GovLoop Sponsorship Best Practices Guide

GovLoop Sponsorship

Best Practices Guide

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Contents Welcome 4 Best Practices for...

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Editorial Guides

10 E-books 12

Pocket Guides

14 Webinars 16

Virtual Summits

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Roundtable Discussions

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Research Briefs

22

Market Trends Reports

24 Infographics 26

GovLoop Academy

28

Paid Social

29

Sponsoring a Newsletter

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Blogging on GovLoop.com

31

Custom Worksheets 3

Welcome Welcome to the GovLoop Sponsorship Best Practices Guide.

This guide is the result of feedback we’ve received from our marketing partners as well as community insights. We recognize and appreciate the marketing investments you make in GovLoop and want to ensure we offer the highest level of customer service in delivering a successful program. The contents of this guide offer suggestions to increase engagement with the GovLoop community and optimize your results on the various programs GovLoop offers.

No one knows your company, products and services better than you. It is our hope that this guide combines your knowledge with our best practices to ensure every engagement on GovLoop contributes to your public sector growth.

As always, the GovLoop team is here to consult, collaborate and customize our programs to help deliver your message to our government community.

Thank you for all of your support,

The GovLoop Team

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The GovLoop Platform The GovLoop platform delivers an engaged community of government professionals. The platform provides resources to help government professionals do their jobs better.

With the GovLoop Platform you can: • Access 300,000 federal, state and local government professionals who are looking to get smart on technology • Develop programs to educate our community on how your solutions solve government challenges • Measure your reach and the engagement of your marketing program • Gain insight by leveraging the GovLoop team for community knowledge, market data and new opportunities To help meet our clients’ marketing goals, we have designed our programs to be a mix of thought leadership, lead generation and brand awareness. Each program has a unique value but can be organized into three categories: Editorial Content, Custom Content and Events and Training.

Editorial Content

Custom Content

Events & Training

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Best Practices For

Editorial Guides The GovLoop editorial guide is a multi-sponsored resource designed to help government employees do their jobs better. Guides include notable interviews from thought leaders at different levels of government and provide a high-level overview of an important topic. The GovLoop editorial team uses interviews with government officials and feedback from our community and industry partners to create content for the guides.

A large part of what makes a GovLoop guide successful is the involvement from industry partners. The GovLoop guide provides an avenue for private sector organizations to highlight themselves as thought leaders alongside government. Now more than ever, decision-makers and influencers alike are looking to make informed decisions at all stages of the buying process. Your sponsorship includes a subject matter expert interview and one-page ad in the guide.

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Our recommendations: 1. Set clear objectives.

Guide topics are intentionally broad so you can choose the focus area that is most important to your company. Think through what you want the reader to know about your company after reading your interview, and share with us three or four clear main takeaways to help tell that story.

2. Highlight your experiences.

Use the thought leadership interview to highlight your government experience. Share recent successes, discuss some of the public sector challenges you helped clients solve, and highlight your executive team’s public sector thought leadership. The GovLoop audience is very eager to hear case studies and relevant examples.

3. Make use of your digital ad.

Use your ad as an opportunity to drive clicks to a specific landing page(s). While the ad is a good branding opportunity, it can also serve as a traffic driver to key resources on your site.

4. Nurture leads.

Use the leads generated from the guide as an indicator that the registrants are interested in the topic. The most effective form of followup is to provide them relevant content, such as a white paper or webinar invite. An immediate telemarketing call may not yield the best results.

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Bonus Sponsorships: Talking Transformation: There is also the opportunity to participate in a 30-minute show called “Talking Transformation.”

This show leverages an editorial guide topic and features interviews from government and industry leaders. Francis Rose interviews your thought leader and the segment is five minutes in length. In addition to great brand awareness, you receive the edited version along with the full 30-minute show files to use for your own marketing efforts.

The final commercial airs in a fixed spot on “Government Matters” for one week, and you also get a dedicated microsite on GovMattersTV.

In-Brief: Sole sponsored in-briefs leverage content already created in an editorial guide on the same topic. In a PDF slide format, the information is presented in a more consumable way for the government community. It is your “get smart quick” resource and a good resource to share with colleagues. It’s promoted via a toolkit, which consists of a few resources pertaining to the topic, including two resources from your company.

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Best Practices For

E-books Sole-sponsored, editorial e-books are designed to be an authoritative overview of a particular topic. The e-book contains the latest information and landscape on the topic; interviews with two government experts on the topic; and a worksheet with next steps, tips and statistics showing how an agency or department can deploy the technology to better meet their mission and support the public.

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Our recommendations: 1. Choose the right topic.

E-books are more niche than GovLoop editorial guides. This is your opportunity to dive deeper into a topic. Work with the GovLoop editorial team on a topic that is both popular in government but also niche to your company.

2. Have a clear main takeaway in your interview.

The e-book sponsorship includes a one-page (400 to 450 word) write-up. Use this to share with the community how you are helping government agencies. Have a specific takeaway in mind and ensure that this takeaway is emphasized in the piece. Consider if readers only walk away knowing one thing, what is it?

3. Use promotional materials to share with your customers.

GovLoop will provide a promotional bundle for you, including 50 hard copies of the e-book, the digital version of the e-book, sample tweets, an HTML email and an additional blog post promoting your interview writeup. Use these and share with your internal team and current and future customers!

4. Nurture leads.

Use the leads generated from the guide as an indicator that the registrant is interested in the niche topic. The most effective form of follow-up is to provide them relevant content, such as a white paper or webinar invite.

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Best Practices For

Pocket Guides

Pocket guides are meant to break down the who/what/ when/why/how of a specific topic in government.

The GovLoop editorial team develops the majority of the content, but with your recommendations and collaboration. The goal of this resource is to provide a wide-ranging government audience with a “get smart quick” resource that is consumable and relevant.

Pocket guides are often a bit more niche than a standard GovLoop guide, and as a sole sponsor, you’re given the opportunity to have more input into the topic.

Your sponsorship includes the opportunity to share topic ideas for the guide, an interview with your thought leader(s), one digital ad page and the option to write a foreword. We also take your case studies into consideration.

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Our recommendations: 1. Define the goal: First things first, what is the goal of this pocket guide for your company?

Is it to educate the government audience on a new topic? Is it for brand awareness? Do you want to share case studies of how you’re helping the public sector? Whatever the goal is, be sure to set it early and share it with us.

2. Write the foreword: In addition to your spotlight interview, you can highlight another thought leader through the foreword. This is a 500-word piece written by your team that opens the guide. It is your chance to share your goal for the pocket guide, discuss the challenges you see in government and how you help overcome those challenges and increase brand awareness.

There is no reason not to include it!

3. Provide customer examples and how-tos: As mentioned throughout this guide, the government audience wants how-tos and government case studies. We can feature two or three of your government customers within the guide, even conducting additional interviews. We can also include any best practices or howtos your team has.

4. Share additional resources: The pocket guide process is collaborative in nature. The more resources and ideas you share with us up front, the more we can include them in the guide.

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Best Practices For

Webinars Here at GovLoop, we call our webinars “online trainings.�

Our goal is to educate our government audience and share best practices through government-specific case studies on a wide variety of topics ranging from big data and cloud to project management.

Webinars are a great way to educate the government community on your company, position yourselves as industry thought leaders, and reach a new, influential audience. Using the On24 platform, audience members are able to ask questions, download resources, and share thoughts directly on social media. This gives you the opportunity to expand your reach even further and educate leads beyond the 60-minute webinar.

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Our recommendations: 1. Start early: Timing is everything, and this is especially true when it comes to choosing speakers and promoting the webinar. Although the date is chosen in advance, the webinar process is about six weeks. At four weeks, the registration page is live on the site and speaker outreach in process. Content and platform walk-through calls will be scheduled at least one week in advance.

2. Find the right topic: Not all topics are created equal, but there is an interesting and fresh way to approach almost any topic. The most successful webinars have a catchy title, offer tangible tips or takeaways, present a challenge (and then solutions), and are centered around specific government examples.

Depending on the topic, you may want your webinar to be broader or more targeted. This conversation should happen early in the process with your subject matter experts and GovLoop team.

3. Book great speakers: Speakers can make or break a webinar. In terms of choosing your speaker, start early and lock the date on their calendar. The best industry speakers know the government market and topic well, are engaging and can provide customer stories or examples. While you want to share your company’s story, it’s best to do this with a soft-sell, using examples as your main selling point. In terms of government speakers, we prioritize your customers or recommendations. The best government speakers can talk about a topic at a high-level, but also provide the details from an end-user perspective.

4. Interact with the audience and follow up: There are several ways to interact with the audience on the webinar; take advantage of them all! On the console, there is a resource section where you can include white papers, external links and more. White papers tend to perform the best. You can also survey the audience through interactive polls to better understand their needs. Most importantly, it’s best to reserve 10 minutes for audience Q&A during every webinar.

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Best Practices For

Virtual Summits Virtual summits aren’t necessarily new, but they are often not designed with the information needs and engagement patterns of the government community.

GovLoop has done a number of virtual summits that educate government employees on a number of topics — all in a single day and all online.

Virtual summits are popular with the GovLoop community as they look to learn about new topics, chat with peers and industry experts, and download resources for future learning.

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Our recommendations: 1. Properly set up your booth: Similar to an in-person event, you can have a virtual exhibit booth within the virtual summit. You can customize your booth with your company’s colors, logo and even include a welcome video. Be sure to include plenty of resources, particularly thought leadership pieces and customer stories. You can structure your content by topic (cloud, big data etc.) or by content type (white papers, case studies, etc.). You should include an “about us” company description and link back to your website.

Remember, there is such a thing as too much content. Fifteen to 20 resources is usually best.

2. Get trained: If you’ve participated in a virtual summit before, great! If not, don’t worry because there are plenty of training opportunities. GovLoop will set up a training session to ensure everyone understands how to log in, use the backend of the platform, and navigate the virtual environment. Not everyone from your company needs to participate in the training, but at least one person should know the ins and outs. Be sure to ask questions along the way. GovLoop is happy to help set up your booth or provide answers.

3. Use day-of interaction: Virtual summits are a great time for networking, especially for the government audience. But keep in mind, most people will silently observe and download resources without sending a message. For this reason, work out a schedule so only one person is in the booth at a time — and have them multi-task. This way, if people want to ask questions, someone is there, but your employees aren’t dedicating their entire day to the virtual booth. Also, don’t be afraid to leave your booth. Visit other areas of the virtual environment, especially the Networking Hall, to connect with govies and your peers.

4. Make the most of your webinar: If you are also sponsoring a webinar in the virtual summit, please see the “webinar best practices” section. The only difference is the webinar is 50 minutes, and we offer continuing professional education (CPE) credits.

The good news is you can leverage content from your exhibit booth for the webinar and vice versa.

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Best Practices For

Roundtable Discussions Roundtables are small (20-person) interactive breakfast discussions designed to give government employees the opportunity to discuss a current topic or challenge they are facing. A GovLoop moderator, one or two government experts and a company SME sit alongside attendees to discuss a current trend or challenge, what it means, why it matters and the solutions or best practices to overcome the challenge.

Roundtables are educational and meant to be highly interactive. They are a great opportunity to hear directly from government employees

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Our recommendations: 1. Get familiar with the registration list: The full list of registrants will be provided in advance of the live day and one day after the event. With this information, you can easily see who is planning to attend as well as the list of who actually did attend.

We encourage you to familiarize yourself with those who are registered and strategically seek them out once on-site. Getting to know them on-site tends to provide more value than a pre-event email or phone call. If registrants were unable to attend, they will obtain a resource email from GovLoop with information about all the presentations that occurred on-site, including yours.

2. Topic, topic, topic: The value of a roundtable is hearing first-hand what government employees think of a specific topic or technology trends, as well as the challenges they have. When choosing a topic, think through what market research your company is looking for, what other events are occurring and what topic would lend itself well to a robust conversation.

3. Determine your thought leader: As discussed earlier in this guide, government employees love case studies. They want to know how you’ve helped government in the past, and how you can help them in the future. Your seat at the table is very valuable. The more you highlight your expertise on the topic and that you understand the challenges government employees face, the better the conversation will go.

The person representing your company should exude knowledge, excite participants and connect with the audience. Given roundtables are interactive and not a straight presentation, we encourage folks to choose thought leaders who are comfortable in a more intimate setting and answering questions.

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Best Practices For

Research Briefs GovLoop research briefs are a great opportunity to align your company’s thought leadership and experience to a GovLoop community survey. The survey is a quick, 10-12 question survey meant to gauge community sentiment on a particular topic. The final design research briefs are 12-16 pages in length and feature both the government and industry perspectives on a relevant topic in government. They often include a customer case study as part of the solution to the challenges named in the survey.

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Our recommendations: 1. Have a firm survey strategy: The purpose of the survey is to gauge community sentiment. It is not meant to be an in-depth research project. The survey consists of 10-12 short and succinct multiple choice and write-in questions. Your survey strategy should focus on discovering the key themes or challenges facing government and properly set up your thought leadership interview as well as the rest of the research brief.

2. Do smart thought leadership interviews: Use the interview opportunity to highlight public sector experience and use cases to tell your story. Avoid sales and marketing pitches, as the audience is looking to learn more about your public sector experience.

The interview is also an effective way of highlighting a subject matter expert within your company. It’s best to conduct the interview after the survey results have been collected so these results can be discussed in the actual interview.

3. Continue to leverage the research brief: The GovLoop research brief is a quality piece of content that can be used for press releases, event collateral and webinars. In addition, we are more than willing to have the author available to speak at your event or webinar if you want to highlight the content.

4. Use the survey data elsewhere: The community survey is valuable information that you should leverage in other programs. Whether it be via a webinar, infographic or in-person event, use the survey data to better highlight challenges or pain points in government and how your company can help.

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Best Practices For

Market Trends Reports Market trends reports are the perfect opportunity to align your company to a particular challenge in government or tech trend. Each market trends report contains relevant data points and ends with best practice tips from the GovLoop editorial team. The bulk of the report highlights a specific challenge in government and best practice solutions to overcome that challenge. Within a specific section, you can share how your company’s expertise and technology is helping government overcome these challenges. We recommend including case studies.

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Our recommendations: 1. Come up with a game plan: Given market trends reports are not long (8 pages), it’s important to focus your paper on a specific topic. Rather than writing about analytics broadly, what specifically about analytics do you want to say? Think about the target audience and what the purpose of the paper is. Do you want to share your thought leadership on a new topic in the market? Is this purely for collateral? Do you want to highlight a government case study? Thinking of these questions in advance will help focus your report to ensure you are maximizing its value.

2. Share relevant stats and best practices: Market trends reports are visual and clearly set up a challenge in government and offer both best practices as well as product/services solutions. The GovLoop editorial team creates the bulk of the stat and best practice content, but you can share relevant information for consideration.

3. Lead with thought leadership: Market trends reports are the ultimate thought leadership piece. The majority of the content is educational. Your thought leader should share what a challenge in government is and why it matters today. You should also share from a high-level perspective how technology can help. Within a particular section, there is the opportunity to discuss a certain product or service. Take advantage of this section and leave the remaining sections educational content.

4. Figure out next steps: Like we mention above, determining the main purpose of your market trends report is an essential first step. Just as important is coming up with next steps — for both the reader and your company. For the reader, are there questions they should take back to their boss or peers? Do you have a checklist of things to consider? These next steps are an important piece to engage readers so they are not left thinking, “So what?”

For your company, are you printing the market trends report or sharing it internally? Are there other resources you want readers to click on to learn more about your solutions? How do you continue the conversation in a meaningful way? The more you think about this upfront, the better.

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Best Practices For

Infographics Infographics tell a story through graphically infused information, data and research. Complimenting text with graphics, this method takes a complex topic and makes it easier to understand. Plus, they can be fun!

If a “picture is worth a thousand words,� then an infographic can be exponentially more powerful.

Tackling the Most Common Project Management Hurdles

PLANNING

So many projects: so much that could go wrong.

sector, most projects are twice as likely to be late, over budget and lack critical features. Causes of

39%

64%

45%

of projects actually succeed (delivered on time within budget).

(PMI 2015)

of projects meet their goals.

(Chaos Report 2013)

Average large IT project runs 45% over budget, 7% past deadline, and deliver 56% less value than expected.

(PMI 2015)

Challenges

In the public and private

RESOURCING

Solutions

1 Scope creep with overly optimistic timelines and goals lead to cost and time overrun and, often, project failure.

7% 56%

Challenges

$109 million

Organizations lose $109 million for every $1 billion invested in projects and programs.

(PMI 2014)

Those who will actually perform the work are excluded from estimating process.

56% of $75 million at risk in project management due to ineffective communications.

(PMI 2013)

1 4

33%

organizations can be described as highly effective communicators.

(University of Ottawa)

of projects fail because of a lack of involvement from senior management.

(PMI 2013)

in

Solutions

Challenges

Solutions

Include entire project team as well as stakeholders in estimating project resource costs rather than leaving it to Project Manager only.

Lack of clear roles and responsibilities results in confusion, errors, and omissions.

Create a Project Hub. Assign roles accordingly, whether on local intranet, open website, or even blog.

1 Introduce a Change Control Board (CCB).

This is an assembled team that exclusively evaluates risk of implementing changes.

COMMUNICATION

1

project failure include

risks, and undefined project goals. We highlight

2 Failure to understand and deliver what client wants or what end users need.

some common project

2 Implement iterative approaches to project management. Incorporate end users from the beginning and request feedback as frequently as possible.

Estimates arbitrarily cut in order to secure contract or make project more attractive.

Under promise and over deliver. Establish defined goals and vision for project and draw subsequent plans that overestimate work and time needed for tasks.

Firm estimates made rather than using range of values that includes unknowns in cost estimates.

management challenges as

areas: planning, resources, and communication.

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Project management software

Track projects on easy-to-use software for any types of projects. Connects tasks, files, and discussions and access real-time newsfeeds with tools like Wrike.

Deploy secure, easy interface cloud-based solutions that can help your team better manage resources, budgets, and track ROI with tools like Clarizen.

2 Include a cushion in your cost estimates.

Identify resource types and quantities needed (people, equipment, and materials).

Overestimate costs to leave more flexibility in the budget.

Failure to address poor team dynamic leads to disengagement and non-performance.

Follow up resource allocation with resource leveling. Resource leveling is any form of schedule network analysis in which scheduling decisions (start and finish dates) are driven by resource constraints rather than general timelines.

Lack of internal feedback mechanisms lead to unaddressed errors in processes and output.

Utilize as many communication-based channels as possible. Keep project members in the loop using tools like Slack and other internal office communicators.

Project collaboration platforms

well as practical solutions to help you in three key

Project spreadsheets

Import existing projects or use a pre-built template and share work with project management spreadsheets like SmartSheet.

Cloud-based project tracking

changing priorities, scope creep, undefined costs and

TOOLS THAT CAN HELP

3 Underestimation of how much work is involved.

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Keep everyone on the same page with this secure, online project hub that allows members to make project updates and comments in one centralized place with tools such as Basecamp.

3 Implement Evidence, Effect, and Change (ECC). Communication tools are clinical and used to correct team member by providing data and verifiable incidents of deviations, or to praise team member.

MADE AS A PUBLIC SERVICE RESOURCE

BY THE GOOD PEOPLE AT:

Our recommendations: 1. Have a narrative: A good infographic tells a compelling story. What do you want your infographic to say? In the kick-off meeting, be sure to identify the main message you want the infographic to scream.

2. Fill out your creative brief: GovLoop provides a creative brief that can act as a “brain dump” for your infographic. This creative brief will help you better determine your purpose, focus and look and feel. You don’t necessarily need to have a design in mind – but think about colors, images and how you want people to use your infographic. The more information GovLoop has up-front, the better.

3. Use stats and lists: Many infographics contain data, graphs, numbers and charts. As you think through the assets you have on hand, do any of them contain statistical information we can utilize for this infographic? If not, is there a clear process or list that can be derived in a graphical way? The GovLoop writers will provide you with the direction they think will make a great infographic, based on your information and our research.

4. Infuse your brand: Once the content of the infographic is finalized, it moves into the design phase. This is where we will take your ideas from the creative brief and make them a reality! We love to make your ideas a reality and even exceed them; but we need to hear them from you first. If you have branding guidelines, be sure to send them over.

The Importance of Data St & Management to Govern

In the age of increasing data breaches, the ability to not only acce manage data is critical to government’s mission.

Data is growing faster than ever.

By the year 2020, about

of new information will be created every second for every human being on the planet.

90 PERCENT

of respondents think data and ease of access to that data are important to their agency’s mission and success.

90%

To learn m challenge and mana potential partnered survey 35 employee

As government data grows, agencies are prioritizing access, storage and backup even more. But this growth brings new challenges.

1.7 megabytes

96%

96 PER

ranked rec in case of disaster as very impo agencies.

Challenges to Data Storage & Management Other 8%

1. Increasing Data Volumes

Q: Due to our projected data growth it is difficult to...

I u

Keep maintenance costs down 18%

The ever-increasing amount of data out there makes it more difficult for employees to manually process as well as deliver improved services.

Scale our environment to keep up 18%

D a

2. Lack of Virtualization On-premise solutions can be costly and difficult to manage.

Data virtualization can help automate many manual processes while simplifying storage as well.

44%

No cloud/cloud data is on-premise only

3. Infrastructure Complexity

13%

12%

Private

Hybrid

Public

o

73 PERCENT

of respondents say using multiple vendors complicates their data management.

73%

While agencies are applying solutions to wrangle their data, they often find they are difficult to use and increase the complexity of their infrastructure.

31%

65%

How Cloud Data Management Can Help

Cloud data management is designed to virtualize and orchestrate mission critical application data across private and public clouds.

According to respondents, the following qualities are most important to data management solutions:

1. Security

4. Recovery

2. Ease of Use

5. Complianc

3. Search Capabilities

6. Archival

Rubrik’s cloud data management solutions provide these benefits and more, including:

DATA BACKUP

INSTANT RECOVERY

ANALYTICS

REPLICATION

ARCHIVAL

S

COMPLIANCE

Use cloud data management solutions to:

Recover Data Quickly Access data instantly for recovery, test, development or analytics. Locate data quickly with search options, whether on-premise or in the cloud.

Save Time Slash tedious daily backup management down to 2-3 minutes per day by automating protection.

For more information, please visit rubrik.com/industries/government.

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S Yo

Avoid rans types of d backups. at-rest or in permiss

Best Practices For

GovLoop Academy GovLoop Academy transforms learning for government with highly relevant and engaging on-demand learning experiences. These courses are either 10 minutes (nano) or 30 minutes in length and provide an interactive learning experience to help government employees get smart on various topics on their own time.

The majority of courses set up the problem, clearly explain why it is important to government, share best practices for overcoming challenges and implementing X technology, and include real-world examples. Your sponsorship includes a SME recording of sections of the course, high-level approval of the content and design, and two resources on the course console.

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Our recommendations: 1. Provide helpful resources: Early on, you can provide content suggestions (white papers, videos, customer examples etc.) to help us draft the outline and script.

Although no guarantee, we’ll work with you to ensure the course is relevant and educational to the target audience and the content is in line with your message.

2. Prep your thought leaders: It’s important to bring your thought leaders into the course creation process early so they understand what it is, the learning objectives and their role. In addition, it is important to prep them pre-interview to ensure they have a clear and succinct message. The audio recorded in the interview is used almost entirely word for word. Encourage your thought leaders to write down exactly what they want to say and to speak in concise sentences. The more the interview can naturally fold into the script, the better!

3. Follow up: Folks that register and complete GLA courses are looking to learn more about a given topic. Be sure to understand the course objectives and share these with your sales team so they know what the users learned and what they may need more information on. Provide follow-up material that complements the course — the learning never ends!

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Best Practices For

Paid Social Posts Get more eyes on your content! Now that you’ve already created a piece of content with us (blog post, research brief etc.) you can use the Facebook ads to extend the reach and promotion cycle.

This is low-lift for you as the GovLoop team creates the ad, creates the targeted segments and reports back.

Our recommendations: 1. Focus on brand awareness: Paid social is best used for brand awareness, not necessarily lead generation. Use this program to extend the reach of your existing content and, ideally, get more people knowing your company’s solutions.

2. Test a few different assets: You can promote nearly anything with paid social including blog posts, content pieces, videos and case studies. Try a few different pieces to see what works best!

3. Consider results: The GovLoop team will share reach, impressions and clicks of each piece you do. Consider how the different programs performed and why.

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Best Practices For

Newsletter Sponsorship The GovLoop Daily Awesome is a daily e-mail newsletter sent Monday through Friday to over 65,000 subscribers and highlighting the most relevant conversations on GovLoop. Each day the Daily Awesome covers our hottest blog posts, reports, and events (both virtual and in-person), giving readers an overview of what’s going on around government.

Our recommendations: 1. Think content first: We advise our newsletter sponsors to focus on featuring a whitepaper, case study, blog post or upcoming event. The newsletter serves as a great place for content syndication and building brand awareness to an audience that’s actively looking to stay in tune with the current trends facing government.

2. Use a clear call to action: The best newsletter sponsorship contain a clear call to action and/or direct the reader to a specific landing page or content asset.

3. Test, test, test: GovLoop provides newsletter performance metrics for each sponsorship, so determining which messaging worked best is easy and useful for future placements!

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Best Practices For

Blogging Blogs are the daily heartbeat of the internet, including GovLoop. Every day new blogs are added to the GovLoop community by, and for, government professionals. These blogs cover a range of topics and have many different approaches.

Sharing your voice in our government community has many benefits: you’re looked at as a peer and have a platform to showcase your thought leadership. Plus, you get your brand out there.

Our recommendations: 1. Find your voice: When blogging on GovLoop, tell your company story through your voice – not via sales or marketing sound bites. Think about your blog voice as the way you would speak with a government professional at an event or reception – they want to get to know you and your company.

2. Leverage the team at GovLoop: If you’re unsure of your writing skills or don’t have the time, we can do it for you. That’s right: we can tell your story on your behalf. The catch?

We need your help to better understand the story you’re trying to convey.

Through interviews with your subject matter experts, events you host and research you provide, we can learn, digest and share your story on your behalf.

3. Think about selling last: At the end of the day, selling needs to enter the picture. Be sure to share a next step, a link or a way to contact your company. One sentence on a specific product is a great balance!

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Best Practices For

Custom Worksheets Topical worksheets that are custom and created by GovLoop and the sponsor. These worksheets can be printed out by government employees to help them do their job better and think through questions/challenges on various topics, such as customer journey mapping, cybersecurity hygiene checklists and more.

Worksheets were made based on GovLoop community feedback.

People were looking for templates or worksheets to use to help them work more efficiently.

Our recommendations: 1. Select a topic that requires a worksheet: Not all content fits a worksheet format. Think about your government customers and what they deal with on a daily basis. What would help them to do their job better? What information should they consider on a topic? Is there something they can brainstorm? A worksheet or template should give them guidance on how to get started on a project.

2. Have your thought leadership hat on: Worksheets are meant to be helpful and educational, not a sales pitch. While we can include your logo on the console, and a call to action link, the majority of the content should be vendor agnostic.

3. Educate your staff: Share the worksheet with your internal staff to show how it helps government. This is great collateral to get people interested in your solutions and you should use it in marketing campaigns before calling folks.

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Thank you for your interest in GovLoop & support of our mission to help government.

If you want to learn more about GovLoop sponsorships please reach out to Doug Mashkuri. doug@govloop.com | 202.407.7416

1152 15th St NW Ste. 800 Washington, DC 20005 P: 202.407.7421 F: 202.407.7501 govloop.com | @govloop

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