My com umac award

United Methodist

Communications

MYCOM E-NEWSLETTER

UMAC E-Newsletter Awards Entry 2012

Before MYCOM, United Methodist Communications‟ e -newsletters

were mostly used for internal product and program promotions.

The agency provided very l ittle consultative support. Upon

performing several research studies, results showed that local

churches wanted marketing and communications training for

their specific church roles. MYCOM was born out of this need.

MYCOM provides marketing and communications tips and tools

based on research- identified “interest areas” for church leaders.

Constituents are at the heart of MYCOM‟s plan. Continual

improvement and surveys of church leaders are paramount.

MYCOM OVERVIEW

MyCom Objects

To provide consultative support to church

leaders and to offer marketing and

communications tips, tools based on research

identified "interest areas".

Objectives for continuous improvement:

Increase Subscriber Membership

Increase Open and Click Thru Rates

PURPOSE & OBJECTIVES

The target audience for MyCom is mainly to

pastors but many other church leaders.

TARGET AUDIENCE

Strategy for cont inuous improvement:

Continually provide high-quality content:

Writers

Continually add e-mail best practices:

Continuous research and implementation.

Work on template consistency across all e -mail clients.

Continue to tweak HTML code using best practices from Campaign Monitor, MailChimp, Exact Target, etc.

Improve design and content:

Fresh, clean look for better readability.

Add multi-media (videos and article photos).

Increase visibility of ads.

Increase interactivity and accessibility:

Social media & other sharing capabilities.

Commenting capabilities.

Reminder e-mails to those who have not opened.

STRATEGY

MYCOM EXAMPLES

1. MARCH 2012

View As Web Page

http://www.kintera.org/cms.asp?id=29752

04&campaign_id=112513&enString=x

http://www.kintera.org/cms.asp?id=3240914&campaign_id=112513&enString=x

2. MAY 2012

View As Web Page




3. JULY 2012

View As Web Page




EXECUTION, CREATIVY

& RE-DESIGN

2 0 09 Or ig in a l Des ig n

2 010 I m p rovem en t s

2 011 I m p rovem en t s

2 01 2 I m p rovem en t s

2009 ORIGINAL E-NEWSLETTER DESIGN

2011 E-NEWSLETTER DESIGN

May: Added „Share on Facebook‟ link in header.

May: Added Share MYCOM on Facebook, Subscribe to MYCOM

and Send to a Friend links below the fold.

2011 E-NEWSLETTER IMPROVEMENTS

March: Began sending reminder e -mails to subscribers who had not opened first e -mail.

Click to open rate average for reminder e-mail is 62%.

Oct: Added one how -to video per issue.

December: United Methodist Communications conducted another survey with its audiences to understand their att itude towards emerging technology and found that pastors want to know more about:

Video simulcast, streaming, editing videos, Vimeo.

Video conferencing using Skype to bring missionaries into worship.

Worship presentation: sound, video, equipment & software.

IPAD, Moodle, HTML e-mail, form creation, forum software, cloud, etc.

More content being generated around these topics. So far articles written on these topics getting excellent clicks.


2012 E-NEWSLETTER RE-DESIGN


New features: *

New MYCOM font treatment and

sleek layout.

Added popular interest area tabs:

Outreach, Worship, Website & Social.

Added article images.

Increased ad size for better visibility

of relevant resources & charity

discounts.

* These features were just

implemented in March 2012 and we

will continue A/B tests on size and

placement of images for optimum

click rates.

2010 ARTICLE TEMPLATE

The links in the newsletter go to articles hosted on our website.

The article templates show improvements for each year.

2011 ARTICLE TEMPLATE

Improved readabi l i ty o f ar t ic les :

Increased font size from 11px to 15px.

Decreased line width.

Added more subheadings.

Discont inued outs ide market ing content wr i ters that per formed poor ly.

Hired Uni ted Methodist wr i ters and communicators .

New writers know our audience and include more United Methodist research and resources.

Tra ined wr i ters on how to wr i te for web.

Topics included attractive titles, contextual links, front -loaded content and one-idea paragraphs, and search engine optimization guidelines.

New wr i t ing process inc ludes four ed i t ing phases .

1. One editor adds United Methodist language & agency resources.

2. Proof team edits for grammar/structure.

3. PR team edits for potential red-flags.

4. After articles are added to web, proof team does final proof.

2011 ARTICLE IMPROVEMENTS

Share & Discuss box added next to header image.

Tweet & Share on Facebook buttons.

Social media share menu added to footer.

Share on Facebook button.


Added relevant ar ticle images from stock photography websites,

internal press photo archives, and images developed by creative

team.


Added Disqus, a robust global commenting

& moderating system at footer of articles.


Total Growth

Month ly Averages

Subscr ibers

Opens

Open Rates

Cl icks

Cl ick Rates

Ar t ic le C l icks

Ad C l icks

Unsubscr ibes

Web & Socia ls

Test imonies

Conclus ion

RESULTS

Increase in Subscriber Membership

Increase in Opens and Clicks

Increase in Open Rates and Click Through Rates

Increase in Ad Clicks

Increase in Article Clicks

Increase in Social Media Article Shares

SUCCESS METRICS

Benchmark Month1/09

Final Month 7/12

Total Growth

Subscribers 4,169 21,941 17,772

Opens 1,182 9,597 8,412

Open Rates 33% 44% 11%E-mails Resulting in Clicks 414 4,296 3,882

Click Rates 35% 45% 10%

Article Clicks 560 6,522 5962Ad Clicks 50 575 525

TOTAL GROWTH

JAN 2009 VS. JULY 2012

MONTHLY AVERAGES1/09 – 7/12

2009 2010 2011 2012

Opens 1,776 4,989 7,621 9259

Open Rates 35% 38% 41% 44%

Clicks 683 2,402 3,806 4,324

Click Rates 38% 48% 50% 47%

Article Clicks 1,002 4,058 4,906 6,291

Ad Clicks 172 463 534 727

Unsubscribes 0.13% 0.15% 0.18% 0.13%

SUBSCRIBERS: YEARLY TOTALS1/09 – 7/12

4,169

9,086

19,294

27,414

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

2009 2010 2011 2012

OPENS: MONTHLY AVERAGES1/09 – 7/1 2

1,776

4,989

7,621

9,259

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,000

8,000

9,000

10,000

2009 2010 2011 2012

21,317

59,874

91,461

64,816

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

80,000

90,000

100,000

Jan-Dec 2009 Jan-Dec 2010 Jan-Dec 2011 Jan-July 2012

OPENS: YEARLY TOTALS1/09-7/2012

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

2009 2010 2011 2013

* The end and beginning months of each year drop in engagement due to vacation, Christmas, Easter, Lent and Holy Week programming. However, scatter graphs show that the open/click trend-lines increase as the year goes on.

OPEN RATES: MONTHLY AVERAGES1/09 – 7/12

683

2,402

3,8064,324

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

2009 2010 2011 2012

E-mails Resulting in Clicks

CLICKS: MONTHLY AVERAGES1/09 – 7/12

8,195

28,830

45,674

30,269

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

35,000

40,000

45,000

50,000

Jan-Dec 2009 Jan-Dec 2010 Jan-Dec 2011 Jan-July 2012

CLICKS: YEARLY TOTALS1/09 – 7/12

CLICK RATES: MONTHLY AVERAGES1/09 – 7/12

38%

48%51%

44%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

2009 2010 2011 2012

*

* The end and beginning months of each year drop in engagement due to vacation, Christmas, Easter, Lent and Holy Week programming. However, scatter graphs show that the open/click trend-lines increase as the year goes on.

ARTICLE CLICKS: MONTHLY AVERAGES1/09 – 7/12

1,002

4,058

4,906

6,291

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

2009 2010 2011 2012

0.13%

0.15%

0.18%

0.13%

0.00%

0.02%

0.04%

0.06%

0.08%

0.10%

0.12%

0.14%

0.16%

0.18%

0.20%

2009 2010 2011 2012

UNSUBSCRIBES: MONTHLY AVERAGES1/09 – 7/12

Web 2010

1st Half

2010

2nd Half

2011

1st Half

2011

2nd Half

2012

Avg. Time Spent

On MYCOM Pages

2.28 3.04 3.25 4.32 5.03

WEB & SOCIALS

Social 2010 Jan – Dec

2011

Jan – Feb 2012

Facebook E-Newsletter Shares N/A 65 146

Facebook Article Shares N/A 788 1688

Socia l shar ing features were added in late 2011 .

#s are cumulat ive .

“ Ver y n ice and easy to quickly scan and c l ick through for more info .”

Lynn W Miller, Cascade UMC

“ Inspired by th is ar t ic le and go ing to ho ld our Chr is tmas Day worship ser v ice in the

lobby of the c i ty 's hospi tal . ”

Jim Parsons

“GREAT ar t ic le ! ! ! I am shar ing th is w i th several churches I know of . ”

Jason Weakley, Owner of Rooted Up Communications

“ Ver y good information. I t was c lear and can be understood by

al l age groups looking to enhance thei r onl ine ministr ies .”

Winston Carhee, Sr.

“Thanks for the great ar t ic le . we are just get t ing star ted wi th our church FB page.”

Mini Lou

“ I love the ar t work at the top of the ar t ic le . . . g reat ideas in the ar t ic le a lso .”

Justin Rimondi

READER TESTIMONIES

Based on MYCOM reader survey findings, substantial changes were made to MYCOM‟s template, design and content over the past four years.

As a result:

Subscription list increased by nearly 520%.

Opens increased by nearly 660%.

Open rates increased by over 40%.

Clicks increased by about 815%.

Click rates increased by nearly 30%.

Clicks from articles increased by nearly 655%.

Clicks from ads increased by over 1,170%.

Most e-newsletters reduce engagement level as they increase subscription. For MYCOM, it is the reverse.

CONCLUSION

My com umac award

Technology

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