Publishing a regular newsletter is an essential aspect of any communications strategy. Integrating a newsletter into your content calendar does not have to be difficult or time consuming. If done properly, i.e., with the right tools and effective scheduling, issuing a newsletter can be a simple way to boost your entire communications plan by a few notches.

1. The Why And How Of A College
Newsletter
Slide 1
The Why and How of a College
Newsletter

2. The Why And How Of A College
Newsletter
Slide 2
Why it’s important to issue a College or University
Newsletter?
1. Expand your reach
2. Strengthen your ties
How to launch and maintain a College or University
Newsletter
1. Define your audience(s)
2. Develop a schedule and a team
3. Set up a template
4. Make it visible
5. Monitor and analyze
Overview
Source: Higher Education Marketing – The Why and How of a College Newsletter

3. The Why And How Of A College
Newsletter
Slide 3
Why it’s important to issue a College or
University Newsletter
Image source: www.minini.biz
Source: Higher Education Marketing – The Why and How of a College Newsletter

4. The Why And How Of A College
Newsletter
Slide 4
Students and faculty are an integral part of a college’s overall
network, but there are many people outside campus grounds
that are interested in what’s happening at the college.
By offering a newsletter to an extended audience, your college
will expand its overall branding to various subsets of the
external community, including potential partners and
prospective students
1. Expand your reach
Source: Higher Education Marketing – The Why and How of a College Newsletter

5. The Why And How Of A College
Newsletter
Slide 5
A newsletter:
 helps your college stay connected to a given community.
 you are also giving them another way to contact you and to
keep in touch.
Even as students or faculty graduate and retire, they will likely
stay subscribed to the newsletter, thereby preserving the
relationship they have with the college.
 Example: One of University of British Columbia's various
newsletters helps the Faculty of Food and Land
Systems "Reach Out" to their audiences.
2. Strengthen your ties
Source: Higher Education Marketing – The Why and How of a College Newsletter

6. The Why And How Of A College
Newsletter
Slide 6

7. The Why And How Of A College
Newsletter
Slide 7
How to launch and maintain a College or
University Newsletter
Image source: www.minini.biz
Source: Higher Education Marketing – The Why and How of a College Newsletter

8. The Why And How Of A College
Newsletter
Slide 8
One of the greatest advantages of a newsletter is that you can
design it to target a specific audience.
This gives you the opportunity to directly contact a specific
demographic with information on important
news, updates, and events.
 For example, you can launch separate newsletters for
alumni, prospective students, partners, faculty, staff and currents
students.
This is beneficial because it allows you to enhance the impact
of your communication efforts on various initiatives.
1. Define your audience
Source: Higher Education Marketing – The Why and How of a College Newsletter

9. The Why And How Of A College
Newsletter
Slide 9
By defining your audiences and then designing distinct
newsletters for each of them, you will make it easier for
readers to be aware of opportunities that are of interest to
them.
 Example: Carleton University publishes a monthly
newsletter specially catered to prospective students.
1. Define your audience
Source: Higher Education Marketing – The Why and How of a College Newsletter

10. The Why And How Of A College
Newsletter
Slide 10

11. The Why And How Of A College
Newsletter
Slide 11
2. Develop a schedule and a team
Once you’ve defined your audience, you need to establish a
schedule and a team.
 Maintaining a consistent schedule for your college
newsletter will ensure a timely and efficient distribution
process.
 Set up a content calendar that will map out the creation
and distribution timeline, and which stories will be featured
in the newsletter.
 This schedule will be easier to draft when you know who
you will be working with, so develop a team.
Source: Higher Education Marketing – The Why and How of a College Newsletter

12. The Why And How Of A College
Newsletter
Slide 12
2. Develop a schedule and a team
As always, we suggest including students in all of your higher
ed marketing initiatives.
 In the case of a newsletter, students can help with choosing
topics and writing the content.
 Ideally, someone who is a part of your target audience
would be on the team.
 For example, an alumnus would be helping with the Alumni
Newsletter, an international student on the International Student
Newsletter, etc.
Source: Higher Education Marketing – The Why and How of a College Newsletter

13. The Why And How Of A College
Newsletter
Slide 13
3. Set up a template
You don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time you send out
a newsletter.
 Whether you decide to distribute a weekly, bi-weekly or
monthly newsletter, the best way to maintain a smooth
process is to create and stick to a specific template.
Source: Higher Education Marketing – The Why and How of a College Newsletter

14. The Why And How Of A College
Newsletter
Slide 14
3. Set up a template
There are many different email marketing service providers (for
example, MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, and Vertical Response) that allow
you to customize any one of their available templates.
Once you choose a template, modify it so that it includes the following:
 College or University logo
 Social media buttons
 Contact information
Once you have your template ready all you need to do is insert new
content and corresponding images. This will allow your team to maintain a
simple process and consistent look.
Source: Higher Education Marketing – The Why and How of a College Newsletter

15. The Why And How Of A College
Newsletter
Slide 15
4. Make it visible
Make it easy for people to subscribe to your newsletter by
setting up a “Sign Up to Our Newsletter” call-to-action on your
website.
 If you’re setting up a general newsletter for the entire
college, place the sign-up option on every page of your site
by integrating it into your header or sidebar.
 If you decide to distribute several audience-based
newsletters, integrate a “Newsletters” page into your
navigation and list all of the different newsletters on that
page with the corresponding “sign-up” option for each one.
Source: Higher Education Marketing – The Why and How of a College Newsletter

16. The Why And How Of A College
Newsletter
Slide 16
4. Make it visible
Example: California
College of the
Arts (CCA) placed their
Newsletters page
through their “About
Us” section. Also, the
sign-up form allows
users to sign up for
several different CCA
newsletters that may
interest them.
Source: Higher Education Marketing – The Why and How of a College Newsletter

17. The Why And How Of A College
Newsletter
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5. Monitor and analyze
The key to maximizing on your newsletter campaign is:
 ANALYTICS
Almost every email marketing service provider will offer a
monitoring tool that will allow you to track certain metrics, such
as:
 the number of new subscribers,
 how many recipients opened the newsletter,
 Etc.
Source: Higher Education Marketing – The Why and How of a College Newsletter

18. The Why And How Of A College
Newsletter
Slide 18
5. Monitor and analyse
This level of monitoring paired with Google Analytics will give
you an even more detailed view of the activity on your
newsletter and how readers are engaging with it.
Setting up the analytics of your newsletter properly will help
you:
 distinguish your audience (alumni, prospective
students, faculty, etc.)
AND will allow you:
 to follow up with each reader based on how they interact with the
newsletter.
Source: Higher Education Marketing – The Why and How of a College Newsletter

19. The Why And How Of A College
Newsletter
Slide 19
5. Monitor and analyse
If your college or university has yet to launch a
newsletter, now is a perfect time to get it started.
 Gather up a dedicated team
 Establish your goals and audiences
 Set up a template
 Follow a manageable schedule.
After the first few issues, you'll find your readership go up
rather quickly, and you can expect to achieve a more in-depth
connection with your communities.
Source: Higher Education Marketing – The Why and How of a College Newsletter

20. The Why And How Of A College
Newsletter
Slide 20
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