My News

Send newsletters based on My House information

My News enables citizens to sign up for council newsletters which are automatically created from existing content. My News provides Councils with the ability to centralise their recipient database and then control content and send. There's no longer a need for an independent or outsourced email marketing resource.

My News in action

Bath and North East Somerset Council was the first user of My News. My News uses the existing My Alerts tab to opt in to the various options; all citizens have to do is click on the news they wish to receive.

Currently BathNES puts out three newsletters, one which is controlled by Communications and Marketing which contains general Council news and goes out weekly. Then there’s Sports Development which has a programme called ‘Get Active’ which keeps, people who have registered, informed about special offers such as discounted entry to swimming pools, current events plus tips, advice and information on how to GET and STAY ACTIVE. The monthly newsletter is the main conduit for this information. Lastly there is Waste and Re-cycling which puts out a newsletter every quarter.

All of these newsletters are created from content generated by the Council and posted on the website rather than alerts which are triggered by things changing in your local area. This proactive push of information already has the potential to reach 7,000 plus users already registered through old externally managed email arrangements.

So how does it work? Departments create content on the Council website using the established content management system. The newsletters re-use this existing content by taking a specially configured RSS feed from it straight into iShare. This is then used to configure an HTML newsletter which like an alert is emailed direct to registered users. The newsletters can be completely automated or scheduled. At a stroke this gives the Council full control over content without the need for an externally managed service.

iShare provides complete control of the headers, footers and borders of the newsletters, very important to the Comms and Marketing people, and reasonable control of the RSS which generally includes a title, subject and description of the article and any associated enclosures, which in most instances means images.

The main benefits of My News are that it returns full control of this vital communications channel to the Council and centralises the registration process. This push channel has enormous possibilities but it has to be managed effectively to ensure that it does not just become another form of spam.