SHIFT changes the focus of its email newsletter to target the right clients

SHIFT Communications has had success with its email newsletter, SHIFT Happens, based on its original goal of reaching as many people as possible. Last year, though, SHIFT opted to shift its focus from quantity to quality. It success has earned SHIFT first place in the “Electronic Publication or E-Newsletter” category of PR Daily’s 2017 Content Marketing Awards.

Since its launch, SHIFT Happens has attracted nearly 40,000 readers. The newsletter was useful, well designed and entertaining. But was it attracting the right kinds of subscribers that would eventually lead to revenue? 

With a goal of adding quality names to the subscriber list, SHIFT set new objectives that started with increasing attributable revenue from SHIFT Happens by 20 percent year over year. Another goal: getting SHIFT Happens into the C-Suite. 

SHIFT is known (among other things) for its ability to manage data, a skill the agency applied to this effort by analyzing its existing subscriber list and appending email addresses with names, titles, and organizations. With that analysis under its belt, SHIFT focused on acquiring readers from known, high-quality sources. 

Reader acquisition campaigns ran throughout the year, employing techniques like geofencing at communication events, digital advertising via social media targeting conversations at those events and using social media content analytics to determine the most appropriate content. 

The results exceeded goals, increasing C-suite penetration 0.2 percent and senior executive ranks by 53.8 percent. Newsletter contact form completions rose 75 percent, and contact form conversions rose nearly 100 percent. Most important, direct and assisted conversion revenue attributed to the newsletter both rose more than 25 percent. 

For producing a newsletter that delivers meaningful results, congratulations to Christopher S. Penn, Katie Lioy, Tori Sabourin, Natalie Cullings, Angie Goldman and Casey Egan.