Ecology Quarterly: a success story

Our Ecology Quarterly newsletter is officially 18 months old and continues to prove that a good idea, strategically implemented, will deliver on its objective.

Over the past six issues, our opinionated ecologists have sought to bring thoughtful discourse and scientific facts to polarizing issues like the use of 1080, whether domestic cats should be regulated as predators, and if that whitebait fritter on your plate is really such a good idea.

Photos taken in the field have brought readers up close and personal to Archey's Frogs and White-Flippered Penguins.

Along with gripping tales of invasive lagarosiphon and under-appreciated mangroves, excessively-armoured streams and overly-threatened bats, EQ provides an effective way of reaching out to ecology clients and keeping them aware of our consultants' expertise and thought leadership.

"We first talked about creating an ecology-focussed newletter at the 2017 ecology discipline gathering," says Ian Boothroyd. "A number of our clients said that they viewed Boffa Miskell ecologists as leaders in their field and that a regular update with our news and views would be welcomed by readers."

Ecology Quarterly is managed by a small editorial group of consultants, who typically serve for nine months to a year. As Technical Leaders for Science, Ian Boothroyd and Leigh Bull provide input and academic oversight. Communications advisor Kathleen Kinney is responsible for overall editorial review, the marketing and media aspects of the newsletter, and writes each issue's People Profile. Other articles in EQ are written by Boffa Miskell ecologists and biosecurity consultants, according to their interest and expertise.

"The newsletter provides a place to talk about issues and ideas, rather than projects," says Ian. "Ecology projects tend to be fairly long-term, so there's often a significant delay between an ecology-related topic being covered by the media and us actually completing project work related to that subject.

"Ecology and biosecurity matters are often in the news, and have a significant impact on our clients. We have expertise to share, and viewpoints that we want to put in front of our clients; or, in the case of many national policies — we've been involved in researching or writing the legislation. EQ provides a way for us to talk about that," he explains.

In acknowledgement of the high-profile of biosecurity issues in the mainstream media, EQ also covers issues related to invasive and predatory species.

EQ is sent to just over 900 recipients -- predominantly ecology and biosecurity clients. This targeted list is reviewed every six months, and Kathleen says that in a world of overflowing in-boxes, mindful distribution is a strong factor in the newsletter's success.

"EQ has an average open rate of over 30% and a click-though rate of nearly 12%," says Kathleen. "The industry average is around 17% open rate, and less than 2% for click-through. So EQ's performance means that we're reaching the right people, and we're giving them a mix of information that they're genuinely interested in receiving."