Email marketing for post secondary educational institutions can help universities and colleges engage with prospective students and enrol them into various programs. Higher education email marketing can be used to generate leads and create nurture campaigns for prospective students. Salespeople can use this marketing strategy to engage with potential customers and close sales.
Higher education institutions also need to communicate with – not market to – students, faculty, staff, alumni and stakeholders. If you’re a marketer, read this article. If you’re a communication professional whose job is to effectively disseminate optional and mandatory content, Envoke invites you to check out our website. Envoke is a broadcast email software company with an emphasis on compliance, subscription management and data security. One feature that’s especially useful for higher education institutions is the ability to manage users and contact lists for multiple faculties and departments under one central account. Over the past 15 years we’ve worked with hundreds of departments of various universities and colleges and have the expertise to help you with your email communication strategy.
What is Email Marketing For Educational Institutions?
Email marketing for educational institutions involves creating email campaigns that are tailored to specific groups of people associated with the school, such as current students, prospective students, alumni, and partners.
Email is one of the most effective marketing channels for colleges and universities.
You can use this software to customize each student’s experience at your school, according to their individual preferences, data, and interactions with the school.
5 Reasons Why You Should Use Email Marketing For Higher Education
Every marketing project begins with a ‘why.’ Universities use email marketing for specific reasons. Here are some of the most common ones:
1. Cost-effective communication channel
Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective communication channels for educational institutions.
How much you should expect to pay for email marketing depends on how big your email list is.
Envoke is an email marketing service provider that offers unlimited emails to fifty thousand students for $299 (CAD) per month.
Email marketing provides a wide range of opportunities and benefits to educational institutions at a low cost.
- Convert prospective students to enrolled students.
- Retain students.
- Inform and engage, etc.
Make sure to pick a higher education email marketing software that will allow you to communicate effectively with your students.
2. High revenue on investment
For every one dollar you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of 42 dollars.
Not for the fact that students use email. But because email for educational institution helps:
- Create different segments.
- Personalize communication.
- Track email performance.
- Make data-informative decisions.
- Build scalable campaigns.
This is what makes it possible for universities to make a profit from email marketing.
3. Increase student enrollment and retention
More and more students are choosing to study at colleges and universities which offer a variety of courses such as those on campus, at a distance or online.
although you are not the only person with educational programs available, universities and colleges are in constant competition to keep their portion of the market
As students look at different programs to decide which one is the best for them, you can use email marketing to increase student enrollment.
In this use case, email marketing helps you:
- Promote your educational programs.
- Showcase your educational institution benefits.
- Offer online consulting for prospective students.
- Propose your academic programs, etc.
Some students may take longer than six years to earn a degree or certification from their college, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. However, half of students who enroll will complete their degree or certification from that specific institution within six years.
This means that if you miss one student’s enrollment, you will have missed it for six years.
Email marketing can help you increase enrolled students. By developing a smart strategy, choosing the right software, and putting in some hard work, you can turn a simple 60-word email into a powerful tool that can generate thousands of dollars in revenue.
4. Promote your university
University email marketing helps you promote your institution. It includes promotional communication that covers:
- General details about your educational institution.
- Admission details and process.
- Alumni relationship and community.
- Athletic and extracurricular activities.
Email is the best method of communication because it is automated.
You can automate your whole college email communications. This allows you to:
- Automate repetitive tasks.
- Make sure emails are sent at the right time.
- Send personalized dynamic content.
- Save your time.
- Send triggered behavior-based messages.
5. Engage students in extracurricular activities
Similarly to public sector email marketing, you don’t send emails to university students to convert them, but to:
- Inform them about new announcements
- Engage them to university activities
- Increase their participation level
- Notify them about urgent matters like health and security, etc.
Email marketing is an important tool for promoting extracurricular activities at educational institutions.
You can segment students who have just joined the university based on their preferences and send them emails that match their interest areas.
This method will ensure that you correctly match the emails with the appropriate students.
4 Tips for creating effective email marketing campaigns in higher ed
The goal of any email marketing strategy should be to optimize emails for engagement in order to reach and engage a wide variety of readers.
All email campaigns should include:
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Scannable content for quick, easy reading
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, to market your company. Try using a variety of different marketing strategies, such as event invitations, videos, and blog posts, to promote your business.
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A compelling call to action
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A design that responds to the viewing device so it can be seen on mobile devices, as well as desktops and tablets.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of creating or revamping an email marketing campaign, these four tips will get you started on the right foot.
1. Personalize the subject line.
When you are email marketing to a large audience, it is important to personalize the emails as much as possible.
No matter how big or small a university campus is, students and faculty members want to feel like they’re part of the community. The best way to do this is to personalize your email subject line.
For example, if a student at Arizona State University received an email, the student’s name would be in bold lettering at the top of the email.
The campus is addressing the reader and wishing them a happy fall. Taking the time to recognize the individuals that make up your community not only makes them feel relevant amongst a sea of people, but it will also entice them to open the email to see what it may contain.
If you want your email to be successful, you should treat it as if you are sending it to one person, rather than a mass list. This will make it more personal andle to get a better response.
2. List segmentation is your best friend.
List segmentation is very important if a university has more than one department that controls their email marketing. For example, not only are there probably many different university business departments that students have to deal with every day, but there are also probably a lot of different academic departments (as well as colleges within departments that may want to send out their own emails).
By segmenting email lists, senders can be sure that their messages are getting to people who will find them useful and relevant. Sending an email from the English Department to a Graphic Design student is not only irrelevant but a waste of time and resources.
It is important to know the targeted audience for your department and to cater to their needs.
3. Always include captivating copy.
To keep readers interested, your content must be both captivating and relevant.
This newsletter is great for college students and their families. It covers topics that any student, especially a freshman, may need to know to be prepared for life on campus.
The title of the article, “The Money Issue- Everything You Need to Know”, is instantly appealing to readers, as it offers a comprehensive guide to a topic that is relevant to all university students- money management.
Takeaway: Captivate the reader but keep the information relevant.
4. Don’t neglect testing.
Without this next step, it’s impossible for a department to measure the success of their campaigns.
The Duke Athletics email may have used a variety of different titles, color schemes, and layouts before they chose the simplistic design with a catchy header image.
Testing email campaigns is important to see how many recipients not only open the email but also click through to get tickets or view the schedule, especially for departments that reach out to a large group of readers.
When it comes to smaller departments, such as a university’s English department, they may want to try out different, creative subject lines to entice their readers into opening their email.
This all goes back to properly segmenting your email list and personalizing your content. Even having great copy in the email body won’t matter if the other parts of the campaign aren’t up to par. Make sure to test each part of the campaign extensively to see what works best.
It’s important to test every aspect of your campaign by sending it to a small sample group first. This will help you figure out what works and doesn’t work for your readers.
5. Motivate social engagement and donations
Many students at Syracuse University are having a tough time because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Syracuse University is reaching out to its network of supporters to help students who are facing financial difficulties. A donation to the university’s Student Emergency Fund would go a long way towards assisting these students and would be greatly appreciated.
6. Increase enrolled students for online courses
Having a large email list is the most important asset for promoting online courses. Structure your emails in a way that will encourage people to sign up for your courses.
7. Invite students to events
Email marketing is the best way to reach an audience and get the most out of your event attendees.
The text has a clear call to action and a simple design.
8. Onboard new students
NYU’s onboarding email for higher education institutions helps guide admitted students and explains what the next steps are. They first congratulate the students on their admission and then provide clear instructions on what the next steps are.
Make sure to include in your university onboarding email deadlines, important dates, and next steps.
9. Engage the Alumni community
The email design is stunning and responsive, engaging the alumni and sharing the most recent highlights with them.
This example will give you ideas for your next alumni relations email campaign.
10. Send holiday emails
Although email marketing for higher education is largely about essential updates and campus news, you can make your students feel special during holidays by sending them an email wishing them a merry Christmas or happy holiday.
11. Raise students’ awareness
Email marketing can be a powerful tool to increase awareness for your students and school. By tailoring your email campaign to focus on your school’s mission, you can reach a larger audience and have a greater impact.
Arizona State University creates a high standard with their catchy email about Earth Hour.
12. Engage your community with weekly newsletters
The weekly newsletter from Stevenson High School does a great job of informing its community. When email marketing to high school students, it’s best to reach out to their parents or guardians.
The website is designed so that parents can easily find information by large, bold images, separate paragraphs, and scannable headlines.
13. Personalize your email campaigns
Email personalization involves using your contacts’ personal information to create more targeted emails. This provides individuals with more personalized treatment, which ultimately increases email engagement and overall email marketing performance.
Email personalization is when you make your emails more relatable to the person reading it by adding in information you know about them. This could be anything from their name and birthday to what courses they’re taking or what activities they’re interested in.
You can send different programs to different students based on their financial backgrounds by creating an email campaign.
If you use dynamic content in your emails, you can save a lot of time by tailoring the message to each individual contact.
Wrap up
Here are a few tips for email marketing in higher ed: 1. Keep your messages clear and concise. 2. Use images and videos to break up text and add visual interest. 3. Make sure your email list is up to date and that you are targeting the right audience. 4. Test your emails before sending them out to make sure they are working properly. Here are a few things to keep in mind when working on effective email marketing in higher ed: 1. Keep your messages clear and concise. 2. Use images and videos to break up text and add visual interest. 3. Make sure your email list is up to date and that you are targeting the right audience. 4. Test your emails before sending them out to make sure they are working properly.
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Personalization is key
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Subject lines can make or break an email
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Copy matters
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Testing is vital
Having the right marketing tools not only simplifies your email marketing, but also gives you the option to create campus-wide campaigns. Additionally, it allows individual departments to run more specific campaigns for those working or studying in their department.
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