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Updated: Oct 13
LIFECYCLE CASE STUDY
A discount or a design bundle? Put the welcome to the test.
Creative Meadow’s project paired a live pop-up experiment with welcome and winback flows, testing where a discount and a free bundle belonged in the sign-up journey.
Launch confirmed: 7 August 2025
LIFECYCLE CASE STUDY
Three decisions behind the work.
Launch confirmed: 7 August 2025
01 · THE CONTEXT
The starting point
The question was specific: should an email sign-up unlock a discount or a free bundle, and what should motivate the additional SMS opt-in? That called for an experiment across the sign-up sequence.
02 · THE WORK
The decisions behind the journey.
Define two offer sequences
One variant offered 15% off for email and a free bundle for SMS. The other reversed those incentives. The test changed the offer sequence rather than treating every sign-up as the same event.
Connect the form to the follow-up
The Alia set-up included a teaser and exit-intent presentation. Welcome messages and the winback flow were confirmed live alongside the pop-up test on 7 August.
Check the handover
The remaining flows were built for approval. A later review also checked whether the old welcome flow was still running alongside the new one.
INSIDE THE DECISIONS
The experiment changed the order of the value exchange.
Creative Meadow’s two variants offered the same kinds of value in a different order. One put the 15% discount at email signup and the free bundle at text signup; the other reversed them. This tests more than which headline attracts attention. It asks what motivates someone to start a relationship and what makes an additional channel worth opting into.
A creator interested in the bundle may behave differently from a shopper attracted by the discount. The welcome therefore needs to match the promise that acquired the subscriber. Review delivery of the incentive and the path to the next useful action, alongside the form submission itself.
Follow the customer beyond the popup.
The setup used a small entry teaser and a fuller exit-intent presentation, with welcome and winback journeys launched alongside the test. Those components belong to one experience: how the invitation appears, what the customer receives and what happens when they return.
For evaluation, retain the originating test variant on the profile where possible and compare downstream purchase behaviour over the same period. Include incentive cost and channel consent, rather than rewarding a variant solely for collecting more addresses. The legacy welcome check adds another practical lesson: overlapping old and new flows can confuse the customer and make the experiment harder to interpret.
03 · THE OUTCOME
What the work delivered.
The pop-up A/B test, welcome flow and winback flow were launched. The other built flows were awaiting permission at handover. No winning variant or conversion uplift is asserted here.
WHAT TO APPLY
Take the lesson into your own programme.
Measure email opt-in, SMS opt-in and downstream purchase behaviour separately. A higher form submission rate alone does not establish which incentive sequence creates better customers. Include a legacy-flow check in the launch checklist.
Launch confirmed: 7 August 2025. This case study covers the specific work described. Journey diagrams explain the approach.
QUESTIONS ABOUT THE WORK
What this case study shows.
Should a sign-up offer use a discount or a free bundle?
Creative Meadow tested those two incentive approaches in its sign-up journey, alongside welcome and winback work. The case establishes that the test was launched, not that one incentive won. Compare downstream purchases and offer cost as well as form submissions; the offer that captures the most addresses is not automatically the better commercial choice.
Which metrics should decide an email or sign-up test?
Start with the business decision and choose the primary metric before launch. Evaluate conversion or revenue alongside recipient counts, offer costs and guardrail metrics, rather than declaring a winner from opens or clicks alone. Confirm the comparison is fair and the available sample supports the conclusion; short reported tests may remain directional.
YOUR NEXT CHAPTER
What could your email programme do next?
Find the opportunities in your customer journey.
Original campaign example
Separate individual designs from the subscription
The campaign gives readers two clearly described options: discounted designs and bundles, or access to the wider library. Each has a dedicated panel and action. The subscription section states the continuing value of access, while the first section shows concrete examples of what can be downloaded. This makes the distinction between a single purchase and an ongoing plan visible.
For a digital subscription, measure paid starts and subsequent renewal separately from one-off downloads. Suppress acquisition offers for customers already on the relevant plan.
Creative Meadow · Original campaign email · 2025-08-31
Explore the service and a related guide
For a similar customer journey, explore our retention marketing services and the crafts and gifts retention guide. Use the case's scope and measurement context to decide which lessons fit your account.
Review the available engagement scopes and pricing before choosing a delivery model.
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