government communications success: michigan department of natural resources

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Government Communications Success: Michigan Dept. of Natural Resources

February 12, 2013

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2013 Digital Communications Tour

Find out where we’re going next: http://bit.ly/GDTour2013

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Presenter: Christine Schwerin

Marketing Account Manager Michigan Department of Natural Resources

Tweet comments to @GovDelivery or #GovD13

GovDelivery

Communicating with the public and the media

Christine Schwerin, Michigan DNR

www.michigan.gov/dnr

Implementation

•Michigan DNR added GovDelivery in Feb. 2012

•Uploaded about 239,000 email addresses from previous email system

•Began with 15 topics

•First major agency within State of Michigan government to implement

Growing Pains

• Training & supporting 40+ people • Template coordination and branding • Revising press release approval process • Philosophy of use • Developing message schedules • Data analysis • Topic organization (by interest or division?)

www.michigan.gov/dnr

www.michigan.gov/dnr

Old vs. New

Press releases and newsletters

www.michigan.gov/dnr

Subscriptions by the numbers

www.michigan.gov/dnr

Increasing subscriptions

• Red envelope everywhere (homepage, key web pages, calendar items, Facebook, Twitter)

• Points of purchase (license buying web page, camping reservation page)

• Handouts at public meetings • Partnerships with sporting goods stores

www.michigan.gov/dnr

Facebook

www.michigan.gov/dnr

Twitter

www.michigan.gov/dnr

Red envelope on calendar events

www.michigan.gov/dnr

Red envelope on e-license page

www.michigan.gov/dnr

Handouts at public meetings

www.michigan.gov/dnr

Digital ad partnerships

www.michigan.gov/dnr

Printed publications

www.michigan.gov/dnr

www.michigan.gov/dnr

How are we doing so far?

•Started with 239,000 subscriptions in February, 2012

•As of Jan. 1, 2013 we have about 1 million subscriptions • Avg. 22% open rate

•98% delivery rate

•Have sent over 600 press releases to statewide and/or filtered lists

•Currently offer 47 different topics

www.michigan.gov/dnr

Is it working?

Satisfaction survey during month of August revealed:

– 95% feel the emails provide valuable information – Of the 2,026 people who took the survey:

• 771 reported buying a hunting license as a result of receiving emails • 502 reported buying a fishing license as a result of receiving emails • 276 reported buying a Recreation Passport as a result of receiving

emails • 821 reported sharing DNR email with a friend or through social

media

www.michigan.gov/dnr

Next steps

• Promotional cards at exhibit booths, field sites across the state • Partnerships with stakeholder groups • We noticed you signed up for “x” you might also be interested in “y” • Creating a message calendar for each topic (not just major topics) • Sign up information on printed publications (fishing guide, hunting

guide) • Conversion tracking • Red envelope on Camping Reservation System website • Red envelope on LiveStream public meetings

www.michigan.gov/dnr

Questions?

Christine Schwerin

schwerinc@michigan.gov 517-335-7792