successful campaign, leading to:

  • An in-app event that ran for 16 days in the App Store, resulting in 1,500+ additional downloads

  • 6,393,626 emails (or a 685% increase) unsubscribed from within 16 days

  • 231,842 uses of our Delete All feature (or a 557% increase) within 16 days

  • A long coveted feature highlight on the Apple App Store

The in-app event

In-app pop-ups

REFLECTIONS

WHAT I DID WELL

I properly prioritized the planning process, made sure deadlines were met, and was able to ensure there was minimal lift required from my coworkers to make this project come to life.

I was also able to properly communicate all the plans with our Apple POC and this led to an App Store feature.

WHAT I WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY

Shorten the copy in the first pop-up. Looking at it now, it feels much too long.

Run A/B tests to see which option would perform better. Due to time and resource constraints we weren’t able to run tests, but next time I would like to.