Case Study: Surrey County Council

Surrey County Council faced several communication challenges as it sought to engage its 1.2 million residents more effectively. Previously, the council managed multiple newsletter platforms across departments, leading to inconsistent branding, scattered content, and a disjointed user experience for residents. Different services used their own tools, creating inefficiencies and making it difficult to manage and track audience engagement effectively.

The key challenge was to centralise their email communications under one system, ensuring a unified voice and consistent messaging across newsletters like Surrey Matters, Greener Matters, and Family Matters. Additionally, they needed to ensure GDPR compliance, improve accessibility, and leverage data to tailor communications to their diverse audience base.

e-shot played a pivotal role in Surrey County Council’s email communications transformation. Here’s how:

• Centralised Platform: e-shot helped Surrey County Council move all its email communications to one unified platform, simplifying the creation, management, and distribution of newsletters. This centralisation brought cohesion to their messaging, making it easier for different departments to collaborate and maintain brand consistency.

• Stronger relationships with service teams: Bringing all newsletters and communications onto one platform fostered better collaboration and knowledge sharing. Teams started supporting each other more, resulting in more consistent and coherent content.

• Data-Driven Insights: With e-shot’s platform, Surrey was able to gather and analyse data from resident engagement, tailoring messages to different audience segments. By understanding what content resonated most, the council could create more targeted, relevant communications, leading to higher engagement rates.

• GDPR Compliance & Accessibility: e-shot ensured that Surrey’s email communications adhered to GDPR regulations while making the transition to the new platform seamless. Additionally, e-shot’s Accessibility Checker tool ensured that all email communications met accessibility standards, enabling the council to create more inclusive content for all residents.

• Audience Growth & Cross-Promotion: e-shot’s platform also facilitated the consolidation of different newsletters into a cohesive strategy. Surrey used cross-promotion tactics to drive subscribers from one newsletter to another, effectively growing its audience. A global sign-up form made it easy for residents to subscribe to multiple newsletters in one place, further enhancing engagement.

• Ongoing Support: e-shot provided hands-on guidance throughout the transition. Their customer service, led by key account managers, offered valuable advice on content optimisation, A/B testing, and automation—helping Surrey continuously improve its communications.

Since partnering with e-shot, Surrey County Council has seen impressive results:

• Increased Engagement: Surrey Matters now generates more clicks per issue than the council’s monthly organic social media efforts, showing the power of email as a core communication channel.

• Audience Growth: By streamlining the sign-up process and leveraging cross-promotion, Surrey has grown its newsletter audience significantly, ensuring more residents stay informed about local updates.

• Improved Efficiency: Centralising platforms and streamlining processes have saved time and effort for Surrey’s communications team, allowing them to focus more on content strategy and audience engagement rather than administrative tasks.

• GDPR & Accessibility Compliance: With e-shot, Surrey is confident that its communications adhere to regulatory requirements, and the Accessibility Checker ensures that all residents have access to important council news.

• Ongoing Optimisation: Surrey County Council continues to review and refine its email communications, ensuring relevance and engagement. The council is exploring more automations, particularly around campaign-driven communications, to further streamline their processes.

Surrey County Council’s partnership with e-shot is ongoing, with plans to continue expanding and optimising its email strategy. New newsletters are in development, targeting specific audience segments like parents, carers, and library users, while the council explores further opportunities for cross-promotion and automation. Additionally, the council is exploring the use of automated campaigns to drive behaviour change in areas such as recycling and fostering, allowing for more personalized communication without placing additional workload on the communications team.