Empowering government to create better lives for more people.2O Tips to Boost Your Engagement

20 Tips To Boost Your Engagement

Tip 1:Define Your Strategy and Goals

Each outreach should be only a piece of a holistic strategy that defines goals for individual audiences, content, and tools. Clearly map out your users’ journey.

Tip 1:Define Your Strategy and Goals

Each outreach should be only a piece of a holistic strategy that defines goals for individual audiences, content, and tools. Clearly map out your users’ journey.

Tip 2:Know Your Audience

Reaching out to your audience without considering what is most relevant to their own needs will make your outreach only a half-measure.

Tip 2:Know Your Audience

Consider the interests and expectations of each of your audiences. Some may be interested in local events while others may want methods to share info online.

Tip 3:Focus TheirAttention

Drive your audience towards your primary call to action.

Tip 4:Focus on the Value

Don’t hide the reason why people should be interested in updates from your organization. From their first impression, make it clear what the value is in being engaged.

Tip 5:PersonalizeYour Content

The best messages are those tailored to individual audiences. Whether it is featuring a local performance or tailoring a call to action to an upcoming event, explore

how you can tweak your content to be more meaningful to the people receiving it.

Tip 6:Use Relatable Imagery

A headline banner is invaluable real estate and the first impression of your audience. Use imagery that your audience will identify with and leads them to your call to action.

Tip 7:Illustrate Your Point

People digest images much faster than text. Think about ways that you can break out key text and illustrate your point.

Tip 8:Leverage Existing Resources

You don’t have to recreate the wheel every time you reach out to your audience. Take into account all of your existing resources and see what you can repurpose in your digital outreach.

Tip 9:Prioritize Calls To Action

Your messages likely won’t have just one call to action so it is important to prioritize them in your message. If your audience only took one action, which would it be?

Tip 10:Engage on Their Level

If you have special content you want people to engage with, mirror the method that people are most used to interacting with it. A hyperlinked photo of a video preview with “play” icon

will lead to higher click through rate than hyperlinked text.

Tip 11:Reach Them Where They Are

Different audiences respond better to different digital channels. Vary your communication methods to improve your reach to key audiences and engage them wherever they are.

Tip 12:Activate New Audiences

Your new audiences are among your most engaged. Once they sign up for updates, immediately give them a next step to take and drive action towards your key priorities.

Tip 13:Invigorate Existing Audiences

Don’t lose sight of the audiences who have signed up for updates on a sunset program or an outdated resource. Reengage your inactive audiences and redirect them to new actions.

Tip 14:Grow a Targeted Audience

When people sign up, offer the opportunity for people to tell you more about themselves or what their interests are. Then leverage that information in the future to deliver targeted content.

Tip 15:Segment Your Audience

Once you have collected information about your subscribers, put it to use. When people sign up for updates to SBA, they are asked for their email and zip code.

Tip 15:Segment Your Audience

By filtering their subscriber base by zip code, SBA can send information about local events and deliver more impactful information and better value to its audiences.

Tip 15:SegmentYourAudience

+28% Open Rate

+125% Click Rate

Sending to a segment of subscribers in the Dallas area saw open rates climb well above the Texas Fish and Wildlife’s average. Segmenting on subscribers who live near a neighborhood

fishin’ lake generated significantly more clicks than other messages

Tip 16:Test for Best Practices

Veteran-specific Appeal Subject Line: “Attention Veterans and Survivors”

General Appeal Subject Line: “Making it Easier for You to Receive Benefits”

VS+3%

Open Rate

+47% Click Rate

The best way to know what pushes your audiences to action is by conducting message testing. Test different themed subject lines to drive increased open rate, and test different

call to action buttons in your head line banner may increase its click rate.

Tip 16:Test for Best Practices

“November Deadlines for Drawn Hunts”

“Last Chance to Apply for Drawn Hunts”

VS

While a shorter and to-the-point message may work for some of your audience, others may prefer more details and resources to help get to what they need faster. Only by conducting message testing

can you determine how to best elevate your public engagement.

Tip 16:Test for Best Practices

While any GovDelivery customer can conduct message testing, those with the Advance Package can automate the process and receive in-depth, side-by-side reports explaining how one message

outperformed another, as well as automatically sending out the winning message.

Tip 17:Integrate with Other Channels

One of the easiest ways to connect your digital outreach channels together is to leverage Google Analytics. All roads lead back to your website and Google Analytics resources, such as UTM tags on

URL links, can help determine which is making the biggest impact on your ROI.

Tip 17:Integrate with Other Channels

&And more…

If you’re using a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool like Salesforce, GovDelivery makes it simple to connect your digital outreach and engagement data to your contacts and client data.

Tip 18:Connect the User Experience

Look for ways to connect the ways that your audience is interacting with you. Most people have social media action buttons in their message’s header or footer.

Tip 18:Connect the User Experience

Take it a step further by including Twitter tweet or Facebook share buttons in your messages to make it simple for your audience to share a call to action in their own social network.

Tip 18:Connect the User Experience

Explore how your audience is engaging with you beyond social media. Whether it is a call center or web form, lead people to action from your message to the regular

channels where they can have the most impact or provide substantive feedback.

Tip 19:Gather Stories and FeedbackMetrics alone don’t spell success. You need to tell a story about people and how your work has impacted the lives of people. The best way to get your audience to share their stories is to ask.

Tip 19:Gather Stories and Feedback

At the end of your outreach campaign, invite people to share their stories about how your resources helped them, what they accomplished, and how your work helped them.

Your audience will have a higher rate of engagement to stories from people like themselves.

Tip 20:Measure Your OutcomesYour success is more than Open Rates, Pageviews, and Downloads. Track your outreach back to

how you accomplished your program’s goals. Celebrate your success and share it with your audiences to let them know how they helped make a difference.

Bonus Round!There is no secret sauce

There is no silver bullet for digital engagement. These tips will help elevate what you are doing today, but each program and audience is different. Always be looking for new ways to boost your public

outreach. The most impactful best practices are the ones created for your own audience.

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GOVDELIVERY DIGITAL SERVICES IS HERE TO HELP

• Deliver Personalized Content Based on Age, Interest• Engage Through Today’s Top Digital Channels• Re-engage Lapsed or Inactive Audiences

Digital Campaign Management

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Audience Acceleration

We’ll provide ways for you to reach more people and identify and connect with them in a targeted manner.

We’ll help you compel people to take action through proven email and mobile technologies.

We’ll provide a complete team of digital communication and technology experts for your monthly initiatives.

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Outreach acceleration Digital Ads Integration

Email Design/Formatting A/B Testing & Analytics Message Strategy & Configuration Campaign Effectiveness Reporting

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