The Benchmark Report of 2018 Highlights Trends, Tips and Top-Performers That Support the Public Sector by Increasing Engagement and Outreach

Granicus is a leading provider of cloud-based software solutions to the government, and it just released its 2018 Benchmark Report. The report provides public sector leaders with proven metrics which enhances digital strategies and leads to an increase in engagement.

The report is based on an in-depth analysis of engagement metrics of more than 4,000 organizations that make use of Granicus solutions. The report also focuses on the top three digital channels used by the governments to communicate with its citizens—websites, email and social media.

The 2018 Granicus Benchmark Report has analyzed 1.6 million emails, activity from over 185 million citizen subscribers and over 400,000 web pages for visitor behavior over the period of 2017-2018.

Granicus CEO Mark Hynes says, “In today’s data-rich environment, public sector communicators are turning to digital platforms that generate real-time performance metrics and deliver insights that can enhance their approach to citizen engagement. Measured across 4,000 organizations, the Granicus Benchmark Report provides industry metrics for engagement metrics so that communicators can iterate on the strategies that are working in the public sector. Better engagement translates into better outcomes for organizations and their priorities such as program adoption, participation in public meetings, or voter turnout.”

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Key Findings of the 2018 Granicus Benchmark Report

• Email Engagement is on the Rise:

The median email engagement rate has increased from 45 percent in 2017, to 47 percent in 2018. This would lead us to believe that government communication teams are getting better at accurately targeting and messaging citizens for their needs.

• Government Email Leads the Way:

Emails which are sent by the public sectors regularly meet or exceed nonprofit and private sector benchmark metrics. Granicus has also found that the overall open rates for government emails are 21 percent, which is a rate that has remained constant for the past three years. This compares to approximately 16% for the nonprofit sector and 18% for the private sector.

• Tweets Get Shared, YouTube Gets Clicked:

The power of social media has been understood by government agencies. Government agencies now use social media to convey messages and for the deliverance of customer services. The research report also finds data which leads to a small comparison between Twitter and YouTube as social media channels. The report finds that Twitter is most likely to be shared in Government emails but YouTube’s links, however, were most likely to be clicked on thus demonstrating the power of video.

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• SEO is of Critical Importance:

The report states that 60% of traffic comes in from organic searches, thus making the emphasis on SEO a critical component for advanced engagement.

• The Future is Mobile :

2018 analysis reveals that half of all government website traffic comes in mobile devices or smartphones. This number has increased to nearly 10% since 2016 and is expected to rise in the future, though not all government agencies are mobile-enabled.

Hynes also added, “As our client base grows, so does the level of insight we have into the alternatives to expensive traditional marketing methods. Using email campaigns, mobile-enabled websites and social strategically can improve citizen reach and drive better connections between government and the people they serve.”

Granicus provides technology which aims to empower government organizations and hone the lives of citizens. Increasing engagement and enhancing government transparency is of utmost importance. The methodology based on this research included the annual data of 4,000 states, local, federal and UK organizations that use solutions provided by Granicus.

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