9 Lessons From Public Sector Outreach
Campaigns That Impact Lives
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We dug into the inner workings of high-profile campaigns to unearth invaluable insights.
Michigan Comes Together for Kids
Virginia Strives for Healthy Residents
Leon County Acts Fast
Hurricane
Healthcare
Hunger
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To make a real-world impact as a top government communicator you need to be smart, strategic, and tactical. But what works?
From hurricanes to healthcare to hunger, here’s your chance to find out what they did — and how they did it.
Emergency Communications
How Leon County Outpaced a Hurricane
When a category 5 hurricane, Irma, drew a destructive path toward Leon County, Florida, officials had to put their plan into action fast.
Mission
Strategy
Leon County’s hurricane emergency communication strategy was a multi-channel approach to reaching residents at all three phases of the emergency — from preparation to hurricane safety to cleanup.
Protect Residents From Looming Threat
Digital Channels
3 Press Conferences | 11 News Releases | 19 Daily Brief Emails
By the Numbers
Email & Social govDelivery | Mobile App Citizen Connect
Before the Storm
During the Storm
After the Storm
Before the Storm:
Leon County begins communicating with residents to prepare for a crisis.
During the Storm:
The Citizen Connect app brings crisis information to the hands of Leon County residents while the Hurricane Irma Daily Brief provided 15,000 stakeholders with important updates.
After the Storm:
Leon County’s Disaster Survival Guide (2019 version pictured) promotes cleanup after the storm.
Campaign Highlights
Timeline of Effective Communications
Click each panel to see more.
Impact
Constant Outreach Make Residents Safer
The [daily Hurricane Irma email] became the battle rhythm for disaster communications, it set the tone each day, and it was the script for workers on our emergency hotline and elected officials.
Mathieu Cavell, Assistant to the County Administrator for Community Relations and Resilience.
overall message impressions help keep Leon County safe.
5M
new email subscribers through Subscriber Network & direct signups.
7,300
increase in downloads of their CitizenConnect app.
7X
1.
2.
Listen to citizens.
Be prepared.
Understand information gaps to communicate better.
Brainstorm
Determine types of events that could happen, brainstorm a plan, create templates, and focus on ways to make your communications easy to develop and distribute.
Have a comms kit with evergreen templates to address needs.
3.
Reach and expand.
Use email & social media to reach & expand impact.
Takeaways
Lessons From Leon County
HEALTH SERVICEs
Virginia Delivers Health Coverage on a Deadline
Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS) needs to enroll Virginians in expanded health coverage before the deadline passes.
How Virginia Delivers Health Coverage on a Deadline
Improve Health Coverage for Residents
Granicus Digital Engagement Services collaborated with DMAS on a comprehensive strategy designed to meet Virginia’s needs by also understanding and meeting the needs of their audiences
Email & SMS govDelivery | Social Media
Know Your Audience
Opt-In to Ensure Engagement
Educate to Drive Action
Know your Audience:
DMAS audiences, including hard-to-reach ones, are captured via an overlay on the program website.
Opt-In to Ensure Engagement:
Letting Virginians opt-in to their preferred channel (email or SMS) is key for continued communication.
Educate to Drive Action:
An automated welcome email is part of a collection of campaigns to educate and drive action.
Capturing Attention, Engaging Citizens
Enrolled 320,954 Residents (and Counting)
There’s a lot of demand and need out there for this coverage.
Jennifer Lee, DMAS Director, in a Washington Post interview.
growth in audience through Granicus Subscriber Network.
75%
more people reached through a digital strategy designed by Granicus Digital Enagement Services.
50,000
Target personas.
Design journeys.
Segment a mass audience into meaningful personas.
Think about it
Define the different types of people you want to engage. How can you shape your messaging to their individual reality in order to make a bigger impact with better outcomes?
Build value into every citizen touchpoint, online to offline.
Set agile goals.
Attach goals to milestones to make sure you’re on track. If not, adjust.
Lessons From Virginia
SOCIAL WELL-BEING
How Michigan Comes Together for Hungry Kids
When summer break creates a gap in meals for many children, the Michigan Department of Education fills it with a summer food program.
Keep 500,000 Children From Going Hungry
With help from Granicus Digital Engagement Services, build a digital outreach program to raise awareness of summer meal sites to help feed children in low-income areas. Granicus also arranged partnerships with other Michigan agencies to get word out.
Email, SMS, & Overlays govDelivery | Social Media
8 agency partners | 5,946 SMS messages | 9,842 total subscribers
Grow Your Audience
Find a Location
Nurture Target Audiences
Grow Your Audience:
An overlay encourages website subscribers to “Meet Up and Eat Up” at nearby locations.
Find a location:
The site locator helps audiences find a nearby site, ensuring kids get nutritious meals during long school vacations.
Nurture Target Audiences:
Michigan continues supporting engaged audiences with news about events and other resources.
Better Outreach Feeds More Kids
3.4M Meals Fuel a Better Summer for Kids
[We] hope they know how important they are to us because we want to ensure they are well-fed while we are out of school. We hope they have a chance to socialize with their friends in a safe, fun space and meet new kids through the program.
Julie Humphrey, Food Service Director, in an interview.
messages sent to residents, businesses, & stakeholders statewide.
2.8M
subscribers added through partner outreach alone.
2,467
average email open rate (9% higher than state benchmarks).
30%
Don’t go it alone.
Capitalize on interest.
Partner with relevant gov agencies to increase impact.
Food for Thought
What inter-agency or inter-governmental partnerships could you foster and develop to help get the word out to more citizens?
Use subscriber overlays on key webpages.
Remember human impact.
Email subject lines with “Feed a Child” performed better than “Find a Donation Site.”
Lessons From Michigan
Summary
Lessons For Successful Campaigns
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Conclusion
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