Case Study

How Port Hope Doubled Email Subscribers While Fighting Misinformation

Key Highlights

The Challenge

The Municipality of Port Hope faced a critical communications challenge: how to reach a diverse community that spans urban and rural areas, including residents who aren’t on social media or even online regularly. As Communications Coordinator Tamra Barlow explains, “We have a pretty big retirement population that is not active on social media, so we constantly are getting requests for different channels.”

The situation became urgent when community members began posting inaccurate Council meeting information on social media. “We saw inaccurate information being posted on social media after our council meetings, ,” Barlow recalls. The municipality needed a way to deliver authoritative information quickly, before misinformation could spread.

Adding to these challenges, staff members were struggling with technical limitations of using Outlook. The events coordinator maintained email lists of over 600 vendors and parade participants but was constantly flagged as spam when sending through Outlook, forcing her to manually break lists into batches of 20 emails at a time. This was tedious and time consuming, so they started looking for an email platform.

The Solution

Port Hope needed an email platform that could serve to complement their community communications strategy. The requirements were specific: Canadian data storage to satisfy IT security concerns, features designed for communicators rather than sales teams, and the ability to reach residents through multiple channels.

After researching alternatives, Port Hope chose Envoke for three key reasons. First, the platform’s Canadian infrastructure addressed data sovereignty requirements that ruled out US-based alternatives like Mailchimp.

Second, Envoke offered mandatory messaging capabilities—a feature unique to the platform that no other email provider can deliver. While traditional email platforms require recipients to opt in through sign-up forms or subscription pages, Envoke allows organizations to automatically subscribe contacts to specific newsletters using their organizational email addresses. For Port Hope, this meant they could ensure every staff member automatically receives critical internal communications about council decisions, policy updates, and organizational announcements—without requiring individual sign-ups or risking that key employees miss important information because they forgot to subscribe.

Third, the platform could export PDF versions of newsletters for printing and distribution at facility front desks, extending reach to residents without internet access.

The municipality implemented a comprehensive newsletter strategy covering different community segments:

Council Newsletter: Post-meeting updates with accurate information on municipal decisions
Mayor’s Corner: Weekly updates during critical project phases, delivered in the mayor’s voice
Parks & Recreation Newsletter: Program information with opt-in during registration
55+ Membership Newsletter: Monthly programs and classes for seniors
Event Mailing Lists: Vendor and participant communications for municipal events
Business Community Updates – Information from economic development tailored to local business owners and operators

To grow their subscriber base, Port Hope deployed magnetic billboards at key locations during downtime periods, ran regular social media campaigns promoting newsletter subscriptions, sent inserts in their tax and water bills, and enlisted council members as advocates who directed constituents to subscribe when they expressed concerns about missing information.

The Results

The numbers tell a compelling story of rapid growth and community engagement. The Council Newsletter expanded from 300 subscribers to over 1,000 in less than two years—significant reach for a municipality of Port Hope’s size. The Mayor’s Corner grew from 509 subscribers in late 2023 to 917 currently, while the Parks & Recreation newsletter launched from zero to 484 subscribers in its first year.

Beyond subscriber counts, the email strategy achieved its core mission of combating misinformation. By delivering accurate council information directly to residents’ inboxes immediately after meetings, the municipality established itself as the authoritative source. The team even shares newsletter links in the same Facebook groups where misinformation previously spread, effectively redirecting community members to verified information.

The platform transformation freed staff from manual work. The events coordinator no longer spends hours breaking email lists into batches—she now manages communications for 215 parade participants and 484 market vendors efficiently through dedicated mailing lists.

Email has also become Port Hope’s primary channel for reaching underserved audiences. Printable PDF versions of newsletters are available by request at a few public facility front desks, serving residents who aren’t online. As Barlow notes, “our information is reaching further than people on social media, now people that are not online are getting this important information.”

The success has created internal demand. When staff across departments saw the professional appearance of the initial newsletters, they requested access to the platform. Port Hope now manages nine distinct newsletters, each serving specific community needs. The municipality reports quarterly on subscriber growth to stakeholders, regularly highlighting which newsletters grew fastest each quarter.

Looking Forward

Port Hope’s email-first approach has established a foundation for trustworthy, accessible community communications. The municipality continues to promote newsletter subscriptions through multiple channels, with councillors actively encouraging constituents to subscribe when they express concerns about missing information.

The strategy demonstrates that email remains a vital communications channel for municipalities serving diverse populations—particularly those including rural areas, retirement communities, and residents who prefer or require alternatives to social media. By choosing a platform aligned with their values and technical requirements, Port Hope built a system that grows organically while serving their community’s actual needs.

"Envoke gave us exactly what we needed as communicators, a Canadian platform that helps us get accurate information to residents quickly and keeps them engaged with what's happening in their community."

Tamra Barlow
Communications Coordinator
Municipality of Port Hope

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