Simpler.Grants.gov Public Wiki
Grants.govSimpler.Grants.govGitHubDiscourse
  • 👋Welcome
  • GET INVOLVED
    • Why open source?
    • How to contribute code
    • How to file issues
      • Report a bug
      • Request a feature
      • Report a security vulnerability
    • Community guidelines
      • Code of Conduct
      • Reporting and removing content
      • Incident response protocol
    • Community events
      • Fall 2024 Coding Challenge
        • Event Submissions & Winners
      • Spring 2025 Collaborative Coding Challenge
        • Event Submissions & Winners
    • Communication channels
  • Product
    • Roadmap
    • Deliverables
      • 🏁Static site soft launch
      • 🏁Static site public launch
      • 🏁GET Opportunities
      • 🏁Open source onboarding
      • 🏁Co-Design Group planning
    • Decisions
      • ADR Template
      • ADRs
        • Dedicated Forum for Simpler.Grants.gov Community
        • Recording Architecture Decisions
        • Task Runner for the CI / CD Pipeline
        • API Language
        • Use Figma for design prototyping
        • ADR: Chat
        • DB Choices
        • API Framework and Libraries
        • Back-end Code Quality Tools
        • Front-end Language
        • Communications Tooling: Wiki Platform
        • Use Mural for design diagrams and whiteboarding
        • Ticket Tracking
        • Front-end Framework
        • Front-end Code Quality Tools
        • Front-end Testing & Coverage
        • Backend API Type
        • Front-end Testing & Coverage
        • Deployment Strategy
        • Use U.S. Web Design System for components and utility classes
        • FE server rendering
        • Use NPM over Yarn Architectural Decision Records
        • U.S. Web Design System in React
        • Communications Tooling: Video Conferencing
        • Back-end Production Server
        • Communications Tooling: Analytics Platform
        • Commit and Branch Conventions and Release Workflow
        • Cloud Platform to Host the Project
        • Infrastructure as Code Tool
        • Data Replication Strategy & Tool
        • HHS Communications Site
        • Communications Tooling: Email Marketing
        • Communications Tooling: Listserv
        • Use Ethnio for design research
        • Uptime Monitoring
        • Database Migrations
        • 30k ft deliverable reporting strategy
        • Public measurement dashboard architecture
        • Method and technology for "Contact Us" CTA
        • E2E / Integration Testing Framework
        • Logging and Monitoring Platform
        • Dashboard Data Storage
        • Dashboard Data Tool
        • Search Engine
        • Document Storage
        • Document Sharing
        • Internal Wiki ADR
        • Shared Team Calendar Platform
        • Cross-Program Team Health Survey Tool
        • Adding Slack Users to SimplerGrants Slack Workspace
        • Repo organization
        • Internal knowledge management
        • Migrate Existing API Consumers
      • Infra
        • Use markdown architectural decision records
        • CI/CD interface
        • Use custom implementation of GitHub OIDC
        • Manage ECR in prod account module
        • Separate terraform backend configs into separate config files
        • Database module design
        • Provision database users with serverless function
        • Database migration architecture
        • Consolidate infra config from tfvars files into config module
        • Environment use cases
        • Production networking long term state
    • Analytics
      • Open source community metrics
      • API metrics
  • DESIGN & RESEARCH
    • Brand guidelines
      • Logo
      • Colors
      • Grid and composition
      • Typography
      • Iconography
      • Photos and illustrations
    • Content guidelines
      • Voice and tone
    • User research
      • Grants.gov archetypes
  • REFERENCES
    • Glossary
  • How to edit the wiki
Powered by GitBook
On this page
  • Context and Problem Statement
  • Decision Drivers
  • Options Considered
  • Decision Outcome
  • Open Questions
  • Comparison Matrix
  • Pros and Cons of the Options
  • Sendy
  • Salesforce Marketing
  • MailChimp
  • Hubspot
  • Mautic
  • Adobe Campaign
  • Links

Was this helpful?

Edit on GitHub
  1. Product
  2. Decisions
  3. ADRs

Communications Tooling: Email Marketing

PreviousHHS Communications SiteNextCommunications Tooling: Listserv

Last updated 1 month ago

Was this helpful?

  • Status: Active

  • Last Modified: 2023-12-04

  • Related Issue:

  • Deciders: Lucas, Aaron, Billy, Sarah, Sumi

  • 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

  1. 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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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

Links

#590
Sendy
Salesforce Marketing
MailChimp
Hubspot
Mautic
Adobe Campaign
Sendy
Salesforce Marketing
MailChimp
Hubspot
Mautic
Adobe Campaign