Email newsletters for the Merchant Navy Officers Pension Fund (MNOPF)

Newsletters are an important component of any effective marketing strategy, email campaign, and branding strategy. Ignoring them can in fact restrict your brand from growth. We work with clients to design and distribute effective and engaging newsletters.

Ensign (the dedicated pension plan for the UK’s maritime industry) was already outsourcing us as event planners for their members forum and approached us to take their newsletters for the Merchant Navy Officers Pension Fund (MNOPF) to new heights.

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How it started…

For many years, the MNOPF had been sending out physical newsletters to regular members across the UK as well as hosting a digital copy on the website. The newsletters gave members the opportunity to read about the latest news from the MNOPF such as an update from the chairman, fund finances, sustainability and stewardship, and actuarial valuations.

The story…

The pandemic introduced to the pensions industry a new lease of digital life, and with the rise of ESG, paper newsletters were becoming redundant, wasteful, and unnecessary. The MNOPF wanted to find a new and digital way to connect with members and drive traffic to the online version of the newsletter hosted on their website.

We suggested converting the existing four-to-six-page newsletter, which was currently in PDF, into an engaging email newsletter which would motivate readers to take some form of action such as clicking through to read the newsletter online, signing up to events or forums, or even getting in touch regarding their pension pot.

The content and branding already existed, our task was to convert the detailed content into an email newsletter which pulled out the key pieces of information and engaged the readers. We started by designing a template, using the existing colours, fonts, and logo, which could be used intuitively time and time again for brand consistency. Our template design needed to meet the business and marketing requirements of the MNOPF so we ensured to include placeholders for any key graphs and important data graphics. We chose to use the popular email marketing service MailChimp, to not only give the newsletter a professional look, but to be able to track statistics, open rates, and bounce backs.

Once the template was approved, we moved on to cutting down the content to include only the vital pieces of information. It is always hard to know what content drives a reader to engage, but we prioritised summarising key facts and findings as well as fund updates. All sections of the content then involved call to actions that would enable the reader to find out more if they wished. The main objective of sending an email to your customers is to stimulate them to take desired action so we made sure to make the call to actions clear colourful buttons which would compel readers to engage and click.

Editing content also involved creating icons and compiling stock imagery to ensure a word-image balance to stop the reader getting bored. This also added a personal touch and enhanced the appeal of any statistics and data; resulting in the successful outcome of keeping the readers engaged for an average of three minutes.

Where we are now…

We are continuing to work with MNOPF to create an annual newsletter that keeps members connected, engaged, and informed about what’s going on with the pension fund. Our designs are engaging and informative and have achieved a successful open rate of 60% on average per newsletter we design and deliver.

“We have been extremely pleased with the product and quality of our newsletter e-mails provided by KBPR, and we look forward to another great year working with them.”

Ivan Laws, Director Rock Pensions, MNOPF