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GFAR webinar "Email newsletters"
The document outlines a webinar focusing on choosing and developing effective e-newsletter tools and strategies, featuring presentations from various communication experts. It discusses essential features for e-newsletter tools, content creation, audience engagement, and methods for promoting newsletters, as well as lessons learned from different organizations' experiences. Key topics include technical aspects of design, content sourcing, and subscriber tracking to enhance communication effectiveness.
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GFAR webinar "Email newsletters"
- 1. GFAR COMMUNICATIONS WEBINAR GFAR-SECRETARIAT@FAO.ORG EmailNewsletters: Not a thing of the past
- 2. Presenters • Dominique Perera(IWMI/WLE) • Ewa Hermanowicz/Nina Lauridsen (EUFORGEN) • Louis Wertz (EcoAgriculture Partners) • Alex Spillius (Foreign Desk Ltd) • Deanna Ramsay (CIFOR/GLF) Moderators: Charles Plummer/Peter Casier (GFAR)
- 3. How to choosean eNewsletter Tool Dominique Perera – Manager Web Communications International Water Management Institute (IWMI)
- 4. Topics • Technical aspectsto consider when using an eNewsletter tool • The need for a responsive eNewsletter • The “quest” for an automated RSS-fed tool • What features should an eNewsletter tool have • Must haves and Nice to haves • Experience with the tool IWMI uses • BenchmarkEmail • How IWMI keeps building on the contact lists
- 5. Technical aspects • Codein HTML • Do we have to code and paste? • Drag and drop design • Can we prepare the content and then just drag to design? • Response to various devices • How will the email look on desktop, tablet and mobile devices? • Embed videos • Can we just paste in a YouTube video url? • Error checking • Can it be checked for errors/spelling?
- 6. Technical aspects -Designing • Drag and drop design?
- 7. Technical aspects -Designing • Drag and drop design?
- 8. Technical aspects -Designing • Drag and drop design?
- 9. Technical aspects -Designing • Drag and drop design?
- 10. Technical aspects -Designing • Choose from Templates or start your own
- 11. Response to variousdevices • Can the email be viewed effectively on most devices? Desktop Mobile/Tab • What about Plain Text viewers? (OMG!) • Are the buttons and links clickable? (enough space between them not to be confused?)
- 12. Embed Videos • Canwe embed a video? • Not exactly • It’s an image of a video • Click to play on YouTube • All you need is the YouTube URL
- 13. Error Checking Check emailcontent for • Spam • Spelling • Inbox compatibility • Print view
- 14. Automated Newsletters • Letyour website drive your Newsletter Content!
- 15. Features to lookfor in an eNewsletter Must have • Signup Forms • add forms to websites & social media to collect contacts • List Management • Create and maintain many lists, categorize by audience etc. • Image gallery • upload and store images to be re-used for multiple emails • Tracking • monitor and track email sends, opens, clicks, shares and unsubscribes
- 16. Features to lookfor in an eNewsletter Must have • Reporting • generate reports on individual or groups of campaigns to see how each compare
- 17. Features to lookfor in an eNewsletter Must have • Reporting • generate reports on individual or groups of campaigns to see how each compare
- 18. Features to lookfor in an eNewsletter Nice to have • A/B Testing • test different versions of an email subject before sending it out • Automations • send automated emails based on dates (birthdays) or actions (triggers) • Targeted Emails Lists • create lists based on engagement or non-engagement • RSS Emailing • send out emails with content driven from websites • API Integration • transfer data to/from their internal system to their Email account
- 19. Experience with BenchmarkEmail Greatlist management and segmentation* Import from Excel, Export to Excel Great design options Templates, layouts, custom images etc. Great email tracking Opens, Clicks, Bounces, Unsubscribes Great reporting and campaign comparisons Click rates, Open rates, Compare campaigns, A/B Tests Generally Open rates of 15-20% *based on data collected
- 20. Building up contactlists 1. Scanned business cards -> Excel -> BenchmarkEmail 2. Sign-up forms on website -> BenchmarkEmail 3. Links to Sign-up forms on social media -> BenchmarkEmail
- 21. EUFORGEN newsletter Considerations oncontent, process and measuring success Nina Lauridsen and Ewa Hermanowicz EUFORGEN secretariat
- 22. General information • EUFORGEN’sobjective • Complementary to other channels • Target group & subscribers • Publishing frequency • Mail chimp
- 23. How to chooseand develop content? • A few stories directly related to EUFORGEN • Call for contributions from relevant sources and country members • Promotion of relevant projects related to EUFORGEN • Synthesizing content compact and appealing
- 24. Promotion • Section ofthe publications catalogue and subscribe form in the footer • @EUFORGEN twitter • Bioversity social media • EVOLTREE • Forest Europe
- 25. Statistics “We regularly ‘adore’ yournewsletter” M.Sc. Danijela Bojkovski, The European Regional Focal Point for Animal Genetic Resources (ERFP) “Thanks; very nice and complete Newsletter! You can pass this compliment on to those involved please” Sven de Vries, former EUFORGEN National Coordinator for the Netherlands
- 26. Challenges • How topromote the newsletter better? • How to grow our mailing list especially including forest practitioners? • How to source more news stories? • How to encourage professional community to contribute to news? • How many people click on the link to the campaign shared on social?
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- 28. The EcoAgriculture E-Newsletter Experience Whatgood is a good email (if no one forwards it to their colleagues)? Louis Wertz Head of Communications lwertz@ecoagriculture.org
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- 33. Louis Wertz lwertz@ecoagriculture.org How dowe generate buzz?
- 34. Louis Wertz lwertz@ecoagriculture.org What dowe send? • Publication Announcements • Event Announcements • Sara Shares (new blog posts from our president) • “Newsletter” every 2 months with short articles linking to the above • On average, we send 2 campaigns per month to all our subscribers.
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- 36. Louis Wertz lwertz@ecoagriculture.org Where do wego from here? www.ecoagriculture.org
- 47. CIFOR NEWS UPDATES Lessonslearned & ideas looking ahead
- 48. WHO DO WEENAGE? • Number of subscribers: 34,300 • Who they are: o Media (English, Spanish, Indonesian and French language) o Civil societies o International organizations o Academia/universities o Research organizations o Private sectors (including finance institutions) o Governments o General public
- 49. WHERE DO WEREACH? • Geographical distribution of our readers: o Africa: 4,125 o Asia: 6,959 o Australia & New Zealand : 751 o Europe: 5,374 o Latin America: 2,601 o North America: 3,168 o Oceania: 217 o Unknown: 11,163 • Number of mailing lists (in addition to the media list, what lists do we currently have?): o Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) mailing list --> 5,668 subscribers o Internal resource dev. --> 275 subscribers o Global Landscapes Forum --> 9,920 subscribers o Latin America mailing list --> 5,664 subscribers
- 50. HOW DO WEREACH READERS? People can subscribe via: o cifor.org: http://www.cifor.org/subscribe o landscapes.org: http://www.landscapes.org/subscribe/ o FTA: http://foreststreesagroforestry.org/sign-up/ In addition, we gather contacts from the following: o Participant lists from events o Printed subscription forms o CIFOR visitors o CIFOR staff colleagues business cards
- 51. HOW DO WEIMPROVE? • Tracking via click maps • Tracking via website hits following news updates • Adapting as needed (i.e. optimal days and times to send) • Creating targets (number of subscribers, click throughs)
- 52. GOING FORWARD • Createsubscriber targets, e.g. GLF targeting 100,000 • Clean up database and create targeted lists to ensure higher click rate. • Create PDF versions to upload on Facebook and LinkedIn. • Use and synchronize social media to drive traffic to newsletter (which sits on CIFOR.org once it’s sent). • Send an adapted version of the newsletter via email to internal staff. We’ve done this in the past, need to be consistent. Fridays are low readership days, Monday mornings better. • Continue to optimize through tracking and innovation.
- 53. The Global LandscapesForum Communicating via newsletters & email blasts
- 54. Subscriber profiles 9,920 mailinglist recipients Diverse subscribers across sectors and regions ◦ Civil society ◦ Policymakers and government representatives ◦ Private sector representatives ◦ Media ◦ Academic institutions and scholars ◦ Research organizations ◦ International organizations ◦ …and more The Global Landscapes Forum Communicating via newsletters & email blasts Africa 12.53% Asia 21.68% Australi a & New Zealand 1.60% Europe 27.88% Latin America 20.69% North America 15.06% Ocenia 0.56% Subscribers based on region Academi a 6.08% Civil society organizat ion 20.84% Financial institutio n 1.23% Governm ent 22.99% Intergover… Media 1.74% Private sector 28.66% Rese… Subscribers based on type of institution
- 55. Building a Global Communityof Practice GLF registration and participant lists GLF partner organizations and partner contacts Subscriber sign-up via landscapes.org Social media outreach The Global Landscapes Forum Communicating via newsletters & email blasts
- 56. Strategic messaging andtimely campaigning News Update ◦ Regularly scheduled, monthly Email blasts ◦ Not regularly scheduled, highlighted/noteworthy news items Scheduling and messaging strategically reflects GLF events and/or activities campaigns The Global Landscapes Forum Communicating via newsletters & email blasts
- 57. Looking ahead Amplifying andfurther diversifying subscription database Updating mobile viewing of newsletters Engaging audience with innovative interactive platforms and news- sharing methods Synchronizing dissemination of news updates and messaging via social media Rolling release in Asia, Africa, Latin America http://www.nptechforgood.com/2014/09/28/10-e-newsletter- best-practices-for-nonprofits/ https://www.newsletter2go.com/blog/average-click-rates-in- marketing/ The Global Landscapes Forum Communicating via newsletters & email blasts
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Editor's Notes
- #4 technical aspects to consider, when selecting an e-Newsletter tool experience with the E-Newsletter tool IWMI uses
- #7 https://ui.benchmarkemail.com/video-tutorials
- #8 https://ui.benchmarkemail.com/video-tutorials
- #9 https://ui.benchmarkemail.com/video-tutorials
- #10 https://ui.benchmarkemail.com/video-tutorials
- #11 https://ui.benchmarkemail.com/video-tutorials
- #23 What is EUFORGEN? our target group is a European (global) network Subscribers: 218 Published every three month Through Mailchimp. Why mailchimp? How is this better than what we used before?
- #24 2-3 stories directly related to EUFORGEN and the rest related to other Projects with relevance for EUFORGEN’s work on FGR (facilitating the access to more detailed information and to other, less visible, projects). Participatory process where members country representatives have the possibility to both write an article to the newsletter or contribute with idea of what could be included. Du we ever have a problem of finding enough releant stories? How do we overcome this issue? Pointing to stories published on our website The only proactive outreach to specific target groups
- #26 Include how we promote the newsletter: Twitter
- #30 How do you reach new readers? EcoAgriculture has grown its audience on social dramatically over the past few years, so we know they are out there. How do we convert them to email subscribers. We know they are not converting…
- #31 We’ve gained subscribers in the past thirty days…
- #32 But since we’ve moved to Mailchimp in May, and in fact for a few years prior to the move while we were with Constant Contact, our audience has completely stagnated. It’s unlikely that exactly zero audience change has occurred (forgive mailchimp for their sloppy chart), but notice the bars on the right and how they hover around 8000. That’s where we seem to have hit a ceiling.
- #33 Where are we looking for people to email? Where has our growth come from to replace stale emails? From our: Website Facebook Eventbrite integration (event signups) – Most valuable.
- #49 Started in 1993 CIFOR published CIFOR news in printed version quarterly. We distributed to around 1,700 contacts using regular post service. It had three versions: English, French and Spanish. In 2005, the subscribers became bigger because we combined POLEX list (maintained by DGO) with CIFOR News subscribers. The number jumped from 3,000 contacts (from CIFOR news) into around 17,000 subscribers. We started using simple electronic format as pdf. We distributed using Outlook email services and we called it ‘CIFOR News online’. However, we still keep printing the hard copies to be sent to the high-level government’s officials and donors. In 2006 CIFOR news published monthly. (PS: I don’t know the reason behind it). In 2011 we shifted from using Outlook to send CIFOR news update into Constant Contact with around 23,000 subscribers. In 2014 we shifted again to new tool/ service called Mail Chimp.
- #50 CIFOR News Update is sent out once a month to our database via MailChimp with links to the past month’s articles on Forests News and a section for CIFOR events and CIFOR publications. Click rate= 18,9%
- #51 How do we enrich our current databases? Do we have readers sign up by email? Or do we collect business cards and manually input? BUT CURRENT CHALLEGES:- How effective? How can we ensure they are more interactive? How can we use social media better to promote our work and drive traffic to cifor.org? Create PDF versions to upload on Facebook and LinkedIn. Send an adapted version of the newsletter via email to internal staff to encourage higher click rate eg Monday mornings.