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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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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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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:

texas

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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Email: Be a Bigger Player

March 13th, 2013 | Posted by Anne Doucot in Best Practices | GovDelivery Features | Tips & Tricks - (0 Comments)

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When you are formulating your digital communication strategy, what tools form the foundation for your execution? Social media is most likely the first thought that comes to mind these days. And understandably so; social media, in its many forms, can be a very effective communications tool. However, email remains a key tool, especially in the evolving communications industry.

Jeremy Greene, VP of Product Management at GovDelivery, recently shared these key success factors in digital communication strategies during his “What’s Next In Digital Communications” presentation at our kick-off event of GovDelivery’s 2013 Communications Tour. To find out where the next tour stop is, click here.

1. More communication partnerships
A great way to expand your audience is by taking advantage of potential partnerships available through the public sector. In this non-competitive market, there are numerous opportunities to connect with other agencies similar to yours. Jeremy suggests cross-promoting with other agencies that may complement your mission by location, related topics, and relevancy. For GovDelivery clients, the GovDelivery Network is the easiest way to do this. If you don’t have it turned on, ask your client success consultant about it.

2. Deeper measurement – beyond open rates
Metrics are important. You may know how many emails you send at any given time, but do you know if your email reached its intended recipient or if they actually opened the email? Knowing these metrics will significantly improve your effectiveness. If you know how many people opened a particular message, you are then able to appropriately assess what content is relevant in the eyes of your targeted audience.

online community3. Creation of small online communities to engage citizens
Create an environment or platform around a specific purpose within your organization to drive communication between you and your stakeholders. Taking the time and effort to maintain and manage this type of environment can bring the benefits of tremendous citizen engagement and connection.

4. Go Visual
Visual matters. Period. Of the top 10 brands on Facebook, “users liked photos 2x as much as text updates and shared videos 12x more than photo and text posts combined” (Mashable, 2012). Sprinkle some pictures and graphics into your content, Jeremy advises. Make it relevant and visually attractive. Take a look at your message before sending, and ask yourself,“Would I open this?”

Do you know the answer to this question?
(Knowing the answer can be a powerful way to find out where you should be focusing your communication strategy).

“What percentage of my audience within the last 90 days has seen any of my content?”

little logoTo find out how GovDelivery can help you answer the above question and reach more of your target audience effectively, register for a seat at our ongoing 2013 Digital Communications Tour. We’re traveling to different cities nationwide to get the word out on what’s new in digital communication. Hear from public sector experts, providing insightful perspectives and strategies on government communications, and from your peers in government on their successful tactics and projects.

Register today for the 2013 GovDelivery Digital Communications Tour. Space is limited!

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Let it snow! Inclement weather drives engagement with the public

January 28th, 2013 | Posted by govdelivery in Client News - (0 Comments)

By Kathy Kyle, Digital Communications Consultant, GovDelivery UK

UK-snow2-jan2013The whole of the United Kingdom experienced a week of widespread travel disruptions and school closures due to unusually inclement weather.  The extended forecast promises additional wintry, blizzard-like conditions – with as much as seven inches of snow, rain and ice over the next week. One of the worst incidents reported was last Wednesday, when 30 people were forced to spend the night in a shelter after becoming stranded when the A39 between Bridgwater and Williton in Somerset became impassable.

More than ever, it is critical that government agencies at the national and local level efficiently and effectively alert local residents about floods, school closures, and road and mass transit disruptions.

At GovDelivery, we are finding that the snow has had a tremendous impact on the uptake of subscribers to government services and information, with increases in local authority subscriptions topping 3900% this past week. In one day, West Sussex received 1,447 new subscribers interested in receiving alerts. As we expected, there was an upward trend in subscriptions to the Highways Agency (HA) and the Met Office, with increases in alert subscribers of up to 180%.

West Sussex County Council website

More compelling than the expected increase in subscribers to weather and transit-related services was the surge in citizens subscribing to central government organisations, whose missions are completely unrelated to the impact of extreme weather. For instance, the National Audit Office (NAO) experienced a 16% increase new subscribers over the latest snowy three-day period, and the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) saw a 114% increase over the course of the same week.

This demonstrates the power of the GovDelivery Network, a bi-directional relationship formed between government organisations that use our integrated, seamless digital communications platform. Visitors have the opportunity to opt-in to alerts regarding a variety of government services. This cross-promotion of government services drives subscriptions, helping organisations reach dramatically more people, especially those who may have never known about or thought to search for a specific government topic.

Derbyshire County Council, who is using GovDelivery to reach more residents regarding school closures, experienced an increase of 956 subscribers in one day. Other councils – Sheffield, Herefordshire, and Crawley Borough – all experienced increases between 575% and 752%, with the majority of traffic to their websites coming from HA, the Met Office, and Department of Health.

With nearly 1.5 million subscribers in the UK alone (41 million worldwide), the GovDelivery Network not only drives engagement, but connects citizens to potentially life-saving information in an efficient, effective way through a simple, opt-in subscription process.

With pending severe weather across the country, it is more important than ever to leverage the GovDelivery ecosystem to maximise direct connections with citizens.

Learn more about how central government and local authorities are reaching more people.

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Are You Sitting On a Pot of Gold?

January 10th, 2013 | Posted by Jennifer Kaplan for GovDelivery in Best Practices | Tips & Tricks - (1 Comments)

By Jennifer Kaplan, Product Marketing Manager, GovDelivery

Like many of you, I started 2013 with lofty goals. Exercise more! Organize my desk! Finally finish my to-do list!  I’ve come to realize, like many others have, that a list of important objectives is never-ending. It’s daunting. However, instead of taking on all of these tasks at once, sometimes we can achieve success (and gratification) faster by tackling one or two crucial goals that directly affect our mission.

If you need to communicate with people through online channels like email, SMS, or social media, having a good group of people to communicate with is a crucial goal.

Building an audience online is one of the most important things you can do. Your message to the public won’t matter if no one sees it! Whether it’s getting more people to get flu shots, register for a deer hunting license, apply for more grants, or join your neighborhood watch program, the size of your email list correlates with your level of success.

At GovDelivery, we’ve heard many success stories recently of how Federal, State, Local and UK Government communicators are not only achieving this goal, but blowing it out of the water. For example, a state agency we worked with recently grew their email subscriber list by adding thousands of citizens in just a few days. This is your proverbial “pot of gold”. 

The best part? Their strategy for success is something you can easily execute THIS MONTH. Here’s how…

The agency I mentioned above uncovered over 20,000 email addresses from a department who did a huge promotional push for an event 2 years ago, but never did any follow up with the email addresses after the event. Because the agency had already established a relationship with this group, they were able to send them an invite and covert those old email addresses into newly engaged subscribers. This was all done with minimal effort: just a few conversations and an email invite.

To find your pot of gold, start talking internally with other departments. Make connections with other offices, programs or individuals in your agency who also communicate or interact with the public online.  You may uncover a wealth of untapped email addresses.

Here are some places where you might find your pot of gold:

  1. Parks and Recreation departments collecting email addresses online for classes, activities and events.
  2. Property Records or Taxpayer Services receiving e-payments.
  3. Department of Natural Resources typically get email addresses for hunting, fishing or other license renewals.
  4. Libraries may have email addresses for library card registration or book availability notifications.
  5. Any programs or agencies receiving grant applications.
  6. Water or other services collecting utility bills.
  7. Departments who oversee driver’s license or tab renewal.
  8. Departments receiving passport applications.
  9. Any other area of your website with online form submission or that collects online payment!

*Bonus tip: If you can tap into other demographic information, such as first name and zip code, you’ll be able to easily execute other strategic email communications tactics. For example, an urgent email with a subscriber’s first name in the subject line might be more likely to grab their attention. Or, you can use a zip code to target certain email addresses with a relevant email about a new park opening near their location. 

You can also work with your GovDelivery Client Success Consultant to determine if you can upload existing lists directly to GovDelivery or if it is preferable to invite people to sign up.  In most cases, you can create new topics in GovDelivery that map directly to the outreach you are already providing.  GovDelivery can also help by supplying potential invite templates.

I must say, I can’t take all the credit for the term “pot of gold”, as Alan Ferguson at Central Bedfordshire Council first drew the comparison recently at our UK Digital Communications Event.  Alan told the story of how their agency made the switch to digital communications in order to encourage a channel shift towards citizen interactions online. Alan’s team heavily promoted their new email communications through social media, website, staff and elected officials. Through this promotion, they were able to discover that one department (Adult Education) had a database of over 8,000 email subscribers that they had collected separately outside of other departments. Alan’s team was able to import this list and convert many of these people to subscribers of their other digital communications.  The entire presentation is fascinating, but fast-forward to the 6:53 minute mark to hear his experience related to email:

Finally, if you’ve already asked around and haven’t uncovered your pot of gold, don’t worry. There are plenty of other things you can do to grow your lists!  Check out some of the other tactics used by Federal, State and Local government agencies here: http://www.govdelivery.com/insidethered/2012/01/the-lucky-7-ways-to-increase-your-outreach/

 

 

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Last Minute Sandy Preparation Tips for Government

October 29th, 2012 | Posted by Jennifer Kaplan for GovDelivery in Best Practices | Client News - (0 Comments)

We’ve all heard the numbers. 8,000+ flights cancelled. Hundreds of thousands already evacuated. Mass transit shut downs up the Eastern Seaboard.* (stats from CNN)  Up to 60 million people will be affected. Hurricane Sandy, now the largest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic, is here.

President Obama, addressing the public in a statement this morning, said, “Please listen to what your state and local government officials are saying.” Government communicators are already in the midst of getting preparation and evacuation information out to those who need it. We’ve also seen additional tips for the public on television, radio, through news websites and social media. Here are the top things your organization can do right now if your stakeholders are affected.

Expand Your Reach. The more stakeholders receive your message, the more likely it is that they will be safe and prepared.

  • Update Your Website. Right now is the moment where citizens are most engaged with government organization. Make sure it’s as easy as possible for citizens visiting your website and social media pages to find the sign-up area for your communications. The key to success is a prominent position.  Keep it in the upper right or upper left of your page, but be careful not to blend it with other aspects of your website. For a temporary fix, highlight your sign-up area in yellow or orange.
    Ready.gov website
  • Leverage the Media to Promote Communications. In his public address this morning, President Barack Obama directed citizens to Ready.gov to get up-to-date preparation and safety information on Hurricane Sandy. If your organization is briefing or being featured through any media outlets, be sure to promote your communications and the ways citizens can subscribe to get updates via email or text message. It’s also helpful to include the URLs to your resources in any media graphics.
  • Recommend Power Outage Alternatives. If citizens lose cable, broadcast signal and Internet, they can still receive tweets about the storm on their mobile phone — even if they don’t have a Twitter account. Have citizens subscribe to SMS Twitter alerts. Here’s a great article from the Washington Post on how to do this.

Get the Word Out Efficiently. Be sure to send messages through all your communication channels.

  • Get Preparation or Evacuation Information Out NOW. There is still time to recommend precautionary actions that can be taken by stakeholders. Urge those in recommended evacuation areas to leave. Send reminders to conserve cell and computer power. Ensure citizens have a list of necessary items — enough food, water, cash, medicine and flashlights — should they experience a power outage.
    National Hurricane Center website
  • Don’t Have the Resources? Not sure what information to send out? Leverage existing, official content.  FEMA and Ready.gov, in addition to the National Hurricane Center with the National Weather Service are asking government organizations to share content they’re already creating to spread the word.  Instead of reinventing the wheel, your organization can share the information, tools and resources from these sites. Like and share FEMA’s Facebook page posts. Follow and re-tweet @ReadyDotGov tweets.
    Ready.gov Twitter feed
  • Continue to Send Updates Throughout the Week. Use email, SMS and social media and other channels to keep stakeholders updated. Be sure to use all means (especially SMS and Twitter) as some stakeholders may not have Internet.

Google has also developed a Crisis Map that provides real-time information about where the storm is moving. The interactive map shows Sandy’s trajectory of the entire country, plus the public can subscribe to additional alerts such as evacuation notices, storm warnings, shelter locations and traffic conditions.

Picking Up the Pieces. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, continue to use digital channels to send updates to your stakeholders. Government organizations will need to work together to communicate relief and clean-up efforts, as well as provide additional resources available to the public. Keep an eye on FEMA, Ready.gov, and the National Weather Service for more information.

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3 New Tools for Reporting, Subscriber Management and File Hosting

July 17th, 2012 | Posted by nfedie in GovDelivery Features | Unique Uses of GovDelivery - (0 Comments)

By Jennifer Kaplan, Product Marketing Manager

At GovDelivery, we strive to ensure that our Digital Communications Management platform allows you to reach and engage your stakeholders in the most efficient way possible.  That is why we are bringing you new features and enhancements each and every month. July has been an especially busy month for us, and we are so excited to offer you access to new tools for reporting, managing your subscribers, and document hosting. We’ve provided a summary of each below, and encourage you to contact us if your organization is interested in leveraging these solutions.

1. Customized View of Up to 30 Performance Metrics

With the GovDelivery Bulletin Analytics Report, you are able to see the impact of your mutli-channel communication efforts in a timely manner. If you have analytics enabled, you have the ability to learn much more than just who you communicated with, by accessing a deeper understanding of who opened, clicked on, and shared your information.  With our new column chooser, you can get a customized view of actual audience engagement with your messages.

Analytics Image

2. Easily Monitor and Manage Who Subscribes and Unsubscribes From Your Communications

Many government organizations are legally obligated or mandated to send certain types of information to various groups. If they send this information electronically, there previously wasn’t a way to ensure that all necessary groups receive each message. There was also little control over who subscribes to each group. With our new Subscription Management tools, we put the control back in your hands!

Let’s say you only want media contacts or internal stakeholders to subscribe to one of your topics in GovDelivery. With Subscription Approval, you can review all subscription requests before they are added to your list.  Subscribers pending in the Requests tab of the Topic Subscriber page won’t be added to your topic until they receive your approval. You can also receive a notification directly to your inbox letting you know when people have requested to subscribe to your topic.

Subscription Requests Image

Do you have legally required or mandated communications, such as those sent to banks, credit unions, grantees or other financial institutions? With Subscription Restore, you can easily monitor and reinstate anyone who is deleted from a particular topic within your GovDelivery account. This ensures that all required parties receive important information, helps organizations track down contacts in instances of turn over, and allows you to closely monitor subscriber drop-off.  Once you reinstate these subscribers on the Topic Subscriber Deleted tab, you can elect to send them a customizable reinstatement notification.

Subscription Deletions Image

If you have communications that should only be sent to subscribers with a particular email domain, such as .gov, .edu, or .mil, then Subscription Restrictions will allow you to limit which types of email addresses can sign up for your communications. Each restriction can contain multiple email addresses, and you can set up as many restrictions as you need in the Subscription Restrictions tab of your Account Settings page.

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Contact help@govdelivery.com to enable Subscription Management at no additional cost for your organization!

3. Store, Publish, Deploy and Display PDF Documents

With GovDelivery’s new File Repository, you can easily publish government PDF documents to GovDelivery’s secure data center, helping to ensure records availability and promote government transparency.  Attach hosted files to your outbound bulletins, link directly to documents, or embed them on your website for your constituents using GovDelivery Web Services. Contact help@govdelivery.com to enable this feature.

What do you think about these new tools? Are you interested in learning more? Leave a reply below, or contact your GovDelivery dedicated Client Success Consultant. If you are unsure of who your Client Success Consultant is, please contact Client Care and they can help find that information for you (help@govdelivery.com or 800-314-0147).

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What’s the perfect time to engage citizens?

July 12th, 2012 | Posted by govdelivery in Best Practices | Client News | Tips & Tricks | Unique Uses of GovDelivery - (0 Comments)

By Amish Patel, Client Development Consultant, GovDelivery UK

Many of our clients rely on us to help them implement digital communication best practices, and one of the many questions we get is, “When is the best time to launch and promote citizen engagement services?”

In our minds, there is never a bad time, but in working with more than 500 government organisations worldwide, our experiences have shown that people flood to government websites when there is an emergency or other event that impacts service delivery.  Severe weather is a prime example of a time when citizens visit local government websites and subscribe in the thousands to official sources of information.  In the UK, with recent  floods along the south coast,  West Sussex County Council saw nearly 1,000 residents sign up for service information in a 48-hour period.

When there is an emergency you need a reliable, effective way of directly reaching as many residents as possible. The more people you reach the greater the impact your information can have. In addition to the obvious public benefits, effective communications help ease the workload of strained customer service teams.  Proactive, informative alerts are proven to help manage call demand and reduce avoidable contact.

Recent analysis of GovDelivery subscription rates to UK local government clients clearly shows that there is considerably more activity between the months of November and February, and it’s no surprise this period coincides with winter service disruptions.  Interestingly, the majority of new subscribers during this period subscribe to multiple topics of interest, including school closures, missed bins, council tax updates and local events.  Even obscure service areas, such as  Pest Control, get multiple subscribers. A typical resident subscribes to 7 – 10 service notifications before leaving the website, giving your local government organisation multiple future points of engagement.

Derbyshire County Council  captures website visitors’ attention with eye catching sign-up links in key areas.  The result of this is that residents who search for the latest information on winter service disruption can easily sign up to receive future updates and be proactively informed across multiple service areas, maximising direct connections with residents.

It goes without saying that informed citizens make better decisions and are generally much happier.  In these austere times, efficient communications save Government large sums in avoidable contact. Therefore, it’s hard to say there is ever a bad time to increase public engagement and improve communication.

 

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