Duolingo Widget Promo Newsletter

TL;DR:

Overview: In-app promotions had historically leveraged widget installs and overall Daily Active Users (DAUs). But, we hadn’t tried promoting the widget outside of the app yet. Since the widget is a highly popular feature amongst learners and hugely impactful for business metrics, we wanted to try promoting it to a broader audience via a one-time marketing newsletter.

Our mission: Sending an email that spotlights compelling widget value props to a broader audience will increase widget adoption across Android and iOS users and serve as a hook for re-engagement.

My role: Developed outline and content for variations of the widget promo email. Collaborated closely with Product, Product Design, and Marketing to develop distinct visual concepts for testing which option would result in the highest widget installation rates. Drove alignment across Marketing, Design leadership, and Product with rationale-backed work.



Initial explorations

One of the biggest struggles we faced at first: balancing product-centric goals with user-centric goals.

How could we push users to install the widget without sacrificing Duolingo's usual tone/voice of delight?



We needed to simplify elements we included in the email newsletter, and create a better alignment between the visual illustrations and framework of copy.

Final explorations

We tested three different arms and targeted all users active within the last 30 days who didn't have the widget installed yet.

I worked closely with Marketing and Product Design to create three distinct flavors, or versions, of the newsletter that played around with straight forward, motivating, and urgent dynamics.



The result

→ Arm 1 won  

→ Highest installation rate from newer and at-risk Weekly Active Users (WAU)

Based on these results, the team decided to focus on sending a more targeted email to users and refining messaging for future promos.