by denise cox and Marina Nitoumbi

Established in Ireland in 1974, Manpower Ireland today works with organisations ranging from small and medium size enterprises, to multinational companies. Manpower’s email newsletters are sent to directors, senior managers and managers in organisations of various sizes and across diverse sectors.

Marina Nitoumbi, Marketing Executive for Manpower spoke to Newsweaver about the steps she took in realigning their newsletter to meet their strategic goals.  She said “Manpower is the most innovative provider of workforce solutions in Ireland – creating and delivering services that enable its clients to win in the changing world of work”,  and she wanted to further build on that client relationship by using Newsweaver's tools such as personalisation, topic sections, plus the addition of a flyer publication - to work in tandem with their newsletter.

Identify the Challenges and Set Goals for a redesign

“We wanted to maximise our ROI using Newsweaver and our meeting with you helped us determine how to improve the newsletter efficiency and results via the design, along with an adjustment of our practices.”  Marina created metric reports based on performance over the past twelve months, to benchmark performance with particular attention paid to Opens and Clicks.  This research determined some of the goals for the redesign with a view to increasing reader engagement. 

Design a new layout:  Increased navigation points, add sections

Here are the elements Manpower implemented to their layout in order to encourage increased engagement, and promote clicks and conversions:

• Stronger navigation - Besides giving the newsletter a stronger branded look, Manpower made more use of the left hand column in the two-column template.  Coloured background and link text were inserted to make it easier to read. Permanent links were added via tabs in the navigation menu to create a more useful and interactive newsletter.
• Request a callback – Manpower took advantage of the “Request a callback” feature. When clicked, it generates an email from the reader with the From and Subject Line pre-populated.
• In this Issue – This contains a list of sections and articles found in the current edition of the newsletter. It encourages readers to click on more than one article and section, making it even easier to navigate the newsletter and increase engagement.
• Sections – By adding sections to a newsletter, articles can be categorised under different topics, making navigation easier on the eye and encouraging more reader engagement.  Each section in the main article column is defined by a faded background colour (rather than an image) to help the viewer quickly find the section that is relevant to them.
• Survey – The new flexible design now allows Manpower to add or remove a survey function as needed per issue.
• Contact Us – This Contact Us link is one with a difference - by using a very simple in-built macro, it is personalised to feature the office that is sending the newsletter.

Improve Calls to action: more visible and actionable

“Firstly, calls to action were not properly inserted before the redesign of our newsletter. We were aware that they were critical but we did not insert them systematically to guide our readers as we do now.  In terms of diversity, we now ensure that our calls to action address all of our readers’ positions, i.e. what the next step is if a particular piece of content is of interest to them but also suggesting alternative options if this particular offer is not suitable to fulfil their requirements.”

(Click here to read more about improved CALLS TO ACTION) 

Increase Personalisation: implement photos, signatures and contact points

“While we nurture the relationship we build with each of our clients, we were not aware that the information we know about them could easily personalise their edition of the newsletter.” Marina says that they now have branch managers include a personalised note, including a personalised salutation, the manager’s photo and sign off.

(Click here to read more about PERSONALISATION)

Implement a generic flyer for multiple use complementing the newsletter

As the final part of the plan, Newsweaver created a flyer template for Manpower.  This is a user-friendly tool that can be quickly populated with content to communicate one action point or news item.  Marina says they plan to use it “as a follow-up on the newsletter mailing should a particular sub-segment reveal a common interest.”

CLICK HERE TO SEE MANPOWER'S
REDESIGNED NEWSLETTER.

CLICK HERE TO SEE MANPOWER'S NEW
FLYER PUBLICATION

The design team worked with Marina to create a flexible flyer template, one that would allow the flyer to be used for any type of single call-to-action mailing.  A permanent branding strip along the top includes the Manpower banner, along with a horizontal group of links: Subscribe, Forward to a Colleague, Contact Us, and Request a Callback. The body of the flyer can now be used in any manner, and feature any call-to-action link.