Challenge

Like most internal communicators, Brendon and his team had the goal of engaging Alnylam’s 2000+ employees through consistent, ongoing, and measurable communication. Their engagement needs have become even more critical with the recent shift to remote work.
However, Alnylam’s existing internal communications email solution at the time, presented IT issues that prevented scheduled emails from being sent out
They also faced challenges with consistent email tracking, which prevented them from accurately measuring email performance

“Before ContactMonkey, there were constant issues. Our firewall was catching emails that were coming from the communications tool we were using and not sending them. Another issue was the tracking just wasn’t working!”

Clunky email template builder that made it difficult to create visually appealing and flexible email newsletter templates.
Inability to drive employees towards using the intranet, which was Alynylam’s goal. Issues when sending and tracking email made this difficult.

“We were having consistent issues and it had been going on for like a couple of months. It was one issue after the other, between emails not sending because they were getting caught in our firewall, and then tracking not being consistent. So at the end of the day it was kind of like that's really important, you know? Obviously if I can't send that email that's a problem. So that's what really drove us to look at other solutions like ContactMonkey.”

Solution

After facing persistent issues with their previous internal communications tool, Brendon and his team decided to look at alternative solutions for sending and tracking their internal communications from Outlook. The team was looking at a few different tools to handle newsletter generation, email management, and email tracking.

Brendon and the team can now also drive more engagement to their intranet and identify if the content they are sending resonates with their employees.
With ContactMonkey’s engagement features the team has created a start rating scale for their different employee newsletters that they use on an ongoing basis.

“We have received feedback from people about our emails, saying they look great and that the emails have improved in quality since we started using ContactMonkey”

DuringCOVID 19, the team has been using ContactMonkey’s survey features to understand what type of resources employees need the most to get their job done.

“Obviously right now, as you can imagine, our surveys have been focused on what do you need right now to get your job done. To feel supported during the pandemic. And then really thinking about how do we support people who are on site because we have people working in laboratories. So that's been really the critical communications that we've had to focus on."

How ContactMonkey’s Internal Communications Solutions Helped Alnylam

With ContactMonkey’s internal communications email software, the Alnylam team benefited in the following ways:

Create multiple responsive HTML email templates, using the easy-to-use drag-and-drop feature of ContactMonkey’s email template builder.
Customize email templates to build personalized, visually engaging employee newsletters.
By using ContactMonkey’s embedded star ratings, they were able to gauge employee response to different forms of content.

“We have a rating system and an ability for people to comment on what we send out. That's one way that we're getting feedback.”

They could confidently and successfully schedule and send emails from Outlook
Alnylam now had access to consistent, clear, and comprehensive email tracking metrics for every email they sent out!

“ContactMonkey is really easy to use and allows me to create really nice content. There's enough customization so we can do what we really want and have some creative freedom.”

Key Results

“I think ContactMonkey is awesome! It’s really easy to use. There's enough customization there that I feel like we can do what we really want and have some creative freedom.” The Alnylam team can now create, send, and track their employee newsletters without having to worry about IT issues or something breaking during the sending process from Outlook. Now they have the ability to build consistent email templates, gather employee feedback, and track email metrics.

ContactMonkey provided ease of use along with customization, leading to improved email design and positive feedback from employees.
Collection of employee feedback in the form of star ratings embedded within the newsletters helped gain real-time feedback on email content.
Glitch free email scheduling and integration with Outlook lead to a seamless user experience.
Access to accurate email tracking and metrics to strategically improve the internal communications.

“If we send out a company wide email about a business process, something that's changing or a new application, something to that effect, right. It's tied to operations. We'll pretty much always get a 100% open rate. Our click rate IS pretty consistent,between 5% and 10%.”

About

Alnylam

Alnylam is the world’s leading RNAi therapeutics company and the first and only company to bring an RNAi medicine to market.

Industry

Pharmaceutical

Number of employees

1400+

Previous tools

About

Brendon Pires

Brendon Pires is an Internal Communications Specialist for Alnylam, where he manages company-wide communications. He also collaborates on cross-functional initiatives such as internal events, volunteering programs, and business-related announcements.