Find the email best practices to increase alumni engagement for your school, college, or university. Here's the list of techniques for alumni email marketing
Alumni are an institution’s most precious asset. However, the reality is that while alumni will often have a sense of belonging to their alma mater, a constant connection is needed to cultivate this relationship. While there are a bunch of ways to achieve this, today, we’re focusing on one of the most effective communication methods employed by schools and universities around the globe – email communication.
While there’s a plethora of information on best practices for email marketing, our experience with various schools has helped us understand email best practices specific to alumni.
Email has an ability many channels don’t: creating valuable, personal touches – at scale.
- David Newman
While email communication plays a crucial role in the digital engagement strategy of many institutions, the rate of success for each school may differ greatly. The difference lies in the approach that each school takes. Here’s a list of tested techniques that have brought success to most schools:
To be able to engage alumni via emails, it is pivotal to maintain updated email lists. Over time, alumni contact information is bound to get outdated. For your email campaigns to have higher alumni engagement rates, it is integral that your emails reach the right people, and that’s only possible if you have updated information about your alumni.
Whether you’re a small school or a larger university, there are various ways to keep your alumni database up-to-date. Tap on the banner below to read more about the complete list of all the database update techniques that are typically employed by schools and their relative benefits.
While creating an email, it is important to be able to evaluate what alumni would value. Sticking to a template might look like the easiest route, but schools have witnessed greater success with personalized email campaigns. One way of personalizing your emails is by segmenting alumni based on gender, class year, and other relevant criteria.
It’s always a good practice to use a real name as opposed to a common name such as ‘Your Alumni Association’ as the sender of your emails. Using a person who your alumni may already be familiar with is ideal. You could even add in a picture and signature of the person at the end of the email to make the email seem more genuine.
Other than the high risk of your alumni email landing in spam, adding multiple links often comes at the expense of having an unfocused message, severely impacting your click-through rates. Sticking to a clear call-to-action button is the best practice.
Mercy High School, Burlingame does an amazing job at targeting its alumni with emails that have a clear call-to-action.
While we discussed how personalized email campaigns can help boost alumni engagement rates, monthly alumni newsletters and weekly updates have also proven to be highly effective. Monthly alumni newsletters and weekly update emails act as a source for alumni to stay updated with all that’s happening at their school and often evoke nostalgia and a sense of pride.
Here’s how Upper St. Clair School District & Taylor’s University keep their alumni engaged with informational monthly newsletter emails.
This is probably the most basic yet the most essential part of creating a successful email campaign. Optimizing your emails so that they appear in your alumni’s inbox at the right time and in the right format is critical to your campaign’s success. Here are some key aspects that should be ensured with respect to email optimization:
1. Ensure that alumni receive your emails during their active hours. If your alumni are in a different time zone, scheduling your emails is highly recommended. Analyzing past email delivery statistics might help in scheduling the timings for your new campaigns.
2. While attaching any images to your email, it is recommended to stick to a maximum file size of 1 MB.
3. Subject lines play an integral part in the success of any email marketing campaign. Including your alumni’s first name within the subject line is a great practice that we’ve seen schools achieve success with. Adhering to shorter, to-the-point subject lines is also highly recommended.
When it comes to engaging subject lines, QuestBridge Academy hands-down wins the game. For its September Bar Night event, the institution reached out to its alumni with a simple, yet highly effective subject line:
Here are some outreach email templates to kickstart your emails:
Subject: Connect & Grow: Your [Institution Name] Network
Dear [Alumni Name],
Hello from [Institution Name]! We hope you're doing well.
Did you know your connection to [Institution Name] offers a powerful way to boost your career? Our alumni network is full of people in many different fields, ready to connect.
We've made it easy for you to use this network:
- Network Platform: [Link to platform] - Join our special online platform to find and connect directly with fellow alumni for advice, opportunities, and shared experiences.
- Virtual Event: [Link to event details] - Sign up for our next online networking event. It's a great chance to meet alumni working in specific areas you're interested in.
- Career Help: [Link to career services page] - Visit our career services page just for alumni. You can find job postings, get tips, and learn about workshops to help you move forward.
Make the most of your [Institution Name] connections today.
Best regards,
The [Institution Name] Alumni Relations Team
Subject: Support [Institution Name]: Help Students Succeed
Dear [Alumni Name],
We're reaching out because you can make a real difference at [Institution Name]. Your time here helped shape your path, and now you can help shape the path of current students.
Supporting [Institution Name] is a direct way to invest in the future. Your contribution, no matter the size, can help provide essential resources:
- Give Now: [Link to donation page] - A financial gift helps fund scholarships for deserving students, support important research, and improve campus facilities.
- Volunteer: [Link to volunteer page] - If you have time to share, consider volunteering. You could mentor a student, help at an event, or offer your professional skills.
Every bit of support helps us give students the best possible experience.
Thank you for considering how you can help.
With sincere gratitude,
The [Institution Name] Advancement Team
Subject: Stay Connected to [Institution Name]
Dear [Alumni Name],
Life after graduation takes you to new places, but your connection to [Institution Name] and the people you met here is still important. We love sharing what's happening and hearing about your journey.
Here are a few simple ways to stay part of the [Institution Name] community:
- Read Our Magazine: [Link to magazine] - Check out the latest alumni magazine for campus news, stories about fellow graduates, and updates on upcoming events.
- Follow Us: [Links to social media profiles] - Connect with us on social media for daily updates, photos, and a chance to interact with the wider community online.
- Find a Local Chapter: [Link to chapter list] - Look for an alumni chapter in your area. It's a great way to meet up with other alumni near you for social events and activities.
- Update Info: [Link to update form] - Please take a moment to make sure we have your current contact information so you don't miss out on important news and invitations.
We value your connection. Stay in touch!
Warmly,
The [Institution Name] Alumni Relations Team
Subject: Keep Learning with [Institution Name]
Dear [Alumni Name],
The world keeps changing, and learning new things is key to staying ahead. As a graduate of [Institution Name], you have access to special resources to help you keep learning and growing in your career and personal life.
We offer opportunities designed just for our alumni:
- Online Courses: [Link to course platform/library] - Explore our library of online courses to learn new skills or brush up on topics relevant to your field.
- Webinars/Workshops: [Link to events page] - Attend online sessions led by our faculty or industry experts on a variety of interesting topics.
- Library Access: [Link to library access info] - Access many of the academic databases and publications available through the campus library from wherever you are.
- Mentorship: [Link to mentorship program details] - Whether you want to share your experience or learn from someone further along in their career, our mentorship program connects alumni.
Keep your mind sharp and continue your learning journey with [Institution Name].
Sincerely,
The [Institution Name] Professional Development Team
Subject: Share Your [Institution Name] Story
Dear [Alumni Name],
Your time at [Institution Name] gave you unique experiences and memories. Your positive stories are the best way to show others what makes our institution special and why it's a great place to learn.
We invite you to share your pride and help us tell the [Institution Name] story:
- Share Your Story: [Link to testimonial submission form or social media hashtag] - Tell us about your favorite memories or how [Institution Name] impacted you. We might feature your story!
- Represent Us: [Link to volunteer page] - Volunteer to represent [Institution Name] at college fairs or other events to talk to prospective students about your experience.
- Engage Online: [Links to social media profiles] - Like, share, and comment on our social media posts. This helps our news reach more people.
- Refer a Student: [Link to referral form] - If you know a student who would be a great fit for [Institution Name], encourage them to apply and let us know.
Your voice is important in helping us build a strong future for [Institution Name].
Best regards,
The [Institution Name] Communications & Alumni Relations Team
We hope we’ve given you some new ideas and motivations to make the most out of your email channels. If you’re looking for a tool to streamline your communication efforts, let us know and we’d love to show you how we can help.
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The journey from being a student to an alumnus is a memorable one. Alumni leave their definitive footprints that fuel the growth of their institution or university. And all the alumni who spend a considerable amount of time and money at their institutions would definitely want to feel valued by it.
Let’s be honest, universities and schools attain an impressive social ranking with the help of alumni to attract students from all around the world. Therefore, it becomes essential for institutions to honor their contribution.
And, it all boils down to one thing: communication.
Choosing a mode of communication is a critical standpoint. And sending out genuinely crafted emails can make you the winner. Email marketing is one of the best ways to engage all your alumni. But blasting them with bulk emails is not the road you want to take, for you will just end up annoying them altogether. Moreover, all your emails might just end up in the spam box.
To give you an insight, a well-crafted personalized email makes alumni feel valued than sending the same email with a general template to your entire alumni base.
So, the question is, how can ensure top-notch alumni email open rates and boost your overall email engagement metrics? Here’s your answer:
You might want to segment your alumni base according to your different target audience. Which translates to segregating your alumni base into different groups and sending out the emails accordingly.
For instance, would you put a 1990 grad who listens to Guns N' Roses and a 2016 grad who listens to Billie Eilish in the same category?
Probably not!
Segmenting your alumni base helps in curating personalized messages according to the target group. It doesn’t matter if you have a small email base, what matters is segmenting it into different groups. It might take some effort in the beginning to sort out the contacts and create separate email lists but the end result will be worth it. And this one-time effort can help you achieve more engagement and open rates.
There are ample email marketing tools that can make this segmentation process a breeze. While many choose to go in for a popular tool like Mailchimp (learn about their new pricing) you can consider other alternatives that provide many refined features at affordable prices.
After picking up the best-in-class email marketing tool, you may make your target lists according to the year, course, subjects, seniority, career/job field, time zone, or more. When you successfully segment your alumni email base, you can work on your key messaging and tone of the content according to the interest level of the target groups.
Pro Tip - Keep updating your alumni email lists at regular intervals
Now let’s hop on to the format of your emails.
I know. It’s super easy to pick a standard newsletter template, change the content, throw in some pictures, and voila! Your email is ready to send.
Please don’t do this. There are high chances for your email to remain unopened or even land up in the spam box.
With a definitive hike in the number of email marketing software, almost all your alumni must be aware of the “standard newsletter template” you are using daily. Even if you spend a good amount of time writing the content of your email, it might get ignored due to the format you used.
A decent email marketing tool comes with a variety of options and pre-made templates to suit your needs. But don’t go for just any tool, rather, do your research, take free trials, consider your budget, and then carefully make a decision.
Speaking from experience, don’t believe the first thing that shows up in your search results. Choosing a newsletter tool that is tailor-made for niches like schools and universities will go a long way.
Change the format and see the wonders!
Pro tip - Keep a clean design with minimal graphics and a uniform font style to make your email look mature.
Crafting personalized emails is an art. And marketers are trying their best to master it. So personalized emails entail three touch-points:
It is recognized as an engaging practice to include the name of the recipient in the subject line. It has a positive effect on the open rate of the email as “Personalized subject lines can increase open rates by 50%” (Source).
While people are accepting this practice, including the sender's name also makes your email more personalized. For instance, include the name, designation, and a picture of the sender to make the email look more authentic. Consider it like an author’s bio.
You have included the name of the recipient in the subject line and sprinkled it here and there. Now what? How could you make it more personalized?
While sending out weekly updates or monthly newsletters is necessary, you may also consider sending birthday wishes, specialized holiday messages, virtual postcards, calendar invitations for alumni events, etc. to add more value and personalization to your email campaigns.
This is a key strategy to follow if you want a significant boost in your email open rate. Your alumni might be all over the world. Then why do you send emails to your entire alumni base at one particular time? Before you say anything, I have come backed by a fact.
To determine top open and click-through rates, research was carried out by sending 21 million messages from US email accounts. The results? If you send messages between 6 am and 12 pm, it would lead to inbox clutter, thereby decreasing the open rates. Following the same, if you want the best results, try sending them out in the early afternoon. (Source)
Pro Tip- Keep a tab on the analytics and messaging style of all your email marketing campaigns and compare them to find the roadblocks.
You have chosen an email marketing tool, segmented your alumni base into target groups, and optimized your subject line, content, and timing. Now it’s time to work on your CTA.
The first insight to master this art is to decide the purpose of the email campaign. If you have that purpose clear, you will easily nail the ‘call to action’ phase. Including a lot of options, buttons, and unnecessary links might lead to a lower engagement rate.
Use this mantra: “One purpose, one action”.
For instance, if your purpose is to get maximum contacts for your alumni base or to create an exclusive alumni community, don’t include multiple CTAs like joining in for an event or a donation drive. Keep it for a separate email campaign.
Moreover, don’t keep a complex CTA format. You don’t want your alumni base to jump from one form to another. Rather, keep it a one-step process. This practice would surely pull up your dipping engagement metric.
Pro Tip - You may include a special “What’s ahead” section with one-line information as to what your next email shall entail improving your engagement metric. (P.s.- This needs a lot of planning)
The goal was to paint a clear picture of what maintaining relationships with alumni through email communication entails. And if you follow these touch-points religiously, then you can definitely see a boost in your open rates and engagement metrics.
This blog is written by Shivani Srivastava. A content marketer by heart, Shivani is passionate about writing anything in the field of the technological landscape. She's written this guest blog for SendX: Email Marketing Software.
How to Improve Alumni Email Open Rates and Engagement
Looking to improve your alumni email marketing campaign? Find the best practices & strategies to boost alumni outreach, email open rates, and alumni engagement.
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Email marketing is crucial to the success of your online giving campaign. Does that sound like a used and abused fact to you?
While it may sound repetitive, it’s the gospel truth!
Advancement teams extensively use email marketing to promote their online giving campaigns but, what do they do differently to increase the sense of urgency?
Here’s a look at the 6 most effective email marketing hacks that can help you create a sense of urgency and drive more people to donate:
Segmenting your alumni into groups based on different parameters such as location, class year, interests, etc. and targeting them via personalized emails is a widely popular approach adopted by schools and universities worldwide.
Here’s how Centenary College of Louisiana personalizes emails for an affinity group - Women’s Basketball and asks group members to make a gift to support their cause.
Apart from sending generic emails inviting donations, leveraging your influencers helps create a personalized touch and acts as a strong incentive for your alumni to contribute. These influencers should be people who your alumni can relate to and would appreciate hearing from.
See how Scranton Preparatory School used the peer-to-peer approach via emails to increase its Giving Day donations by 546%. Read the full story here.
Creating more opportunities for class years to compete with one another and gamifying this approach can significantly boost your giving day donations. Ensure that there’s an incentive tied in with the challenge and lay down the rules clearly in your email.
Here’s how Calvert Hall College High School emails alumni about the inter-class challenge and lays down clear guidelines & incentives. This approach helped create a healthy competition between classes leading to the school increasing its Giving Day donations by twice as much in 3 years. Read the full story here.
With shorter campaigns where timing is crucial, adding a countdown timer or a goal meter in your email creates a sense of urgency. Also, consider sharing a story that your alumni would relate to and feel the urge to contribute towards.
See how North Shore Animal League America includes a countdown timer to appeal to its donors.
Whether it is a one-day or a week-long campaign, it’s always a best practice to keep your constituents informed of all that’s planned as a part of the campaign. Right from the campaign announcement down to thanking donors for their support, ensure that your audience is engaged throughout the campaign.
Here’s how Mercy High School announces its upcoming Giving campaign, complete with the information about the goal of the campaign and all relevant links.
Saying thank you never goes out of style. Sending donors a thoughtful thank you email is a great practice for not only expressing gratitude but more importantly, for building lasting relationships. A thank-you email goes a long way in retaining the same donors and getting them to contribute again.
Check out Scranton Preparatory School’s thoughtful ‘Thank You’ email to all alumni after the end of its #PrepDay campaign. Read the full story here.
6 email marketing ideas to drive participation towards your online giving campaigns
Find email marketing best practices to improve alumni engagement and boost fundraising for schools, colleges & universities.
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If you’re someone handling alumni engagement for your school, you know that engaging recent graduates is one of the most challenging aspects. So, before diving right in, let’s take a closer look at why young alumni need to be engaged and its long-term impact.
Young alumni have the potential to turn into future major donors. But, they must be approached the right way. Billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s first donation to his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University, was at the age of 23 and the amount was $5. Since then, he has donated close to $1.8 billion to support research, teaching, and financial aid at the university.
Yep, that’s accurate.
Chances are this segment of your alumni population won’t respond to your fundraising asks for the next few years. They are just starting a career and personal financial problems such as paying off student loans or relocating to a new city for college are likely to get prioritized over donating to or engaging with their alma mater.
While young alumni may not be the biggest contributors over the next few years, they can be of great help to your school by offering you their valuable time, in the form of volunteer work and internships.
Here’s a look at the 6 most effective strategies employed by schools to engage their young alumni.
While this is something that is recommended irrespective of whether or not your school is catering to young alumni, having a responsive alumni website is especially great for capturing the attention of the younger generation. As the younger generation is more inclined towards using mobile devices, being able to easily access all the websites and their resources on their devices helps provide more opportunities for them to engage with their alma mater.
Take a look at Nicholls State University’s up-to-date and easily accessible mobile-friendly website below.
As recent graduates, your alumni already have a lot to worry about. The key to building a lasting relationship is to address these issues and provide them with valuable support. This could be in the form of workshops, job prospects, mentorships, social networking mixers, or even emotional support.
A time-tested technique for finding out what your young alumni would be most interested in, alumni surveys are great at saving time and effort. Creating a short survey asking alumni what they would like to hear about from their alma mater is an effective way of grabbing attention and delivering value. There are various tools such as Typeform and Survey Monkey that can help you create short surveys. For example, The College of Idaho took a short survey that revealed ‘Financial Planning’ as the most pressing concern for a majority of young alumni. Based on the results of this survey, the college organized a free workshop on Saving Money & Paying Off Debts, as a way to support its young alumni.
Instead of the usual marketing email blasts, focused emails targeted at specific segments of alumni are bound to yield better results. The most effective way to keep young alumni engaged with emails is to provide them with consistent value, right from the start. If you are trying to engage alumni who recently graduated, targeting them with emails that showcase relevant job opportunities is the best way to do it.
Take a look at how T. Howard Foundation, a non-profit organization based out of Silver Spring, Maryland, shares job opportunities with its young alumni via emails.
According to a recent study published by Broadband Search, 79% of college graduates use at least one social media site.
Social media is a great tool for engaging young alumni not just because of its high accessibility and adaptability but also because of the flexibility it provides. There is no limit to how creative you can get and that’s what resonates the most with young alumni. Incorporating more video content and trying to create campaigns that urge alumni to take action are ideal components of a great social media strategy. Here’s how William Peace University drew the attention of its young alumni and got them talking about their upcoming reunion.
While having a digital engagement strategy in place is pivotal, completely depending on it is not recommended. In-person interaction is a fundamental part of fostering lasting relationships with young alumni. Here’s how our customer, Charlotte Christian School got this right.
As a way of extending support to young alumni, Charlotte Christian School sent out a video featuring beloved teachers wishing alumni good luck ahead of their exams and conveying to them how much they care. The video also acts as a special appeal for alumni to come back to school for a wonderful time with their teachers and friends.
6 strategies for increasing engagement from young alumni
Engaging recent graduates of alumni engagement can be a challenging aspect. Here’s a look at the 6 effective strategies peers use to engage their young alumni.
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