Does your
Digital Communications Platform
have the right stuff?
A MUST-HAVE CHECKLIST If your government-to-stakeholder communications are working flawlessly for your organization, congratulations! But if you feel like your organization could improve how it communicates with the public, but you’re not quite sure how, you may need a digital communications management platform. This checklist may help you determine the most important aspects of an effective Communications platform – and whether your current system has the right stuff to drive mission success.
1
Helps You Build an Audience.
2
Deploys Quickly on the Cloud.
Your goal is to engage with as many citizens and stakeholders as possible, but if you only have one subscriber list – yours – how can you expand your reach? You need a system that amplifies your reach by cross-promoting your content with other government organizations and brings you more subscribers. Boosting subscribers should be seamless with little to no additional work on your part.
Your organization likely doesn’t have the time or resources to build and maintain a robust multichannel digital communications system from scratch, plus you don’t want to partner with a vendor that will take months or years to build something for you. Digital communication platforms that are supported speed deployment to a matter of weeks vs. years. And let’s not forget about the training aspect of a digital communications platform. You should be able to get up to speed on how to use the platform easily, as well as teach others in your organization how to leverage the platform for more meaningful communications.
3
Plays Well with Others.
4
Handles Popular Outbound Communications.
Your digital communications management platform should be flexible enough to deploy rapidly and work within your existing technology infrastructure. Look for a platform with application programming interfaces (APIs) or Web services to more fully integrate with your existing databases.
If you’re using separate systems to send a simple email message about an upcoming event, to develop and distribute an e-newsletter, to create an SMS/text message, and to compose various social media posts, imagine how much time you could save with a multichannel communications platform. A robust digital communications system should be able to do all of this, as well as provide a searchable digital archive of these various messages.
5
Identifies Content and Automatically Pushes it Out for You.
If you or someone in your organization is responsible for communicating with citizens, that’s quite a bit of pressure to place on just one or two people. To alleviate the pressure and risk this creates, look for a digital communications platform that leverages automation to create and distribute messages. As an example, when new website content is posted, your platform should be able to automatically create a message to alert citizens and stakeholders. Simultaneous email, text message and social media posts can be sent automatically or after an administrator approves the message. Not having these capabilities means you’re spending too much time manually gathering and pushing out information, leaving less time to engage with citizens on new and pertinent topics.
6
ffers Data and Reporting O for Actionable Insights. There’s a pretty common saying in private sector marketing: “if it isn’t measured, it isn’t managed.” When you push out your messages, can you tell who has opened them, what content they are most interested in, whether they’ve shared it with others, and other important facts that help you hone and drive better messaging in the future? A system that does this helps you to do your job more effectively, which in turn drives better citizen engagement.
7
Increases Email Deliverability Rate.
8
Built for the Public Sector.
Ask any private or non-profit sector email marketer about their deliverability rates, and you’ll find that simply pushing emails out does not guarantee message delivery. Your digital communications platform should be able to tell you which messages are getting through and guarantee exceptional deliverability rates (higher than 90%). If your platform can’t guarantee delivery of your messages, it’s probably time to look for a new system.
You know how unique the public sector is; your organization is not driven by revenue growth or profits as private sector companies are. If your end goal is based on mission results and not profit, look for a platform that’s built for the public sector. You’re going to want to work on a platform that hundreds of other government organizations have already vetted and are currently using.
While this checklist is nowhere near exhaustive, it is a good starting point for you to begin analyzing whether your government-to-citizen communications system is helping your organization become more effective, efficient and engaging to drive mission impact. Have questions? We’re here to help. GovDelivery can help guide you through a detailed checklist of needs and communication solutions. Contact us at info@govdelivery.com or visit us at govdelivery.com.
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