The document outlines strategies for enhancing user engagement in the UCSF profiles research networking system through targeted email marketing and web analytics, revealing that many profiles were inactive or uncategorized. An email campaign was conducted to encourage profile customization, which resulted in significant increases in user engagement and page view statistics. The campaigns achieved high open and click rates, leading to 385 newly customized profiles and shaping future features and marketing efforts for UCSF profiles.

1. How to Increase Research Networking User Engagement
with Email Marketing, Web Analytics, and Vanity
Nooshin Latour, MA, Anirvan Chatterjee
Clinical and Translational Science Institute, University of California, San Francisco
Clinical and Translational Science Institute / CTSI
Accelerating Research to Improve Health
21.9% 22.0% 22.5%
25.1% 26.4%
39.2%
45.8%
3.3% 3.9% 3.4% 3.2%
9.0%
32.0%
13.6%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Software &
Webapp
Social
Networks/Online
Communities
Education &
Training
Non-Profit CTSI eNews Profiles Welcome
Onboarding
Profiles Vanity
Email
Introduction
Although the UCSF Profiles research networking system has become a
significant online gateway enabling the discovery of researchers at the
university (primarily via Google), we found that many UCSF Profiles page
owners were inactive, never having customized or even seen their own pages.
As of August 2013, only 28% of Profile pages had been customized with a
biography, photo, or list of research interests.
Method
We first tried an ongoing campaign sending users customized “Welcome to
UCSF Profiles” emails when they got added to the system, as well an email
campaign encouraging existing users to add a photo and/or bio to their pages,
as needed. In both cases, we included data from Google Analytics showing
how having a more complete profile correlated with receiving more pageviews.
Based on the success of these two campaigns, we sent users a fully-
personalized “2013 UCSF Profiles Annual Report,” where we would describe to
them how many pageviews their profile page had received, and from whom.
We used Google Analytics network data to split out annual traffic figures from
categories that researchers cared about: users at UCSF, other universities,
major pharmaceutical companies, major foundations, and the NIH.
Results
We tested multiple variants of the 2013 UCSF Profiles Annual Report over six
rounds, to 2,713 profile owners.
• Unsubscribes 0%
• Average Opens 45.8%
• Average Clicks 13.6%
• Impact +385 net edited profiles after 3 campaigns
• Survey 8.7% response rate (236 users)
Engagement rates were surprisingly high. Open rates were 2-3x higher
than related industry averages, and click rates up to 3x higher. We were
also pleased with the increase in number of personal edits to researcher
Profiles. This pilot is helping inform possible future UCSF Profiles
features (e.g. personal web analytics dashboards) and email marketing
campaigns (e.g. custom email digests).
Annual report engagement rates, compared to industry averages:
Key: Left bar = Open rate; Right bar = Click-through rate
The Ultimate Vanity Email
Appeal to
professional
vanity
We A/B tested subject
lines. Short customized
subjects did best
Solicit user feedback
with clear call to action
Users encouraged to
log in, edit their pages
HTML email
template looks
good in Outlook,
phones, etc.
Personalized stats
via Google Analytics
Getting the Data
1. Google Analytics records visitors’ network /
ISP (e.g. AT&T, Comcast, Harvard, NIH).
2. We created custom Google Analytics filters
for each category of interest (e.g. networks
with “university” or “college” in the name).
3. We exported counts of unique pageviews
for each profile from each category of interest
4. We decided to email only those users
whose pages were viewed 20+ times in
2013 by users from at least 2 categories of
interest (e.g. NIH and major pharmas).
5. We mail merged custom HTML into a
Mailchimp HTML template.
This project was supported by NIH/NCRR UCSF-CTSI Grant Number UL1
TR000004. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do
not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.
User Feedback
• “I’d like to see specifically who (which govt,
institution) viewed my research Profile.”
• “l’d like to know which of my publications
others are viewing.”
• “Were my pageviews a little or a lot
compared to other faculty?”
• “Great to see my name up in the lights!”
Impact on Site
After this and the two prior email campaigns (see
Method section), net customized UCSF Profiles
pages grew by 385 (6% of users).
Default Profile
Jane Doe, PhD
Jane%Doe,%PhD%is%the%Eudocia%and%Sebas4ano%Papasthatopoulos%Endowed%Chair%in%Medicine%and%an%Associate%
Customized Profile