4 minute read
Smore Than You Ever Imagined
AUTHOR: ARDYS ATTEBERRY
Region 10 ESC Communications
MEET Jennifer Hood, our Region 10 ESC Accountability Consultant. Hard wired to always do her best, Hood probably asks her go-to question at least once every day.
“How can I make it better?”
One of her many responsibilities is to distribute state accountability Information to our 130+ districts. Just imagine the time, effort, and patience it must take to sift through tons of material to prioritize when, what, and to whom she should send this essential information. For years, her predecessors distributed it via e-newsletter, but Hood wanted to know how to make her Monday Matters e-newsletter better. Her go-to question sparked her next question.
Good question. Hood’s audience consists of district leadership, assessment and accountability leaders, curriculum directors, superintendents, administrators, instructional coaches, and even fellow colleagues. That’s quite a list, but the question is, how accurate is it? People retire, change roles, move to another district, and other variables, so Hood knew her list was flawed. Determined to fix it before moving forward, she invested a big chunk of time to update her contact list to ensure the right person was receiving her e-newsletter. It was time well spent. Mission accomplished, she moved on to her next questions. Who’s reading her e-newsletter? Who’s reading it the most? What is of most interest to her readers? Hood chose Smore to build an informative e-newsletter, so she took a closer look at its analytical side. Most would cringe at the prospect, but Hood absolutely loves data. She couldn’t wait to dive in.
Hood’s deep dive answered some questions and created new ones, including a quest to identify a mystery reader. With a few clicks, she sees how many people open her e-newsletter and who is reading it the most. In fact, she weekly identifies her top three readers. Why? She contacts each of them to learn how to make her e-newsletter even better.
She can also detect which articles generate the most interest, how people engage her e-newsletter via social media, how much time they spend reading it, and even their locations. Remember, her goal is to distribute state accountability information, so it’s fascinating to see people from all over the world take a peek at her Monday Matters. Seriously! It’s not unusual for people from Peru, Saudi Arabia, Puerto Rico, Germany, and others to drop in for who knows what reason. And then there’s Ireland.
“Who is my mystery reader in Ireland?”
Hood has a mystery reader from Ireland who visits Monday Matters regularly. Although she has tried, she has yet to learn who this reader is and why the interest in her e-newsletter. She even sends open invitations to prompt her readers to share and connect.
“We have readers all over the world. If you are outside of Texas, we would love to know more about you. Please take a minute to answer the 3 questions in the following link. To our consistent Ireland reader: We would love to connect!” Since Smore has given Hood the title of Smore Expert, she was asked to share her methods at their August Monthly Q&A Session — Using Data to Engage with the Community. Do yourself a favor. Watch her entire presentation.* Here’s a fun fact to make you shake your head. If Hood sends her Monday Matters faithfully on the same day and at the exact same time each week, her open and engagement rates improve significantly. Coincidence? Don’t think so. And on top of that, on the rare day Hood misses the assigned time, she has people calling to see if she is okay. What a dedicated audience. Last question, then you be the judge.
Here are a few 2020-2021 Assessment/ Accountability Smore Stats. ¢ Delivered 51 issues that led to 38,706 opens ¢ Experienced 120% increase of opens (LY:17,626 opens) ¢ Rated in top ten trending e-newsletters 11 times in Dallas/Ft. Worth area
¢ Achieved 85% contact with ISD/Charter readers of Monday Matters (May) ¢ Reached 138 locations including readers in Peru, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Israel,
Mexico, Puerto Rico, Germany, Canada,
London, and Ireland (May-June)
You know one thing for sure, Hood wants to ask her reader in Ireland how to make her e-newsletter better.
Questions can spark new ones, but they can also prompt people to ask you questions. The more questions Hood asked the Smore team, the more questions they asked, so they were basically working directly together. Hood’s questions helped Smore to better understand her vision and in doing so, Smore can better serve Hood and who knows how many other users. So, if you want to get smore out of your next e-newsletter, you now have plenty of ideas to help you get started.
*bit.ly/R10-smore-presentation
