Maximum Impact: How Targeted Campaigns Boost Engagement for Northern Grampians
Stawell, Northern Grampians, Victoria, Australia
Image Credit: travelvictoria.com.au
We’ve often talked about targeted campaigns and their potential positive impact. As connectors, Economic Development teams play a critical role in furnishing information to their community. Yet, we still see a gap in many teams not utilising this approach.
There’s a balance required with the Monthly Newsletter, where too much information can drive your open rate down, and the unsubscribes up, or time sensitive information can become irrelevant by the time the Newsletter is sent.
In this post, we look at Northern Grampians Shire Councils’ approach to mixing targeted, industry specific EDM’s with their Monthly Newsletter.
Emma Howlett at Northern Grampians Shire takes a systematic and highly targeted approach to EDMs with the business community. Using Monitor CRMS the team is able to send information out to just the relevant businesses that the information pertains to by quickly filtering businesses by business type and location and tagging them to create a segmented list. Information can then be sent to that list within minutes using the built in EDM tools.
“The approach of quick, targeted communications allows our team to still feel personal with our businesses, while still being able to track the effectiveness of the campaign. It has helped build trust that we know their industry, or their place and the result speak for themselves.”
…And the results? 4,566 unique opens with a business community of just 1,000 businesses
the overall unique engagements for the year are four and a half times the total business count! Most economic development teams are small, and under resourced. There is no physical way to quickly engage with businesses 4,500 times. Being a targeted facilitator of information, opportunities, and value is the low hanging fruit in Economic Development that is being maximised by the team at Northern Grampians.
Here’s what the insights from the past year tell us:
Consistency is key but only if it’s valuable: 45 dedicated campaign activities across the year equates to almost one campaign per week. The frequency and consistency build trust by showing value with businesses. The community expect to hear from you but only if it’s relevant. As these campaigns are also specific to certain audiences, this removes any concern of over-communication with the businesses.
Targeted campaigns feed your Newsletter: With a combined 49.5% open rate of quick targeted campaigns and the dedicated monthly Economic Development Newsletters smashes the average open rate of traditional campaigns. The targeted campaigns and the specific value for a particular cohort can also help drive viewership of the monthly Newsletter. Our data shows that teams who take this combined approach have significantly higher open rates on their dedicated Newsletter than those who only send a Newsletter.
Speed is of the essence: The need to communicate quickly, when opportunities arise for your businesses are never-ending. Such as, a State or Federal industry specific grant, with a close date that requires immediate action by your businesses. These targeted communications, whether sending to 8 or 800 businesses, an average open rate of 60% this approach has proven to be incredibly impactful.
By using a combination of smart engagement techniques and fit-for-purpose tools, the Northern Grampians Shire Council’s strategic approach with Monitor CRMS significantly boosted their engagement with the business community. Delivering industry-specific information quickly and efficiently. This approach not only fosters trust and relevance but also enhances the impact and reach of their monthly newsletters, demonstrating the power of targeted communication in economic development.
Want to know if these tools could work in your Economic Development team? Lets have a chat!