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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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Critical Communications: GovDelivery Welcomes OK Strong

June 10th, 2013 | Posted by Jennifer Kaplan for GovDelivery in Best Practices | Client News | GovDelivery Features | Unique Uses of GovDelivery - (0 Comments)

A few weeks ago, the City of Moore was hit by a devastating EF5 tornado that took lives and caused mass destruction in the heart of Oklahoma. In the wake of this unprecedented tragedy, there was a huge influx of information that needed to be communicated to the citizens of Oklahoma, including recovery progress, organizing clean up efforts and more. State and local government had to act fast.

OKStrong_SiteAs part of the relief effort, the State of Oklahoma launched OK Strong, the official website of response and resources for those affected by the tornadoes. While the website serves as a crucial centralized hub of resources for tornado victims, the state also needed to build an audience they could communicate with through a variety of channels. In conjunction with the website, OK Strong partnered with GovDelivery to launch email and wireless updates to keep their community informed.

OK Strong went the automation route and was able to leverage the content they were already putting on their website for repackaging as digital communications. By using GovDelivery’s Page Watch functionality on the RSS feeds generated by OK Strong’s website, email and wireless updates are automatically deployed to subscribers when new information is available.

With this automated process, OK Strong is able to send many of the typical communications needed before, during, and after a critical situation – without adding extra staffing resources. Some examples of the content that OK Strong distributes are:

  • Weather Information and Warnings
  • Rumor Control
  • Volunteer Requests and Information
  • How to Register for Federal Assistance
  • Animal and Livestock Location

OK Strong also offers a digest of the tweets from their organization as a daily email. This allows anyone who doesn’t have Twitter, or who doesn’t check Twitter often, to see the content OK Strong distributes through social media in their email inboxes. All emails have also been optimized for mobile viewing, including the addition of a thinner banner in the header of the emails with a clean and simple template.

OKStrong3

Reaching as many people as possible was critical to OK Strong’s mission, so they employed best practices to quickly get large groups of people subscribed to their updates. Beyond adding a prominent email sign-up box to their website, they also promoted their sign-up options to their audiences on social media. These promotional efforts helped convert casual browsers into direct subscribers.

OKStrong4

One of the most impactful strategies they used to grow their list came from their participation in the GovDelivery Network. Many other Oklahoma State Agencies, such as the Department of Health and Department of Education, are able to promote OK Strong through their own digital communications by leveraging the automated GovDelivery Network. The City of Moore itself also promotes OK Strong’s sign-up options as well. Through these cross-promotional partnerships, relevant agencies and cities have contributed over 80% of the new people signing up for OK Strong’s informational updates.

On May 31st, a second wave of powerful storms hit Oklahoma, but this time, an established communications platform was in place. The site was ready, and with a built in base of subscribers, Oklahoma was able to distribute information to citizens before, during, and after the storms.

For more information on OK Strong, visit their website and sign up for updates.  If you are ready to begin thinking about how your organization will keep the public safe during emergency situations, click here to download our free eBook: Leveraging Digital Communications in Emergencies. 

 

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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)

email me

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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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.

Sub Restrictions Image

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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3 Not-So-Obvious Email Tips for Government to Effectively Reach Citizens

May 25th, 2012 | Posted by govdelivery in Best Practices | Tips & Tricks - (0 Comments)

By Lauren Modeen, Engagement Strategist, GovDelivery

I’d venture to say that for most of us working in or with government, the more people we can reach effectively, the better off we are. Here are three not-so-obvious ways to do this. For additional best practices like this, be sure to download our newly released guide: Public Sector Digital Management Communication: The Critical Role of Email. And for real-time tips we invite you to join our upcoming Public Sector Communication Best Practices webinar on June 7. Reserve your complimentary seat now!

1. Capture Subscribers at Exciting or Critical Times

One of the best times to capture subscribers is during an exciting or critical time for your organization. For example, in early 2012, Seattle experienced four straight days of snow and ice. Citizens in King County poured onto the county’s metro transit home page to get the critical information they needed about the storm. The takeaway? At a time where there is a huge increase of citizens on your site, make sure you seize the opportunity to sign up as many as you can. Once you are connected to them, you can proactively communicate in the future.

How about a baby Wild Black Bear just born in a den in Maine? While this exciting event was happening, the Wildlife Research Foundation live-streamed the event. As excited users came to their page to view the live-streaming, the Foundation encouraged visitors to subscribe to their bulletins.

2. Drive Sign-ups through Your Social Channels by Just Asking

Sometimes we get so caught up in thinking of the perfect tweet, Facebook post, or subject line, we forget that sometimes the easiest way to ask citizens to subscribe to emails is simply to just remind them and ask. Check out this very simple but effective tweet sent out by Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton.

Oh, and when trying to spread your message even further, it’s not a bad idea to add to your (tweet) — “Please Retweet.” While there is some debate around this in terms of data versus “gut,” this Hubspot data does point to the fact that “Please retweet” is the 11th most retweetable word.

3. Hook Your Subscribers Where They Are

When considering where to place subscription sign-up links on your website, always remember to review your website analytics first. For the pages that have the most popular and vital content – place your sign-up link on that page, in the top left. Take a look at the great example of a sign-up box on the LouisvilleKy.gov site below.

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Digital Communication Best Practices Guide Now Available

May 10th, 2012 | Posted by Mary Yang For GovDelivery in Best Practices | Client News | Tips & Tricks - (0 Comments)

Last week, GovDelivery released a new guide – Public Sector Digital Communication Management Best Practices: The Critical Role of Email – that details tips and strategies culled from more than 500 state, local, federal and international government organizations.

With all the buzz around social media, why is this guide focused on email? The PEW Internet and American Life Project’s recent survey of internet usage showed that 92% of adult online users using email. It’s clear that email is the central hub of online communication. With this knowledge, it’s critical for government communicators to incorporate email as the cornerstone of any communication strategy or outreach effort.

Pew Internet chart

The guide provides public sector employees with more than 20 pages of comprehensive best practices around digital communications and email, and it’s broken up into three main sections:

  • Effectiveness: building the largest possible base by leveraging existing contact lists and promoting sign-up options across organization websites and partners
  • Efficiency: streamlining and automating complex communications across email, SMS/text messaging and social media
  • Engagement: driving users to online and offline activities that create the most value for the public and the organization, ultimately creating mission value and changing behaviors that will create an immediate or, in some cases, lasting impact

The guide showcases examples from all levels of government – from Louisville, KY to King County, WA to the White House and Driving Standards Agency (UK) – to give you a clear idea of how your peers are implementing some of these digital communication best practices.

Here are a few of the tips that I found most interesting:

Effectiveness: Use Social Media to Get More Subscribers and Launch Email Outreach into Social Media

This may seem counter-intuitive but how many citizens know that your city, county, state, department or federal agency has a Facebook page? Or a Twitter feed? Or a blog? By leveraging social media to promote your email subscription services and vice versa, you reach a substantially larger audience.

Remember, it isn’t about communicating through a single channel. You want to push your information out as broadly as possible to reach as many people as you can.

Efficiency: Automatically Send Email Content to SMS and Social Media Channels

With the brilliance of technology these days, you should be able to automate your communication channels so you aren’t manually posting in several different channels.

This means that you should look for a platform or solution that allows you to create an email update and have that update post directly to social media channels or sent via SMS/text message at the same time.

Engagement: Content Best Practices – Provide a Clear Call to Action

In the business-to-consumer or business-to-business world, it’s easy to have a clear call to action: “buy this new product” or “download this coupon.” In the public sector, this hasn’t been as widely followed. But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be. This is definitely one of those best practices from the private sector that the public sector can adapt and adopt.

When a reader takes an action from your email newsletter, that is true engagement. And for the public sector, engagement helps drive mission value. For example, in the Midwest, an email update that alerts citizens to snow emergencies and urges them to move their cars off the street so their cars don’t get towed provides a clear call to action that benefits everyone and provides immediate and long-lasting value.

These are just three tips from the guide that I found useful. For more tips, download the full guide at http://bit.ly/GDDCMGuide.

Does your government organization utilize any communication strategies or tactics that have been highly successful? I’d love to hear them. Share your best practices in the comments.

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