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What’s Next In Digital Communications- Upcoming Webinar

June 12th, 2013 | Posted by Anne Doucot in Best Practices | Events | GovDelivery Features | Tips & Tricks - (0 Comments)

Among the vast majority of choices that are available to us on a recurring daily basis, the idea of choosing             “correctly” can seem exhausting and never-ending.    fortune teller   “Sushi or that amazing taco salad at that one place around the corner?” “Should I send the kids to public or private school?” “When is the best time to send that email so that I can actually reach a group of 30,000 stakeholders?”

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a little help in making the right decision?

Working as a communications professional in a government organization can be a challenge. With ongoing budget constraints and often seemingly limited digital resources, you may not be quite sure how you can most efficiently and effectively reach specific citizens when you need to. There may be situations where you want to reach a large number of community members, and there may be other situations where you need to reach a specific area that will be affected by a tornado, for example. Particularly in the latter instance, you want to have a system in place that allows your organization to get the necessary information out as quickly as possible, and to as many people who will be affected as possible.

With technology constantly evolving and so many options in social media platforms, you may be wondering, “How can I find what methods will work best for my organization?”

Jennifer Kaplan, Product Marketing Manager of GovDelivery, is hoping to help with tips on what’s next in digital communications, and how you can use technology to leverage resources and data you already have to better communicate with your stakeholders. During this upcoming webinar, she will discuss how you can use social media as a tool kit and the multiple benefits of cross-promotion, with examples from other government organizations who have found ways to effectively use digital communications as a means to save both time and organizational costs.

Register here

Featured Speaker: Jennifer Kaplan
Product Marketing Manager, GovDelivery

Jennifer Kaplan

 

Date: Wednesday, June 19, 2013 
Time: 2:00pm Eastern, 11:00am Pacific
Length: 60 minutes
Cost: Free

 

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3 Paths to Effective Customer Service

June 4th, 2013 | Posted by Jennifer Kaplan for GovDelivery in Best Practices | Tips & Tricks - (0 Comments)

By Adina Witthaus, Product Manager at GovDelivery

We’ve all experienced the good, the bad, and the ugly side of customer service. However, when businesses provide us with great service, we happily interact with them again and again. It’s the coffee shop that knows your drink of choice or the online retailer with free returns and recommended products. The private sector has taken huge strides to deliver the very best service to their customers; some have even built their business around achieving this goal.

But what about the public sector? Why is service also important to government? Customers who want top-notch service from the private sector are the same people your government organization services – and they come with high expectations.

Citizens today demand a certain level of responsiveness and efficiency in their interactions with government. The immediacy of the web and increased usage of mobile are two of many driving forces that have moved government to take a multi-channel approach to their “citizen service” interactions. This strategy connects citizens with resources and staff members using whatever method the public prefers: email, web, phone, mail, or face-to-face interaction.

However, there are challenges to providing this desired level of citizen service. Establishing a communication strategy and supporting it with a lack of budget and resources can be difficult. So, what can government organization do to meet the high service expectations of their citizens? 

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1. Get the web to work for you and your citizens. Leverage an online knowledge base to address FAQs (frequently asked questions). Citizens will appreciate the shift to a self-serve approach versus potentially getting caught up in an unwieldy process. For you, this will lighten the load of requests and instill consistent and correct responses to questions that are most often asked of you and your colleagues. This is the fastest way to reduce avoidable contact.

2. Automation, automation, automation. Let technology pick up where the online knowledge base trails off. Use automated techniques to streamline the process of quickly getting citizen requests to the right subject matter expert. Understand the areas in your service workflows that can be automated, so staff can be freed up to focus on higher operating goals.

3. Know your faults and optimize your successes. Capture and analyze metrics to identify gaps and successes with your service efforts. Use this information to establish an ongoing improvement process, and let the data guide your next move to better citizen service.

As changing communications and technologies have enhanced private sector customer service, citizen expectations have increased. The public simply expects all levels of government to offer similar high-quality citizen service. If your government organization is struggling to keep up with ever-increasing citizen requests, contact us today for more information or download our The State of Customer Service Management: A look at government needs white paper.

 

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How to Gain Subscribers During Special Events

May 22nd, 2013 | Posted by Mary Yang For GovDelivery in Best Practices | Events | Tips & Tricks - (0 Comments)

Many government organizations and agency departments plan and promote special events or seasonal occasions that relate to the constituency they serve and support. Highlighting these events through communications and digital content provides a fun and timely way to interact with the public, and can even serve as a platform for gaining subscribers and engaging citizens long-term.

earthThe Environmental Protection Agency replaced its normal home page with specially designed interactive presentations to commemorate Earth Day. The overlay, which included a stunning photo of Earth from space, was a visually pleasing way to inform the public about Earth Day and related events the EPA was sponsoring. The special home page provided slide shows, links to events for volunteers, and an invitation to send in photos from home.

While the EPA’s Earth Day home page is a great example of tailoring digital content to inform and educate stakeholders on issues that impact an organization’s mission, the organization missed a prime opportunity to offer an easy opt-in for email alerts. An out-of-the-ordinary web element like a special home page or highlighted overlay is one of the best ways government communicators can spark interest from a visitor and subsequently call attention to the proactive digital communications offered by the organization. Techniques such as these can even double or triple sign-ups to subscriber lists.

A sign-up form or link is easy to add on to a specially designed event home page and offers a convenient call-to-action for visitors attracted by special event information. This approach leverages the additional traffic that might result from a special event and also maximizes the long-term impact of the short-term custom content by offering ongoing email updates to visitors with specific interests.

On special days or events such as Earth Day, agencies like the EPA can turn new visitors looking for event-specific information into stakeholders by asking them to subscribe. Be sure to offer updates on a variety of topics, and consider a category of updates for subscribers interested in special events or holiday-related information in particular. Taking advantage of times of peak interest in your department or agency’s website can result in big wins in subscriber numbers and stakeholder engagement.

Has your department tied subscription sign-up opportunities into promotions for special events going on in the community? Share your tips on turning one-time special event visitors into lifetime stakeholders in the comments.

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Preventing Crime in 2013: How to Get More Tips With Email

May 20th, 2013 | Posted by Jennifer Kaplan for GovDelivery in Best Practices | Client News | GovDelivery Features | Tips & Tricks - (0 Comments)

By John Simpson, Engagement Consultant at GovDelivery

Preventing crime is one of the number one goals for public safety organizations. In 2013, we are seeing a shift in public safety groups, many of whom are leveraging the power of local citizens and stakeholders to report criminal activity. This type of interaction helps identify trends and prevent future crimes. Behind this shift is a simple but powerful tool that is driving this engagement: email.

The Sheriff’s Office of Stearns County, MN was looking for new ways to engage and educate the public on information sharing practices that could help prevent and solve crimes. Beyond using new technologies, the Sheriff wanted to be sure they offered clear and easy ways for the public to connect with his Office and interact with employees to help them better serve their constituents.

One of the main crime prevention resources that the Sheriff’s Office wanted to expand on was promoting the submission of urgent and non-urgent tips from the public. An evaluation of the tip submission process found it to be confusing, complicated, and unintuitive.

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To simplify the process and ensure public exposure, Stearns County partnered with GovDelivery to design a new Advanced Bulletin Template for the Sheriff’s Office regular public updates. Embedded within the template, are prominent buttons depicting the different tip submission channels: Phone, Email, or Web. Whether using a computer or a mobile device, clicking on each of the respective buttons now redirects the subscriber to the Sheriff’s Office phone number, email address, or an online tip submission tool.

By regularly featuring an intuitive method for tip submission, the Sheriff’s Office now offers a new opportunity for the public to communicate with county officers through every public bulletin. Just thirteen minutes after sending their inaugural message with the new Advanced Bulletin Template, the Sheriff’s office received a tip from a subscriber. A simple format with a clear, engaging call to action has allowed for the Sheriff’s Office to better encourage crime prevention, empower the public to report information to their office, and ultimately decrease the amount of crime in Stearns County.

While the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office serves as a great example of creating an intuitive solution for public engagement, no two projects are the same. If your organization is looking for better ways to engage the public, contact: EngagementServices@GovDelivery.com.

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How to write and send a marketing email

May 17th, 2013 | Posted by govdelivery in Best Practices | GovDelivery Features | Tips & Tricks - (0 Comments)

Guest Post by Darren Caveney, co-creator of comms2point0 and Vice Chair of LGcomms

Email? Send them an email? But, hasn’t the world all shifted across to social media, I hear you cry?

Well yes and no. image smithsonianA whopping 94% of UK adults have an email address (source: Ofcom, 2012) That knocks into a cocked hat just about every social media statistic you’ll ever see.

Actually, most of us switch back and forth between both without really thinking about it too much. Smart phones and tablets have made it all so easy and seamless.

 

As [communications] professionals we know that we need to be confident using both mediums, but understand the subtle differences, the advantages offered by both and where synergies exist.

Crafting, targeting and loving your marketing emails.  Now that’s a skill which will come naturally for some. For others it needs a bit of thought and a bit of work. Just think about the array of approaches, of content, of style of the emails you receive each day – the good, the bad and the ugly.  Occasionally, I scan through my spam folder with sheer wonder at some of the nutty stuff people have thought appropriate for me.

As always, there is much to learn and case studies a plenty out there so when I nabbed a ticket for the excellent mailcamp at the swanky National Audit Office’s HQ I was all ears.

So, here’s a top 10 things you need to consider when sending an email, as suggested by the speakers at mailcamp

  1.  80% of your email’s content should sit at the top of the email – above the fold, as we used to say
  2. What you put in the subject box is vital. Make it interesting and relevant, make it stand out in a busy inbox
  3. Use links rather than pictures – pictures may look nicer but links will generate more click-throughs
  4. Include surveys and competitions to encourage interaction, but only if the content of them is relevant to what your subscribers want
  5. Be fleet of foot – think about relevant opportunities which breaking news, current affairs and live events can throw up, and how you might time your emails to coincide
  6. Timing is key – if you want people to attend a weekend event, hitting their inbox on Friday late morning/early afternoon can be key in influencing their weekend plans
  7. Your ‘call to action’ must be clear and simple. And it must be referenced in your email subject line
  8. Integrate your email activity with your social media channels – cross-promote, co-ordinate, converge
  9. What works for social media can also work for email – be authentic, be honest, tell stories
  10. Measure, measure, measure – study the analytics. But do measure the right thing – don’t fret about openings if your goal is click-throughs and sign ups.

Of course, there’s more to running successful email marketing campaigns than this but if we nail these as a starter for 10 then we can expect a decent return.

Thanks to Steph Gray for organising mailcamp, to Nick Halliday for hosting and for GovDelivery and Dave Worsell for sponsoring and buying the pizza.

See original post on comms2point0 blog.

photo credit

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Get Maximum Growth and Engagement from Your Online Community

May 13th, 2013 | Posted by Jennifer Kaplan for GovDelivery in Best Practices | Tips & Tricks - (0 Comments)

By Joe Bloom, Product Manager

Online communities are everywhere. LinkedIn and Facebook groups were just the beginning. Now, you can find an online group for just about anything. What can I do for insomnia? Where do I take my kids this weekend? How do I change the brakes in my 1981 DeLorean? There are communities for industry professionals, hobbyists, brands, products, and the list goes on and on.

But what about government?

The public sector’s objective is to serve the needs of the public, and citizens expect to be able to interact with government organizations in the same manner as those of the private sector, i.e., online. Government organizations are responding to this shift. The Digital Government Strategy is a perfect example of the trend for government and public sector organizations to embrace new technologies and adapt to an increasingly digital world. The buzzwords are out there as a challenge. Open. Transparent. Lean. Cloud-based. Collaborative. 

But having software in place to host these communities is only one part of the equation. Here are 4 tips to ensure that you can grow and sustain your online community.

1. Be Mission Focused. Every community has its niche, and you need yours. Having a clear mission gives your audience a reason to want to participate.

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2. Have A Clear Call to Action. Okay, you got someone to join your community. Now what? Do they know what to do? Have you presented them with a welcome message letting them know how they can impact your community? Is the community site designed in a way that makes it easy for them to find things and participate? If not, your new member will be an old member soon.

Be sure to include this information in the email that welcomes a new member. By giving them the tools they need up front,  you’ll see more initial engagement and adoption. Help them help you.

3. Celebrate Your Successes. Your community is plugging away, moving forward down the tracks. You have a mission. You have your goals tied to that mission. So, what are you accomplishing? Have you told anyone about what you’ve done? If not, please do so. Celebrate your successes – even the small ones. Let your community know that they helped you do something, no matter how small it may seem.

Did you have a survey that contributed to the direction of a project? Did you have a big turnout at an event? Let your community know. They will feel like their actions are making a difference, and this will encourage them to continue participating. If they are not participating, you might just find that the positive vibes motivate them to start.

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4. Be Steady. Remember to stick with it. Maintaining a community means making it part of your regular process and incorporating it into your culture. It should become part of your habit. If you neglect the group, it starts to weaken and members may drop off. Stay disciplined and keep it going.

Still looking for a tool to help our organization create and maintain online communities? That’s where GovDelivery’s Collaborative Community Management (CCM) comes into play. In a world where public engagement initiatives abound, CCM brings a secure, cloud-based solution to government agencies. More secure than a social network; more open than an intranet. CCM can help you bring together the audience you need in a collaborative environment to drive meaningful engagement. Members may participate in email-integrated discussion forums, share information, take surveys, view upcoming events, and more.

To learn more, check out our free webinar on developing and maintaining secure collaborative communities.

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Breaking Through the Clutter: 3 Tips from Great Storytellers

April 29th, 2013 | Posted by Jennifer Kaplan for GovDelivery in Best Practices | Tips & Tricks - (Comments Off)

Getting your message across in 2013 is more challenging than ever. The public is bombarded by sensational messages. Their inbox and social media feeds are filled with captivating stories and images. To break through the clutter, government needs to evolve the way they craft their messages. That’s why one of the biggest trends in email this year is for government organizations to become storytellers. 

As a government communicator, it’s your obligation to keep the public informed. While critical situations call for quick deployment of life-saving information, many of the communications flowing from government aren’t as time-sensitive. Parks programming, new regulations, public health information, and economic development initiatives are what make up the rest of government communications. While this information is equally important, we’ve often seen it doesn’t command as much attention, especially when it only includes the most basic information.

Making the shift to become a good storyteller might seem daunting. You have enough on your plate, and maybe you assume revamping your messaging strategy would take too much time, effort, and resources, but it actually doesn’t! For example, if people are posting on your organization’s Facebook page complaining about potholes, your initial response might be “our organization doesn’t have funding to fix these quickly enough”. REWIND. This is a huge opportunity to tell a story. Start from the beginning and give them the inside scoop. “We know potholes can be frustrating, and even dangerous. We are working to remedy the situation as fast as we can. But, here’s what our funding was for road construction last year, here is what it is now, and here are some ways you can get involved.”  Now, that’s a story.

Texas Department of Transportation (DOT) does this really well. They put out a monthly newsletter that’s essentially a round up of Texas DOT news and events. Instead of just saying, “The State of  Texas experienced inclement weather and snowplows were deployed,” they use descriptive language to give their readers information in an engaging way.

What have we learned from Texas DOT? Storytelling involves 3 elements:

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1.Provide short, engaging news.  Being a good storyteller does not mean your organization should be verbose. Try simply punching up existing phrases like, “portions of Northwest Texas were blasted early last week with an unprecedented blizzard”.

2.Give them inside scoop.  People like to feel as if they are “in the know.” Everyone knows when the weather is bad, but providing transparency around what your organization experiences while solving the problem will give them a sense of involvement. “As the wind dropped and snow lightened, TxDOT crews from around the state moved in with snowplows to help their fellow workers in Amarillo, Lubbock, Abilene, Wichita Falls and Childress”

3.Establish a connection.  Good storytelling elicits an emotional response, and the emotional content is what gets shared on social media. People want to know what’s going on, and if you can engage them in a way that’s emotional, it also helps move the needle on citizen satisfaction. These two phrases do just that: “help their fellow workers” and “clear the snow-packed roadways for motorists”

 

Try using these simple strategies at your organization to break through the clutter and maximize the impact of your messages.

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Newsflash for Your Newsfeed: Are You Really Reaching Your Audience?

April 18th, 2013 | Posted by Jennifer Kaplan for GovDelivery in Best Practices | Integration | Tips & Tricks | Uncategorized | Unique Uses of GovDelivery - (0 Comments)

Are you relying on Facebook to communicate with the broadest audience possible online? Think again.

Just because a citizen, business or stakeholder likes your Facebook page, doesn’t necessarily mean that they will see all of your posts. In fact, according to a recent comScore report, commercial brands that post an average of five to seven times per week only reach about 16% of the fan base they have worked so hard to establish. So, that post about a new economic development initiative or that weekly public health tip may have gone unseen.

How is this possible? Facebook has a powerful algorithm called EdgeRank. EdgeRank determines the most “screen-worthy” content. In other words, EdgeRank filters what posts each user sees in their newsfeed. Two people may both like the Department of the Interior’s Facebook page, but one person might see some of their posts while the other person might not see any. Unless you want to invest dollars on sponsored posts or spend hours analyzing engagement history, comments, and content aging, your organization is simply at the mercy of Facebook.

It’s time to take control of your communications, and Facebook can actually help! The answer? Convert your Facebook audience into a built-in base of subscribers who you can reach directly, anytime.

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According to Pew research, 94% of adults online leverage email. Email is the #1 way to reach the broadest audience directly with personalized, archive-able content. This is especially critical in an emergency situation, where you need to reach as many people as possible. Even though email is your direct connection, social media can be a powerful acquisition tool to help build a list of people you can reach 100% of the time.

In 2013, government organizations are taking control of their messages by employing cross-channel promotion. People who like you on Facebook may not know that you have an email or wireless communications list. Invite them to sign up!

The City of Eden Prairie, Minnesota does this very well by posting links to their email subscription page in their timeline. Not only do they provide a value proposition for opting in, but they set the expectation around what types of information they send, as well as how often a subscriber can expect to receive email.

The Social Security Administration leverages GovDelivery’s Facebook sign-up app, which automatically displays for any Facebook user who navigates to their page (whether a users likes their page or not).

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An added benefit is that the user can establish a relationship with your organization, without having to broadcast it in their own newsfeed.  This is an effective strategy, as it can be set up once and will collect email and wireless subscribers automatically everyday. Instructions for GovDelivery customers who want to install this app can be found here.

Don’t forget, channel cross-promotion works on Twitter too! The Office of the Governor in Minnesota generates a sense of urgency by tweeting an announcement of their impending newsletter a few minutes before it goes out.

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This strategy works well on Twitter too! The Office of the Governor in Minnesota generates a sense of urgency by tweeting an announcement of their impending newsletter a few minutes before it goes out.

Louisville, Kentucky also sends a tweet when new subscriber lists are available. This is a great tactic for building an audience for a temporary initiative, new project or when departments merge.

Social media allows government to engage with their constituents in a way that was never possible. When you are engaging an audience through those channels, they can also be used as a strong promotional tool to get more people to opt in to your email communications. For more ways GovDelivery integrates with social media, websites, and more, check out our Integrations Library.

5 Ways to Make an Impact With Email

April 12th, 2013 | Posted by Jennifer Kaplan for GovDelivery in Best Practices | GovDelivery Features | Tips & Tricks | Uncategorized - (1 Comments)

As a communicator in the public sector, you need to keep various groups informed. How do you make sure your information actually gets read? Or clicked on? Or forwarded? While time and resources may be tight, here are 5 quick things you can do to make more impact with your emails.

1. Hook Them With a Good Subject Line
Your subject line is the most important part of your message. It’s your introduction, so make a good first impression. If your subject line isn’t compelling enough to get your readers to open, your content (message, images, links) won’t matter. Take the time to think about why someone should open your email. The best subject lines are short (under 50 characters), but descriptive enough about the content so the reader has a clear reason to see what’s inside.

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Bonus: You can use GovDelivery’s Bulletin Filter to test out your subject lines on smaller groups before you send a message to your entire subscriber list. Doing an initial test to 2 groups of 10% allows you to see what resonates more with your reader base.

However, never delay a critical message to test the subject line, as timeliness matters more than most other factors.

 

2. Add a Strong Call-to-Action
Take a moment to think about the purpose of your email. Are you trying to get people to renew a license? Volunteer for a program? Attend an event? You might be tempted to lay out all the details in your message, but you must avoid “content overload”. Keep your paragraphs and information succinct, but provide a link back to your website for more information. This gives your readers the “gist” up front, along with a reason to click. As an added bonus, this will also increase your website traffic.

Don’t forget to think about mobile rendering when designing a call-to-action link or button. The finger is the new cursor on a smart phone or tablet, so make sure your call-to-action is prominent. There should be enough space that it’s easy to touch. In other words, avoid small or crowded text.

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3. The Most Important Content Comes First
Always put the most critical information at the top of your message, including your call-to-action. The area of your email “above the fold” (e.g. the content that’s visible without having to scroll) typically gets the most click activity.

By leveraging that real-estate (like the Michigan.gov example seen here), you won’t have to rely on readers scrolling all the way to the bottom of the email to see the most valuable parts.

4. Images Disabled? No Problem!
Not everyone’s email client allows them to view images by default. If your emails contain images, make sure you include a way for your readers to see the content outside of their inbox with a web version. The web version of your email displays your complete message with its images in a reader’s web browser. Not only does this make for a great user experience, but it also increases the accuracy of your open rate.

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To add a link to your web version in a bulletin, simply enter [[VIEW_THIS]] at the top of your message, or select “View This” from the Macro drop-down menu. Read more here.

5. Let Your Readers Spread the Word
One of the easiest ways to extend the reach of your email is to add a social media sharing button. Social sharing allows your subscribers to share your email with their own Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. This method can get your message in front of hundreds (or thousands) more people.

To add a social sharing button to your email, enter [[SHARE_THIS]] or select “Share This” from the Macro drop-down menu. This text will insert the sharing bar, allowing subscribers to share your message through a wide variety of social media avenues. Read more here.

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6. Bonus Tip: The Proof is in the Data
You can’t keep improving your email communications if you can’t measure the impact of what you’re doing. Your GovDelivery account comes with a suite of reports that gives insight into which subject lines get the most opens, which content gets the most clicks, and how engaged your subscriber base is over time. Make sure to send yourself a copy of the Bulletin Detail Report each time you send a bulletin and check out the Bulletin Analytics Report to see how your messages are performing over time.

For more email tips and tricks, be sure to download our free email best practices guide on GovDelivery.com.