How to apply to publish an email newsletter
- Meet with your department website manager to present your idea for the newsletter.
- They will review your request and present it to the Executive Council Office (ECO) digital team.
- The ECO digital team will review your package to ensure it aligns with the government's public communications standards.
Before you apply to publish an email newsletter
- Get the budget approved. The cost to publish an email newsletter is around $110/month. You can email [email protected] to learn more about this process. This cost covers the cost of the platform as well as platform support and maintenance.
- Come up with a concept and a content outline for your newsletter. Have solid answers for these questions:
- What business needs are you trying to meet? What is the purpose of the newsletter?
- Who will your audience be? What are your user groups and how will the newsletter meet their needs?
- How often will you publish and send out the newsletter?
- How will you generate content? How will the content differ from or compliment content on your website?
- Talk to your department website manager about your idea. They will be able to work with you and the Executive Council Office to make sure an email newsletter is the best way for you to meet your business and user needs.
- You can also request a demo from eServices to see how the platform works.
Migrating current newsletters to Envoke
If you are currently using another service to email newsletters to a list of subscribers you will need to start planning to migrate to the Envoke platform. eServices is working with ECO to create a migration plan for publications we are aware of, but you can reach out at any time if you have questions. Email [email protected] or touch base with your communications lead.
How to maintain your current list of subscribers
During our 2020 workshops on this platform the main concern publishers had regarding switching platforms were how to maintain their current list of subscribers. In most cases this will be an automated process. We also recommend you take this time to review your email list and get subscribers to opt in again to make sure they still want to receive your publication.
Once you know when you will move to Envoke, you can let your subscribers know what is happening. You can:
- publish articles in your existing email newsletters and incliude a link to re-subscribe;
- leverage your social media accounts and create posts or ads to let the public know about the change and to re-subscribe; or
- have a tablet or sign up sheet at industry and trade shows to recruit new subscribers.
Benefits of migrating to Envoke
- Use of a secure platform with a completed STRA and PIA.
- PIA documentation you can add to your program PIA.
- An up-to-date and secure system.
- Training and onboarding.
- Technical and content support.
- Dashboard to measure the performance of your newsletter(s)
How long does it take to start publishing?
Once you have your newsletter package together it will take around 2 to 3 weeks to start publishing. During this time:
- You can start working on your content.
- eServices will create your accounts and onboard you to use the platform for the specific purpose of publishing the email newsletter included in your proposal.
- You can complete the writing for the web course (if applicable).
What happens after you get access to Envoke?
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Once you have an account and taken the required training and onboarding you can start to create the approved newsletter using one of the available templates.
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Once you have your initial newsletter ready to go it must go through 2 reviews.
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ECO digital will review the content to make sure applicable guidance was followed
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eServices will review the user experience, branding and accessibility to ensure the standards are met.
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Once you have published the first newsletter, you can follow your department's approval workflow and execute your publishing schedule as planned.
You can only publish the approved newsletter and do not have permission to create and publish additional newsletters or notifications in the platform.