{"id":40364,"date":"2018-05-18T12:31:11","date_gmt":"2018-05-18T16:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/blog\/7-essential-steps-to-increase-the-use-of-digital-services\/"},"modified":"2024-02-22T09:48:26","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T14:48:26","slug":"7-essential-steps-to-increase-the-use-of-digital-services","status":"publish","type":"blog_posts","link":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/blog\/7-essential-steps-to-increase-the-use-of-digital-services\/","title":{"rendered":"7 essential steps to increase the use of digital 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What if it goes unused?<\/p>\n<p>These were questions asked during the \u201cIf You Build It, Will They Come?\u201d workshop at the 2018 Granicus National Summit which took place recently in Washington DC (hosted by Tina Burgess, Product Marketing Manager at Granicus).<\/p>\n<p>Having a plan for how you\u2019re going to engage existing and new audiences in your new digital offering\u2014and then get them to use it in the desired way\u2014is as important as building the service itself. Plan early and execute your communications strategy in tandem with the roll-out of your new service.<\/p>\n<p>Whether you\u2019re trying to increase the number of people booking their flu jabs or other health appointments, applying for housing or jobs, or buying and renewing licences online, just digitising a service doesn\u2019t make it a success. 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And without the luxury of a big communications budget, government organisations must work harder to be strategic in their approach to \u201cspreading the word\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>While analogue approaches (flyers, posters and mailings) may be \u201cright\u201d for some audiences, they incur significant print and distribution costs which are probably not sustainable for your team. They can also be difficult to track which presents a problem for measuring returns on marketing investment (ROMI).<\/p>\n<p>However, when the average person spends six hours a day on digital devices and checks their phone once every 12 minutes (80 times a day), digital channels are a huge opportunity for organisations to connect with more citizens where they\u2019re comfortable spending time and already consuming content.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Seven steps to better citizen engagement that helps drive programme success:<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>When trying to engage audiences in a new service or opportunity, plan how you\u2019ll use digital communications and promotion tactics to drive take-up:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Brand the service<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Branding consistency across all platforms and collateral is key to driving recognition, trust and understanding of your service or the opportunity you\u2019re sharing. Instead of calling your service \u201cCounty\u2019s new outdoor licensing portal\u201d for example, give it a more memorable identity such as \u201cGo Wild\u201d. With that, you have an opportunity to use a bespoke logo, strapline, colors and other brand indicators to drive awareness.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Check out <a href=\"https:\/\/uk.granicus.com\/downloads\/bournemouth-tourism\/\">Bournemouth Tourism&#8217;s successful campaign<\/a> to increase online bookings of luxury beach lodges. Consistent and unique branding across all communications channels has a big impact.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Have a plan<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Build a \u201cREACH &gt; AWARENESS &gt; ENGAGEMENT\u201d comms plan. Be deliberate about your choice of tactics, and ensure they are right for your target audience. Even if you use analogue channels to capture audience information (postcards and paper forms etc), consider whether you need to gather their email address as well to help future-proof your audience engagement activity. Do follow <a href=\"https:\/\/uk.granicus.com\/blog\/audience-growth\/webinar-recap-subscriber-sign-processes-gdpr\/\">GDPR-friendly practices<\/a> and let people know how, when and why their data will be used. We recommend you are careful ad strategic in your <a href=\"https:\/\/uk.granicus.com\/downloads\/content-marketing-public-sector\/\">content strategy<\/a>: don\u2019t just \u201csend out stuff\u201d and hope something \u201csticks\u201d. Test what works and be prepared to adapt.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Build an audience<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Use all relevant channels available to you to capture new audiences. Promote your new service in high-traffic areas on your website and partner websites, use a <a href=\"https:\/\/uk.granicus.com\/blog\/digital-engagement-2\/4-types-overlay-can-huge-impact\/\">web overlay<\/a> to capture more subscribers\/customers, and cross-promote wherever you can to engage new community members. Don\u2019t just \u201cfish\u201d from the same old pool. Think bigger and collaborate with other stakeholders. If you&#8217;re using the GovDelivery Communications Cloud, ask our lovely designers to produce a widget for you to place across other websites. These widgets can pull a dynamic feed of selected updates, and invite others to subscribe to them via an email capture field.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Target messages<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Segment your audience and deliver different messages for each \u201cbuyer persona\u201d according to their demographic characteristics; you stand a better chance of capturing someone\u2019s attention through your communications and moving them to take the desired action. Plan in advance what demographic variables will be involved in your segmentation strategy to ensure you\u2019re capturing the right audience data at the point of their subscribing to your service\/digital updates. We recommend using the &#8220;questions&#8221; feature in the GovDelivery Communications Cloud to capture relevant information.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Explain the benefits<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Make sure your messaging speaks directly to your audience\u2019s needs, not those of your organisation. Spell out the benefits of their participation\/custom, to make your audience care about this new offering and feel as though they\u2019d be missing out on something important. Consider the language you\u2019ll use to convey these benefits succinctly: \u201cBuy any time, anywhere\u201d, \u201cRenew your licence on your phone right now\u201d, or \u201cBuy online to avoid the queues at the Customer Contact Centre\u201d etc. Break down the motivations by persona and target your messages accordingly.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Ensure efficient deliverability<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Use a reputable marketing automation tool to ensure your messages get through to your audience. A platform such as the GovDelivery Communications Cloud by Granicus that works exclusively with government and public sector teams can help guarantee your important comms don\u2019t get stuck in spam filters. Can you afford for your comms to have a poor deliverability rate!? Using a reliable tool not only helps deliver messages to more of the right people, a 99-plus per cent average deliverability rate will also make the best of your time spent and maximise the impact.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Adjust as necessary<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Monitor what\u2019s working and what\u2019s not and be prepared to adapt your communications. Use automated A\/B testing for your subject lines, images, language and other design considerations to deliver the most impactful message to the biggest audience. Messages that <a href=\"https:\/\/uk.granicus.com\/downloads\/201718-granicus-benchmark-report-uk\/\">achieve higher open and click rates<\/a> have the potential to drive more people to take the desired action, so <a href=\"https:\/\/uk.granicus.com\/blog\/client-success\/incremental-improvements-matter-comms-metrics\/\">incremental improvements really do matter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","button":""}}]},"posts_slider_group":{"show_section":true,"posts_slider":[{"add_anchor":false,"anchor_name":"","background_color":"green","slider_subhead":"","slider_headline":"Discover More Blogs","slider_text":"","slider_type":"blog_posts","manual_resources":false,"slider_resource_tax":"recent","add_additional_filters":false,"department_filter":false,"market_filter":false,"outcome_filter":false,"product_filter":false,"region_filter":false,"solution_filter":false,"topic_filter":false,"slider_link":{"title":"View All Resources","url":"\/uk\/learning-center\/","target":""},"slider_link_icon":false}]},"centered_layout_builder_clone":{"flexible_page_builder_group":{"flexible_page_builder_fields":[{"acf_fc_layout":"wysiwyg","add_menu_anchor":false,"anchor_menu_text":"","wysiwyg_group":{"show_section":true,"alignment":"left","subhead":"","headline":"","wysiwyg":"<p>It\u2019s all very well building a shiny new portal or slick website that promises an easy customer experience AND efficiency savings for your organisation, but what if no one knows it exists? What if it goes unused?<\/p>\n<p>These were questions asked during the \u201cIf You Build It, Will They Come?\u201d workshop at the 2018 Granicus National Summit which took place recently in Washington DC (hosted by Tina Burgess, Product Marketing Manager at Granicus).<\/p>\n<p>Having a plan for how you\u2019re going to engage existing and new audiences in your new digital offering\u2014and then get them to use it in the desired way\u2014is as important as building the service itself. Plan early and execute your communications strategy in tandem with the roll-out of your new service.<\/p>\n<p>Whether you\u2019re trying to increase the number of people booking their flu jabs or other health appointments, applying for housing or jobs, or buying and renewing licences online, just digitising a service doesn\u2019t make it a success. You must go TO your target audience and lead them to your services, especially if your organisation needs to realise significant cost and time-saving targets through channel shifting customers away from analogue or high-cost contact channels to cost-effective channels online.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA recent survey in the US showed that only 27 per cent of citizens accessed government-operated leisure activities online despite a digital capability. Many people didn\u2019t even know about it. It\u2019s always important to consider the \u2018rule of seven\u2019 which means people on average need to hear something seven times before they really grasp, understand and internalize a message.\u201d \u2014<em>Tina Burgess, Granicus<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Communicators must share information about the new opportunity in different ways across different platforms multiple times to have a chance of resonating with an audience. And without the luxury of a big communications budget, government organisations must work harder to be strategic in their approach to \u201cspreading the word\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>While analogue approaches (flyers, posters and mailings) may be \u201cright\u201d for some audiences, they incur significant print and distribution costs which are probably not sustainable for your team. They can also be difficult to track which presents a problem for measuring returns on marketing investment (ROMI).<\/p>\n<p>However, when the average person spends six hours a day on digital devices and checks their phone once every 12 minutes (80 times a day), digital channels are a huge opportunity for organisations to connect with more citizens where they\u2019re comfortable spending time and already consuming content.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Seven steps to better citizen engagement that helps drive programme success:<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>When trying to engage audiences in a new service or opportunity, plan how you\u2019ll use digital communications and promotion tactics to drive take-up:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Brand the service<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Branding consistency across all platforms and collateral is key to driving recognition, trust and understanding of your service or the opportunity you\u2019re sharing. Instead of calling your service \u201cCounty\u2019s new outdoor licensing portal\u201d for example, give it a more memorable identity such as \u201cGo Wild\u201d. With that, you have an opportunity to use a bespoke logo, strapline, colors and other brand indicators to drive awareness.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Check out <a href=\"https:\/\/uk.granicus.com\/downloads\/bournemouth-tourism\/\">Bournemouth Tourism&#8217;s successful campaign<\/a> to increase online bookings of luxury beach lodges. Consistent and unique branding across all communications channels has a big impact.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Have a plan<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Build a \u201cREACH &gt; AWARENESS &gt; ENGAGEMENT\u201d comms plan. Be deliberate about your choice of tactics, and ensure they are right for your target audience. Even if you use analogue channels to capture audience information (postcards and paper forms etc), consider whether you need to gather their email address as well to help future-proof your audience engagement activity. Do follow <a href=\"https:\/\/uk.granicus.com\/blog\/audience-growth\/webinar-recap-subscriber-sign-processes-gdpr\/\">GDPR-friendly practices<\/a> and let people know how, when and why their data will be used. We recommend you are careful ad strategic in your <a href=\"https:\/\/uk.granicus.com\/downloads\/content-marketing-public-sector\/\">content strategy<\/a>: don\u2019t just \u201csend out stuff\u201d and hope something \u201csticks\u201d. Test what works and be prepared to adapt.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Build an audience<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Use all relevant channels available to you to capture new audiences. Promote your new service in high-traffic areas on your website and partner websites, use a <a href=\"https:\/\/uk.granicus.com\/blog\/digital-engagement-2\/4-types-overlay-can-huge-impact\/\">web overlay<\/a> to capture more subscribers\/customers, and cross-promote wherever you can to engage new community members. Don\u2019t just \u201cfish\u201d from the same old pool. Think bigger and collaborate with other stakeholders. If you&#8217;re using the GovDelivery Communications Cloud, ask our lovely designers to produce a widget for you to place across other websites. These widgets can pull a dynamic feed of selected updates, and invite others to subscribe to them via an email capture field.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Target messages<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Segment your audience and deliver different messages for each \u201cbuyer persona\u201d according to their demographic characteristics; you stand a better chance of capturing someone\u2019s attention through your communications and moving them to take the desired action. Plan in advance what demographic variables will be involved in your segmentation strategy to ensure you\u2019re capturing the right audience data at the point of their subscribing to your service\/digital updates. We recommend using the &#8220;questions&#8221; feature in the GovDelivery Communications Cloud to capture relevant information.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Explain the benefits<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Make sure your messaging speaks directly to your audience\u2019s needs, not those of your organisation. Spell out the benefits of their participation\/custom, to make your audience care about this new offering and feel as though they\u2019d be missing out on something important. Consider the language you\u2019ll use to convey these benefits succinctly: \u201cBuy any time, anywhere\u201d, \u201cRenew your licence on your phone right now\u201d, or \u201cBuy online to avoid the queues at the Customer Contact Centre\u201d etc. Break down the motivations by persona and target your messages accordingly.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Ensure efficient deliverability<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Use a reputable marketing automation tool to ensure your messages get through to your audience. A platform such as the GovDelivery Communications Cloud by Granicus that works exclusively with government and public sector teams can help guarantee your important comms don\u2019t get stuck in spam filters. Can you afford for your comms to have a poor deliverability rate!? Using a reliable tool not only helps deliver messages to more of the right people, a 99-plus per cent average deliverability rate will also make the best of your time spent and maximise the impact.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Adjust as necessary<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Monitor what\u2019s working and what\u2019s not and be prepared to adapt your communications. Use automated A\/B testing for your subject lines, images, language and other design considerations to deliver the most impactful message to the biggest audience. Messages that <a href=\"https:\/\/uk.granicus.com\/downloads\/201718-granicus-benchmark-report-uk\/\">achieve higher open and click rates<\/a> have the potential to drive more people to take the desired action, so <a href=\"https:\/\/uk.granicus.com\/blog\/client-success\/incremental-improvements-matter-comms-metrics\/\">incremental improvements really do matter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","button":""}}]}},"post_slider_clone":{"posts_slider_group":{"show_section":true,"posts_slider":[{"add_anchor":false,"anchor_name":"","background_color":"green","slider_subhead":"","slider_headline":"Discover More Blogs","slider_text":"","slider_type":"blog_posts","manual_resources":false,"slider_resource_tax":"recent","add_additional_filters":false,"department_filter":false,"market_filter":false,"outcome_filter":false,"product_filter":false,"region_filter":false,"solution_filter":false,"topic_filter":false,"slider_link":{"title":"View All Resources","url":"\/uk\/learning-center\/","target":""},"slider_link_icon":false}]}},"call_to_action":{"hide_call_to_action":false,"color":"red","custom_cta":false,"custom_subhead":"","custom_headline":"","custom_description":"","custom_link":null,"custom_image":false}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_posts\/40364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/blog_posts"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_market","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_market?post=40364"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_dept","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_dept?post=40364"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_type?post=40364"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_region?post=40364"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_outcomes","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_outcomes?post=40364"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_topic?post=40364"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_products","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_products?post=40364"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_solutions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_solutions?post=40364"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_services","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_services?post=40364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}