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Client Case Study: ASAE & The Center
CLIENT: ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership
THE PARTICIPANTS
ASAE & The Center: Joe Rominiecki, Newsletters Editor
CommPartners:
- Rich Finstein, President
- Alex Robinson | Brian Ghiloni, Designers
- Carl Aron, Programmer
- Vickie Knorr, Project Coordinator
 CHALLENGE
ASAE & The Center wanted to begin 2008 with a fresh look for each of their thirteen Section e-Newsletters. These targeted HTML e-communications are geared toward members’ professional interests and are sent on varying publication schedules.
During the initial design consultation with Joe Rominiecki, it was decided each NewsManager template should have a distinct theme, while maintaining continuity of the organization’s signature branding.
In addition to the Section e-Newsletters’ traditional features, such as news, expert how-to articles, case studies and trends, new items needed to be incorporated – including links to the section's list-server and other areas within http://www.asaecenter.org.
APPROACH
Overall, the design needed to be flexible enough to accommodate small or large bodies of text and variations of the content presentation. Joe indicated the designs should focus on content, with minimal graphics that would not burden members with image-laden emails or inbox rendering issues. Said Joe, “An underlying goal with the redesign was to bring the newsletters more in line with the look and user experience of ASAE & The Center’s Web site.”
One of the specifics of the redesign was placement of the table of contents. ASAE & The Center wanted to ensure maximum email inbox preview-window exposure. To provide some options, CommPartners presented examples of e-newsletters that feature various placements of tables of contents, above and below the main banner of the email.
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With so many e-newsletters to create, Joe suggested we channel efforts on one publication – TechnoScope. Once design, functionality and testing, were approved, TechnoScope (left) would become the model for developing the other twelve e-newsletters.
Adds Joe, “Since we decided to select one main graphic per newsletter, the imagery needed to be strong and pull the whole piece together.”
To differentiate each publication, a separate color scheme was chosen, along with a principal graphic from ASAE & The Center’s pool of branded imagery. For example, TechnoScope features two people holding a power cord, while Meetings & Expositions’ artwork has two figures juggling. |
Another of the e-newsletters’ unique requirements was to drive traffic to specific member sections on ASAE & The Center’s Web site.
 To accomplish this, CommPartners’ designers linked each of the table of contents’ headlines, and ‘Read Full Story’ teaser paragraphs in the email version, to the full story within the corresponding member-type section on their site.
To view this feature, click on the Global Link thumbnail (left) to open a sample issue of the international association professionals’ Section e-Newsletter.
In addition, CommPartners created a custom zone for sponsor ads within the email, providing the association with an additional source of non-dues revenue.
Once the working draft of the initial TechnoScope template was completed in October 2007, Joe arranged to send a test version to their member committee for feedback. (The final version of TechnoScope was completed February 14, 2008).
COMPLICATION
Once he and some of the staff at ASAE & The Center had the chance to test the TechnoScope draft template, they discovered a few things they hadn't anticipated.
According to Joe, “We've gathered some feedback from a test group of members as well. Overall, they have liked it (as do I, of course), but a couple points of feedback have been consistent across the entire group, so we may want to address those.”
Most changes were minor, including moving the table of contents below the title banner, adding a byline field for each article, adding a “Contribute an Article” link and increasing the body-text size. More testing and HTML adjustments were also needed to improve inbox rendering for Outlook and Gmail.
OUTCOME
The templates were completed and rolled out on a staggered schedule, beginning in January 2008:
- January 7: Meetings & Expositions, Global Link, Government Relations
- January 21: Marketing Insights, Dollars & Cents, Association Law & Policy
- February 1: Executive IdeaLink, Communication News, Component Relations
- February 14: TechnoScope, AMC Connection, Membership Developments, Professional Development Forum
Having multiple NewsManager templates enables Joe and other ASAE & The Center writers to easily organize their thirteen publications, manage content and publish e-newsletters online.
The structural design choice to link articles headlines from e-newsletters, to the full articles within the Professional Sections portion of their Web site, has increased traffic to this key membership benefit area. Long-term, ASAE & The Center hopes directing readers to their site will reinforce the value of membership and renewal efforts.
Equally important, each of the Section e-Newsletters offers a simple, yet highly effective email design that maximizes e-deliverability and readability. The reader-friendly format also reinforces the ASAE & the Center brand, while encouraging reader involvement, and strengthening the value of membership.
Says Joe, “Once again, thanks for your great work; we really like the look and feel of the template. It’s a clean, crisp presentation of the content that we want to provide, and it aligns nicely with our general brand and look.”
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