Your engagement rate indicates how many users have contributed to your consultation and can be one metric to evaluate your engagement process. It is difficult to predict an engagement rate on any given project, as they are influenced by various aspects:
Consultation topics, in terms of impacts, interest, or controversy
Levels of communications, promotion, and awareness
The opportunities to get involved and contribute
The perceived ability for participants to influence outcomes
The stage of the project, for example, information gathering stages expect a different engagement rate than those seeking contributions
Because of these factors, we recommend regular monitoring over time to determine more accurate benchmarks and true metrics. You should also take each consultation separately and decide what constitutes your success metrics for that project.
However, to help you get started, you can consult your Aware, Informed, and Engaged numbers for some insight into your engagement rates.
These metrics refer to:
Aware: The percentage or number of people who have visited your project but taken no further action.
Informed: The percentage or number of people who have visited your project and then selected something else, such as another project, news article, video, etc.
Engaged: The percentage or number of people who have submitted a contribution to a tool.
Engaged visitors are always also Aware and Informed, and Informed visitors are always also Aware. The ratio of these numbers is often taken as a measure of the consultation’s success, and you can find them in two locations:
Your Dashboard: The Visitor engagement chart displays the number and percentage of Aware, Informed, and Engaged visitors across your entire site.
Project Reports: View Aware, Informed, and Engaged numbers for specific projects by going to Reporting > Project Reports and selecting the relevant Projects and date range.
A snapshot across EngagementHQ sites has found the average ratio of these numbers is 60:30:10, so of 100 visitors, 60 are Aware, 30 are Informed, and 10 are Engaged. This ratio is good place to start, however, it is essential that you evaluate each project individually and determine your own measures for success.
Over time, regular monitoring will help you develop your own benchmarks, and you can gauge the level of engagement for each consultation.