These is the slide deck of presentations used during the webinar "Email newsletters" This webinar was organised by GFAR It was introduced in this blogpost: https://blog.gfar.net/2017/02/05/upcoming-comms-webinar-email-based-newsletters-not-a-thing-of-the-past/ The video recording of the actual webinar can be found on our Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/2NPpCxcJJUc

1. GFAR COMMUNICATIONS WEBINAR
GFAR-SECRETARIAT@FAO.ORG
Email Newsletters:
Not a thing of the past

2. Presenters
• Dominique Perera (IWMI/WLE)
• Ewa Hermanowicz/Nina Lauridsen (EUFORGEN)
• Louis Wertz (EcoAgriculture Partners)
• Alex Spillius (Foreign Desk Ltd)
• Deanna Ramsay (CIFOR/GLF)
Moderators: Charles Plummer/Peter Casier (GFAR)

3. How to choose an eNewsletter Tool
Dominique Perera – Manager Web Communications
International Water Management Institute (IWMI)

4. Topics
• Technical aspects to consider when using an eNewsletter tool
• The need for a responsive eNewsletter
• The “quest” for an automated RSS-fed tool
• What features should an eNewsletter tool have
• Must haves and Nice to haves
• Experience with the tool IWMI uses
• BenchmarkEmail
• How IWMI keeps building on the contact lists

5. Technical aspects
• Code in HTML
• Do we have to code and paste?
• Drag and drop design
• Can we prepare the content and then just drag to design?
• Response to various devices
• How will the email look on desktop, tablet and mobile devices?
• Embed videos
• Can we just paste in a YouTube video url?
• Error checking
• Can it be checked for errors/spelling?

6. Technical aspects - Designing
• Drag and drop design?

7. Technical aspects - Designing
• Drag and drop design?

8. Technical aspects - Designing
• Drag and drop design?

9. Technical aspects - Designing
• Drag and drop design?

10. Technical aspects - Designing
• Choose from Templates or start your own

11. Response to various devices
• Can the email be viewed effectively
on most devices?
Desktop
Mobile/Tab
• What about Plain Text viewers?
(OMG!)
• Are the buttons and links clickable?
(enough space between them not
to be confused?)

12. Embed Videos
• Can we embed a video?
• Not exactly
• It’s an image of a video
• Click to play on YouTube
• All you need is the
YouTube URL

13. Error Checking
Check email content for
• Spam
• Spelling
• Inbox compatibility
• Print view

14. Automated Newsletters
• Let your website drive your Newsletter Content!

15. Features to look for in an eNewsletter
Must have
• Signup Forms
• add forms to websites & social media to collect contacts
• List Management
• Create and maintain many lists, categorize by audience etc.
• Image gallery
• upload and store images to be re-used for multiple emails
• Tracking
• monitor and track email sends, opens, clicks, shares and unsubscribes

16. Features to look for in an eNewsletter
Must have
• Reporting
• generate reports on individual or groups of campaigns to see how each
compare

17. Features to look for in an eNewsletter
Must have
• Reporting
• generate reports on individual or groups of campaigns to see how each
compare

18. Features to look for in an eNewsletter
Nice to have
• A/B Testing
• test different versions of an email subject before sending it out
• Automations
• send automated emails based on dates (birthdays) or actions (triggers)
• Targeted Emails Lists
• create lists based on engagement or non-engagement
• RSS Emailing
• send out emails with content driven from websites
• API Integration
• transfer data to/from their internal system to their Email account

19. Experience with BenchmarkEmail
Great list management and segmentation*
Import from Excel, Export to Excel
Great design options
Templates, layouts, custom images etc.
Great email tracking
Opens, Clicks, Bounces, Unsubscribes
Great reporting and campaign comparisons
Click rates, Open rates, Compare campaigns, A/B Tests
Generally Open rates of 15-20%
*based on data collected

20. Building up contact lists
1. Scanned business cards -> Excel -> BenchmarkEmail
2. Sign-up forms on website -> BenchmarkEmail
3. Links to Sign-up forms on social media -> BenchmarkEmail

21. EUFORGEN newsletter
Considerations on content, process and measuring success
Nina Lauridsen and Ewa Hermanowicz
EUFORGEN secretariat

22. General information
• EUFORGEN’s objective
• Complementary to other channels
• Target group & subscribers
• Publishing frequency
• Mail chimp

23. How to choose and develop content?
• A few stories directly related to EUFORGEN
• Call for contributions from relevant sources and country
members
• Promotion of relevant projects related to EUFORGEN
• Synthesizing content  compact and appealing

24. Promotion
• Section of the publications catalogue
and subscribe form in the footer
• @EUFORGEN twitter
• Bioversity social media
• EVOLTREE
• Forest Europe

25. Statistics
“We regularly ‘adore’
your newsletter”
M.Sc. Danijela Bojkovski, The
European Regional Focal Point
for Animal Genetic Resources
(ERFP)
“Thanks; very nice and
complete Newsletter!
You can pass this
compliment on to those
involved please”
Sven de Vries, former
EUFORGEN National
Coordinator for the Netherlands

26. Challenges
• How to promote the newsletter better?
• How to grow our mailing list especially including forest practitioners?
• How to source more news stories?
• How to encourage professional community to contribute to news?
• How many people click on the link to the campaign shared on social?

27. Questions/Remarks

28. The EcoAgriculture
E-Newsletter Experience
What good is a good email (if no one forwards it to
their colleagues)?
Louis Wertz
Head of Communications
lwertz@ecoagriculture.org

29. Louis Wertz
lwertz@ecoagriculture.org
ecoagriculture.org
Is anyone
out there?

30. Louis Wertz
lwertz@ecoagriculture.org
Audience growth

31. Louis Wertz
lwertz@ecoagriculture.org
…or not.

32. Louis Wertz
lwertz@ecoagriculture.org
Sign up, please.

33. Louis Wertz
lwertz@ecoagriculture.org
How do we
generate
buzz?

34. Louis Wertz
lwertz@ecoagriculture.org
What do we send?
• Publication Announcements
• Event Announcements
• Sara Shares (new blog posts from our president)
• “Newsletter” every 2 months with short articles
linking to the above
• On average, we send 2 campaigns per month to all
our subscribers.

35. Louis Wertz
lwertz@ecoagriculture.org
Do they like it?

36. Louis Wertz
lwertz@ecoagriculture.org
Where do
we go from
here?
www.ecoagriculture.org

47. CIFOR NEWS UPDATES
Lessons learned & ideas looking ahead

48. WHO DO WE ENAGE?
• Number of subscribers: 34,300
• Who they are:
o Media (English, Spanish, Indonesian and French language)
o Civil societies
o International organizations
o Academia/universities
o Research organizations
o Private sectors (including finance institutions)
o Governments
o General public

49. WHERE DO WE REACH?
• Geographical distribution of our readers:
o Africa: 4,125
o Asia: 6,959
o Australia & New Zealand : 751
o Europe: 5,374
o Latin America: 2,601
o North America: 3,168
o Oceania: 217
o Unknown: 11,163
• Number of mailing lists (in addition to the media list,
what lists do we currently have?):
o Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) mailing list --> 5,668
subscribers
o Internal resource dev. --> 275 subscribers
o Global Landscapes Forum --> 9,920 subscribers
o Latin America mailing list --> 5,664 subscribers

50. HOW DO WE REACH READERS?
People can subscribe via:
o cifor.org: http://www.cifor.org/subscribe
o landscapes.org: http://www.landscapes.org/subscribe/
o FTA: http://foreststreesagroforestry.org/sign-up/
In addition, we gather contacts from the following:
o Participant lists from events
o Printed subscription forms
o CIFOR visitors
o CIFOR staff colleagues business cards

51. HOW DO WE IMPROVE?
• Tracking via click maps
• Tracking via website hits following news updates
• Adapting as needed (i.e. optimal days and times
to send)
• Creating targets (number of subscribers, click
throughs)

52. GOING FORWARD
• Create subscriber targets, e.g. GLF targeting 100,000
• Clean up database and create targeted lists to ensure
higher click rate.
• Create PDF versions to upload on Facebook and
LinkedIn.
• Use and synchronize social media to drive traffic to
newsletter (which sits on CIFOR.org once it’s sent).
• Send an adapted version of the newsletter via email to
internal staff. We’ve done this in the past, need to be
consistent. Fridays are low readership days, Monday
mornings better.
• Continue to optimize through tracking and innovation.

53. The Global Landscapes Forum
Communicating via newsletters & email blasts

54. Subscriber profiles
9,920 mailing list recipients
Diverse subscribers across sectors and regions
◦ Civil society
◦ Policymakers and government representatives
◦ Private sector representatives
◦ Media
◦ Academic institutions and scholars
◦ Research organizations
◦ International organizations
◦ …and more
The Global Landscapes Forum
Communicating via newsletters & email blasts
Africa
12.53%
Asia
21.68%
Australi
a &
New
Zealand
1.60%
Europe
27.88%
Latin
America
20.69%
North
America
15.06%
Ocenia
0.56%
Subscribers based on region
Academi
a
6.08%
Civil
society
organizat
ion
20.84%
Financial
institutio
n
1.23%
Governm
ent
22.99%
Intergover…
Media
1.74%
Private
sector
28.66%
Rese…
Subscribers based on type of
institution

55. Building a Global
Community of Practice
GLF registration and participant lists
GLF partner organizations and partner
contacts
Subscriber sign-up via landscapes.org
Social media outreach
The Global Landscapes Forum
Communicating via newsletters & email blasts

56. Strategic messaging and timely campaigning
News Update
◦ Regularly scheduled, monthly
Email blasts
◦ Not regularly scheduled, highlighted/noteworthy
news items
Scheduling and messaging strategically reflects
GLF events and/or activities campaigns
The Global Landscapes Forum
Communicating via newsletters & email blasts

57. Looking ahead
Amplifying and further diversifying subscription database
Updating mobile viewing of newsletters
Engaging audience with innovative interactive platforms and news-
sharing methods
Synchronizing dissemination of news updates and messaging via
social media
Rolling release in Asia, Africa, Latin America
http://www.nptechforgood.com/2014/09/28/10-e-newsletter-
best-practices-for-nonprofits/
https://www.newsletter2go.com/blog/average-click-rates-in-
marketing/
The Global Landscapes Forum
Communicating via newsletters & email blasts

58. Questions/Remarks