The WeSpire Team has seen a lot of launches. Here are some suggestions from the most successful launches and some lessons learned from past hiccups.

🌟 Best Practices

🎡 Don't launch a tool, launch a program

Employees don't care about new tools, but rather they are interested in the launch of a new engagement opportunity, a fun competition, or a better way to give back to their community. Focus less on the "tool" and more on the experience. Rather than just launching WeSpire, focus on communicating the Activities that employees will now have access too? Are you kicking off a month of service? Highlight the volunteer opportunities instead of the platform.

More examples of great initiatives to kick off with:

• Service Day/Week/Month

• Sustainability Competition

• Challenge related to a company milestone (anniversary, Earth Day, new CSR goals)

• Steps Challenge

• Employee Resource Group Event/Activity

💬 Consider the messaging

The difference between a message that captures attention and drives action and one that doesn’t is relevancy to the person receiving it. Rather than focusing on what the company is trying to achieve, focus on the interests and emotions of the person receiving it and the value provided to them.

Here are three areas to focus on:

• Interests: Focus on topics your audience care about. Use what you know about your employees to meet them where their interests lie. Connect your initiatives to these interests to talk about things people care about
• Emotions: A simple truth of human behavior is that motivation drives all action. At the core of motivation lies emotion. We feel hungry, we feel happy, we feel inspired. Chances are you’ve even heard people say they feel motivated. Emotions are powerful motivators, and when you speak to human emotion, you can inspire acton. For example, rather than the headline “Volunteer With Coworkers,” try “Get a Day Off Work and Be Hero.” Rather than “Invite Your Colleagues to Sign Up,” try “Don’t Do It Alone, Challenge a Friend!”
• Benefits: Translate your motives into benefits for your employees. A benefit is a desirable outcome. What benefits you and your team is not relevant to others. Instead of saying, “Help Us Reach Our Sustainability Goal,” talk about the benefits your mission has for your employees as individuals. Try benefit statements such as “Switch Up Your Fitness Routine”, “Improve Your Life On-The-Go”, “Explore The Outdoors In New Ways” or similar.

🌊 Flood the airwaves

Launch isn't one email and done. Truly successful launches have truly flooded their company's airwaves. From a takeover of the company intranet, announcements in company-wide newsletters, mentions in executive town hall meetings, and QR codes on office building signage and on break room posters & table tents, it's the combination really drives traffic.

Here are some more communication tactics to consider:

• Email

• Platform Broadcasts

• Internal chat tool post

• Intranet Article

• Videos

• Intranet button and/or banner

• Leader toolkit (FAQ, sample email, leaderboard of registered users by team)

• Ambassador groups

• Desk drops or mailings

• Virtual signage

• Paper signage

• Town hall meetings

• Special Events (Lunch & Learn, volunteer opportunities, speakers)

• Tabling

• Whiteboard/Virtual background takeovers

☘️ Follow the "send 3 emails" rule

Don't just send one launch email, send 3. Programs that send three well-written email communications during the first two weeks of launch outperform programs that send only one. We’ve seen it happen with our customers, and there’s human behavior research that explains why. Research says 63% of people need to see a message 3 to 5 times for it to make an impact (Edelman Trust Barometer).

• The first exposure elicits a “What was it?” response from the reader.