Communications Tooling: Email Marketing
Status: Active
Last Modified: 2023-12-04
Related Issue: #590
Deciders: Lucas Brown, Aaron Couch, Billy Daly, Sarah Knopp, Sumi Thaiveettil
Tags: communucations, open source, email marketing
Context and Problem Statement
An email marketing tool is primarily used for creating, sending, and tracking email campaigns to a list of subscribers. It allows for us to engage with our audience, push notifications and newsletters to our users, share information, and build customer relationships through email.
Decision Drivers
Must Have
Usability: Non-technical users should be able to access and create content with minimal training or guidance.
Content Review: Collaborators should be able to review and edit draft content before emails are sent out.
Comments: Reviewers should be able to leave in-line comments on content that they are reviewing.
Internationalization (i18n): The solution should provide support for displaying content in multiple languages.
Analytics: The platform should provide support for tracking open rates, click-through-rate and other other web analytics.
Onboarding Costs: Onboarding new members to the platform should be relatively inexpensive, both in terms of staff time/resources and direct costs (e.g. licensing fees).
Maintenance Costs: It should not be prohibitively expensive to maintain the email marketing tool, both in terms of staff time/resources and direct costs (e.g. hosting fees).
Authority to Operate (ATO): The tool should be FedRAMPed or have an Authority to Operate as it will have names and email addresses of public users.
Nice to Have
Open Source: The tool used to manage the email marketing content should be open source, if possible.
Community & Support: The platform has a strong community for ongoing support, updates, and bug fixes
Scalability: The platform should be able to hadndle a growing number of subscribers without performance issues
Options Considered
Decision Outcome
The suggested approach is to utilize Sendy and create a campaign for Simpler Grants.gov within the existing main account for the near-term, leveraging existing knowledge and allowing for faster use. This allows for a faster initiation of the process. One of the most important criteria given by users of the tool, the Grants.gov Communications team, is the need to be able to send an email to the current 1M current subscribers quickly which Sendy cannot do. There are other limitations of this solution so we recommend that we select a back-up option email marketing solution for our long-term needs.
There are limitations to Sendy and the recommendation is to move to another email marketing tool that is a better long-term solution that works for HHS and the larger communications strategy for Simpler Grants.gov, current Grants.gov, and NOFO. This makes it easier and consistent to implement and manage one tool.
Open Questions
Can we transfer the Simpler Grants.gov email list from Sendy to a different tool in the future?
Yes, we are able to transfer the list created in Sendy to a new tool in the future.
What is the long-term tool that we should use?
As we're determining the brand identity and communications strategy and how the different HHS teams will work together, we will determine the long-term solution at a later time.
Can we send to individual lists?
We can use Sendy to send to individuals and also for a separate subscription lists which is called a "Brand" in Sendy.
How can we integrate with the current implementation of Sendy?
A Brand can be created under the existing Sendy account which allows users who subscribe through that form to be added to a separate list specific to Simpler.Grants.gov. This list will be distinct from the other lists within the Sendy account.
For the long term solution, there are certain requirements and considerations that we should consider?
Currently when users unsubscribe, a script needs to be run to remove them from the list. We should consider a system that automatically updates the system.
The new platform should have an API that is robust enough to allow users to subscribe, unsubscribe, and check for existing users.
Comparison Matrix
✅ Feature available, meets requirement
❌ Feature not available, does not meet requirement
🔄 Partial feature, limited feature availability, feature in progress or undergoing improvements
1-3 Strength level
❓Unknown
| Factor | Sendy | Salesforce | MailChimp | Hubspot | Mautic | Adobe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Usability | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
Content Review | 🔄 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Comments | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Multi-Media | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | 🔄 |
Analytics | 1 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Internationalization | ❓ | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Onboarding costs | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
Send 1M emails quickly | ❌ | ❓ | ❓ | ❓ | ❓ | ❓ |
Authority to Operate or FedRAMP | ✅ | ❓ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
Open source* | 🔄 | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
Community and Support* | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
Scalability* | 🔄 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
[*] Nice to have
Pros and Cons of the Options
Sendy
Details
Sendy is a self-hosted email marketing application that allows users to send newsletters, manage subscribers, and track campaign performance. It is known for its cost-effectiveness and integration with Amazon SES for efficient email delivery.
Pros
Sendy is currently used by HHS and it would be simple for existing users to start using the tool right away
It provides decent metrics and analytics
HHS is able to send a few campaigns simultaneously
Sendy is self-hosted which means we have control over the email list and the data. Sendy is a self hosted application that runs on our own web server. Pay once and it's yours, there's no recurring fee.
It is a cost-effective option as it is self-hosted.
Self-hosting provides control over data and infrastructure
Cons
Campaigns with larger audiences or number of emails take a long time to send and a user cannot use the tool while an email is being sent. Currently, we have 1M subscribers and it takes a long time to send to that many subscribers. There are methods that could be done to improve this.
Lacks some advanced features present in other platforms.
It requires technical knowledge for setup and maintenance.
Limited customer support compared to premium services.
Salesforce Marketing
Details
Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a comprehensive marketing automation platform that enables organizations to create and manage personalized customer journeys. It includes features for email marketing, social media advertising, customer segmentation, and analytics.
Pros
Salesforce Marketing is a comprehensive solution that offers a wide range of features and tools for marketing automation
If we use any other Salesforce tools in the future, it is an easier integration
It provides robust analytics and reporting capabilities
Cons
Salesforce Marketing can be expensive, especially for smaller businesses
There is learning curve as it may be more complex for non-technical users
It may have more features than needed
MailChimp
Details
Mailchimp is a widely used email marketing platform that offers a user-friendly interface for designing and sending emails, managing subscriber lists, and analyzing campaign performance. It also provides marketing automation features.
Pros
MailChimp is user-friendly for non-technical users with a simple interface
MailChimp does offer a free plan for small-scale needs
There are automation features for targeted campaigns
Cons
Pricing can become high as subscriber lists grow
Some users may find limitations for advanced customization
Free plan users have limited access to customer support
Hubspot
Details
HubSpot is an all-in-one inbound marketing, sales, and customer service platform. It provides tools for content marketing, social media, lead generation, and customer relationship management (CRM) to help businesses attract, engage, and delight customers.
Pros
Hubspot combines marketing, sales, and customer service tools
Intuitive interface for non-technical users
Strong automation and personalization features
Cons
Can be expensive, especially for additional features
Some users may find it complex initially
More features th an needed for some smaller organizations
Mautic
Details
Mautic is an open-source marketing automation platform that allows users to automate marketing tasks, personalize communication, and track the behavior of leads. It is known for its flexibility, open-source nature, and strong community support.
Pros
Offers flexibility for customization
Strong community support for ongoing development
Can handle growing subscriber lists
Cons
Moderate usability, some users may find it less user-friendly
May require additional development for certain integrations
Non-technical users might face a learning curve
Adobe Campaign
Details
Adobe Campaign is a marketing automation tool that forms part of the Adobe Experience Cloud. It enables users to create, execute, and measure multi-channel marketing campaigns, including email, mobile, social, and web, while integrating with other Adobe products.
Pros
Adobe Campaign is FedRAMP certified
Adobe Campaign is part of the broader Adobe Experience Cloud which is a suite of products and could be beneficial if we use more Adobe products for marketing and analytics tools
Enables the creation and execution of multi-channel marketing campaigns, including email, mobile, social, and web
Offers robust features for personalizing content and creating dynamic, targeted campaigns
Cons
The platform may have a learning curve, especially for users new to advanced marketing automation tools
Adobe Campaign can be relatively expensive, making it more suitable for larger enterprises with substantial marketing budgets
Implementation and maintenance may require dedicated resources and expertise
The extensive feature set may be more than what smaller businesses need, leading to potentially unnecessary complexity
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