A new case study from Marketing Sherpa shows how one company redesigned its email marketing program to help steer paper catalog users from print to digital and net an impressive 19% conversion rate in the process.

Contemporary furniture maker Chiasso knew its customers would be demanding fewer print catalogs (and less paper waste) in the coming years, so it sought to get ahead of the curve with a redesigned email initiative that would offer the same rich shopping experience as the company's paper catalog.

Brian Mehler, Chiasso's new e-commerce manager, recommends these four steps:

1. Offer green options. The company added a well-placed link on its homepage giving site visitors the option to either browse its catalog online or change their preferences to receive email alerts instead of a print catalog.

2. Rethink your email format. Chiasso's marketing emails shifted to focus more on photos, scaling back text and offering multiple views of its products. The emails also featured the same items as the cover of the print version of the catalog, to echo the paper experience.

3. Make an announcement. The company sent out an email featuring the season's new product three days before the print catalog was released.

4. Remail to non-opens. Chiasso resent its emails to non-opening users along with a limited-time 10% discount as an extra incentive to view the message.

The result? Chiasso's email campaigns netted a 19% open rate for the announcement email, and a 21% open rate on remails. Mehler credits the remail tactic and the limited-time discount as major motivators.

We even saw a bigger-than-normal spike in our call center after the remail went out. And there have been other great results overall. For instance, we saw gross dollars for the email increase by 20% and a net gain of plus-30% compared to usual,ƒ†â€™ƒÂ¢¢â€šÂ¬…¡ƒ¢â‚¬Å¡ƒâ€š‚ says Mehler.

For more details, including quoted text from Chiasso's email campaign, read the full article here.