What's Next in Digital Communications

WHAT’S NEXT

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Email is Foundational …………………………………………………… 4

Mobile is Growing ………………………………………………………… 8

Leverage Technology …………………………………………………… 11

There Are More and More Ways to Communicate ……………… 14

Connecting with Your Audience is Easier ………………………… 17

Conclusion ………………………………………………………………… 20

About GovDelivery ……………………………………………………… 21

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With more than 1,000 clients globally, GovDelivery has partnered with public sector clients for over a decade. This gives us a unique position to witness the growth and development of digital communications in government, to curate a wealth of best practices along the way, and to look ahead at how technological advancements may change public sector communications. This e-book identifies key trends in digital communications that we are seeing with tips for making the most out of these trends.

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Email is Foundational

EMAIL IS THE COMMUNICATIONS

KING

If you think about how many different channels you receive communications from, you know there are a multitude of channels by which to communicate digitally: social media, SMS/text messaging, blogs, email, and more. With the popularity of Facebook and Twitter, many suggest that social media is the key to a great communications strategy and the first place to start. While social media does have an important place and purpose, the numbers show a different story: Email is the communications king. When you compare email’s user base to various social media outlets, email represents a digital empire with 3.2 billion users worldwide (versus 1 billion Facebook users and 500 million Twitter users).

According to a study by PEW Research, 94% of adults online leverage email. With such a large and powerful user base, email is an essential foundation and should be the core of any digital communications strategy.

While communication options are broadening, email remains the number one way to reach the broadest audience with personalized and archiveable content.

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According to a study by PEW Research, 94% of adults online leverage email.

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94%

And while social media is in fact playing an increasing role in digital communications, it’s important to recognize that there isn’t a replacement phenomena happening.

People are using more technology in general; being more social, more digital and more mobile. While communication options are broadening, email remains the number one wayto reach the broadest audience with personalized and archiveable content. Public sector organizations have a responsibility to keep constituents informed and share crucial information. It’s important for government organizations to reach the greatest number of people, and email is a critical way to do that.

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Email Tips:

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2012: 43% of emails were read on mobile devices.

Just as it’s important to recognize the powerful nature of email, it’s also important to recognize how email is being accessed and used. In 2012, 43% of emails were read on mobile devices, and it’s predicted that by 2017, that number will increase to 78%. This dramatic increase of email use on mobile devices is important to keep in mind when designing emails.

Designed to be used on-the-go, mobile devices are small. Mobile emails will shrink down more than it would on a desktop. GovDelivery suggests three ways to keep your emails simple and readable, both on and off a mobile device.

1) Make your calls to action prominent.

78%

Think of the finger as the new mouse. If you want your reader to act on your email, make it easy and user friendly.

2) Entice the reader to click through for more information.

2017: Predicted that 78% of emails will be read on mobile devices.

Keep your content clean and concise. Most subscribers won’t spend 20 minutes reading a lengthy newsletter. Make sure to keep things short and to the point, but include a link to your website for readers to see the rest of the story

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3) D on’t Copy & Paste from a word processing program.

Most word processing programs (such as Microsoft Word) will actually insert a lot of unnecessary, and unseen, code into an HTML email if you cut and paste it into your email software. Oftentimes, this will cause your email to look strange, and you won’t know why.

A better solution for cutting and pasting is to paste your text into a basic text editor such as Notepad or the code portion of Dreamweaver. Then copy from that text editor and paste into your email solution. Taking this extra step will strip out unwanted code and make your emails display better in the various email clients.

The Department of Labor practices all three of these tips and provides a great example of how to keep your emails simple.

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Mobile is Growing With 78% of emails predicted to be read on mobile devices in the coming years, it’s hard to ignore the growing shift toward mobile. Digital communication continues to be transformed as the development of mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets and e-readers increase.

In fact, according to analysts at Morgan Stanley mobile web use is projected to grow bigger than desktop internet use by 2015.

With mobile traffic making up 13% of all global web traffic, we begin to communicate, read, and ultimately rely more on our mobile devices. It’s important for government agencies to acknowledge and adapt to their audience’s changing preferences. Mobile technologies offer a new set of digital transactions, allowing even more information to be accessed digitally.

Social media and email top the list as the most popular activities on mobile devices. In order to reach more of their audience conveniently, it is imperative that government organizations begin taking steps to move their communications in a more mobile direction.

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Mobile Tips: There are many ways organizations can make their information mobile friendly. While some options, such as mobile applications, can be time consuming and costly to develop, there are simpler ways to start meeting your audience’s mobile needs.

1) Optimizing email for mobile devices.

We’ve said it before, email is a huge component of digital communications. At the heart of a digital communications strategy, it’s important to produce functional and purposeful emails. There are a variety of ways to make your emails work for mobile; and while they’re all helpful and important, the use of a scalable system is the most noteworthy.

Scalable design is a key consideration for both e-mail and mobile developments, especially if your organization is creating its own HTML or newsletter content. Scalable design is an email layout that when reduced to half its size (such as on a phone or tablet) remains 100% readable and clickable. Scalable design principles use a single column layout and grid system for alignment and proportion. While not all systems allow for this, there are other simple tricks that can be adapted to design emails in a scalable manner.

2) Optimizing websites for mobile devices.

The trend towards mobile extends beyond mobile applications and email. It includes the internet as a whole, which means you also need to think about how your website looks on a mobile device.

Responsive design allows your website to become mobile user-friendly by providing the user an optimal viewing experience across a wide array of mobile devices. A responsive website is designed to automatically scale and proportionately adjust images and text for whatever device it is being viewed on, from desktops to smartphones. By designing your website to be responsive, individuals are able to easily view your website and retrieve important information in a readable and enjoyable manner. For more detail on responsive design and exactly how it works, check out Responsive Design: The Future is Here.

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The most important thing to remember when working toward mobile optimization and integration is to test, test, and then test some more.

With such a variety of mobile devices, platforms and carriers, it’s important to test your mobile efforts on an array of devices to ensure you’re achieving the best mobile experience possible for the largest audience. Before officially launching your mobile efforts, be sure to send test emails and download your mobile app onto a variety of devices and platforms to see exactly how they look and operate on each one – each experience can be completely different. If there are any issues that arise in the testing phase, you can resolve them before your audience sees the content.

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Leverage Technology Budgets are decreasing, and the only way to “do more with less� is to do things differently. Organizations utilize a wide variety of tools: content management systems, internal databases with stakeholder information, intranets, and outbound communication platforms.

Having to bounce back and forth between these systems and tools on a daily basis can be time consuming and challenging. Thankfully, technology advancements now allow organizations to leverage the power of integrations by connecting their systems to automate daily tasks and enhance the technologies they are already using.

Leveraging these connections makes it easier to do your job and to capture a bigger audience.

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Integration Tips: Transactional Messaging: Integrations and automations don’t just increase efficiencies. They also provide cost savings throughout an organization. The biggest returns stemming from leveraging these integrations is in transactional messaging. Transactional messaging encompasses a wide range of government communications and involves some sort of transaction between an agency and a stakeholder. A simple example of this in action is property tax statements. Usually tax information is emailed to the citizen or business with a paper statement for payment if that’s required. Because of the very specific information contained in the statement, it’s been easier for organizations to collate this information, print it, and then mail it. But that takes time and the associated printing costs add up quickly. With transactional messages, these tax statements could be sent out digitally to their intended recipients. Recipients then receive digital tax statements and can fill it out and send it back instantly. It’s more convenient for them and more efficient for you.

Paper-based processes are a part of nearly every organization, and with advancing technology they don’t necessarily have to be. Take a second to think about all the types of communications that are sent to your stakeholders via postal mail: property tax notices, license renewals and legal rulings make up just a few. These paper-based processes are often bottle-necks within an organization, slowing down payment processes and reducing efficiency. By moving these forms and interactions online to a digital format, your organization can recognize substantial savings. In turn, this information is made available in real time, all the time – a huge convenience to your audience. For more details on transactional messaging and exactly how it works, check out this whitepaper: Cutting the Costs of Paper: Digital Delivery of Government Messages & Statements.

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APIs (Application Programming Interfaces): If you haven’t heard of APIs yet, you’re going to want to read this section carefully. APIs are playing an increasing role in the technology world, especially in digital communications.

APIs help specify and automate how various software components interact with one another. APIs specify a set of functions that accomplish a specific task or interaction by engaging with another software component. While this process may seem a little complicated, APIs are a huge component in integrations and an extremely powerful tool when leveraged correctly.

The tax-statement example from the transactional messaging section is a great way to demonstrate what APIs are and how they work. Sending tax statements digitally sounds great in theory, but each one requires a great deal of personalization. Before APIs, your alternative to paper-processing was to implement or install an enterprise system, which is typically large and challenging to manage. Today, organizations can keep legacy, financial or citizen relationship management systems intact by connecting with APIs. An API simply pulls in the personalized information housed within each system, applies it to the universal tax statement template and then sends the digital, personalized tax statement out digitally. All that’s required is a few clicks of the mouse.

APIs can do a variety of things from facilitating transactional messages like the tax statement above or pushing a feed from a web portal or database directly out to applications that deliver content to subscribers. APIs allow messages to be shared on a variety of digital channels—Facebook, Twitter, SMS and email—at one time, rather than having to be shared individually over and over again.

By leveraging technology like transactional messaging systems and APIs, you can maximize your resources, getting more work done with less effort and expense.

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There Are More and More Ways to Communicate Today there are more ways to communicate digitally than ever before.

Email, texting, video chatting and a variety of social media platforms all contribute to the massive ecosystem that is digital communications. Each of these channels has its own audience, strengths and weaknesses, but together they make communicating and building an audience easier than ever before.

The idea of managing multiple communication channels may seem time consuming and overwhelming, but it’s a necessity for getting your message seen and heard. Just posting to one or two channels won’t guarantee that your message will be seen by your followers or fans. In fact, statistics show that those who “like” your Facebook page will see less than 20% of the content you’re posting, making it critical to broadcast your messages to cover more than just social media channels.

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Managing multiple communications channels can be simplified and executed in an efficient manner by following a few simple tips.

Multichannel Tips: 1) Promote a multichannel mindset.

As we’ve mentioned before, pushing your message out to one channel, even one with a large audience, won’t guarantee that your message will be received. People are digitally engaged on multiple platforms, checking them at a variety of times and in a variety of places. Taking a multichannel approach and pushing your information out everywhere ensures that your message receives greater visibility by reaching your audience where they are: where they live, work and play. Alongside email, social media is a great way to do this. Social media provides a space to work with other people to communicate and solve problems.

2) Cross Promote.

Cross promoting is a great way to dramatically increase your audience. Cross promoting allows individuals to visit other websites or receive information from sources they may not have otherwise. The best time for organizations to cross promote is when an individual subscribes to a particular resource, like a newsletter, blog or emergency notification. As individuals enter their information, offer them the opportunity to simultaneously sign up for other resources from a variety of logical partners with similar services, close locations and public service opportunities (flu shots, tax forms, etc.). Cross promoting is a huge opportunity for public sector organizations to drastically increase their reach.

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3) C reate Once, Publish Everywhere (C.O.P.E.). aking a multichannel approach doesn’t mean you have to T create new content everyday for every channel. By taking content and pushing it out to every channel you and your audience engage in, you have a much higher chance of getting your message delivered successfully and reaching the broadest audience possible.

StopBullying.gov does a great job of repurposing its content and ensuring its message is seen by the greatest number of people possible. The organization begins with publishing information on its website, then repurposes the content and pushes it through various digital communication channels: an email bulletin, a Facebook post, a tweet and an SMS message.

4) U se consistent messaging across platforms.

While using multiple communication channels is key to getting your message out, it’s equally important that your message stays consistent. Because online channels are driving maximum reach, we are seeing more and more organizations move their interactions online. However, a lack of consistency across communication platforms can lead to confusion and frustration for your audience, ultimately limiting your engagement and success.

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Connecting with Your Audience is Easier with Digital Communications In the public sector, you have an obligation to inform the public. Informing your audience can take on a variety of forms and tones, but connecting with your constituents on a personal and emotional level yields the best results. Recently, we have watched a trend where public sector communicators become storytellers to issue more than just a statement or piece of news.

Storytelling elicits an emotional response and allows your audience to feel more connected to you and your message. Moreover, it’s the emotional stuff that gets shared on social media. People want to know what’s happening and if you can engage with them on an emotional level. Establishing an emotional connection helps move the needle on citizen satisfaction.

We often hear from public sector communicators that storytelling can be hard and time consuming. However, by focusing on a few key elements storytelling can be both simple and impactful.

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Storytelling Tips: There are a few key elements that help formulate a compelling story.

1) Provide short, engaging news.

People don’t want to read long, drawn out stories about events. Your audience wants to receive the most information in the shortest format in the smallest amount of time.

Engage your audience with compelling key points and keep it brief.

2) Give the inside scoop.

Your audience wants to feel in the know. Don’t just tell them that something happened, tell them why something happened or how and why it’s being handled a certain way. For example, if citizens are upset something isn’t happening, take it as an opportunity to engage and share what’s going on behind the curtain. Explain the situation, “budgets have been cut and money was used to fill the potholes on 1st street, therefore we can’t afford [fill in the blank] this year.” Citizens don’t always know what’s happening inside the walls of your organization, so it’s important to keep them informed in an effort to keep everyone satisfied.

3) E stablish a connection.

Storytelling isn’t just about getting information to your audience. It’s about connecting with your audience and engaging with them. By appealing to your citizens in an emotional way, you can establish a connection and foster more meaningful interactions, ultimately driving engagement with your organization’s mission.

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The National Guard Bureau tells stories to communicate with its stakeholders. After the tragedy during the Boston Marathon this past spring, the National Guard Bureau kept people involved through its website, Facebook and email blasts. Instead of just saying: “The national guard is responding to the Boston bombings,� the agency provided detailed, emotionally filled language and pictures. They told a story and connected with the audience on a personal level, creating a lasting impression and fostering even more engagement.

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Conclusion Digital communication is growing and changing everywhere, especially in the government. As public sector informants, it’s crucial to communicate effectively and efficiently; but doing this doesn’t have to be a time-consuming, challenging endeavor. By acknowledging and adapting to the emerging trends in communications, government organizations can foster engagement, expand their reach and meet their mission goals with less effort and expense.

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About GovDelivery GovDelivery, the leading provider of government-to-stakeholder communications solutions, can help your organization meet its digital communications challenges head-on.

With a massively scalable communications ecosystem built for the public sector to meet mission-critical goals, GovDelivery offers unique, cost-effective ways to communicate a variety of information, including critical information on Exchanges, that can help government organizations drive online and offline action.

We understand the unique goals, challenges and concerns of government organizations, from building an audience of diverse stakeholders that can be easily managed to communicating with them in the ways they prefer to providing automation capabilities that make your communications staff more effective and efficient. For more information about GovDelivery, visit govdelivery.com.