Publishing content is like speaking in a crowded room — if no one can hear you your content isn’t doing any good. Are you struggling to get your audience to take action? Do you want to improve your outreach strategy? If you are, check out these 20 tips to boost your public engagement and increase your digital ROI.

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

2. 20 Tips
To Boost Your Engagement

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. Tip 3:
Focus
Their
Attention
Drive your audience towards your primary call to action.

8. 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.

9. Tip 5:
Personalize
Your
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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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?

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. 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.

21. Tip 15:
Segment
Your
Audience
+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

22. 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.

23. 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.

24. 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.

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. 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.

28. 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.

29. 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.

30. Tip 19:
Gather
Stories and
Feedback
Metrics 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.

31. 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.

32. Tip 20:
Measure
Your
Outcomes
Your 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.

33. 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.

34. 34
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
Managed
Services
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.
 Prominent placement in the
GovDelivery Network
 Outreach acceleration
 Digital Ads Integration
 Email Design/Formatting
 A/B Testing & Analytics
 Message Strategy & Configuration
 Campaign Effectiveness Reporting
 Strategic Planning
 System Admin Optimization
 Subscription Management
 Monthly Progress Reports

35. THANK YOU FOR
YOUR TIME