Curious about how email marketing for higher education can boost your college or university’s recruiting efforts? Consider a recent survey by Mailchimp that found education-related emails have a 35.64% open rate. That’s a pretty impressive stat you can’t afford to ignore.
If increasing engagement and enrollment is a priority for your team, maybe it’s time to create and implement a higher ed email marketing plan. This post will walk you through the best email practices in higher ed and features of an effective plan, including:
The importance of email marketing for universities and colleges
Why you should optimize your email marketing efforts for mobile
The importance of brand consistency
How images and videos boost engagement
Reasons for segmenting your email campaigns lists
The benefits of automating your email marketing campaigns
Personalization tips
Email marketing software designed specifically for higher ed
Taking the time to strategize and structure your college email marketing plan will not only give you better results, but provide you with a roadmap for future email marketing campaigns.
Modern high school students are digital natives, spending up to nine hours a day on their mobile devices. According to the 2025 E-Expectations Trend Report, email continues to be one of the preferred ways prospective students communicate with colleges: 74% prefer receiving college communications via email and 50% say they will open emails to learn more about an institution.
Email is also the easiest way to reach parents and donors, so don’t forget to target email marketing campaigns specifically for them.
As the web evolves, so do the devices used to view content. That’s why mobile responsiveness should be a given for your institution’s higher education marketing strategies. Some students will even stop working on their computers to look up information on their phones. Your email marketing campaigns must be optimized for any device, or you will lose your target audience.
Mobility begins with a quality CMS that supports mobile responsiveness. If your CMS lacks this essential feature, it’s time to switch, especially if you want to leverage the benefits of SEO for higher education.
Make the switch: Schedule a Modern Campus CMS demo today!
When designing email marketing for educational institution campaigns, remember that they should reflect your school’s branding. Strong brands get as much recognition as the name of the product or company. If you want your email marketing campaign to garner as much attention as possible, stay brand-consistent.
Elements to consider:
Exact color matches
Tagline and logo consistency across media
Content style and tone
Design elements on web pages
Fluidity between print and online media
Placement of ads that reflect similar values and goals of your brand
Branding is a project unto itself, but one that will ultimately benefit your efforts with email marketing campaigns.
Students surveyed for the 2025 E-Expectations Trend Report indicated that emails including visual elements such as images or graphics generate up to 42% higher click-through rates and substantially higher open rates than text-only messages. So you should leverage this as part of your email marketing strategies.
Email has the added benefit of serving as a vehicle for other forms of content such as video. Email with personalized video content has been proven to improve attention, retention and conversion rates. Be selective with photo and image selection. It’s better to use images that target a specific audience rather than a general image.
Students prefer emails that incorporate images and graphics that accentuate the message.
Segmenting your email list into groups based on characteristics and interests is a great way to target specific audiences, and it's part of email marketing best practices.
For example, donation emails for new alumni should have a different ask than emails sent to longtime alumni donors. The same goes for prospective students. Seniors will have different needs and interests than sophomores who are just beginning to research colleges. To save time, write one email as a template, but then tailor it to meet the needs of your specific audience.
A quality email marketing tool that integrates with your CMS will allow you to specify how you break down your lists for specific campaigns. It can also help you regenerate new lists and reports as well as track and view analytics to understand how effective your email campaigns are.
Another timesaver is to automate your email marketing campaigns. This includes any follow-up responses to your emails and “drip” emails that nurture prospects through the enrollment funnel. When your software automatically follows up and sends a thank you and requested information, you don’t have to worry about a prospective student or alumni slipping through the cracks.
Just because you’re sending emails in bulk doesn't mean you shouldn't personalize them. A quality email marketing tool will have templates you can personalize by importing names and areas of interest into the text of emails so they're tailored to specific audiences who have specific needs and interests.
The right email marketing tool will make your email campaigns so much easier—especially if you choose one designed specifically for higher ed. Besides personalization, a quality email marketing tool that integrates with a CMS will allow for A/B testing to see which emails and corresponding landing pages are most effective, delivery optimization that can detect anything preventing your emails from being delivered, analytics with customized report features to gauge performance, and list management to segment and create targeted email lists.
With enrollment numbers decreasing, communication is more critical than ever. Establishing an effective higher ed email marketing plan can go a long way in recruiting and maintaining contact with prospective students.
Boost how you engage students today. Schedule a demo to see how higher ed email marketing software can increase your recruitment efforts.
Last updated: May 15, 2023