Why should I use email marketing?

It's important to think of email marketing as just one element of the marketing mix – to use it alongside other channels, not in isolation. It can be a great way to reach people that are interested in your work, and form/strengthen the relationships you have with them. 

Email marketing can be a great way to:​

• Encourage people to act – e.g. sign up to events, share views, or download reports​

• Keep people up to date with news, new publications, advice and information, events

• Drive traffic to your website where they can find out more

Who can I email?

GDPR means that you need to have active consent from someone before you're able to email them. ​Take a look at our guidance on GDPR.

Here's how you can build your mailing lists:

• Encourage people to sign up on social​ media.
• Promote the signup form on your website​.
• Contact people on your database to ask them if they'd like to hear more in the future​.
• Ask other local organisations to promote your work e.g. social media and/or include in their own newsletter via their channels .
• Add it onto your form when you are out engaging people at events. Ask them if they want to stay in touch and sign up to your newsletter.

Top tips

Make your copy simple and engaging

• Your email should always have a purpose and have a clear call to action. It should be obvious to the reader what you want them to do with the information that you're sharing with them.
• Short summaries that link through to articles and other content on your website work well. They also: ​

1. Increase traffic to your site.
2. Let your subscribers easily share your content via social media, helping you reach larger audiences.
3. Make it easier to scan for those who are reading their emails on mobile or tablet devices.

• Making it short and visually engaging is key to keeping people's interest and getting them to take the action you want them to.

Consider the frequency of your emails

• Make you don't email too often. Overwhelming people with emails can lead to them unsubscribing.​
• In our experience, once a week works well, with a mid-week email getting the best response with regards to open rates. Make sure you test this locally to see if it's the same for you. Different audiences may have different responses, so make sure you test against each audience.

Test test test

• As always, we suggest testing to see what works best for you. There are a few factors you can test when it comes to email marketing, including: 
   - the time of day you send the email
   - the day of the week
   - the subject line you use
   - the way content appears

Reuse your content 

• You can use the themes from your emails to theme your social media content. Use the short descriptions from articles for your social media posts. 

We've put together a webinar recording on how to create:

• Standard blocks 
• Video blocks
• Image blocks 

As well as this we also have written guidance for you to follow. 

What is the difference between a page and an article?

An article is for content that fits under the following content types:

• News
• Blog
• Response
• Advice and information
• Report

Articles are often to showcase new pieces of news or work that your Healthwatch has been involved in. They are more fluid than pages and a lot simpler to create. Paragraph types are used here to help break up your content.  

The main purpose of a page is to bring information together in one place. For example, if you have a key project that has a number of areas e.g. resources, a report, facts and figures, you might want to showcase this information as a page.

Here is an example of a page that we created at Healthwatch England to present our materials on COVID-19. 

Health and homelessness

Ill health can be both a cause and result of homelessness.

The health and wellbeing of people who experience homelessness are poorer than that of the general population. They often experience the most significant health inequalities. The longer a person experiences homelessness, the more likely their health and wellbeing will be at risk.

Role of professionals

Working with other services, NHS professionals can play an important role in helping to:

• identify and prevent homelessness,
• reduce the effect on health that homelessness can cause, and
• make sure that poor health does prevent those who are experiencing homelessness moving on to a home of their own.

What is the Duty to Refer?

Since April 2018, public bodies - like hospitals, job centres and prisons - have had to tell a local housing authority if they identify someone who they believe is currently homeless or may be threatened with homelessness within 56 days. 

For the NHS, the Duty to Refer applies to all emergency departments, urgent treatment centres and hospitals providing inpatient care.

The notification, which requires the consent of an individual, aims to help people get access to homelessness services as soon as possible.

Questions to ask your NHS

It is important that your NHS knows the steps they can take when they come into contact with someone who is homeless or is facing homelessness.

Here is a set of questions you can ask your NHS to help highlight the importance of tackling homelessness.

1. Are you aware of the 'Duty to Refer' which came into force in October 2018?
2. Are you aware of the need for certain health services to refer someone, with the patient’s permission, to the local authority housing team if they are experiencing homelessness or are at risk of becoming homeless in the next 56 days?
3. Housing is as a key determinant of health. As part of a person-centred approach, what steps are you taking to understand your patients’ housing situation and to support recovery when their housing status is affecting their health?
4. Do you discharge patients from inpatient services without a home or address to go to? If so, how do you monitor this and make sure plans are put in place before discharge to support recovery and reduce the risk of harm and readmission?
5. How are the deaths of people sleeping rough investigated? Is this in the same way as any other unexpected death that happens elsewhere in the community or statutory services?
6. How does your work with people experiencing homelessness safeguard them and reduce the risk of them experiencing abuse?
7. Are you confident your staff are aware of the causes and impact of homelessness and their duties under homelessness legislation?
8. What considerations have made in your policies and plans to help reduce homelessness and the impact of homelessness?

These questions were developed by Shared Ventures who, as part of the Keep Well Collaborative, have developed a fuller briefing for local Healthwatch to help you understand the role you can play in helping to tackle homelessness in your area.

Download the briefing

About the resources

At this event Healthwatch came together to:

• share experiences of involving young people in our work
• discuss how to best involve young people in research, engagement and volunteering
• hear from NHS England and NHS Youth Forum.

You can now download all the slides and notes from the day. 

We’re here to find out what matters to people, and help make sure their views shape the support they need.

To help make sure that we are accessible and clear to everyone, we have put together some easy read guides that help explain our role and what we do. 

Feel free to download and place on your own site. They would make a great addition to your 'About us' section.

Our work is driven by the belief that understanding local people’s experiences of health and care is key to providing effective support. A belief that is backed up by a considerable body of evidence.

We have been set up to find out the public’s views on health and care.

How we achieve this goal may vary from area to area but, whatever our approach, every Healthwatch is committed to making a difference.

Why showing impact matters

Demonstrating that we are making a difference is key because:

• It shows local people that sharing their experiences with us is worthwhile.
• It increases the trust of local partners and makes it more likely they will act on what we recommend and what the public has told us
• It demonstrates to taxpayers and our funders that we provide value for money and our work is worthy of investment.

Who is this toolkit for?

Healthwatch staff or volunteers who:

• Want to improve their knowledge and understanding of Theory of Change
• Are involved in helping their Healthwatch establish an approach to evidencing and communicating your impact

What will you learn?

This toolkit aims to deliver the following learning:

• Why demonstrating impact is important
• An introduction to outcomes and the Theory of Change
• Setting priorities and how they link to outcomes
• Steps you need to take to develop your a Theory of Change
• How you might use a Theory of Change to communicate effectively
• How to involve your board, volunteers and other colleagues

About this resource

Our Policy Forum focusing on Special Educational Needs and Disability for children and young people aged 0-25 participants had an opportunity to:

• Share their work on Special Educational Needs and Disability, and hear from others in the network.
• Tell us more about what we can do to help you engage with Special Educational Needs and Disability work in your area.
• Hear from Parent Carer Forums and experiences of local parents and carers.

About this resource

Healthwatch aim to reach every section of their community to gather evidence and insight about people’s experiences of health and social care in their communities.

Using Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) as an example, this resource explains how Healthwatch can use this insight to have a greater impact and influence areas outside of health and social care by working with partners.

Produced with Contact and National Network of Parent Carer Forums, this resource provides information about SEND and how Healthwatch can work with SEND and Parent Carer Forums locally to improve services for their community.

About this resource

This resource provides an example of a retention and record keeping schedule that you could adapt for your work locally.

The Data Protection Act states that data should be kept no longer than necessary. This means that you must have a sound reason for keeping information and once you no longer need it you should securely erase and destroy it.

Any data, whether held on computer systems or on paper, should be subject to a strict retention schedule. We have produced a template retention and record keeping schedule that you can use as a guide when creating your own.

Please note: you should follow the guidance from your provider when completing lengths of retention.

What makes a good story?

Regardless of who you’re talking to, what makes a good story remains the same:

• It’s interesting and relevant
• It’s remarkable or different
• It’s relatable and easy to understand

To help you write a strong story, read our guidance.

How to tell a strong story

Selling your story: what do you need?

A real-life story: Your work, or the issue you’re trying to bring attention to, will be more engaging if you use the story of an individual or group to sell it.

Facts and figures: You should include any compelling facts and figures that help support the issue you’re raising. For example, the percentage of people affected by an issue locally.

An expert view: Including the opinions of local experts will help strengthen your story. For example, the view of a local doctor, councillor or community leader on the findings you’re publishing.

An event: If you’re holding an event to find out more about an issue or to launch a piece of work, include details to encourage people to attend.

What do journalists want?

Human interest: Stories about people in their communities who their audiences will relate to and care about.

Usable content: Clear copy, strong pictures, powerful quotes and case studies willing to share their experiences – anything that makes it easier for journalists to do their job.  

Videos: You could also think about content for the paper’s social media channels, such as well-produced videos.

How to reach journalists?

Increasingly you can contact journalists through social media, although phone and email are still the best way to get in touch. You should be able to find this information on your local paper's website. If you are contacting someone through social media, make sure they're using their accounts for professional purposes. 

What should you include in your press release?

For immediate release: (add time, date and location)

Use this if you want the media to publish your story as soon as they receive it.

Embargoed until (add time, date and location)

Use this if you want to give journalists time to prepare the story or want to ensure they don’t use your press release until a specified date.

Headline

Start with a snappy, attention grabbing headline, but don’t try too hard. Keep it simple. 

Bullet points of key information

After your headline summarise your main message, key findings and relevant statistics in short bullet points to get the journalist’s attention.

Main text

This is where you outline your story answering any reader’s key questions: who, what, when, where and why?

Then include a strong quote from someone relevant to the story. This might be from a case study or the opinion of a local expert.

If you have any extra information, such as a link to find out more online, include this at the end of your press release.

Ends

Always use ‘ends’ to mark where the press release stops and the ‘notes for editors’ begin.

Notes for editors

In this section you should provide any additional background information. Include a short description of your organisation, what you do, and any further details about the project. You can also include any other facts and figures relevant to your story.

If you have pictures, photo opportunities, social media content, interviewees or anything else to offer, outline this under the notes for editors. 

Contact

Make it clear who journalists can contact for more information. Also make sure you include details for when you are out of the office. This can make the difference between a story being covered or not.

Should a release for broadcast media be different?

If you are trying to get TV or radio coverage, you can structure your press release slightly differently to be helpful. After your headline and bullets of key information, include a section called Broadcast opportunities.  In this section, include the following information:

• Date – make clear if you can provide pre-recorded interview or filming opportunities in advance of any embargo date.
• Interviews  – list the key people you have available for interview. For example, your CEO, a patient and a health expert.
• Filming locations – make clear the opportunities you have available. For example, do you have an event, can they film at a service or in a location which will help communicate your story.

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