GreenArrow | High-Volume Email Software

Rebrand & Website Design

About the Organization

Based out of Indiana, GreenArrow is an email software provider with both On-Premises MTA and turnkey, SMTP / API email Cloud delivery solutions, with an optional email marketing application. GreenArrow’s software caters to high volume senders (up to 8 million messages per hour on a single server). GreenArrow’s customers expect high-speed and high-performance from their email software, and that’s what GreenArrow delivers. But what they’re renowned for is to consistently provide premium technical support that vastly surpasses their competitors’ service. Whether it’s better control over technology, clearer visibility into results, or support when you need it, GreenArrow gives you the tools and knowledge to connect to subscribers and grow business.

Website: GreenArrow

My Objective

My objective as the creative director for this brand and website initiative:

Improve GreenArrow’s brand identity and website’s overall visual look-and-feel, content architecture, and administrative capabilities by transitioning from client’s old platform to WordPress platform.

Process At-A-Glance

Learned about brand and content requirements through Client Discovery and interviews with GreenArrow customers
Explored a company name change
Designed three logo stories to refresh the new GreenArrow brand
Worked together with the GreenArrow team to reorganize entire content structure
Built new wireframes so GA could see the website structure before build
Worked with the GA team to rewrite copy and improve calls-to-action within shared documents, so they could easily see the website come together without waiting for development.
Worked with third-party developers to build the new website in WordPress
Optimized titles and meta descriptions for search engines, and coded redirects to ensure obsolete pages still indexed by search had a new home.
Conducted final QA testing across several devices to ensure the website looked perfect at every size.
Wrote copy for Google Ad Campaigns and designed assets for remarketing display ads

How can I help make their lives way easier?

First, position the GreenArrow brand as a leader in its market with impactful design and smart messaging that attracts a tech- and marketing-savvy customer who wants to use the software to send relevant content. Second, support improved content by designing an easy-to-use website and lead generation advertising that take potential customers there.

The Trigger

Client challenges that sparked this initiative

The old website and logo did an average job of giving potential email software customers what they needed to make an informed decision:

Describe the software solutions that GreenArrow offers
Direct visitors to a place where they can learn more about email deliverability
Lead potential customers to an intuitive next step, if they want to see the software in action

But the team at GreenArrow felt they had stalled out with their current website and their look-and-feel. They knew they needed next-level brand storytelling and much-improved website experience to truly grow as a company.

Katie to the rescue, alongside James Pellizzi & Company!

My Solution

A glimpse into my project lifecycle

A Better Marketing Roadmap

When James Pellizzi asked me to be his right-hand partner on this project, I jumped at the chance. He kicked things off for us by interviewing GreenArrow’s customers, to get a good feel of what they truly love about their software and how it makes their lives easier.

After James collected the intel, we developed a full-scale, robust digital marketing guide for GreenArrow, including as assessment of their industry landscape, product portfolio, and tech-savvy and marketing conscious audience, along with recommendations to improve upon their current efforts.

Better Branding

Before embarking on the new GreenArrow visual identity, we took a side trip to attempt to rename the business, which was competing with a popular superhero, and thus, losing some Google juice. While a new business name is not a first for me, this particular endeavor proved to be incredibly tough. If you ever wonder why tech and startup companies use funny spellings for fairly average nouns and verbs, it’s because nearly every name under the sun is taken – by trademark, domain URL, or both.

In the end – after exploring hundreds of names and even more seriously exploring a couple dozen final selections – the team decided to stick to GreenArrow. With a refined audience in mind, I crafted three different logos stories: more than just brand identify explores, I played with color palette, fonts iconography, illustration, and even storytelling in order to share a more detailed brand picture with the GreenArrow team.

I wanted to move toward a modern and vibrant vibe, without being too cold – friendly without being immature – clean without being too generic or stark.

brand story A

brand story B

brand story C

As I developed GreenArrow’s story, my brand goals were as follows:

Tap into emotional frustration of working with software that isn’t delivering. Through messaging, content, and testimonials, demonstrate how much better it is to have a team who’s on the customer’s side supporting their goals.
Articulate the type of advanced emailer wants to be: for people who want to look, act, and send email in a smarter way, who can implement complex technology, who know it’s smarter to use best email practices.
Cultivate connection & relationships: When good customer relationships aren’t a priority, it’s going to hurt the bottom line. GreenArrow does right by their customers. And expect their customers to do the same by theirs.

Final Selection: The Send Story

Your audience doesn’t just need software that works. Or their emails getting to the inbox.
They need someone to show them how to email smarter.
Because they want to email smarter.

Email delivery software for people who need a smarter, more powerful send.

They need power. They need reliability. They need options.
And they need a support team who is on their side.

Better Architecture & Content

New Sitemap

First, I refreshed the sitemap to improve the organization of their software products, highlight features and benefits, and set the foundation for a “knowledge center” that would contain articles, videos, and other resources. New pages included a Solutions overview, separate pages for each of their audiences, Customer Success Stories, “Why GreenArrow” highlights, and the aforementioned knowledge center.

Content Overhaul

With recommendations based on the sitemap, I built out a wireframe for every single page on the website. This would prove incredibly useful as the GreenArrow team began to provide new content that would match up with the wireframes. I then applied the new brand story and tone of voice so the content would read more conversational without losing its technical quality.

the new responsive website

As copywriting was approved, our third-party development team created WordPress page templates based on the new visual brand design. Each page mimicked the wireframe, but sections and content blocks could be easily edited and moved around on the page.

Live Site

Advertising

After the launch of the GreenArrow website in 2019, I helped James Pellizzi & Company develop a 2020 marketing roadmap to continue to improve content, as well as the website experience as a whole.

One of the main components of our digital initiative was to increase GreenArrow’s online presence through organic traffic and paid advertising. For example, based on website traffic, keyword research, and other audience insights, I revamped the copywriting on a few key landing pages and launched dozens of new Google ads to direct traffic to capture more leads.

Google Ads

Improved Landing Pages

Final Thoughts

From a brand initiative perspective, I couldn’t be happier with the end results. I had a blast working with the GreenArrow team. And there’s a reason I’m on speed dial over at JP&C. I love working with James and his team and supporting all of their clients’ brand refresh projects.

From a project standpoint, there were a lot of cooks in the kitchen as this project unfolded over two year’s time – from the very early client and customer interviews, to brand and website launch, all the way through digital marketing efforts. But with each bump in the road, we transitioned with ease, in order to make launch our priority. After which, we heard nothing but great things from GreenArrow’s customers, and the team continues to generate new leads today.

Live Site