Email is a flexible communication channel with a huge range of possibilities, including for schools and universities. Getting started with email marketing is a guaranteed way to help your institution connect with your chosen audience.

Sending out internal updates, contacting recent graduates and promoting your institution to new recruits are just a few of the ways you can use email to your advantage.

In this guide, we're taking you through all the ins and outs of successfully creating an email strategy for your educational institution.

Why use email marketing for education?

As well as having the potential to save your institution thousands on printing costs each year, email is a modern and easy to implement way to optimize your communication strategy.

In a world where students (and many teachers!) are constantly checking their smartphones and tablets, email provides a direct channel straight to them which you can utilise to share important messages and news.

What can I do with email for my school, college or university?

When we think of email marketing, it's easy to automatically think of flashy sales and e-commerce emails. In reality, email has the potential to be a highly effective way of providing your target audience (e.g. teaching staff, current students, alumni or new recruits) with essential information.

Here are just some great ideas of how you can use email to promote your institution and improve both internal and external communication.

Newsletters

Most schools and colleges are already familiar with the concept of sending out a regular newsletter or magazine to staff, students, parents, governors, etc.

Switching your institution over to email newsletters allows you to continue sharing all your latest news and updates, whilst saving money on printing costs and helping out the environment.

Student orientation

Whether it's the start of the school year, or you're welcoming a new cohort of exchange students, your student body needs to feel at home right away.

Greet new students with an information-packed orientation email. This way, they'll be able to find everything they need in one place.

Feedback emails

Valuable feedback is an important asset for any educational institution. Getting feedback from students gives you an insight into how they're feeling about their course and what you can do to improve things.

Say goodbye to printed out feedback slips and create a quick and anonymous email questionnaire by linking a Google Form or similar online survey inside your email design. This is an effective way to quickly find out more about your students.

Promotional emails

As well as keeping current students informed on the latest news, you can use email as a way to attract prospective new students to your school or university.

Use email to advertise an upcoming open day, present course options, or showcase your latest research findings. These are all great ways to make your institution stand out against competitors.

Alumni outreach

Many schools and universities run successful alumni programs to keep in touch with former students. This is a great way to improve your school's image through testimonials and success stories.

Although some institutions opt to send out letters, this is not a reliable form of contact, especially as young graduates tend to move around a lot. Checking in on former students via a friendly email is the best way to maintain a connection and share your message.

Creating emails for education: Best practice

With a drag & drop email editor like Mail Designer 365, you can build professional email templates for your school or university in minutes. Start with a blank canvas or choose a Design Idea from our selection of email templates for education.

Here are a few key things you should consider along the way...

Branding

Every email you send on behalf of your institution should conform to your brand guidelines. Not only does this make it easier for recipients to recognise that the email has come from you, it also helps you to protect your reputation.

Start by inserting the logo or crest for your school in a prominent place in your design. Usually, this would be the email header. You should also keep other aspects such as the font family and color scheme consistent at all times.

Tip: In Mail Designer 365, you can save your logo header under "My saved blocks" to reuse in all future email designs.

Layout

Especially when you are presenting large amounts of information to your readers, it's important to opt for a clear layout. There's nothing worse than trying to navigate your way through a cramped email to locate what you're looking for.

Be sure to use a healthy balance of text and images and use spacers and headlines to separate different sections of your email.

Tip: Mail Designer 365 offers you a wide range of layout options, including mobile-responsive table layouts, which you can use to clearly present important information.

Tone & Style

When putting together your emails, it's also best practice to consider your target group. This will help you determine the tone you use in your email copy, as well as other important style elements, such as graphics and eye-catchers.

If you are creating email content for a younger audience (i.e. high-schoolers or college students) it's generally fine to use a more relaxed tone and even shake things up visually, e.g. with GIFs, memes, emojis, etc.

On the other hand, if the email is intended for a different audience (i.e. parents, governors, etc.), or you are sharing important information, it's best to keep the tone more formal and to refrain from any style elements which may distract from your key message.

Call to action

Including a call to action (CTA) in your email helps point the recipient towards their next steps. This does not have to be sales-related! Here are a few examples of CTA links you can include in your institution's emails:

• Sign up for a class/activity/field trip/extra tuition
• Get tickets for an event/football game/prom
• Download an eBook/guide/worksheet/timetable
• Watch a video lecture/webinar
• Share your class feedback
• Follow us on Twitter/Instagram/Facebook/etc...

Whatever you opt for, you should ensure your CTA stands out well against the rest of your email and that the text is clear and concise.

Get started with email marketing

We hope you’ve found this email guide for schools and universities useful and will consider applying some of these tips to your own email strategy. Getting started with email marketing for your institution is easy and affordable:

1. Open the Mail Designer 365 app (Don’t have a Mail Designer 365 plan yet? Get your free trial here!)
2. Use one of our dedicated email templates for education, or create your own design from scratch.
3. Send finished designs directly via the app from your institution's email account, or export to your ESP to send to a larger list

Until next time,

Your Mail Designer 365 Team

First impressions are everything and the way your business welcomes new customers on board plays a critical role in how they interact with your business over time. For this reason, it's especially important you pay great attention to your welcome email strategy.

A welcome email series allows you to create a unique customer experience for anyone coming across your business for the first time.

In this guide, we'll take you through the most important steps to consider along the customer journey, and show you some great examples of welcome emails we love.

Jump to:

• What is a welcome email series
• Types of welcome email series
• What to include in your welcome email series
• How to create a welcome email series

What is a welcome email series?

A welcome email series is an automated string of emails sent out to new customers to help welcome them to your business and guide them towards carrying out a specific action (i.e. making a purchase.)

Your welcome email series works the same way as a restaurant server does. When you arrive, your server will greet you and help you get settled in. They will then point you towards your food and drink options, offer you add-ons, and continue to check up on you throughout your visit.

Types of welcome email series

To begin with, think about your end goal for the welcome campaign. Your chosen CTA (call-to-action) will then help shape your welcome email series and give you the inspiration you need to put together your email content.

Here are a few typical examples of types of welcome email series you may have come across already:

Creating a sales-based welcome email series

This is a common form of welcome email series which you will most typically see from fashion brands and other types of retailer. The CTA tends to revolve purely around sales and the aim of the series is to persuade new customers to make a purchase.

Tactics used often include showcasing new products and offering out discounts and promotional codes. In this example by ASOS, new customers are enticed to start shopping thanks to an exclusive 10% discount.

A 10% discount helps ASOS get new customers in the mood to shop.

An effective subject line also helps grab the reader's attention from the start.

Creating an information-based welcome email series

With an information-based welcome email series, the aim is usually to educate new customers about your business. This could be delivered in a tutorial style, as commonly seen in onboarding email campaigns, to help provide new users with all the information they need to get set up.

This onboarding email shows new users how to get started with using the service.

Alternatively, your business may want to use the welcome series to teach new signups more about who you are and what you do. For example, a charity organisation may want to show potential new supporters where their donations are going and provide them with relevant information and stats.

Explaining more about what you do to new subscribers helps reinforce their reasons for signing up initially.

Creating an engagement-based welcome email series

Finally, an engagement-based welcome series aims to get new customers using your product or service as much as possible so they can reap the benefits. This is generally done by pointing new users towards their next steps and making it easy for them to familiarise themselves with how everything works.

This 3 step welcome email shows new users exactly how to start using Glassdoor

In this example, Goodreads also show new users how to use the service to find new books to add to their list.

What to include in your welcome email series

The customer journey is unique to your business and factors like the time span, contents, CTA and intensity of a welcome campaign will vary.

Here are some ideas for emails which you can choose to include in your welcome email series to help new customers form a connection with your business:

Opt in / Verification

Since the introduction of GDPR, the double opt in has become known as the gold standard for email registration and sending these types of emails has become standard practice for many businesses.

Not only does this process help protect your business from spam bots filling up your email list, it also ensures any new signups are happy and willing to receive your content.

This simple opt in email by Product Hunt fulfils its purpose while also remaining super on brand.

When to send: Schedule your opt in email to send instantly, so that your new customer doesn't forget to do it later on.

Welcome

This is your brand's first real interaction with your new customer and sets the tone for the rest of your welcome email series. In this email, it's important to firstly thank your customer for signing up, and secondly, make it clear what their next steps should be.

Without a clear CTA in your welcome email, customers are highly likely to ignore it and you will lose your chance to connect with them.

Zoom's welcome email is great, as it outlines the details of the user's plan and also points them towards actionable first steps.

Superdry not only thank new customers for signing up, they also let them know exactly what's in store for them in a useful overview.

When to send: A welcome email should be sent soon after opting in. This ensures your customer is still actively thinking about your business.

Segmentation email

Email segmentation is a key aspect of your email marketing strategy, as it helps ensure your emails are being sent to the optimal recipient.

Use your welcome email series to get to know more about your customers' interests. This will help you tailor your content for them in the future.

Create an email to send to new customers encouraging them to update their email preferences. This will help you find out key information about them, such as location, age, gender, interests, etc. in order to send more relevant email content.

Britannica sent out this great welcome mail for better email list segmentation.

The questions in the linked survey help Britannica determine what kind of content the reader wants to receive, thus maximising their chances of higher open rates.

When to send: Send this email a few days after your first welcome email. This way, there will be enough distance between the two emails and your business will still be fresh in the reader's mind.

Action email

Use your next email to direct new customers towards your intended call-of-action. This could be anything, including:

• Making a purchase from your online store
• Setting up your first playlist
• Reading the latest blog post
• Trying out a new recipe
• Referring the service to a friend

Make this email super enticing with great email copy, lots of eye-catching visual elements, and a super snappy subject line. This way, new customers won't be able to resist getting started right away.

This email sent by HubSpot as part of their free trial onboarding series clearly points new users towards their exclusive tutorials.

Riley tempt new customers to start shopping with an enticing $25 discount.

When to send: Give your customers a few days to look around on their own. If you haven't tracked any notable actions, now's the time to send this email prompt and jog their memory.

Feedback email

In many cases, it's also a good idea to offer new users the chance to share their thoughts and feedback about their experience so far. Particularly if you offer a demo or free trial period, getting this feedback early can help you address issues directly and prevent customer churn down the line.

If you have a lot of questions, linking out to a targeted feedback form or survey for newcomers can be a great way to find out exactly what you want to know about new customers' experience. Alternatively, it can just be reassuring enough to provide a support email address or telephone number to let the customer know your team are there if they need you.

When to send: If you are offering customers some kind of demo, aim to send this out towards the end of the trial period. Hopefully by this time, new users would have had a chance to use your product and form an opinion.

Remember, a welcome email series is specific to your business and does not adopt a one size fits all approach. Depending on the nature of your business, there could be other emails you want to include which we haven't mentioned in this article. Some other popular examples include:

• Referral email (e.g. refer a friend for x% off your next purchase, etc.)
• Up-sell / cross-promotional email (e.g. you may also like..., upgrade to unlock more features, get premium shipping, etc.)
• Cross-channel promotional email (e.g. subscribe to our blog / follow us on Twitter / check out our YouTube channel, etc.)
• Sense of urgency email (e.g. hurry your trial is ending, last chance to get your welcome discount, etc.)

How to create a welcome email series for your business

Creating an automated welcome email series for your business is actually super straightforward. All you need is a well-designed set of email templates and access to marketing automation tools.

Mail Designer 365 has a wide range of HTML email templates ready for you to adapt for your automated email campaigns. Not only this, the drag & drop email editor makes it easier than ever for you to build your own email templates in minutes - no coding skills needed!

Discover a huge range of design tools in Mail Designer 365 to create effective email templates for your welcome email series.

Once you've finished creating your set of email templates, you can export them directly to Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor, or Direct Mail, or as HTML to your chosen email service provider or marketing automation platform, including:

• SendinBlue
• ActiveCampaign
• SendGrid
• Customer.io
• Drip

Not got a Mail Designer 365 plan yet? Start your free trial today to unlock access to 120+ email templates and a wide range of exciting creative tools for your welcome email series.

Until next time,

Your Mail Designer 365 Team

Get started with the Mail Designer 365 service today for free...

Mail Designer 365 helps you and your team create stylish, professional HTML emails.
Sign up free today to see what you can achieve.

Whether you're informing customers about an upcoming product launch, sharing a statement, or communicating important changes to subscribers, being able to write effective announcement emails is a key skill needed by businesses of all sizes.

What is an announcement email?

In this article, "announcement email" is very much an umbrella term for your core communication with customers (outside of standard sales emails.) An announcement email can take many forms, including but not limited to:

• Internal company news
• Product news or updates
• Public statements
• Announcing a show of support OR taking a stand
• Crisis communication
• Event invitations
• Customer information

Also important to consider: Oftentimes, announcement emails are much more text-heavy than a standard marketing-style email, as the sender usually has a lot to say.

Why should I use email for my announcement?

As a business owner, email is the most reliable way to make important announcements to your subscribers. Although social media is booming, complicated algorithms often mean many of your subscribers on platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter don't even see your posts - resulting in important information going unread.

Email is a direct channel between you and your customers with very little background noise to take away from your key message. For this reason, when done correctly, an announcement email has the potential to lock in high open rates and get better conversions.

Here are some useful tips to consider when sending an announcement email, plus some great examples of announcement emails we have collected from around the web and our own personal inbox.

Our recipe for effective announcement emails

Strong email copy

One way of ensuring your announcement email is a success is through great communication. This can be achieved by producing strong and convincing email copy to really make your message clear to readers.

Think carefully about the context of your announcement. This will help you determine the tone you want to use and will help you choose your words more carefully.

For example, if your email announcement is of a serious nature, it is probably more fitting to opt for a formal and professional tone. For an exciting announcement like a product launch or a new store opening, you can afford to have a little fun with your email copy and adopt a more relaxed tone.

Other important aspects that will help elevate your email copy include:

• Good spelling and grammar
• Varied sentence structure
• Clear paragraphs and sub-headings - especially if you are conveying a large amount of information

In this email statement, CreativeMornings use powerful, well-thought-out prose and a clear layout to show their solidarity with the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

CreativeMornings show their support for the #BlackLivesMatter movement through powerful prose.

Great design

The way your email looks is - in many ways - just as important as what it says. An eye-catching header graphic or a strong feature image can be all it takes for your reader to pay more attention to your email.

Take this announcement email from Avanti West Coast - Although the rest of the email is quite plain, Avanti do a great job of drawing in readers using a colorful and abstract header design. The simple title "Important information" is enough to let the reader know this is something they should be paying attention to:

A great header design helps this announcement email by Avanti capture readers' attention.

Tip: You can create a similar header effect in Mail Designer 365 by layering shapes and adjusting the opacity:

Another style element which is important to your design's overall effect is your font choice.

While it's tempting to get creative when it comes to fonts, oftentimes, simple is best. Especially when your message is so important, you don't want to run the risk of a poor font choice getting in the way of clear communication.

Choose a clean, easy-to-read font in a sensible weight to apply to your email copy. You should also avoid overusing bold or italic, as this appears confusing to readers. When you're done, remember to configure an email-safe "fallback" font to ensure your email text is displayed properly in all clients:

Always include an email safe fallback font to ensure better compatibility with other email clients

Clear call-to-action

Any marketing email needs to be able to demonstrate a clear call-to-action. Whether you want your readers to sign up for an event, pre-order a new product, or simply visit a landing page, you need to point them in the right direction first.

Use a CTA (call-to-action) button which clearly stands out against the rest of your email in order to make it prominent to readers. You should also make sure the text of your button is short and snappy and check that the link leads to a sensible destination.

By choosing a vibrant shade of red for the CTA in this tour announcement email, Live Nation are able to convey a sense of urgency and encourage readers to sign up for event access:

The bold, red CTA button in this tour announcement email by Live Nation jumps out at readers.

Experiment with shapes and font styles in Mail Designer 365 to create dazzling CTA buttons for your own email designs:

Mail Designer 365 has all the shapes and text styles you need to create bold and effective call to action buttons.

Engaging subject line

Your email's subject line is the very first thing that recipients will see and is often the determining factor in whether or not your email gets opened. For this reason, you need to ensure your subject line is interesting and intriguing enough to pique your customers' interest.

When you are coming up with a subject line, be sure to include key words such as "new", "announcement", "exciting news", etc., in order to let your readers know what the email is about. By teasing your new product, upcoming event, important news, etc., you are bound to make your readers curious and encourage them to open up your email.

Furthermore, using emojis in your email subject is another great way to ensure it will stand out in their inbox.

Mobile optimization

Because so many people today now check their emails on the go, it's crucial that your announcement email has also been optimized for mobile devices. This is a key part in ensuring that your message is effectively communicated.

Mobile optimization includes aspects such as:

• Checking the font is legible on mobile devices
• Choosing target links which make sense on mobile devices (i.e. iOS App Store versus Mac App Store links)
• Resizing images to look good on mobile devices
• Including tailored content for mobile users (e.g. special offers, mobile app download links, etc.)

Mail Designer 365 automatically creates a mobile responsive version of your email design, which you can optimize and edit separately to your main desktop design. Simply navigate to the Smartphone view and detach a layout block to begin creating mobile-only content:

Use the Mail Designer 365 smartphone editor to create mobile optimized announcement emails.

Smart segmentation

The final way of ensuring your announcement email is a success is by making sure you send it to the right target audience. Sending one email to your entire list is usually a bad idea and is generally only reserved for exceptional circumstances (i.e. major business announcements.)

When you are setting up your campaign in your email marketing platform, think about who will find this information most relevant. This group should be your first priority, as they are more likely to engage with your email. If you can think of other groups who may also find the email beneficial, you can go back to adjust and optimize your template accordingly.

Looking for tips? Here are some useful segmentation techniques you could try out:

Email List Segmentation Techniques to Learn More About Your Subscribers

More examples of great announcement emails

If you are in need of some inspiration, here are a few more announcement emails which we found particularly effective...

Product Hunt

The striking header graphic in this email by Product Hunt gets their important message heard loud and clear.

Unsplash

This simple newsletter-style announcement email by Unsplash is both informative and interesting for users of the service.

easyJet

easyJet use the header of this announcement email to grab readers' attention before sharing their important update.

Shinola

Shinola use bold design techniques to win customers' attention in this new product announcement email.

allplants

allplants do a great job of using a colorful CTA button together with a clear layout to introduce a new dish to their menu.

YO!Sushi

YO!Sushi also mix contrasting color combinations with a big feature image to get customers excited about the return of their "Green Wednesday" promotion.

Mailchimp

This announcement email by Mailchimp concentrates a lot on great email copy and an effective CTA button.

Discover how Mail Designer 365 can help you build announcement emails

We hope you are feeling inspired and will take these tips on board the next time you ned to make an important announcement for your business.

Mail Designer 365 has all the tools and email template options you need in order to create a fabulous announcement email and share your great news with your subscribers. Sign up today for free to get started!

Get started with the Mail Designer 365 service today for free...

Mail Designer 365 helps you and your team create stylish, professional HTML emails.
Sign up free today to see what you can achieve.