Activating a community during a national crisis
How the National Education Campaign grew their subscriber list by 200% in one year.
4 min read | Illustration by João Marcus Felix
The National Education Association (NEA),the nation's largest professional employee organization, is committed to advancing the cause of public education. NEA's 3 million members work at every level of education—from pre-school to university graduate programs. NEA has affiliate organizations in every state and more than 14,000 communities across the United States.
The Challenge
Millions of educators lost their support over night
As Covid-19 forced schools to close, teachers and students needed to adapt to online learning all while reducing their in-person contact and consequently, their professional
support networks. The National Education Association recognized the pressing need to reach a critical volume of educators in an efficient way. Being aware of SMS’s high open rate, the team at NEA knew they wanted to add it to their communication stack. They also recognized that SMS could help educators across the country feel connected and supported.
We were messaging our educators through newsletters, they only heard about us as a brand. It felt like we were missing out on creating personal connections with them at a moment when they had a pressing need for support.”
— Annie Rosenthal, Senior Digital Strategist
The Solution
Positive reinforcement and useful communications at scale
We sat down with the team at the NEA to identify the best way to launch a powerful SMS strategy that would reach the maximum number of members, as quickly as possible. The program we designed centred around a singular point of contact at NEA -- something many educators around the country did not have -- and ‘Amy at NEA’ was born.
Developing an empathetic SMS persona
Amy’s voice needed to be approachable, yet be credible. We wanted to make sure we gave space to celebrate wins and have fun while delivering life-and-death information.
Setting up for Success
The immediate success of NEA’s SMS program meant that we needed to up-skill the team to make them comfortable using a new platform, and a whole new medium.
We had thousands of members who had opted in for a text program but weren't receiving messages. As a digital team for an organization with 3M members, it didn't feel good to not have a working SMS program.”
— Erin Wagner, Senior Digital Strategist
We trained 6 staff members on SMS campaign deployment, and also gave them the knowledge to strategically design conversational sms campaigns and set up their workflows to optimise their time.
Banter helped build confidence on the team to lead SMS strategies, and grow in more personal ways than email and social.”
— Amy Jordan, Manager of DigitalOperations
The results
A growing list of engaged educators and parents
Getting members subscribed involved a cross-chanel strategic acquisition plan. We initiated email and social media outreach, and tapped into the NEA’s existing network.
After they have built a relationship with “Amy”, we always ask members to share subscription information with other educators they know. And they do, because Amy’s texts are fun and engaging and helpful. In fact, 12% of all subscribers came from word of mouth sources.
Over 11,000 calls made to Congress
The Covid-19 pandemic presented the NEA and its community with an unprecedented challenge: the need to advocate for safely reopening schools. Amy’s empathetic voice made members like their feelings and worries were understood, and gave them a plan to channel those feelings into productive action.
200% subscriber growth in under a year.
Through consistent empathetic and helpful communication, we were able to double the size of NEHA's EdAction list in less than 10 months. SMS marketing added a new channel to theNEA digital team’s communication stack, and provided them with a minimum-effort and maximum-impact tactic that they can confidently deploy to mobilize their community and drive real change.
10,000 participants in Read Across America Day
Read Across America Day is one of the NEA’s biggest annual events, and we wanted to make sure it was a success even though kids were now doing distance learning. We leveraged “Amy” to support teachers in creating a shared experience with their students, allowing them to feel less isolated by sharing book recommendations and connecting with user-generated content.
A long term SMS vision with immediate impact
I’ve really loved the strategic thinking that went into developing the way we talk to our members. This is a different style of communication that I wasn’t well-versed in. It's been awesome to learn so much on that front.”
— Erin Wagner, Senior Digital Strategist
Before working with us, the NEA was behind other organizations in terms of their SMS program. Throughout the year Banter and NEA consistently hit benchmark goals, and quickly scaled up our communications in five distinct content streams:
Together, we were able to set up a communications channel that had a less than 1% opt-out rate and set up the NEA digital marketing team with the technical skills and strategic mindset to continue growing, engaging and supporting their community of 3 million parents, students, essential school staff, and educators.