Behind the Envelope: 3 Reports You Should Be Reviewing
Welcome to Behind the Envelope, a series of posts exploring ways to get the most from GovDelivery. We’ve covered topics such as the GovDelivery Network, increasing subscribers and administrator access amongst others. Check back often as we’ll continue to publish information that we hope you’ll find valuable. Today we want to point out some reports we think you’ll find valuable. Have an idea on something you’d like us to cover? Drop us a line.
Report Cards Are a Good Thing
Growing up you might have been the kid with the perfect report card, but I occasionally needed some motivation from my parents. Somehow my parents always knew when report cards were sent home by the teachers. They were eager to review what I had accomplished and offer encouragement in the areas I needed help. Well, it’s time to look at your report card.
I’m guessing you have a large to-do list and can only spend so much time with GovDelivery before needing to move on to other things. As busy as you may be, it’s important to make time to evaluate the performance of your bulletins and the health of your account.
Getting Started is Easy
Administrators have access to a list of reports and not knowing where to get started might prevent getting started at all. We’ll keep this simple and take a look at three reports. The Bulletin Analytics report, the Account Performance report and the Network report. Accessing any of our reports is done by first clicking on the Reports button found on the left navigation. From there you’ll see a list of reports available to you.
Bulletins Analytics Report
If you only have time to check one report, this is it. This Bulletin Analytics report will show how the emails (we call them bulletins) you send are performing and includes standard metrics like delivery rate, opens and clicks.
The Bulletin Analytics Report defaults to displaying information for bulletins sent the past 30 days, but calendar icons on the right allow you to increase or decrease that timeframe if needed.
The report will first show you high-level summary information but also includes a details tab allowing you to view individual bulletins.
The details tab allows you to find a specific bulletin you’ve sent. Clicking into that previously sent bulletin will open a page that looks like this:
Of all the data available in the report, my favorite is the Bulletin Link Overview found at the bottom of the page. It shows which links in the bulletin received the most clicks. Did you ask people to register for an event? Want to know which stories in your newsletter were the most popular? Now you’ll have a much better idea.
There’s a lot of information provided in the report and I’ve just covered a bit of it. Dig deep and learn more about the Bulletin Analytics Report in our Support area.
Account Performance Report
This report is generally more popular with administrators wanting a better idea of the overall health of the account. The Account Performance report provides plenty of information, to keep it simple I’ll highlight two areas.
Total Subscribers
At the top of the page you’ll see a line graph representing the growth of your total number of subscribers. It should be trending upwards. If not, your Client Success Consultant wants to talk with you.
Source of New Subscribers
Just underneath the Total Subscribers line graph, you’ll see a Source of New Subscribers bar graph:
The graph represents where subscribers are coming to your account from. The four primary ways subscribers come to your account are:
- Upload – An administrator has loaded them into the account
- Network – The citizen subscribed via a GovDelivery Network page
- Overlay – The citizen subscribed via an overlay
- Direct – The citizen subscribed via a link on your website
If you’re reviewing the source of your subscribers and you don’t see more than one source, reach out to your Client Success Consultant. They’ll be happy to recommend ways to gain more subscribers. Psst. This blog post might have a few ides as well.
You can learn more about the Account Performance Report in our Support area.
Network Report
We reference this report often when working with a client. We do that because we’re proud of the GovDelivery Network and the impact it can make. This report shows you how many citizens subscribed to your account via a network page.
The network report compares subscriber growth via the network against subscriber growth directly (via a link on your site) and via upload (by an administrator).
You can learn more about the Network Report in our Support area.
Reports, while not the sexiest thing in the world, are increasingly important to people tasked with communicating with the public. Having a better understanding of your audience, how people are subscribing and how your messages are resonating, will make you a better communicator. That means more people registering for events, more people taking advantage of available services and ultimately happier and healthier communities.