C.C. Filson
Email Marketing Campaigns
ROLE
Email Marketing Designer & Strategist
Customer Research, Template Design, Campaign Strategy, Mobile UX & Program Management
Application
Responsive Web
June 2016 - June 2020
Background
Filson is a heritage outdoor brand serving customers who value authentic craftsmanship and adventure. The company had built strong brand loyalty among outdoor enthusiasts while seeking to expand their reach to professional customers who appreciated quality and heritage in their everyday lives.
Problem
When I arrived at Filson, email was treated as an afterthought with inconsistent design and messaging. Open rates were steady, but engagement and sales had significant room for growth, especially on mobile devices. The team was producing only 4 emails per week and lacked a systematic approach to scaling production while maintaining the brand's authentic heritage and quality standards.
The Solution: Strategic Customer Psychology Through Systematic Design
Transform email marketing from an inconsistent afterthought into a systematic program that serves Filson's dual customer base. By understanding customer psychology and applying mobile-first design principles, create a scalable template system that maintains brand authenticity while driving measurable business growth.
The Impact
4X email revenue growth over four years through systematic program management
4 → 7 emails per week production scaling while maintaining quality
#1 performing sales channel for heritage outdoor brand
Reusable template system still used today
Lined Wool Packer: Sold out twice - First sellout → restock → second sellout in 48 hours
Research & Discovery
As the primary driver of this initiative, I conducted comprehensive research to understand what customers responded to, what they ignored, and what made them feel connected to the brand. My research revealed Filson's dual customer base and the need for different approaches to serve each segment effectively.
Research methodology included:
Hand-inspecting every product we promoted to understand quality and craftsmanship
Working with Sales Associates to learn product highlights and customer benefits
Reading customer reviews to identify resonant language and pain points
Working a seasonal stint on the sales floor during holidays to observe customer behavior firsthand
Studying mobile UX best practices and Nielsen Norman email principles
Testing layouts while considering real-world reading scenarios
Understanding Our Customer Psychology
Through this research, I identified Filson's dual customer base and designed accordingly:
Outdoor Purists - Authentic heritage customers who validate brand credibility and value craftsmanship
Aspirational Customers - Office workers dreaming of adventure (largest revenue segment who wanted "rugged meets professional" messaging)
This customer psychology understanding drove systematic email success across 900+ campaigns. The key insight was balancing authentic outdoor heritage with aspirational lifestyle imagery to serve both audiences without alienating either.
Designing the New Email Experience
I focused on structure, rhythm, and flow, asking: Could someone skim this email in five seconds and still feel something? The goal was creating emails that worked beautifully on 4-inch screens while maintaining emotional connection and brand authenticity.
This systematic approach included:
Strategic image selection that reflected campaign stories—bold but real, adventurous but grounded
Mobile-first layouts using brand typography and textures while ensuring readability on 4-inch screens
Customer psychology application - Designed emotional triggers for both authentic and aspirational segments
Nielsen Norman email principles - Applied 30-second attention span and mobile-first design research
Template scalability - Created reusable systems enabling 4→7 emails/week without quality loss
Campaign sequencing - Coordinated multi-email strategies for maximum demand creation and conversion
Cross-functional collaboration aligning copy strategy with sales floor insights
Click on each email to review the full campaign!
Testing & Results
Over time, patterns emerged through eye-tracking studies and sales metrics. Some layouts simply worked better, and certain placements of text and imagery led to more clicks. I relied on both data and instinct—watching what people returned to again and again.
Through customer psychology insights and systematic program management, email transformed from afterthought to the company's #1 performing sales channel, proving that understanding customer psychology could drive extraordinary business growth while maintaining brand authenticity.
