In real estate, there are three key aspects of a property: location, location, location. In engagement, there are three key aspects to program success: marketing, marketing, marketing.

Ok, it's not quite that one-sided, content and incentives also matter... once your audience is aware of your program's existence. But until then, it's all about getting the word out.

Reach and Frequency

Be aware of two critical elements: reach and frequency of communications. A few mentions in a newsletter that goes to all employees would count that as medium to low reach (despite going to all employees, the message won't always be "received" by recipients due to crowding out of other content in the newsletter) and medium frequency (a few editions of that newsletter).

An all-employee email dedicated just to the program with a link right to the platform counts as very high reach, but assuming such a thing happens only infrequently, low frequency.

There's no perfect formula for how to combine reach and frequency to get participation - more is always better - but they are helpful tools in evaluating communications tactics.

Since typically an all-employee message will require approval, you might be able to achieve the same result in a more targeted manner: not one message to all employees, but 30 different messages sent to 30 different locations with slightly different content to appeal more directly to those sites. You're more likely to get support for that approach which lets you achieve your reach x frequency goals.

Email

There are many ways to reach your audience but the simplest and most time/cost-effective is email. Done right, email has the best return on investment of any marketing strategy.

This article explores the essential elements of an email communication and offers tips to increasing the two key metrics: open rates and click rates.

Elements of an Email

We have all used email for decades now, but you may not have realized that each and every email message has five elements:

  1. Sender: Use a recognizable, high profile individual or a unique, new personage (person or program name) as the sender to convey importance and curiosity.
  2. Time Received: Emails received while the recipient is working (with their inbox open) are more likely to be read.
  3. Subject Line: The subject line should convey urgency, value, or mystery. Avoid a subject that could be mundane, irrelevant, or non-urgent. Bad subject line: Monthly Newsletter Better subject line: The latest updates from the Program Name Even better: Three of your colleagues made a big impact last month, here's how [teasing the content of the email, not just the topic]
  4. Body Content: First lines are especially important, as they are often previewed along with the subject in email software. People often file things away without reading them, perhaps intending to come back to them later - which rarely happens. Write succinctly, conveying urgency with a clear Call to Action: something the reader can do right now, while reading the email that will provide value to them and also advance the goal of your program.
  5. Call to Action Link: In almost all cases, the Call to Action is a link to the WeSpire platform that goes directly to the activity you want them to take. Link to a Campaign directly, not to the Take Action page, if you want readers to participate in that Campaign. The body content should emphasize that the reader should follow the Call to Action right now.

These elements are shared by almost every email you receive, and have been extensively tested in marketing science to determine their various influences on the success of email campaigns. The WeSpire Broadcasts tool enables Admins to write emails and posts to their audience.

Measuring Email Effectiveness

A tree that falls alone in a forest might or might not make a sound, but an email that nobody opens definitely dies silently. Luckily we can measure two key indicators of email effectiveness: opens and clicks.

Opens are measured by embedding a unique, hidden "remote image" in each email sent and then watching to see how many recipients' computers download the image from the email server. Typically, a recipient's email program will download images embedded in emails only when the recipient actually opens the email. If the recipient deletes it without opening it, or its filtered into spam, no images are downloaded. Some email programs (Outlook, notably) do not download these "remote images" by default, but rather have the user click a button. Therefore, open rates are understated - there is a chance that more people opened the email than was measured, but some didn't download the images.

Clicks are measured by substituting a tracking link for each real link the email writer put in the message. So an email like this: