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COMMUNICATIONS OVERHAUL If You Edit, They Will Read!

WHO WE ARE

Sarah Miles Associate Registrar

Emerson College

Sarah_Miles@emerson.edu

Kelly McCabe Sr. Assistant Registrar

Emerson College

Kelly_McCabe@emerson.edu

THE CHALLENGE

Registrar’s Offices must communicate essential information and instructions to a variety of constituents, but…

No one reads!

WHAT PROMPTED OUR OVERHAUL?

•New student system

•New website content management system

•A desire to cut down on repetitive questions

HOW DID WE DO IT?

•Acceptance is the first step

• Evaluation and Assessment of our audiences, style, and goals

• Total website redesign

•Creation of a newsletter

•Major edit of email communications

•Creation of a communication calendar

•Development of an office style sheet

THE EVALUATION PERIOD – SELF-ASSESSMENT

1. Who are your audiences, and what type of audiences are they?

2. How are you currently communicating?

3. Do your communications fall into any common style traps?

4. What are your office resources? What are your institutional resources?

WHO IS YOUR AUDIENCE?

Students – Faculty – Staff – Alumni

• Limited attention span

• Lots of competition for their attention

•Varying tech savvy

AUDIENCE TYPES

• Skimmers

•Professionals

•Anti-readers

•Web Researchers

•Web Averse

•Visual Information Consumers

• Thorough Readers

COMMUNICATION MEDIUMS

• Traditional Mail

• Email

•Web Portals

•Website

• Social Media/Media

• Flyers/Posters

• Print Materials

• Text Messages

COMMON COMMUNICATION STYLE TRAPS

• Fine Print/Terms & Conditions

•Overwhelming Volume

• Too brief

•Overreliance on snail mail

•Overreliance on social media

• Tone is overly familiar

• Excessively bedazzled – bold, colors, underlines, the works

WHAT ARE YOUR RESOURCES?

• Size of Staff

• Staff Writing Skills

• Staff Tech/Design Skills

• Time Available

•Access to Web Content Management System and Mass Email Systems

What Is Your Communication Goal?

•What is your intended communication style?

•What mediums will you employ to reach your audience best?

•Who will perform the work?

•How much time will you commit to the project and on-going maintenance?

•How will you ensure communications go out in a timely and consistent manner?

OUR GOALS

Communication Style:

Clear and efficient communication to reach all audiences.

OUR GOALS

Mediums:

•Website – Rebrand as tool

•Newsletter – Introduce more visual element

• Email – Streamline and standardize

OUR GOALS

Staffing:

Two staff members with backgrounds in writing, web content management, and an affinity for design.

OUR GOALS

Time Commitment:

• Initial project: one week for newsletter, two weeks for website, average 30 minutes to an hour per email

•On-going maintenance: 15-20 hours per semester of email, website, and newsletter development

OUR GOALS

Consistency:

• Semesterly development of a communication calendar, approximately

•Creation of style sheets for each medium

WEBSITE REDESIGN

•Consult with your institution’s web services team.

•Research other schools’ sites for content and organization ideas.

• Scrap your old stuff and start over!

•Work towards perpetuity – the less you have to constantly update, the better.

Website – Where We Started

WEBSITE - NAVIGATION

• Long, unorganized list

•Half the items are just links to other websites

•Non-intuitive terminology and navigation choices

WEBSITE - NAVIGATION

• Limit to 7-8 items

•Order by demand

•Use intuitive categories (Table of Contents)

•Design collapsible navigation (Index)

• Think action!

•Create nexus for communication plan

WEBSITE - CURRENT

http://www.emerson.edu/registrar

WEBSITE - INSTRUCTIONS

•Old PDF Registration Instructions

•New Web Instructions

NEWSLETTER - WHY

•Address needs of multiple audience types

• Email-able and available 24/7 online

•Design elements direct flow of information

•Provide “marketing” communication option

NEWSLETTER - How

• Started with Microsoft Publisher

•Developed permanent template using in-house newsletter application

•Created publication schedule (3x semester)

NEWSLETTER - CURRENT

• For the Record - Student

• For the Record - Faculty & Staff

MASS EMAIL - REPURPOSING

•Reinforce, but not repeat, information from other two mediums

•Announce items outside of the newsletter publication schedule

•Provide “brief” communication option

MASS EMAIL – STARTING POINT

Old midterm email

MASS EMAIL - CURRENT

EMAIL TIPS AND TRICKS

•Main point of email in subject line

• Send from office, not individual

•Keep it brief – important information in first two sentences

•Use active voice

• Find opportunities for white space

•Use hyperlinks, not full URLs

COMMUNICATION CONSISTENCY

•Always have a non-author proofreader

•Create a style sheet for each medium

•Dictate font, font size, colors, image sizes, etc

• Establish agreed upon terminology and “voice”

•Develop a communication calendar

CONCLUSION

So do they read?

More than before!

(We’re not miracle workers.)

Remember, it’s an evolution, not a revolution.

Keep editing, and they will read!