Your water authority communicates with a wide range of audiences, including the:
- Departments who work to ensure the water you produce is safe to drink
- Customers who pay for your services
- General population within your service area who depend on you to distribute clean, safe, drinkable water
While the departments you work alongside must receive the stats, figures, and numerical values that detail the quality of your water, the general public would rather see messaging that explains how the water you provide is safe and consumable without requiring anyone to calculate values or have to know chemistry.
In other words, the general public needs clear, effective messaging that presents qualitative information in an easy and digestible way.
So, how can you share your more qualitative information with your customers and the public, and how can you be sure they receive the information you provide? You can do it by way of strategic, well-drafted messages sent through the most effective channels of communication, especially digital channels.
Today, we’re looking at how marketing for your water authority can improve communication with your audience through digital channels like your website, social media pages, and email marketing.
#1: Improve Communication by Maximizing Your Website
In our previous article, we talked about the various marketing tactics your water authority can implement to better communicate with customers, residents, and other members of your audience. One of those tactics included website creation or redesign to improve a customer’s experience on your site and simplify the process of getting valuable information out to the public.
Today, let’s look even closer at the communication aspect of the website, examine the various ways you can maximize your site’s capabilities, and discover why it’s important to do so.
The main avenues we’re looking at are:
- Blog features, or News and Updates features
- Newsletter features
- Photo and video galleries
- Resource pages
Blog Features, Or News and Updates Features
Having a blog on your website is beneficial for two primary reasons: it serves your audience, and it serves your SEO.
A well-kept blog serves your audiences with the information they want or need to receive from your water authority. You have news, announcements, PSAs, general information, and so much more that your audience needs to be aware of. By utilizing a blog feature on your website, you can quickly and easily post what you need to in a clean, organized fashion, offering visitors a simple way to obtain information from you. Plus, you can share your posts on other platforms like your social media pages, encouraging your social followers to click through to your site and discover the details they need to know from you. Plus, it’s possible to display your updates directly on your homepage so that you can direct visitors’ attention to the most current and vital information right on page one.
Additionally, it benefits you SEO-wise. Even though your authority is not competing with other businesses or organizations in your service area, and there is no reason to compete with fellow authorities in the state, it is still beneficial to build your SEO and improve your ranking on search engines. People use Google to find the websites they’re looking for, even when they know the site’s URL. If people are searching Google for information that your authority is providing, you want your site to rank first and highest on page one to serve them best.
Newsletter Features
Does your authority include newsletters with the monthly paper invoices you send out to your customers? If so, that means you are producing an informational print piece on a regular basis, filled with timely information, stories, announcements, and more. Why not also make your newsletter accessible on your website? Similar to a blog, a newsletter feature allows you to upload digital versions of your newsletter to your website, giving your audience a chance to review the provided information online.
Traditional print pieces like newsletters in the mail are valuable forms of communication, but they are not long-lasting or a guaranteed way to reach your audience. Consider the fact that in some instances:
- The newsletter never makes it out of the envelope before ending up in the trash.
- Only the recipient of the invoice reads it before tossing it.
- The family dog gets to the envelope and destroys the whole thing before the recipient realizes it.
Several interferences can keep your newsletter from reaching your intended audiences. But having digital copies on your website ensures that the info is always readily available and virtually indestructible (literally).
Photo and Video Galleries
Your water authority likely has unique, engaging, and informative photos to share. And if you or your team has ever created a PSA video, participated in a recorded interview, or developed a public-facing video of any kind, you want them to be seen as often and by as many as possible, right?
By featuring a photo and video gallery online, you can easily organize and house your visual media for your visitors to browse through. Plus, you can post links to the photos and videos you want to promote on your social media pages or marketed emails.
Resource Pages
A resource page is a perfect spot to house important reports and publications that you’re required to present to the public, such as your Consumer Confidence Reports or your Popular Annual Financial Reports. However, should you create additional publications for your audiences (for instance, your newsletters), you can include additional sections on the page dedicated to those extra pieces, giving your customers and residents quick access to easy-to-digest information.
#2: Improve Communication Through Well-Maintained Social Media Pages
Not everyone is on social media, but nearly everyone is. Roughly 70% of Americans use some form of social media actively, and the average social media user stays active on six to seven platforms within a given month.
What does any of that mean for your water authority? It means it’s safe to assume that 70% of your customer base and the general population you serve is active on popular platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. And if so many of your customers are on those platforms, it’s wise to take advantage and use the platforms to improve your communication efforts with your audience.
Updating your page regularly with informative, easy-to-read posts will boost your communication with your audience and will significantly increase the likelihood of your messages reaching your intended audience.
Additionally, it allows you to show the human side of your authority. You can use your platform to respond to comments and posts from your audience, reply to both positive and negative reviews, and upload humanizing posts that help put a “face” to your name. “Face,” in this instance, refers to the people who make your authority tick, from your leadership team and managerial staff to your hardworking technicians and water system experts who keep your collection and distribution processes running smoothly day after day. Your social media strategy can include employee shoutouts or highlights, pictures of your teams in action, and other visuals that offer a look at your authority that goes beyond your brand voice.
#3: Improve Communication by Utilizing Email Marketing
Email marketing, sometimes referred to as eNewsletters, is a lot like the newsletters you send in the mail to your customers, just digital versions.
Sending direct emails to your recipient list is a surefire way to reach those whom you serve and who are interested in receiving the information you have available for them. It’s direct communication that isn’t going to get lost in the mail, stolen, or eaten by the dog. It’s going directly to your recipients’ inboxes for them to open. Plus, rather than providing one physical newsletter per household, everyone in the family with an email address can sign up for your emails and receive your information on whatever schedule you choose.
Housing digital newsletters on your website is a smart move, and providing physical copies to your billed customers is also beneficial. But, sending digital copies of your newsletter directly to recipients through email marketing strategies is a highly effective way to communicate with residents and consumers, whether they are paying customers, family members of paying customers, or general residents of your service area.
Your Communication With the Public Is Essential, Just Like the Water You Provide
If the name of the mission is “Operation: Improve Communication With Your Customers and Audiences,” there are so many strategies you can create to complete the mission successfully. From maximizing your website to improving your social media management and implementing email marketing, you can increase your current reach and further benefit the population you serve.
To ensure your strategies are as efficient and optimal as possible, you need a marketing team behind you that understands the unique, nuanced needs of your authority, your mission, and your operation. You need M&R Marketing.
We have been providing marketing for water authorities, like Macon Water Authority, since 2015, delivering solutions centered around its branding, graphic design, and digital communication needs. Discover the water authority marketing solutions we have provided for MWA so far:
Your Focus Is Water. M&R’s Focus Is Communication. Let’s Mix Our Specialties to Create an Impactful Partnership: 478-621-4491
M&R has been providing marketing solutions to water authorities since 2015, improving branding and communication strategies and tactics for the benefit of the authority and their followers. If it’s time to enhance how you reach the water users in your service areas, let M&R create the practical, strategic plan your authority needs.
Contact one of our business development managers today to get started!
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Related articles:
How Your Water Authority Can Improve Audience Communication
A Definitive Guide to Email Marketing