IMarEST is The Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology; the international professional body and learned society for all marine professionals. IMarEST is the first institute to bring together marine engineers, scientists and technologists into one international multidisciplinary professional body. IMarEST is the largest marine organisation of its kind, with a worldwide membership based in over 120 countries.
We publish IMarEST’s multichannel content programme, which includes a quarterly print magazine – Marine Professional – and a suite of weekly e-newsletters. We also work closely with the IMarEST events team to launch and deliver both virtual and in-person events. Our sales team have successfully transformed the portfolio into a digital-first and data-led commercial route to market.
Historically, the IMarEST comms programme was print-centric and catered to a traditional audience. The weekly e-newsletter shared ‘news’ stories with links to the stories that sat on the Marine Professional website. While this drove traffic to the website, by the very nature of it being a weekly newsletter, the stories were not ‘breaking news’.
Changes in member behaviour and commercial implications during the pandemic provided an opportunity to rethink, relaunch and re-engage with members, and provide them with a truly omnichannel experience
E-newsletter content links to the magazine themes and we did rigorous testing on the day and time of sends for optimum engagement levels. We analyse the stats monthly to track what has – and hasn’t – performed well, to inform future content plans.
• The stats speak for themselves: a month after launch e-newsletter open rates were up 10% – and have stayed there ever since. Members are also actively sharing the newsletters – highs of over 5% compared to no shares prior to May 2020.
• Number four in the charts: having never been considered as a member benefit, the e-newsletter programme ranked as the fourth most valued member benefit in the annual IMarEST member survey – only one place behind the printed magazine. Furthermore, 71%+ members highly value each newsletter.
• It’s increasing membership numbers: “Your article has motivated me to register my membership to IMarEST because of it.” LinkedIn, February 2021
