Case study – LENS – Ancestry
Decoding hint email language for Ancestry
Ancestry's hint emails prompt customers to log back in and discover something new in their family tree. The question was whether the words and images inside those emails were working as hard as they could to make people click.
The challenge: What is a hint really saying?
Ancestry wanted to understand how the language and visual design of its hint emails compared with the wider category. Every brand was sending a similar promise: we found something for you. The opportunity was to see whether Ancestry's version was landing with the same impact as its competitors.
What we did: Reading the language and the imagery together
Magenta analysed twenty pieces of stimulus across Ancestry and three competitor brands, applying discourse analysis to the words in each email and semiotic analysis to the fonts, colours, icons and photography around them.
What we found: Hidden meaning
Reading language and imagery together revealed the meaning beneath what each brand said. We provided insight on what implicit messaging was being conveyed by the email wording and clear recommendations on how to re-write and structure emails to optimise engagement.
The impact: A toolkit built to change minds
The findings gave Ancestry a clear set of recommendations. Ancestry now has an evidence based route to messaging that feels relevant, personal and worth the click.
“We used discourse analysis to look at language used in brand emails. The output from this study was extremely valuable in understanding how the language used in emails (ours and others) is perceived. Discourse analysis is a must have and provides a real ‘a-ha’ for our teams and stakeholders.”
International Director of Insights, Ancestry
If you want to know whether your customer messaging is doing everything it can to prompt action, let's talk.