1. @alanfergs
Alan Ferguson – Web Manager
Central Bedfordshire Council
Central Bedfordshire Council www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk
2. What do we use?
You need someone to champion email marketing
(In Central Bedfordshire Council…it’s me)
Central Bedfordshire Council www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk
3. Our winning formula
No automation
Keep it consistent
Focus content
We don’t spam
Central Bedfordshire Council www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk
4. Build on what you’ve already got
7,800
114 topics and growing
Central Bedfordshire Council www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk
6. Know your targets
27% 10% open rate CTR
Time for A/B testing?
Central Bedfordshire Council www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk
7. Thanks for listening
Constantly promote the service
Know your targets
Make it personal
@alanfergs
Central Bedfordshire Council www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk
Notes de l'éditeur
I’m Alan Ferguson, Web Manager for Central Bedfordshire Council. It’s a short presentation today, so if you don’t get the accent, then speak to me at the break or contact me on Twitter if you have any questions.
Gov Delivery is our email tool. Our brand is Central Bedfordshire Council Updates. I champion email marketing across the organisation as I understand the results it can produce. I do 95% of our emails, but am starting to get this rolled out now.
No automation – standard format which we use for every email We keep it consistent - same look, feel & tone every time Focus content roughly around: 1 subject 3 paragraphs 3 sentences per paragraph We don’t spam customers – they must actively sign up for the service
Launched on 17 January and now have 7,800 customers registered for 114 topics. This includes existing databases. Adult learning were manually emailing 6,000 customers. We imported their database into Gov Delivery and this cleansed 1,000 dead email accounts.
We made sure customers knew about the service. Google Adwords was the only paid advertising. We spent £1,000 on this. We had 1,900 click throughs. We have increased Facebook likes and Twitter followers by 25% since the email service launched. Make sure you to cross sell your communications channels and drive customers to your website.
We are about 2% above average on open rates and on a par for Click Through Rates for customers using Gov Delivery in our sector. My advice is: Find out targets for your sector. Benchmark against these every day. Learn from mistakes – e.g. the obvious is NOT giving away so much in your subject that customers don’t open the email. Constantly change adapt and tweak until you find your winning formula.
Constantly promote the service. Know your targets – otherwise a 25% open rate may seem disappointing. Make it personal – my opinion this is why we have made this work.