Making eNewsletterswork for you

eNewsletters (a form of email marketing) allow you to:• Expand and cultivate your constituency (donors, supporters, colleagues)• Collect detailed insights on what kind of content they like

Ultimately, eNewsletters are a “weapon of choice” to engage your target audience to take action – donate, share information, sign a petition, etc.

About eNewsletters

eNewsletters are distributed to recipients’ emails in a format similar to a webpage (html), not as an attachment (e.g. PDF).

Content (text, image, URL)…

…is applied to template

…hosted on an online platform (e.g.

Mailchimp.com)

eNewsletter distributed & accessible via PC &

Mobile

Performance tracked & monitored

Design locked in a template, no need to recreate layout every issue

Instead of attaching a file (PDF) to emails, the content is in the email

eNewsletter layout is flexible and adaptable to computer screens, tablets & smartphones

Unlike PDF, eNL performance is automatically tracked, providing insights on what recipients like most

eNewsletters: how they work

Once delivered as email attachments, it is almost impossible to track the impact and performance of PDFs.

eNewsletter performance is automatically tracked, from successful deliveries to who clicks/shares what items.

Each new issue needs to be redesigned to adapt to different content lengths, wasting time, money & requiring specialized skills.

Design is fixed in flexible template, is customizable & easy to edit. No design skills are necessary, as everything is done online.

PDF support for mobile phone access is not uniform across mobile browsers; small screen & expensive data plans make reading PDFs via mobile inconvenient.

eNewsletters can be read by mobile devices, adapting its layout, font size, images to match small mobile screens. Email size is negligible compared to a PDF file.

Performance -Tracking

Development Effort

Support forMobile Phone Access

eNewsletters: advantages over PDF

List is managed manually, via Outlook address book; readers need to notify contact person to subscribe/unsubscribe.

List is managed automatically. You can even segment your list into different groups; recipients can subscribe/ unsubscribe themselves.

More difficult to include social media functionality (e.g. Facebook Like or Twitter Tweet buttons) on PDF; even if added it’s not trackable.

Since it’s HTML-based, creating Facebook like/Tweet buttons is a breeze with eNewsletters; who-shared-what is tracked automatically.

Distribution ListManagement

Social Media Integration

eNewsletters: advantages over PDF

1 2 3 4 5 6

Concept Wireframe& Flat Dsgn

TemplateCoding

ContentUpload

LAUNCH PerformanceMonitor

Identify audience, what you want

from them, your visions & wish-list for the newsletter

Concept is translated into a mock-up, to test

layout, sections & overall design

Template is coded based on approved

layout & tested on the an online email

marketing platform (e.g. Mailchimp.com)

Actual content for the eNewsletter is

added to the template: text, images & links

Once successfully tested, eNewsletter

is ready to be delivered to the distribution list

eNewsletter performance is automatically tracked for you

6 steps towards creating an eNewsletter

Before an eNewsletter project proceeds, Catalyze and client will discuss the eNewsletter’s target audience, purpose, expectations, content “wish-list” and other details, which will be summarized in a Concept Document

This document will be used as a reference by the design team for the creation of the eNewsletter’s layout, user interface and overall design

1

Concept

Concept development

To help visualize the newsletter, we create 2 mockup designs: wireframe and flat design

Wireframe design is used to demonstrate how the eNewsletter will be structured. A wireframe design has notes that explain the design elements

Once client has approved the wireframe mockup, we proceed with the second mockup, the flat design, which simulates a near-final look of the newsletter, but with real photos, titles and text instead of colored boxes and placeholder text

Wireframe and flat design2

Wireframe & Flat Dsgn

The design is used to create the HTML template on an eNewsletter platform (like Mailchimp.com)

The template locks the overall design so that the eNewsletter always has a consistent, professional look

The template is also flexible for changing images, hiding certain parts of your newsletter, or repeating certain elements when you happen to need more of certain sections

Template coding3

TemplateCoding

Content is added to the eNewsletter template, and then formatted eNewsletters are tested (a test page is sent to client’s and Catalyze’s

inboxes) before they are distributed

Adding your content4

ContentUpload

The eNewsletter is sent to a distribution list provided by the client. Client can choose to group/segment the list into categories (e.g. Public, Internal), in case different groups require separate newsletter design/content

It is also possible to arrange a scheduled delivery, e.g. sending at a specific date and time

Launch your eNewsletter5

Launch

Email marketing offers a wealth of quantitative information on a eNewsletter’s performance. Some of the most useful variables we track are:• Successful delivery• Open rate % of successfully delivered emails that were opened• Unique/click rate % of successfully delivered emails where the

recipient interacted with content in the eNewsletter• Most-clicked items informs us about which topics/ sections/titles are

popular, and how often they are clicked

Catalyze summarizes each issue’s performance data in a “Performance Monitor” online dashboard for client’s perusal

How’s your eNewsletter working?6

PerformanceMonitor

Catalyze eNewsletter Performance

Taking an example from our longest-running eNewsletter (Coral Triangle Network Initiative’s monthly eNewsletter, 15 editions to date), we have the following open and click rate benchmarked performance:

Average 32.6% open rate, versus industry average* of 20.2% Average unique clicks rate is 13.93%, versus industry average* of

2.8%

* The industry average benchmark is obtained from the average performance of the non profit newsletters which are hosted on Mailchimp.com

Catalyze experience

To date Catalyze has designed and deployed many eNewsletters for a variety of WWF projects, including:

1. Coral Triangle Network Initiative - monthly2. MyCoralTriangle Campaign - monthly3. Tigers Alive Initiative - bimonthly4. Forest Conversion Newsletter - quarterly5. Heart of Borneo Network Initiative - bimonthly6. Greater Mekong Programme Office - bimonthly7. Emirates Wildlife Society (EWS – WWF) - monthly8. Market Transformation Initiative - quarterly9. WWF Indonesia Marine Newsletter – Internal - bimonthly10.WWF Indonesia Marine Newsletter – Public – bimonthly

Interested in building your own email marketing solution?

Then drop us an email and let’s talk.

m-a@catalyzecommunications.com