Picture perfect emails

Brief

Jessops, the UK’s leading photographic specialist, approached Red C, a strategic and creative email marketing agency, to transform their underperforming email programme into a high-impact, revenue-driving channel. The goal was to develop an email marketing strategy and planning approach that would not only deliver measurable ROI but also reflect the brand’s passion for photography and inspire engagement with its audience.

At the time, Jessops’ email programme relied heavily on transactional messages, primarily offering discounts and weekly promotions. While effective to a degree, this approach failed to tap into the emotional connection customers had with photography and imaging. Jessops wanted to create an email programme that went beyond transactional offers, delivering a richer, more inspiring inbox experience for its audience, while maintaining commercial effectiveness.

The brief to Red C required the creation of adaptable email marketing templates, engaging email marketing design and copywriting, and a strategic plan to deliver compelling communications that would drive both customer engagement and direct sales.

Approach

Insight and Induction

Every successful campaign begins with insight. Red C initiated the project with an in-depth induction period, meeting with key stakeholders across Jessops, including sales, product, and customer service teams. The team also spent time in high street stores to observe firsthand the types of customers shopping at Jessops and understand what motivated their purchase decisions.

These insights were critical in shaping the email marketing strategy and planning. They highlighted a key problem: the existing programme focused solely on promotional activity and was failing to engage customers emotionally. Photography enthusiasts were not always in the market for a new camera or accessories, meaning the weekly discount emails were often ignored. The challenge was to develop a programme that delivered value, inspiration, and engagement, even when recipients weren’t actively looking to make a purchase.

Developing a Strategy

Based on these insights, Red C designed a comprehensive email marketing strategy and planning framework for Jessops. The strategy aimed to create a more diverse, engaging inbox experience for subscribers while maintaining commercial effectiveness. The approach included a blend of content types, balancing promotional offers with educational, inspirational, and interactive content.

The goal was to move beyond a purely transactional programme and position Jessops as a source of inspiration and advice for photography enthusiasts. By creating this richer, more engaging experience, the strategy was designed to increase open rates, click-throughs, engagement, and ultimately, sales.

Email Marketing Templates

Red C developed a suite of modular email marketing templates that could be adapted for different campaign types. The templates were designed to be visually appealing, mobile-responsive, and flexible, allowing the Jessops marketing team to deliver a variety of content while maintaining consistent branding and structure.

Each email marketing template was carefully crafted to balance content and promotional elements. Some templates were focused on offers and discounts, while others were designed to deliver inspiration, tips, or interactive content such as competitions. By creating a flexible system of templates, Jessops could quickly deploy new campaigns without sacrificing design quality or brand consistency.

Email Marketing Design and Copywriting

The creative element of the programme was central to its success. Red C applied expert email marketing design and copywriting to ensure that every communication was visually compelling and strategically written to drive engagement. The design emphasised high-quality photography, dynamic layouts, and clear calls to action. Copywriting was tailored to resonate with both hobbyist and professional photographers, offering advice, tutorials, and inspiration alongside promotional content.

For example, emails featuring competitions invited users to submit their own photos, creating a sense of community and interaction. Others provided practical tips for improving photography skills or highlighted seasonal trends in equipment and techniques. This approach ensured that subscribers had a reason to open and engage with emails, even if they were not actively considering a purchase.

Balancing Promotions with Engagement

A key component of the strategy was balancing promotional content with value-added communications. Red C ensured that offers and discounts remained part of the programme but supplemented them with educational and inspirational content. This balanced approach made the email programme more engaging, helped build long-term relationships with customers, and reinforced Jessops’ authority and expertise in the photography market.

The result was a “rich and varied inbox” that maintained subscribers’ interest and encouraged interaction. By offering multiple touchpoints, Red C helped Jessops establish a consistent and engaging email presence that was both commercially effective and customer-focused.

Continuous Optimisation and Reporting

Red C’s work did not end with the creation of templates. The agency implemented a rigorous programme of monitoring, testing, and optimisation to ensure maximum effectiveness. Performance data, including open rates, click-through rates, and conversions, was continuously analysed to inform improvements to both email marketing design and copywriting and the overall email marketing strategy and planning.

A/B testing was used to evaluate subject lines, creative layouts, and content approaches. Iterative optimisation ensured that each campaign built on previous insights, steadily increasing engagement and driving measurable results for Jessops. This approach demonstrated the value of a strategic, data-informed email programme that combines creative excellence with continuous performance optimisation.

Conclusion

The results of Red C’s engagement with Jessops were immediate and substantial. Within the first three months, the new programme quadrupled gross demand and drove total direct sales up by 510%. These outcomes highlighted the effectiveness of a well-planned email marketing strategy, supported by high-quality email marketing templates and engaging email marketing design and copywriting.

By combining inspiration, education, and commercial offers, the programme transformed the Jessops email channel into a profitable business asset. Subscribers were more engaged, open rates increased, and click-throughs to the website rose dramatically. The campaign proved that well-executed email marketing could deliver both brand value and measurable revenue.

Moreover, the flexible email marketing templates enabled Jessops to maintain consistency and speed of execution while responding quickly to new trends, seasonal promotions, or product launches. This adaptability reinforced the ongoing value of a modular, well-designed template system.

The Jessops email programme demonstrates the power of working with a specialist email marketing agency that can deliver comprehensive email marketing strategy and planning, creative email marketing design and copywriting, and flexible email marketing templates.

By understanding the audience, leveraging insights, and balancing promotional and inspirational content, Red C created an email programme that delivered exceptional ROI and transformed Jessops’ email channel into a strategic asset.

The campaign shows the importance of providing subscribers with a “rich and varied inbox,” offering content that resonates emotionally while remaining commercially effective. Combining data-driven insights, creative excellence, and ongoing optimisation, Red C ensured that Jessops could engage customers in a meaningful way, building long-term loyalty and driving sales.

This success illustrates how an integrated approach to email marketing strategy and planning, supported by modular email marketing templates and compelling email marketing design and copywriting, can transform an underperforming programme into a high-impact channel. Jessops now benefits from a scalable, flexible, and commercially effective email programme that continues to drive engagement, revenue, and brand affinity.