First Quarterly Business Review · Apr–Aug 2026
Four months in, the engine is running.
Since go-live on 12 April, ESET North America has sent 65 communications across 12 programs to 8,261 deliveries — with a weekly newsletter that reaches more than half the company every Monday morning.
Three ESET teams now run on one platform.
Internal Comms publishes weekly. Onboarding has a designed journey. Marketing has two referral campaigns approved and swag running across four departments. What's left is automating the parts still done by hand.
ESETea weekly newsletter — open rate
More than half of North America opens the newsletter every week. Account-wide across all 65 communications, the average is 41.0%.
Volume tripled and engagement went up with it.
Most programs trade reach for frequency. ESET didn't: sends went from 2 a month to roughly 20, and the open rate rose as they did.
Across all 65 communications since go-live.
48.1% open rate — 21 points above Tuesday and Wednesday.
52.4% across 3,158 deliveries, +11.4 points vs overall.
Five-year employees open at 40.6%; first-year at 23.2%.
Open enrollment is the first campaign that runs itself.
The window is 2–13 November. The first send goes out the week of 5 October. Everything between those two dates is automated, segmented and scheduled once — not managed by hand.
- The dates and the deadline
- The exact steps to take
- What's changing
- What happens if they don't act
- When coverage begins
- Where to get help
“So employees receive timely communications throughout the enrollment window without everything having to be manually managed.”
- Segmentation, so each group only gets what applies to them
- Auto follow-ups that reach only the people who didn't open
- Nudges scheduled once, sent every 2–3 days across the window
- Email, Teams and SMS carrying the same deadline, so nobody relies on one send
- Monday 9am: 52.4% open rate, 11.4 points above the account average
- Sent from Marissa's own address, 79.4% of openers click. From the DLUSHR alias, 17.8%
- One clear action per send — the Employee Satisfaction Feedback comm proved it at 38.0% open and 57.5% click-to-open
Open enrollment gets the newsletter treatment, not the announcement treatment.
Two of the five Listen uses land inside this campaign.
- A theme — “Pick Your Perks”
- A raffle for early enrollment
- Monthly benefits tips after the window, so the education doesn't stop on 13 Nov
What has to happen in the next two weeks
Still needed from ESET
- What's changing versus staying the same
- Info session dates
- Approvers
- Who owns drafting, approval and sending
The lock window overlaps two weeks out of office
- Marissa is out the week of 21 Sep (PTO)
- And the week of 28 Sep (Slovakia)
- That is the same fortnight the campaign has to be locked
People_NORAM sender verification is outstanding
- Verification is still open ahead of the 1 Oct distribution-list cutover
- The verification link is time-sensitive
Lock the content decisions this week, async
- The build then runs while Marissa travels
- And the 5 Oct date holds
Two days in a room becomes ninety days of ESET.
The documents are modernised and the Workday sync was fixed on 10 September. The next phase moves the onboarding experience out of one two-day event and across a new hire's first quarter.
Everything lives in the two-day in-person program
- Who is ESET
- HR
- Executive meet & greet
- CSR & DEI
- IT
- Tech Support
- Sales update
- Marketing update
- SharePoint
- Ignite
- Learning Vault
- ESETea
- Bits & Bytes
- Coffee with the Executive Team
- ERGs
- Benefits & Perks
One day-two block carrying fourteen topics.
One automated journey keyed to start date
- Pre-boarding (−14 days)
- Week 1
- A drip spaced around the existing 30/60/90 check-ins, not on top of them
Same content. Spread across the quarter, when each piece is actually useful.
- −14 daysPre-boardingHand-built todayAutomated: once work emails land
- Day 1WelcomeAutomated now
- 7 daysFirst-week check-in + pollHand-built todayAutomated: once work emails land
- 30 days30-day touchpointHand-built todayAutomated: once work emails land
- 60 days60-day experience surveyHand-built todayAutomated: once work emails land
- 1Lift the programs out of the two-day block and give each its own moment
- 2One automated journey keyed to start date
- 3Segment by department, so IT, Sales, Marketing and Tech Support follow-ups only reach the hires they apply to
- 4Automate the chasing — training reminders trigger on their own, and we follow up only with the people who didn't open
- 5Build the templates once; the team reviews rather than rebuilds each cycle
- Jennifer's sends to date: 5 communications · 5 deliveries · 5 opens
- A 100% open rate proves the content works — her time is the constraint
- Residual blocker: the Workday report still arrives without work emails
Onboarding is the Listen use case that never stops.
Campaign surveys run once. This one fires on every hire, every quarter, permanently.
Swag went from one-off requests to a four-department program.
June to September 2026: five orders, 438 units, $8,526.54, every one delivered on time. Two recurring programs are now quoting that are larger than everything run to date.
| Order | Project | Units | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 789122 | Pride Parade | 25 | $734.06 |
| 791975 | Partner Kit | 151 | $1,237.71 |
| 793531 | San Diego Ballpark Club | 62 | $2,245.42 |
| 796002 | Pet Bowls | 100 | $472.00 |
| 797362 | Pickleball — Oct 1 Event | 100 | $3,837.35 |
| Total | 438 | $8,526.54 |
Average order value: $1,705.31
- Five of five orders delivered on time, including two hard event deadlines
- The October 1 pickleball order is in production, artwork approved 3 September
- No past-due balances
- ESET swag catalog
- Swag request portal with intake form
- Tremendous gift card integration, live
- Platform onboarding for new ESET users
New Hire Kits — 50 units
Tech or anti-theft backpack, hardcover notebook, pens, tee, infant onesie and mug, with full custom packaging. Quoting at three tiers so ESET can compare value against spend.
Client Gifting Program
A branded redemption page with six premium options — YETI, Owala, Nike, Eddie Bauer, Sport-Tek and Dyno Cap. Each recipient selects two items.
Both are recurring programs rather than one-off orders. Together they represent more volume than the entire program has run to date.
One survey is live. Four more are already scoped.
The six-month trial ends alongside the renewal decision in late January. The question is whether there's enough volume by then to judge it — and there will be, if these five ship.
SLED Webinar Quiz
Live now, closes 30 October- $20 Amazon card to the first 50 participants scoring 80% or higher
- Funded from the existing $5,825 NSP Tremendous budget
- New mid-pilot capability: automated manager notifications with individual results, removing manual score verification
Five uses, three teams, one module — by January.
Two campaigns are approved and waiting on two decisions.
Both were signed off on 18 August. Twenty-eight days later, neither has launched — and both decisions sit with Marketing.
Distribution
A public share link is simpler but produces no data. Managed send gives open and click analytics plus automated reminders, and is the only version that generates Listen evidence before January.
The admin seat
All super-admin seats are currently full. As of 9 September Ashley still can't see the campaign communication, and can't build without access.
- MSP-to-MSP goes first as the simpler test case, seller-to-seller follows
- Rewards moved from contra revenue to gift cards, so the rep who actually makes the referral gets paid
Seven recurring tasks. Most are already unblocked.
Every item here removes a task someone on your team currently does by hand.
Pages has a live use case and a committed champion.
What it needs next is a room, not a contract.
A stakeholder session for Marketing, Finance and HR with branded prototypes
- The live use case: the 30 September AI product launch hub — countdown, three product bundles, battle cards, sales talking tracks, one source of truth
- Longer term: Pages as a better employee experience than SharePoint
- Global rollout — French and Slovak first — stays explicitly gated on North America proof
Eight things, with owners and dates.
Open Enrollment — first send
Workday report with work emails
People_NORAM address cutover
Switch on birthday + anniversary automations
Pages stakeholder demo — date and attendees
Onboarding polls — confirm 7-day question set
MSP assets + distribution decision
Admin seat for Ashley
In four months ESET built an internal channel North America actually opens. The next phase makes it run without anyone having to remember to send it — and gives you the evidence to take it global.
222 employees, twelve programs, three teams — and a renewal decision in January.
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