JASON SHUEH

ACCELA

2018-2019

Newsletter Initiative Ignites Engagement at Accela

Newsletter Initiative Ignites Engagement at Accela

A Bay Area tech company attracts sales, connnects customers and channels new Web traffic with the launch of its first newsletter

Case Study Details

CONTENT TYPE: Newsletter (click the newsletter image below to view)

COMPANY: Accela, a global digital permitting and licensing solution for governments

ROLE(S): Project Manager, Content Strategist, Designer, Editor, Copy Writer

YEAR(S): 2018-2019

Problem

ACCELA, ONE OF the nation’s leading cloud companies for government, sought a way to increase sales leads and nurture current customers by connecting with them online. Yet the marketing department had no way to regularly communicate with its list of more than 20,000 customer and prospect email accounts.

Further, Accela had a diverse set of nine different cloud solutions in permitting, licensing and more that served an equally diverse audience. These included many city and state political leaders, chief technology/information officers and other IT specialists. This customer diversity — while a benefit to the company’s portfolio of solutions — also presented a challenge of creating a consistent message that resonated with each group.

Solution

AS ACCELA'S FIRST content strategist, my role was to collaborate with Accela’s executives, product marketing and engineering departments to create a weekly newsletter that could drive sales leads, provide customer education, and prompt current customers to consider additional solutions. This also included support for Accela’s public relations and thought leadership initiatives in the government tech sector.

Process

1. IDENTIFY GOALS AND PERFORMANCE METRICS: Working with multiple departments and leadership, we identified a combination of performance metrics to achieve the overall goals of lead generation, thought leadership and education. These included metrics in website traffic at Accela.com, newsletter open- and click-through rates and conversion rates.

2. IDENTIFY AND PRIORITIZE CONTENT TYPES: Content is designed to keep visitors on the site and lead to customer product inquiries. This meant all in-house content took priority over educational outside content. Sections for blogs, webinar series, events sign ups, product announcements and ads took top spots while outside industry articles filled the bottom of the newsletter. To accommodate the diverse audience we analyzed most popular site content and top products while also making sure content was diverse enough to have value for every recipient.

3. IDENTIFY CONTENT CONTRIBUTORS: The primary content for the newsletter came from the Accela Insights blog, which I produced and managed, while other content such as webinars, guides, the newsletter to create a streamlined production and distribution schedule.

4. CREATE A WORKFLOW: Next, it was critical to develop a sustainable workflow. Every department and contributor had busy schedules and multiple projects happening simultaneously. Further, time for editing and approvals was needed. So instead of launching the newsletter immediately as a weekly publication we took a phased approach. The newsletter began as a one-off email send out to help us understand the time and resources that would be demanded, distribution increased to a bi-monthly publication before it became a weekly newsletter.

5. TEST THE SOLUTION: Testing was another vital component to ensure the newsletter was effective, and equally important, that it wouldn’t prompt unsubscribe requests. To safeguard against unsubscribes, the first distribution went out to a limited number of current “active” customer (those who regularly interacted with Accela’s web content). With no unsubscribes and strong open and click through rate, this number grew to an expanded list of customers, then to prospective customers, before the newsletter was rolled out to all customers, prospects and clients. We also leveraged A/B testing for different designs and email subject line formats for optimal performance.

6. PUBLISH AND ITERATE Once Accela Marketing began a regular distribution schedule of its newsletter there were also monthly content planning meetings and an editorial calendar to keep everyone informed across departments. We also improved design and content based on analytics that were checked regularly.

Results

THE NEWSLETTER WAS a huge success and doubled overall year-over-year website traffic of Accela.com. It also contributed to an increase in lead conversions and thought leadership. There were zero, or close to zero, unsubscribes each week, hundreds of organic subscribers, and high open and click through rates.

Conclusion

I CREDIT THE success of the newsletter to three core elements: companywide collaboration, a long-term commitment, and an office culture that embraces experimentation and adaption. Without collaboration the newsletter would not have had the necessary buy-in from leadership to move forward or the resources from other departments to keep it populated with weekly content. This effort required a long-term commitment week after week, month after month to see success. Few newsletters hit all their goals out of the gate, and for most, success comes gradually as more people sign up and it gains more exposure. Lastly, testing and experimentation contributed significantly. We tested content placement, subject line length, design styling, and customer and prospect readership.

Case Study Details

CONTENT TYPE: Newsletter (click the newsletter image below to view)

COMPANY: Accela, a global digital permitting and licensing solution for governments

ROLE(S): Project Manager, Content Strategist, Designer, Editor, Copy Writer

YEAR(S): 2018-2019

mobile-newsletter
The Accela Transform Newsletter contributed to a 100 percent increase in overall site traffic and more than $14 million in marketing sales leads for FY 18. Image | Accela

Problem

ACCELA, ONE OF the nation’s leading cloud companies for government, sought a way to increase sales leads and nurture current customers by connecting with them online. Yet the marketing department had no way to regularly communicate with its list of more than 20,000 customer and prospect email accounts.

Further, Accela had a diverse set of nine different cloud solutions in permitting, licensing and more that served an equally diverse audience. These included many city and state political leaders, chief technology/information officers and other IT specialists. This customer diversity — while a benefit to the company’s portfolio of solutions — also presented a challenge of creating a consistent message that resonated with each group.

Solution

AS ACCELA'S FIRST content strategist, my role was to collaborate with Accela’s executives, product marketing and engineering departments to create a weekly newsletter that could drive sales leads, provide customer education, and prompt current customers to consider additional solutions. This also included support for Accela’s public relations and thought leadership initiatives in the government tech sector.

Process

1. IDENTIFY GOALS AND PERFORMANCE METRICS: Working with multiple departments and leadership, we identified a combination of performance metrics to achieve the overall goals of lead generation, thought leadership and education. These included metrics in website traffic at Accela.com, newsletter open- and click-through rates and conversion rates.

2. IDENTIFY AND PRIORITIZE CONTENT TYPES: Content is designed to keep visitors on the site and lead to customer product inquiries. This meant all in-house content took priority over educational outside content. Sections for blogs, webinar series, events sign ups, product announcements and ads took top spots while outside industry articles filled the bottom of the newsletter. To accommodate the diverse audience we analyzed most popular site content and top products while also making sure content was diverse enough to have value for every recipient.

3. IDENTIFY CONTENT CONTRIBUTORS: The primary content for the newsletter came from the Accela Insights blog, which I produced and managed, while other content such as webinars, guides, the newsletter to create a streamlined production and distribution schedule.

4. CREATE A WORKFLOW: Next, it was critical to develop a sustainable workflow. Every department and contributor had busy schedules and multiple projects happening simultaneously. Further, time for editing and approvals was needed. So instead of launching the newsletter immediately as a weekly publication we took a phased approach. The newsletter began as a one-off email send out to help us understand the time and resources that would be demanded, distribution increased to a bi-monthly publication before it became a weekly newsletter.

5. TEST THE SOLUTION: Testing was another vital component to ensure the newsletter was effective, and equally important, that it wouldn’t prompt unsubscribe requests. To safeguard against unsubscribes, the first distribution went out to a limited number of current “active” customer (those who regularly interacted with Accela’s web content). With no unsubscribes and strong open and click through rate, this number grew to an expanded list of customers, then to prospective customers, before the newsletter was rolled out to all customers, prospects and clients. We also leveraged A/B testing for different designs and email subject line formats for optimal performance.

6. PUBLISH AND ITERATE Once Accela Marketing began a regular distribution schedule of its newsletter there were also monthly content planning meetings and an editorial calendar to keep everyone informed across departments. We also improved design and content based on analytics that were checked regularly.

Results

THE NEWSLETTER WAS a huge success and doubled overall year-over-year website traffic of Accela.com. It also contributed to an increase in lead conversions and thought leadership. There were zero, or close to zero, unsubscribes each week, hundreds of organic subscribers, and high open and click through rates.

Conclusion

I CREDIT THE success of the newsletter to three core elements: companywide collaboration, a long-term commitment, and an office culture that embraces experimentation and adaption. Without collaboration the newsletter would not have had the necessary buy-in from leadership to move forward or the resources from other departments to keep it populated with weekly content. This effort required a long-term commitment week after week, month after month to see success. Few newsletters hit all their goals out of the gate, and for most, success comes gradually as more people sign up and it gains more exposure. Lastly, testing and experimentation contributed significantly. We tested content placement, subject line length, design styling, and customer and prospect readership.