UK Landlord & In Focus

Success achieved

Increasing the member satisfaction engagement levels and ROI of the NLA newsletters following a rebrand

Project dates

February 2019 - July 2019

Project team

• Gina Mortlock, Digital Marketing Manager
• Michelle Perry, Editor
• Policy & Advice Line Staff

Tools & Systems

• Dotmailer - for email design, some landing page design and surveys.
• Unbounce - for landing page design.
• Drupal - for website content.
• In Design - for banner design.

Introduction

Following a rebranding project which finished in February, and feedback from members, the decision was made to reduce the frequency of e-newsletters from fortnightly to monthly.

Previously, we were sending two emails to two different distribution lists where the content was replicated. The only difference was the email that went to non-members had a code to waive the joining fee.

UK Landlord is sent to around 35,000 members per month with an average open rate of 30.61 percent and an average click to open rate of 34.68 percent. It also includes the following:

• Property licensing updates
• Updates to legislation in the private rented sector o Exclusive offers and discounts from suppliers
• Invitations to NLA events
• Access to the latest industry news and updates

In Focus is sent to around 7,500 non-members per month, with an average open rate of 31.08% and average click to open rate of 31.15%. It includes less news stories than the member edition, a link to upgrade for licensing news, and snippets of member content to encourage upgrades.

Discovery

We looked at previous newsletter successes, including subject lines and story topics that had performed well. We also looked at previous formatting errors across different email providers to learn from these mistakes.

We looked at data from recent landlord surveys to see what topics and pain points were of particular interest to landlords at the time of launching the newsletter, and looked at anecdotal feedback from members at meetings.

Feedback from our 2018 membership survey highlighted a need for us to more clearly communicate the lobbying work we do to our landlords, which is why we always begin our newsletters with NLA in action. These stories have been popular since inception and continue to be one of our largest sources of clicks. The member survey also informed the frequency with which we send our newsletters.

Finally, we looked at other industry newsletters for design and content ideas, did a competitor analysis of the RLA’s newsletter offering, and ran all of this through our content agency to discuss next steps.

Feedback from members in the member survey:

• “Focus is not exciting or interesting - usually a very dull boring read - no arresting information or position taken on events.”
• “It comes out too often, mainly repeats what has been in the previous one.”
• “Weekly drop with no real news. Just excuses for not doing stuff or looking like lobbying Government when you're clearly not very good at it.”
• “News can be out of date or well after it first appeared in other landlord forums / communications.”

Objectives

The purpose of the UK Landlord e-newsletter is to communicate the lobbying work we do on behalf of our member, while In Focus encourages non-members to join the organisation.

We have worked with Think, the agency that also produces our magazine, to create newsletter content that is aligned with our magazine and our policy content calendar. There is a clear separation between the email that goes to our members – UK Landlord - and the email goes to our contacts or non-members who have opted to receive the e-newsletter – In Focus. While some of the content is the same, UK Landlord contains double the amount of information than In Focus.

Both e-newsletters contain a variety of stories. For instance in UK Landlord, there is an update of what the NLA are doing as an organisation and our lobbying work (NLA in action), a story focusing on one of our members and their triumphs / relatable hardships, one on current legislation to ensure our members are acting lawfully, one about development opportunities, and one sharing tips / how to guides for landlords. In Focus includes NLA in action and a selection of relevant and timely topics, such as current legislation and how to guides.

Our KPIs are based on open rates, click to open rates for UK Landlord, and open rates, click to open rates and membership upgrades for In Focus. The main objectives for our member newsletter was to improve member satisfaction with email communications, and to improve engagement. We saw a 20% improvement in member satisfaction with emails after the newsletter rebrand, an increase of 14.69% in engagement.

Timeline

Due to staffing constraints and a strict brand relaunch date we had six weeks from project inception to launch. This was obviously an incredibly tight deadline so planning and concept creation was done within the first week or so, with the next few weeks commissioning content, gathering information from relevant policy staff and external contributors, and the last week focused on bringing the project together with design and running it through branding / tone of voice testing.

Activities

Planning:

• Looked at successes of previous emails with regards to subject line and topics of interest
• Learnt from previous formatting errors
• Read online comments and anecdotal feedback from members
• Looked at landlord survey results to pick common painpoints in the private rented sector
• Looked at member surveys to see how member already felt about the newsletter
• Research industry newsletters for ideas
• Did a competitor analysis of the RLA’s newsletter
• Planned the project within the confines of GDPR

Communication:

• Had multiple meetings with key stakeholders to identify any risks and to manage expectations
• Let members know of the upcoming change to branding and ramped up excitement for the project launch
• Communicated internally to all staff members about the project, especially front line staff who may get questions on the subject
• Created a central spreadsheet for all staff members to access all copies of the newsletter to field questions and to keep up to date with the project

Process:

• Created an internal process with timelines and shared it with staff. This included details on what type of content would be considered for inclusion, the format it needed to be in and the deadline for content.
• Created a process to manage external stakeholders such as the content agency and those commissioned to be in the newsletter.

Content:

• A content schedule was written up, with forward planning for six months at a time (flexibility was needed on this point as news stories often needed last minute spaces in the newsletter).
• Content was researched, written and subbed.
• Content was run through the PR team to ensure that it was consistent with the new brand values and tone of voice guidelines.

Design:

• Redesigned the email layout, including different blocks for different types of content, a new branded header to match our magazine and different colours / styling to match our newly launched brand identity.
• Designed new microsites to house member only content – ensured these were mobile friendly and responsive.
• Designed new landing pages to convert non-members to members

Testing:

• Tested the newsletter and landing pages on various email servers to ensure that formatting works regardless of server, device or browser.
• A/B tested subject lines, content layouts, upgrade banners, CTAs and timing.

Analysis:

• Each month we assess the best performing subject line and stories, report back to advertisers on their click-through-rate and look to the future to see what we can do better
• Every six months we do an analysis of how the project is going so far and what larger improvements we can make based on the evidence gathered

Innovation

UK Landlord is clearly branded with a header that mimics the design of our quarterly magazine. This is immediately identifiable by our members and encourages them to read on for quality content.

The recognizable header leads in to five further bright story blocks, each with a different topic that would be of interest to our audience. These are either topical news stories, or on topics we have proof our members engage with. The summaries are manageably sized and engaging, and lead through to microsites with feature length articles. Our third-party adverts aren’t oppressive and fit with the colour scheme and branding of the emails. They are also dynamic and show clearly the service they offer without click baiting.

We then highlight a couple of opportunities for landlords to help shape government projects, examples include fire safety or a new service to help improve Universal Credit for both landlord and tenant. This section includes our members in our mission to improve the private rented sector as a whole, and responses have gone a long way to help shape government decisions. We also draw attention to some landlord development opportunities, as well as some product recall information that is of vital importance to a landlord's duty to keep their tenants safe.

We end on licensing information that will help landlords keep up to date with schemes and consultations in the UK that could affect their properties. This is always a popular section, and we find that placing it at the bottom of the email has helped us engage readers more with stories in the middle of the scroll depth, compared to when we housed these nearer to the top. We keep social and contact details last so as not to encourage people to click away to other channels before they are finished reading the content.

Marketing

After the success of the newsletter was established, we began marketing to new audiences and potential members. We did this in a number of places, including on FB paid advertising, along with other organic social, website popups, paid media on property websites, solus emails and on blog posts. We get about 400 sign ups on average a month to our non-member newsletter.

Challenges

• A very short turn around at a very busy time for the NLA. Alongside this project we had to complete a rebrand and a corporate restructure, which meant that sometimes the newsletter was not the top priority to key stakeholders.
• We had to manage people’s time and expectations and share with them how this project will also help their respective areas (e.g. it would help the events team boost their sales, the policy team boost their engagement and lobbying efforts, and services boost their marketing leads).
• We also had no easy way to distinguish between member only content and content for non-members. We got around this issue by temporarily using dotmailer landing page builder to build microsites. We then evolved to Unbounce and eventually gated content on our own website.

Achievements

We exceeded most of our KPIs related to open and engagement rates, and click-to-open rates continue to creep up. The newsletter has been very well received by members, and has lead to a 20% increase in member satisfaction (as per our last membership survey).

It has also opened up huge revenue streams via newsletter banner advertising and advertising space on the microsite and on the blog.

We were also able to market the newsletter and enter people in to an automated welcome email series before they received the newsletter – this has led to a number of member sign ups and has allowed us to convert members in a much shorter time.

From the member survey the year after the launch of the newsletter compared to the previous year: 15% think that the level of contact received from the NLA is too much, down from 20% in 2017; 72% think the level of contact is "about right".

Targets & Statistics

UK Landlord is sent to around 35,000 members per month with an average open rate of 30.61 percent and an average click to open rate of 34.68 percent.

In Focus has seen a post-GDPR growth of 27.26 percent and is now sent to almost 8,000 people with an average open rate of 31.08% and average click to open rate of 31.15%. Readership grows by an average of 500 people per month per newsletter and, since the rebrand, the open rate has improved by 6.81 percent for UK Landlord and 12.8 percent for In Focus. In the same period, the click to open rate has improved by 14.69% percent for UK Landlord and 19.26 percent for In Focus.

In a recent membership engagement survey, 89 percent of respondents said they read the e-newsletter regularly, and 97 percent said they were satisfied with it. Ninety- three percent of respondents said the NLA keeps them up- to-date with the latest developments in the private rented sector and 72 percent said they receive the right amount of contact from us.

Financials

Initially we paid our content agency £2,850 / month for their input, which meant we were barely breaking even on advertising income. After the project was established, we managed to bring some of the policy content in house and cut this budget down to £1,400 / month. This means that we are turning a profit on both advertising spend and member conversions.

We managed to absorb the work within existing staff roles with little impact to workloads, which meant no extra staff investment was needed. We now make an average of £2,000 / month from our newsletter.

What would we do differently?

•  Anticipate for project expansion at the beginning of the project – in this case the blog migration project. While this didn’t have a detrimental effect on the project, we missed out on traffic to the website for a couple of months before we migrated the blog over.
• Reduce spend from content agency by assessing what can be done in house.

Advice

Learn from data. Look at what’s succeeded / failed before and work that into your plans. Then when you have a solid idea of what will work for you test, test and test again – just because you think you know what your members like, doesn’t mean they will engage with it. Give them options and learn from their responses.

Feedback & Testimonials

97% of members who used our service and responded to the Annual Membership Survey in 2018 were satisfied/very satisfied with the e-newsletter.

“The NLA member newsletter is modern and fresh which has helped it to stand out amongst a vast array of newsletters that members were receiving. E-newsletters are a great way to put an organisation’s content front of mind with its audience but it needs to be clear, relevant and add value in people’s time-poor lives. The NLA monthly newsletter is so successful because it works to the strength of the medium. The team set out with a really good strategy which was simple but effective: create great content that is worth reading and it will be read; ensure it is tailored to the needs of the audience, and their needs will drive engagement; keep it short and simple to ensure that it works for all members; and keep it lively and focused, not forgetting that landlords are people and want to learn by example with case studies and inspiring stories. This Newsletter programme deserves to be recognised as it really is best in class and highly effective.”

Polly Arnold, NLA member, Think Publishing employee

Wider impact

It has naturally lead to other projects that are proving hugely significant for our business. 

Blog Migration - When we launched the newsletter our blog was housed on Wordpress. Due to the success of the visitors to the blog following the launch of the newsletter we realized we were missing out on visitors to our website, organic traffic and a better user experience/onward journey. We have now migrated the blog to the website and achieve almost 10,000 pageviews a month – only 62% of that now comes from email, with 29% coming from organic traffic. Through content originally provided for the newsletter we have had 316 sign ups and 10 member sign ups through organic traffic.