Reaching a Busy Field Force with
Dynamic Email Communications

How a media and technology internal communications team drives continuous improvement of key processes

In 2019, a global media and technology company selected EmailOpen for enterprise use. It had previously used a competitor solution, which provided an add-on function to Outlook. However, the company’s leaders needed an internal communications tool that provided more robust functionality, metrics, and support.

Several teams at the media and technology company oversee employee communications in multiple divisions, regions, and groups. In one division, a senior internal communications manager and a senior internal communications specialist have created templates and assets that the entire team can use, improving operational efficiency.

The two communicators use EmailOpen to build an employee newsletter for the division and executive messages branded with leaders’ photos and titles.

Providing Customized Service to Empower the Team

The EmailOpen team helped onboard the divisional internal communications team. “Each new team member gets a 1:1 training session with EmailOpen to walk through the process of building an email message and newsletter,” says the senior internal communications manager. “I have been so impressed with the training: both the delivery and depth of the content.” In addition, EmailOpen holds regular update sessions with clients to roll out new functionality.

EmailOpen worked with the team to create a visually appealing brand for the newsletter, which reflects the company’s guidelines. “We’ve gotten great feedback from our employees about how sleek and professional our newsletter looks,” says the senior internal communications manager.

The internal communication team also regularly updates the look and feel of the newsletter to keep engaging users. “We will do a refresh with the EmailOpen design team to keep things modern and ensure we are delivering our messages in the most effective way possible,” adds the senior internal communications manager.

Using Message Builders to Streamline Communications Processes

The two communicators say they value EmailOpen’s easy-to-use Message Builder; libraries of templates, photos, and graphics; and simplified end-to-end processes.

Message Builder is a database-driven solution that enables easy creation, storage, retrieval, and sharing of articles and past newsletters. To develop the weekly newsletter, the senior internal communications specialist leverages Message Builder and content from the corporate intranet to create a newsletter framework that others can duplicate.

The team also uses EmailOpen to store frequently reused imagery, such as leadership photos, brand images, logos, and more.

Communicators in other regions then use this framework to create their newsletters, pulling core articles and images in and adding their content. This process significantly streamlines the team's workflow.

“This is a great example of how you can create a template one time, and then it keeps paying dividends every time you use it,” says the senior internal communications specialist. “With a consistent format, we can plug and play content from our intranet, such as corporate news and employee benefits updates, which keep our employees updated on what’s happening with the company.”

Streamlining Distribution List Development and Use

The internal communications team works hard to put content into the hands of every employee across their mobile workforce. As a result, the team continually updates email distribution lists to include newly hired employees and individuals transitioning into new roles.

EmailOpen collaborated with the company’s IT team to develop dynamic segmentation, mirroring the filters of the team’s other distribution list tools. “EmailOpen has been a great partner in helping us drill down to create the right audiences for our content.” They got us up and running with dynamic segmentation very quickly.”

The EmailOpen team worked with the two communicators to add even richer segmentation to meet the company’s evolving business needs. For example, the team has developed a segment for leaders of employees who work in a different state so they can stay aware of key developments impacting their team members.

Collaborating to Make EmailOpen Even Stronger

The senior internal communications manager says she values the close collaborative relationship her team has built with EmailOpen. This relationship spans onboarding new users, designing and refreshing templates, holding update sessions on new functionality, and troubleshooting occasional issues.

The two communicators have given back by proposing the following eight ideas for new functionality. As a pleasant surprise for the team, all their ideas were in the product pipeline. New features include:

• Streamlining template use: EmailOpen users can now mass-export, archive, and delete templates. “This feature enables our teams to audit all available resources to see what’s available and who has access to them. It also allows us to quickly share resources with new team members,” says the senior internal communications specialist.
• Enabling image and link rerouting: This new feature enables internal communications teams to swap out photos, graphics, and links after sending newsletters. “Image and link rerouting help us easily make updates without affecting the user experience,” says the senior internal communications manager.
• Assessing email read time: This new feature helps the team see which newsletter issues are the most popular, so they can analyze further which content resonates most with readers.
• Creating the user group admin role: EmailOpen already provides admin and user roles but has added a new user group admin role. This new admin role enables a super-user to add or subtract users and manage permissions.
• Adding an icon library: EmailOpen provides libraries for imagery and graphics but has recently added an icon library. That makes it easier for the team to access and share icons quickly.
• Creating tags for campaigns: EmailOpen has also rolled out campaign tags, enabling users to categorize campaigns. “We will use this feature to pull reports by topic or audience,” says the senior internal communications specialist.

“The EmailOpen platform makes communicating important information to our employees seamless. The partnership we’ve built with the EmailOpen team has helped us to be more strategic about how we create communications campaigns and helps guide future decision-making,” states the senior internal communications specialist.

Tracking Readership to Improve Content and Delivery

The internal communications team uses EmailOpen to track open, read, and click-through rates. “We want to understand how readers in all functions and at all levels interact with our content – and the segmentation and analysis capabilities are endless. EmailOpen’s metrics and tagging functionality enable us to do more granular analysis of who is reading our content,” says the senior internal communications specialist.

EmailOpen also reports mobile and desktop views, enabling the team to see which content works best for field employees and use insights to optimize the mobile experience.

The internal communications team uses this information to experiment with various ways to improve readership, such as creating different types of content, sending personalized messages from leaders to targeted groups, scheduling communications for specific days or times, or experimenting with subject lines. “One thing that we have discovered really boosts open rates is using preview text,” says the senior internal communications specialist. The team regularly creates case studies on which campaigns performed better than others and why.

When asked what they value about the EmailOpen tool, the two communicators stress that the winning combination of great functionality, service, and support makes the difference.

“EmailOpen has helped our internal communications team elevate our messaging, design, strategy, and approach to analysis. Through our collaborative partnership, we can communicate with our employees in a more timely, aligned, and thoughtful way,” says the senior internal communications manager.