• Provide personalized experiences for students.
• It enhances the interaction between the institution and the students.
• Facilitates precise segmentation of students.
• Increase student retention.
• Help promote events and training programs.
• Allows you to analyze campaign performance.
• Optimize your return on investment.

If you want to know how to achieve all these advantages, in this article we explain what actions and good practices you should apply to attract new students and improve student retention with email marketing campaigns .

Best practices for creating an effective email marketing strategy for universities

If you want to develop an email marketing plan for universities and educational institutions , there are a number of actions you need to take. Creating a segmented contact list, tracking the student journey, and other aspects such as cambodia phone number data including engaging CTAs and subject lines are key practices.

Create a list of potential students interested in your content

Having a good contact list is the starting email marketing in logistics: how and why to apply it point for starting an email marketing campaign to attract and retain students. Follow these steps to create it successfully:

• Create subscription forms . This way you can get sms to data information from your future students. To do this, enter basic fields (name, age, geographic location, etc.) along with more specific ones (previous studies, academic interest, etc.Remember to provide valuable content in the forms to attract subscribers.
• Segment your students. Start with criteria relevant to your interests, such as age, field of study, interests or geographic location. With MDirector you can create advanced segmentation lists that will help you approach your contacts with personalized messages.
• Update your database . Review and update your contacts regularly. In addition to filling out forms, you can use lists of student associations to increase the number of potential subscribers.
• Streamline the process with automation . Not all profiles have the same interests. And it is possible that old contacts are no longer interested in your proposal, or that some email addresses no longer exist. Clean up the list you are going to address with unsubscribe management andbouncesautomatic that MDirector offers you.

Make the subject line attractive

The subject line is the first thing your email recipients will see, so it’s important to grab their attention. Keep your subject line simple and concise , with information that’s relevant to them. You can use keywords related to the university, a specific educational program, or a special promotion to generate interest and increase open rates.

Track the student’s journey

It is advisable to use monitoring and analysis tools to know in detail the behavior of students when viewing your emails. This way, you will be able to see the content that generates the most interaction , as well as the links with the most clicks and the messages that generate the most conversions . With this compilation of information, you will be able to optimize active campaigns or begin to plan future actions that achieve the expected impact.

Introduce effective CTAs that attract students

Every call to action must be clear and highly persuasive . Use action verbs and make buttons and links easy to see and find. A good call to action should direct the student to take the desired action , whether it is registering for a virtual event or requesting information about an academic program.

Take advantage of the value of Marketing Automation

Marketing Automation is the best ally to intervene at key moments in the admission process or during the student life cycle . For example, by applying automation to your campaign with MDirector you can set up an automatic sequence to send welcome emails to new students , reminders about registration deadlines or follow-up messages after a request for information. All to provide a fully personalized experience to each student.

Mobile-friendly designs

It is now common practice to check your inbox from a mobile phone or tablet. As a study by Digital Response shows, 79% of smartphone owners use it to read an email, a compelling reason to ensure that your messages are always optimized for effective viewing and navigation on smaller screens.

Before launching your email marketing campaign to promote educational services, make sure that elements that may appear smaller, such as buttons and images, are displayed correctly on mobile devices .

Analyze the key KPIs in your campaigns

Regularly monitor the basic metrics that determine the course of your strategy. KPIs to pay close attention to include open rate, click rate, and conversion rate .

The MDirector tool dashboard displays real-time statistics. You can see the status of your campaigns, actions and contacts at any time , and based on what you see, make decisions based on the data collected. These metrics are detailed by hour and day, search engine, mobile device and operating system so that the client can adapt their communication strategy to the recipients. In addition, the heat map resource shows which specific CTA generates the most interaction.

Do A/B testing

With A/B testing, you can identify the elements that provide the highest performance. By doing this regularly, you know what works best and you are continually optimizing your email marketing for universities.

With MDirector you can test two subject lines to see which one performs better and gets a higher open and click rate. You can also do the same by comparing two different email designs.

Examples of email marketing for universities

Students and potential members of university institutions are clear: they prefer email to receive information about academic programs and degrees. This is demonstrated by a recent study by Statista, which shows that 76% of American high school students prefer this communication channel to learn more about universities. 

When it comes to starting your email strategy, it’s key to know what you want to achieve. Your goal will define the design you’ll implement in your email. Here are several examples of email marketing campaigns for universities that will serve as inspiration:

College Admission Email

The main premise is to congratulate the student on his/her admission and provide him/her with relevant information on the next steps to follow: how to enroll, orientation dates and links to useful information. The tone, being a welcome, is colloquial and relaxed, along with a design that follows the corporate identity of the center.

Email with announcement for students

Its purpose is to provide information on academic programs or news that contribute to encouraging student participation in university activities.

In this email format, you can talk about recent events on campus , such as the start of a new semester and library or student services office hours. You can also create a landing page to attract students , inviting them to seminars or courses that will begin soon.

Mail to involve students in social causes

In this case, the goal is to get students to volunteer to take positive action for their community . The message has to be clear and concise, accompanied by a moving story.

As shown in this example, you can promote a donation to a social cause. Invite students to contribute a symbolic amount of money to an organization or issue and create an event around it. To make it easy to donate, include a CTA that takes them directly to the cause’s website .

Event invitation email

It is used to promote conferences, talks, events related to the center , etc. It must include the date, place and speakers, if any. Its design must be attractive and include personalized content to encourage participation.

Mail for new students joining the university

It is used to establish a first connection, inform about the next steps to be taken and provide useful resources so that the student can quickly integrate into university life. Here, again, the tone of the email should be friendly and approachable, with a design that respects the corporate identity.

Mail to attract alumni

The aim is to attract these students back to the university; it may be to invite them to start a new course or to participate in an activity at the centre . This type of email is characterised by offering highly personalised content based on the interests, expectations and needs of the alumni.

Newsletter mail