A Guide: Sending Newsletters to Prospective Graduate Students

Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral StudiesDecember 16, 2014

Introducing NewslettersIn addition to social networking sites, email newsletter is an effective communication tool to build and strengthen relationship between you and your customers, i.e. prospective students.

Examples from Rice and peer groups:

http://sites.dartmouth.edu/gradforum

http://news.harvard.edu/gazettehttp://news.rice.edu/subscribe/

Newsletter ContentsWhat to include in newsletters targeted towards prospects? Here are some suggestions from GPS.• Application

– How to apply– Deadlines– Funding

• Academic– Research Advances: high profile publications of graduate students (Rice News)– Interdisciplinary work– Student Spotlights - what are students working on (dissertations/papers/presentations)– Faculty Spotlights– Visiting Scholars– Upcoming Lectures– New courses being introduced

• New seminars and library acquisitions (SSH)– Research opportunities (to work with other faculty or schools)

• Example: RELI has a relationship with Grongingen in the Netherlands where they exchanged one graduate student and faculty member each year,

• TMC– School Newsletters

• Funding– Fellowships– What awards/fellowships are students at Rice winning?– fellowship advising/editing

Newsletter Contents• Why get a Doctoral or masters

– what does a phd/masters program look like at Rice• perhaps a day in the life of...an engineer, a bioscientist, a humanist

• Student Life – Community

• What is the GSA, local GSA, etc.• Highlight events• Arts on campus• community service

– Support• Wellness center, counseling, health, spiritual life

– Graduate housing & dining– Culture in Houston - local museums, art galleries, opera, food, festivals

• What are the shows/exhibits or here is the line up for next year• Professional Development

– certificate programs– Succeed

• Diversity• Alumni Spot Light - what are they doing now• Holiday Greetings

The Tool: MailChimpMailChimp is a powerful email marketing toolClick here to learn about what the Chimp is capable of

GPS picks MailChimp because it is popular, user-friendly and integrates well with other services.

You might ask: “Why do I need another email tool when I already have Outlook/Gmail/Hotmail etc. to do the job?” Find answer here.

The Process

❶ Collect

Collect prospects’ dataSubscribe them to emails

❷ Analyze

Sort into target groupsDepartment

Program of interestGPAEtc.

❸ Target

Send newslettersTrack responses

Improve contents

Collecting Prospects’ DataProspects are invited to fill out ‘Graduate Study Interest Form’.

The form is built by GPS using Wufoo* and accessible through these 2 webpages:

http://graduate.rice.edu/interestform

https://ricegradstudies.wufoo.com/forms/graduate-study-interest-form/

* Wufoo is a professional form-building tool which integrates with MailChimp. GPS sets up the system so that information entered in Wufoo form is automatically synced to MailChimp database.

Subscribe Prospects to EmailsDouble Opt-in Subscription Method*

• Immediately after prospects fill out the interest form, they receive opt-in emails from MailChimp inviting them to subscribe to our emails.

• Prospects will only be subscribed if they choose to. They receive confirmation upon subscription.

* Important: The main purpose of double opt-in method is to avoid spam. Read more here.

Analyze Subscribers’ Data

This is a screenshot of MailChimp’s subscriber list. You can view, segment, clean, export the list etc.

GPS sets up Wufoo-MailChimp integration so that data entered in Wufoo form is automatically synced to MailChimp’s mailing list.

MailChimp: Getting StartedYou (department/school contact) will be given access to GPS’ MailChimp account where you can manage mailing list, design/send newsletters and view performance reports.

Let’s get started!

Download and read:Getting Started With MailChimp

Watch tutorial videos:http://kb.mailchimp.com/video-index

More Guideshttp://mailchimp.com/resources

Design and Send Emails

Sign in MailChimp and click on the Campaigns icon.

To send a new email, click on “Create Campaign” in the top right corner.

Select ‘Regular ol’ Campaign’.

Select “Prospective Graduate Mailing List”, under which you see several choices.

GPS office will send general emails to the entire list. However for individual department, you want to target your emails to students interested in your programs. To do this, select ‘Send to a new segment’ -> C’td on next page.

Is your email general or specific to a target group? Who are your intended recipients?

In the drop-down fields, you can define your recipients by location (within or outside of US), current institution, expected term, GPA, area/degree/school of interest etc. You can add multiple conditions.In this example, I want to reach out to prospects interested in Bioengineering.

Click ‘Next’ in the bottom right corner to proceed to “Campaign Info” page.

On the Campaign Info page, customize the following fields only.• Name your campaign: for internal reference, not visible to email recipients.• Email Subject: e.g. xxx Department Newsletter Issue #1 (Read: Tips for Writing Subject Lines)• From name: Rice University Department/School of xxx (Please strictly follow this format)• From email address: your department/school’s contact email

Click ‘Next’ in the bottom right corner to proceed to “Select a Template” page.

You are welcome to build your own template. We encourage you to go through MailChimp guides, tutorial videos, and also Rice University’s Brand Standards.

You can also choose from the template library designed by GPS. Click on ‘Saved Templates’ tab and make your selection. Styling issue has been taken care of, but you need to customize contents and layouts.

To edit, hover your mouse over each content block (image/text/divider/button etc.) until you see the icons appear in the top right corner. (Edit|Duplicate|Delete)

E.g. To edit an image. Click on the Edit icon. Options will appear in the right sidebar. You can replace the image, edit its style, change image link and alternate text.

Feel free to make any changes you like: add or delete content blocks, change layouts etc.

◄ Change header image to your department.

◄ Edit header menu links.

◄ Change these links to your department.

◄ Don’t touch the footer!

Although you are free to make any changes, there are a few content blocks to keep:

1. A header image for your department2. Social network / Website / Contact email links3. Footer (Don’t touch the footer!)

If you are not sure how to edit templates, go through ‘Create a Campaign Crash Course 1-11’ tutorials on this page.

Happy with your email? Wait, don’t send it out yet.

Click ‘Preview and Test’ from the top menu. In the drop-down options:

1. Enter Preview Mode: See what your email looks like on a computer or mobile device. 2. Send a Test Email: Send a test email to yourself/others and get feedback.3. Open Link Checker: Are all links correct?

If you are happy with these tests, click ‘Next’ in the bottom right corner to proceed to “Review feedback” page.

If you have not finished your work and want to come back later, just click ‘Save and Exit’ from the top menu. It will be saved in Campaigns archive .

Check everything is right. Resolve any outstanding issues. Click Send!

Send Now! Tada!

Don’t forget to track performance in reports. You will see who is reading your email or what are the top clicked links. This tells you a lot about your target group and helps you improve contents in future communications.

Thank you!

Suggestions? Questions?

We appreciate your feedback!