Top 10 Most Useful, But Under-The-Radar Features of MessageBee

Top 10 Most Useful, But Under-The-Radar Features of MessageBee

Unique Library

Top 10 Most Useful, But Under-The-Radar Features of MessageBee

MessageBee puts the power of communicating with patrons back into the hands of the library and away from the ILS. When we launched MessageBee in 2019, we had one goal: to make it simple to communicate with your patrons and make that communication more attractive for patrons and libraries. Since then, we have built in several features that continue to make MessageBee the best way to communicate to your patrons on the market today.

You may know the highlights of MessageBee – the elegant templates, the ease of use – but what you might not know are all things that we have added throughout our time offering MessageBee, and features that make MessageBee the right service for your library. More than just transactional notifications, MessageBee offers so much more to your library. 

1. Add Book Jacket Inserts

By using your book jacket subscriptionyour library can add another level of detail to your transaction notices. A text box automatically populates the right book cover in your emails once the ISBN is entered.  

Note: MessageBee does not provide a Book Jackets subscription; we leverage your library’s existing subscription.  

2. Segmented List Communications

Do you want to send emails to a specific group of patrons? People that have checked out a book in the last two weeks? Patrons who use a specific branch? You can filter by any criteria your ILS collects, enabling you to send specialized messaging to your patrons.  

Read more on the benefits of using dynamic lists.

Split your entire patron list into smaller, more manageable segments. Use dynamic lists to filter by branch, age range, genre preferences, all to make sure your messages reach the right patrons.  

3. Custom Subject Lines (and Emoji Support! ????????????️)

Emojis can add a lot to your communication. Whether it is a cheeky smiley face or a useful information symbol, make sure your patrons know that your emails are for them with custom subject lines. They are fully customizable, so it’s up to you to determine how your patrons will act on your emails, but see some suggestions here.  

Emails that feature emojis get opened 20% more than those that don’t. Try increasing your open rate with MessageBee emails that support emojis right in the subject line. Coupled with segmented communication lists, you can target emails with emojis in them to younger patrons, who would be more likely to open them.  

However, be sure to remember to use a light touch with this feature.

See How King County Library System Improved Their Notices With MessageBee

King County Library System’s notifications had not changed much since they began sending electronic communications. KCLS started using MessageBee beginning in 2020 to send out modern, branded email communications reflective of the overall library experience.

4. Detailed Reporting

MessageBee brings a wealth of easily digestible data to your library’s messaging with our Reporting feature. From the dashboard, simply find the “Reports” button on the navigation bar and discover a number of ways in which MessageBee helps you improve your emails.  

The reports page offers several ways in which you can identify your messaging successes and failures. An easily read graph is automatically generated from either a custom or standard date range, with filters for message type, branch, and other criteria. Select any number of layers to see sent, opened, clicked, undelivered, and bounced emails, all on one graph.  

Want to learn more about reporting? Check out our article on the reporting features of MessageBee here.

For more detailed data, there is a numerical representation of the graph’s data automatically generated alongside the graph, with useful tabs that include link clicks as well as reasons for deliverability issues.  

For patrons who have issues received a communication (an overdue notice, for instance) you can search by user ID, name, or email address to see if it was delivered, opened, or what was the cause of the undelivered message.  

5. Scheduled Marketing Campaigns

Shows example of MessageBee Media Library.

Do you have an author coming to one of your branches? Want to promote with some seasonal messaging? Schedule campaigns with MessageBee, and include artwork that promotes virtually anything you want – right in the body of your emails.  

Try setting default images that appear on your standard emails, and upload images you want to include for a specified time frame, all uploaded and kept on your library’s own private cloud-based media library.  

6. Great Service From Day 1

Excellent client service is central to all we do at Unique, and our MessageBee service is no different. Your customer service representative and implementation specialists will work together with your library team to integrate the ILS and data streams from your library with our MessageBee backend.  

It doesn’t matter if you represent an entire library system with your own marketing department or if you operate a single-branch library, our implementation specialists will work with your library to perfect the look you want from your communications. 

7. All-inclusive Technical Support

Innovation and value are both important parts of the MessageBee service. We are constantly improving and adding features to MessageBee to better serve libraries. An open line of communication between your library and our Customer Service representative at Unique is important to quickly address and resolve any issues that arise in your or your patrons’ experiences. 

We program everything in-house, which means that there are a minimum number of people standing between you and those who can solve any issue that arises. With service and programming specialists committed to just our MessageBee service, we can immediately address any concerns you may have.  

8. Branch Level Customization

Does your system or consortium have different needs for different locations? MessageBee can help with that, as it is designed to be flexible both with templates and reporting. Just as you can filter and customize your outgoing messages by branch, you can also sort by branch in the dashboard. For consortiums, this flexibility allows for central set-up and control, but with customizations, branding, and reporting for each specific library.

9. Mobile Responsiveness

You no longer have to worry about your messages not formatting properly on your patrons’ device. Our email messages format automatically to best suit the screen your patron is viewing on. Phone, computer, or tablet, Android or iPhone, you know exactly how it’s going to look with the preview function.  

Beyond our popular email service, we also have SMS notifications that ensure your messages cannot be lost in the shuffle of your patrons’ inbox.

10. Alternate Language Ability

MessageBee makes it simple to communicate with your communications in their preferred language. Libraries have the ability to set up multilingual templates and then present the right language to a specific patron based on their preferred language flag in the ILS data.

Want to see how MessageBee can work for your library?

Request a free sample MessageBee email with your library’s custom branding and marketing.

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