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Module 4 | Reach out to your audience

Session

2 hours

Theme

Using Ghost newsletters optimally to reach out to, and engage with audiences

Methodology
  • Have the participants gather into their groups. Groupings can be changed if needed.
  • Hand out a chart paper, and name cards that have the names of all formatting features in Ghost.
  • Give the teams a choice of problem statements to work with. They need to pick one, and think of a newspaper that will go out to the stakeholders. Each team has to map stakeholders and needs, and recreate the front page of this newspaper, using the Ghost formatting features.
  • The points to be noted here:
    - the teams have to work with the available space.
    - they have to figure out 4-6 best elements they will use to convey their stories.
    - they have to write the actual content for each of the formats.
  • Problem statements can include any of the following, or a new one.
    - An NGO that works in the education sector wants to run a new program that focuses on getting more girls in rural areas to attend schools within a 10-km radius.
    - A college is introducing a new course, and is at the start stage of inviting students to apply. They are also in the process of setting up a new building to accommodate the needs of more students on campus.
    - A collective wants to reach out health care information and benefits to 400 families in a panchayat.
  • Each team gets 30 minutes to discuss and design the newspaper.
  • After this, each team presents the newspaper and explain why they chose to format the 'news' in a certain way.
  • You can choose to award the best newspaper.
  • Explain how a newspaper is very similar to a newsletter that is sent out to members who are subscribed to the website. While a newspaper may come home every day, a daily newsletter may not always be welcome. Unless the topic is of vital interest to the audience. Example of aikyam jobs website, and members who are job seekers. In most cases, an ideal newsletter frequency varies from weekly to monthly updates.
  • Share the screen to explain the basic settings of the Ghost newsletter:
    - Newsletter sending
    - Recipients
    - Newsletter design, branding and general settings
    - Mailgun intro (just a mention)
  • Demostrate, with the example of a few aikyam fellows and aikyam space newsletters how to think through ideas for sending newsletters.
    Examples to use:
    https://aikyamfellows.org/email/7c30f9a5-5a6f-48d1-84da-b99779c08832/
    https://aikyam.space/all-women-tech-residency/
  • Explain how the Analytics Dashboard can help them think through what is working, how they can write better newsletters for better engagement. 
  • Homework: Each participant to create a newsletter introducing their project or website, to send out to 5 new members.
Learning Outcomes
  • An understanding of using Ghost to create and send newsletters
  • An understanding of how to think through strategy around email content, everything from frequency to topics.
  • An understanding of how to use content and various Ghost features to share information and create engagement.
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