Redesigned your website lately?

I am pumped for you. But your email subscribers don’t care.

I see this question over and over in our Slack workspace: “Anyone have examples of great website launch announcements they can share?”

I don’t. Because most of them are exercises in vanity, celebrating an achievement that’s got the company 🎷JaZzEd 🎷 (because they just spent a ton of time and money on it) but will ultimately not mean diddly to someone who’s already in their orbit.

This goes for rebrandings, too.

I said what I said.

Before you send that “Introducing our newly redesigned website experience!” email, sit yourself down and ask some hard questions:

❓How is this new site making your existing subscribers’ lives better?

Oh, actually, that’s really the only one.
If you can’t answer it, don’t send it.

Now, let me share an example of a good redesign announcement.

It’s from Understance, a bra company I’m actually writing about for the second time, an interesting choice on my part. But listen, they’re so good at marketing. (If you weren’t around for the first email, give it a gander.)

Theirs isn’t a complete website redesign; it’s a series of tweaks they made based on customer feedback (what? they actually asked their customers to help them make decisions?).

Here’s the email:

Whew, that was long. Still here?

The changes aren’t flashy; they’re practical. And they matter to customers.

✅ Their product filters were already great, and now they’re better.
✅ I hate when I can’t see where the heck my returns are in the process (with any retailer). One less grumble.
✅ Boobs are more complicated than most bra companies give ‘em credit for. They continue to raise the bra bar.
✅ VIDEOS to help with sizing! Come on now.

Just one blunder: The entire damn email is an image. Don’t do this. It can screw with your deliverability and trashes your accessibility.

And there you have it: An email about an email.