Kick Start Your Mobile Strategy With Email & Social Media

What’s inside.

Take a look around. Everywhere you turn, people are spending more and more time with their phones, tablets or e-readers. And the number of smartphones being produced has bypassed the number of “dumb” phones made in 2013, according to research firm IDC. That means Internet access, along with a variety of other activities that used to be reserved for computers, is now mobile for millions of people around the world. Is your organization making information available on mobile devices? If not, it’s something you should consider.

This two-part e-book will discuss how your organization can develop a straightforward mobile strategy that allows you to save both time and money, while increasing citizens’ satisfaction by providing them with the information they need, in the way they want to receive it. The first e-book begins with the easiest ways for your organization to meet your move-to-mobile goals; the second e-book concludes with information about innovative mobile technologies for digital communications and how to make your mobile strategy successful.

govdelivery.com or govdelivery.co.uk | info@govdelivery.com | U.S. (866) 276-5583 | U.K. 0800 032 5769

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SECTION 1:

WHY IS MOBILE IMPORTANT?

SMARTPHONES SHIPPED: 216 MILLION Source: IDC Research Report January-March 2013

“DUMB� PHONES SHIPPED: 189 MILLION Source: IDC Research Report January-March 2013

Organizations have moved away from communicating with customers via printed letters in the mail, which is a costly one-way communication process. Instead, private and public sector organizations are engaging their customers to encourage a two-way dialogue using email, text messaging, social media and blogs.

Switching to digital channels appeals to your audience, allowing you to reach more people at once. While digital used to relate solely to desktops, mobile technologies are the future when it comes to communicating.

Mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets and e-readers have transformed the digital world and the way we live. In fact, according to analysts at Morgan Stanley, accessing the Web via mobile devices will be more prevalent than desktop Internet use by 2015.

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SECTION 1 | WHY IS MOBILE IMPORTANT?

Percentage of website traffic coming from mobile devices

35 30 25 20

29.0%

28.0%

31.3%

31.2%

Q4 | 2013

Q1 | 2014

23.9%

15 10 5 0

Q1 | 2013

Q2 | 2013

Q3 | 2013

To remain relevant you have to give your customers – citizens and stakeholders – what they want, when they want it. That means using mobile technologies to get the word out. Mobile technologies provide a way for the digital world to expand even further.

The percentage of website traffic coming from mobile devices jumped from 23.9 percent in the first quarter of 2013 to 31 percent in the first quarter of 2014, according to a new report from Walker Sands. With that number increasing each day, mobile technology is something every government organization must consider adopting.

govdelivery.com or govdelivery.co.uk | info@govdelivery.com | U.S. (866) 276-5583 | U.K. 0800 032 5769

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SECTION 2: EMAIL IS GROWING!

A recent study on digital trends shows that the increase of smartphone users has led to an increase in mobile email: “The mobile email audience for [12-17 and 18-24 year olds] saw double-digit growth in the past year; with mobile email users age 18-24 climbing 32 percent.” This same report found that “41 percent of mobile users accessed email from their device,” compared to 35.3 percent using their phone for social networking.

With new information-sharing tools emerging constantly, email remains the centerpiece of information sharing and communication in the digital age, in part because of the powerful tools that can be used in conjunction with it.

Percentage of smartphone owners engaging in these actions each week: Source: Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism

SEND & RECEIVE EMAIL

80%

GET NEWS

62%

PLAY GAMES

54%

USE SOCIAL MEDIA

62%

SHOP

24%

In a MediaBistro blog post, “Email vs. Social Media Marketing—Which One Deserves Your Dollars?” Shea Bennett wrote, “Email marketing spend increased by 60 percent in 2012, and that’s because email marketing delivered a return on investment (ROI) of 4,000 percent ...”

When MediaBistro did a side-by-side comparison of email and social tools (taking into consideration the benefits, growth, usage, reach and features) email came out on top, especially when it came to commercial use. People have not abandoned their email accounts in favor of social media or texting. They have simply added those tools to their communication channels. And, while the enforced brevity of Twitter’s 140-character limit may prove adequate for some uses, email’s ability to provide more substantial communication remains undimmed.

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SECTION 2 | EMAIL IS GROWING

#1 Segmentation & Assessment Make Email The Popular Choice There are numerous tools that allow you to measure and track the true impact of email communication. Email platforms with robust functionality allow distribution lists to be compiled easily (often by allowing people to sign up themselves) and then segmented to target specific audience interests. Many public sector agencies are allowing topical subscriptions so people can choose which topics they want to be kept informed about, based on their interests.

If your organization lacks the ability to set up a service such as this, you can work with a partner, like GovDelivery, to do it for you. This kind of robust platform also allows organizations to further segment their audiences based on factors such as location, interests and more. Self-selection empowers citizens or stakeholders to tell you what topics are of interest to them.

Combining mobile email with tools such as the GovDelivery Communications Cloud provides organizations with a powerful execution strategy to effectively communicate with audiences and measure the impact of email outreach efforts.

Finally, organizations that use email to communicate with their respective audiences also have several tangible ways to gauge how successful their communications are by: Testing the subject line and “from� line variants against each other, to definitively see whether recipients respond to certain messaging Monitoring engagement with their messages (how many users open and click in individual messages over time) Tracking delivery rates

govdelivery.com or govdelivery.co.uk | info@govdelivery.com | U.S. (866) 276-5583 | U.K. 0800 032 5769

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SECTION 3:

MAKING SOCIAL MEDIA & TEXT MESSAGING KEY PARTS OF YOUR MOBILE STRATEGY

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Depending on your goals, email, social media and text messaging all work collaboratively when it comes to your mobile strategy. Social networks offer government organizations an inexpensive way to reach people and foster content sharing. Text messaging gives an opportunity for organizations to immediately communicate with stakeholders or ask for direct feedback. Both channels engage people where they’re already actively using mobile technology.

Social media and text messaging are both “places” in the mobile world where your audience is congregating. Almost all social networking sites have mobile apps that are used constantly. Facebook’s mobile app was the most downloaded in 2012, and a study by comScore also reports that 64.2 million U.S. citizens use their mobile devices for social networking and more than half of them are doing this daily. However, while your audience may be active on these social networks, they may not be aware of your organization’s social profiles posts. New data shows that algorithm changes in sites like Facebook favor paid updates, resulting in a significant drop in engagement and effectiveness of organizations’ social media messages. On average, an organization’s Facebook post will only reach 16% of its audience.

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SECTION 3 | MAKING SOCIAL MEDIA & TEXT MESSAGING KEY PARTS OF YOUR MOBILE STRATEGY

Text messaging is a highly used channel where direct communication with your stakeholders is easily attained. In an infographic released by Text Sprout, an estimated 96% of smartphone users utilize SMS/text messaging and read 98% of their text messages. On top of that, according to the infographic, the average person is also looking at his/her phone 150 times per day. There is real opportunity for the public sector to use text messaging to engage subscribers and deliver important communications immediately.

With new social networks popping up every day, don’t feel pressured to jump on the latest tool immediately. Your government organization should examine where new social networks fit into your communications strategy and if those networks can truly connect with the audiences you want to reach. Also look at how new networks align with more measurable and engaging channels like email and text messaging. By aligning channels with your overall strategy, you can better integrate to promote all your various communication channels.

Finally, let your citizens know where they can reach you. By including social icons and links or “text-to-subscribe” information on your organization’s websites, emails, press releases, and other communications, it will be easier for citizens to keep up to date with your important information.

govdelivery.com or govdelivery.co.uk | info@govdelivery.com | U.S. (866) 276-5583 | U.K. 0800 032 5769

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SECTION 4:

MAKING A SUCCESSFUL MOVE TO MOBILE CHANNELS Developing the digital channels we have talked about here is a big part of the mobile transition. Be sure to also have a plan to promote and measure your efforts; otherwise the considerable resources used to develop them will be wasted.

Learn from Others

These tips have been compiled from GovDelivery’s work with innovative government clients that are using effective digital promotion to increase outreach and stakeholder engagement with their mobile communication efforts.

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Promote online and offline. Use every available means to promote the different ways that citizens can engage with you and find your organization’s information. For instance, why not promote email subscriptions or social media channels on your off-hours phone message, telephone helpdesk, website and in all printed materials or flyers?

Here are a few more promotion examples:

!

Leverage in-person meetings: The IRS tells people to check the status of their tax returns on its app, IRS2Go – and asks accountants to tell their clients with mobile phones to use the app too. Make sure to also use in-person meetings to inform stakeholders about all of the ways they can sign up for information from you, including text messaging, email and social media.

Create takeaway promotional items: Create business cards or postcards that promote your app or gives instructions on how to text to subscribe for message updates. Leave the cards in your organization’s front desk for visitors or hand them out at community events.

Post advertisements: Some government organizations advertise with local stores that align with their organizational mission. For example, Michigan DNR placed an ad in a hunting and fishing store’s weekly ad to promote sign-ups to its app.

Consider where you have relevant touch points with stakeholders and promote your content or text-to-subscribe instructions while you have a captive audience.

Promote online: Include apps and text-to-subscribe information as footer promotions in emails, post links through your social media accounts, to drive increased app downloads and text message sign-ups.

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SECTION 4 | MAKING A SUCCESSFUL MOVE TO MOBILE CHANNELS

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Explain the benefits of engaging with your organization. Ensure subscriber benefits are made crystal clear. The benefits of any service you offer must appeal to your audience and their needs. For example, telling people how to avoid being towed during a snow emergency would definitely be viewed as a benefit to citizens.

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Measure success. You can’t keep improving your mobile strategy if you don’t measure its impact. As you launch a text messaging program or mobile app, don’t forget to keep track of your analytics. Start by thinking about the metrics that you will use to measure your success by before launching the service, and then track those numbers.

For both text messaging programs and app development, make sure to track the growth of your text subscribers or app downloads as you promote the services so that you can measure how mobile is driving engagement with the wider organization. For text messaging campaigns, keep a close eye on your delivery success rate to ensure your stakeholders are receiving your text messages. With a well thought-out measurement process, you are better positioned to execute a successful move to mobile.

govdelivery.com or govdelivery.co.uk | info@govdelivery.com | U.S. (866) 276-5583 | U.K. 0800 032 5769

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Conclusion.

This e-book has illustrated the importance of not only having a mobile strategy but the wide range of possibilities in delivering your organization’s communications through mobile e-mail, text message and social media apps.

It’s clear that the public expects digital communications, from private companies as well as public sector organizations. To continue improving the effectiveness and impact of your organization’s communications, exploring and implementing a mobile communications strategy is important.

As your organization continues its strategy to transition to mobile technology, we believe the second part of this e-book, The Cutting Edge of Mobile, will offer additional ideas regarding more advanced mobile technologies that your organization can add to further increase your reach and drive mission value.

For more on implementing a mobile communications strategy, contact us at info@govdelivery.com to find out why thousands of public sector organizations trust GovDelivery to help them reach more people, deliver billions of messages, and get their stakeholders to take action and engage with their communications.

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govdelivery.com or govdelivery.co.uk | info@govdelivery.com | U.S. (866) 276-5583 | U.K. 0800 032 5769