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(info) About HubSpot Emails

Maricopa Community Colleges uses HubSpot’s Email tool to engage with prospective students, applicants, enrolled students, and alumni. From encouraging students to complete the application process, promoting programs, offering information about scholarships, or sharing key updates on student services, this tool allows us to personalize and tailor content to ensure each message resonates with our audiences.

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Best Practices

Send Emails to the Right Lists

Creating the correct list to send an email ensures the right messages reach the right people. Creating and segmenting the proper email list is a crucial first step in crafting effective email campaigns. See our Knowledge Base article on Lists.

Ensure Proper Email Branding

Following our brand standards in email marketing is essential because it ensures consistency, professionalism, and recognition across all communications.

District Marketing, in collaboration with college marketing teams, has created many templates for your use, which can save your team time by eliminating the need for branding, design, coding, and user experience setup from scratch.

Write Meaningful Copy

The body of your email should be consistent with your institution's voice, whether formal, friendly, or academic. Use the Maricopa Community Colleges editorial style guide to create proper and consistent writing.

Stick to one main topic, such as an upcoming event, application deadlines, or new program announcements.

Tailor your email content based on the recipient's specific interests, program of study, or lifecycle stage in the admissions process.

Create an Engaging Subject Line and Preview

Use clear, actionable, and enticing subject lines. Ensure they align with the body of the email and are personalized when possible.

The preview text is the snippet of text that appears next to or below the subject line in an email inbox, providing a brief summary of the content. It is the first piece of information recipients see after the subject line and plays a crucial role in the email's open rate and engagement.

Use Images That Resonate With Your Audience

Choose high-quality, optimized images that look great on any device. Images of campus, student life, or recent events help capture attention and create visually engaging emails.

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Example: Use photos from recent campus activities or virtual tours to bring your email to life.

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Use Calls-to-Action (CTA)

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A well-crafted

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CTA

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is crucial in any email

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. It eliminates confusion, providing a clear, direct path for the recipient to follow. Whether it's applying for a program, signing up for a campus tour, or registering for an event, the CTA needs to clearly define the action you want the recipient to take.

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Example: "Apply Now for Fall 2024" or "Sign Up for Our Campus Tour."

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CTAs are also important in that the create email engagement, which promotes Click Rates and Click-Through Rates (CTR), both of which are essential to HubSpot’s email health.

Time Your Emails Correctly

According to studies, emails sent on Tuesday at 11

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a.m. have the highest response rates. For colleges, consider timing emails around essential events like admissions deadlines, enrollment periods, or mid-semester updates.

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Responsiveness:

  • Since 55% of emails are opened on mobile devices, ensure your email is optimized for all screen sizes. This includes using mobile-friendly layouts, readable fonts, and images that scale correctly.

  • Example: Students often check emails on their phones, so make sure all the links and forms are easily accessible

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Personalization:

  • Personalization goes beyond just adding a student's name to the subject line. You should tailor content based on the recipient's specific interests, program of study, or lifecycle stage in the admissions process.

  • Example: "Hi [First Name], are you ready for orientation next month?" or "Hey [First Name], explore financial aid options for [Program Name]."

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Subject Line:

  • Use clear, actionable, and enticing subject lines. Ensure they align with the body of the email and are personalized when possible.

  • Example: "Your Next Step to Becoming a [Program Name] Student" or "Explore Scholarship Opportunities at [College Name]."

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Email Preview Text:

  • The preview text is the snippet of text that appears next to or below the subject line in an email inbox, providing a brief summary of the content. It is the first piece of information recipients see after the subject line and plays a crucial role on the emails open rate and engagement.

  • Example: Subject line: "Don’t Miss This Opportunity,” the preview text could add value with something like, "Apply today for Fall 2024 programs before deadlines approach."

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3. Use Email Marketing Templates

💻 Watch Our Video on Emails

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📄 Step-by-Step Instructions for

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Creating and Managing Emails

As with any marketing effort, the first step in email marketing is clearly defining your desired outcome. Are you promoting a new program, providing registration updates, or nurturing leads? Each type of campaign requires different strategies and approaches. By determining the purpose of your email campaign, you can create targeted objectives and set clear goals for success.

Consider these common Email use cases.

Expand
title1. Identify the goal of your email

Informative Emails

Promotional

Enrollment/Admissions

  • Important Dates: Remind students of critical dates, like the start of the semester, drop/add deadlines, and tuition payment deadlines.

  • Financial Aid Notifications: Provide updates on the status of financial aid applications, deadlines, or disbursement details.

  • Resource Updates: Provide students with information about scholarships, financial aid, counseling, advising, tutoring, and other essential resources.

  • New Programs and Bachelor's Degrees: Share information about new programs available at your college, including bachelor's degrees, certifications, and micro-credentials.

  • Early College Programs: Share Information regarding programs for high school students looking to earn college credit.

  • Upcoming Events:

    Promote campus events, workshops, job fairs, graduation ceremonies, information sessions, and more.

  • Registration Updates: Inform students about their class registration status, including waitlist updates or changes to their schedule.

  • Inquiry Follow-ups: Ensure students who inquire about programs receive timely responses and feel supported during enrollment.

  • Re-enrollment Reminders: Encourage students who have paused their studies to re-enroll by highlighting upcoming deadlines and available support.

Expand
title2. Define Your Audience

Effective emails, whether part of a campaign or standalone, begin with a clear audience understanding. Start by identifying your target audience, which involves understanding their demographics, interests, and pain points. Tailor your messaging to address these pain points and meet the specific needs of your audience. Segmenting your audience and personalizing emails ensures you deliver relevant content to the right people at the right time.

Example Segments

Segment by Program Interest

  • Colleges can group students and prospective applicants based on their declared major or areas of interest. This way, emails can focus on relevant programs, upcoming deadlines, or new course offerings specific to their interests.

  • Example: "Students interested in health care programs can receive emails about upcoming classes, certifications, and career fairs in the medical field."

Lifecycle Segmentation

  • HubSpot allows colleges to tailor emails based on the contacts lifecycle.

    • Prospect

    • Application Started

    • Applicant

    • Matriculate

    • Enrolled

    • Graduate

    • Employee

  • Example: "Send Prospects reminders about application deadlines, while Enrolled receive updates on course registration or academic advising."

Behavioral Segmentation

  • Segment based on student behavior, such as engagement with email, event attendance, or website activity.

    • Example: "Send personalized follow-up emails to students who attended an open house but haven’t applied yet."

Email Engagement Segmentation

  • Maricopa colleges can segment lists based on how actively students engage with past emails, ensuring that content is tailored to their engagement level.

    • Example: "Send more in-depth content to highly engaged students while using re-engagement strategies for those who haven’t opened recent emails."

3. Build Your Email List:

Create an email list with prospects who are excited to hear from you. There are many creative ways to grow your email list. Instead, successful list building focuses on two key components that work together to increase your subscriber count: lead magnets and opt-in forms.

Lead Magnets: Incentives you offer in exchange for a prospect's email address. Examples include newsletter subscriptions, admissions checklists, or guides on specific academic programs.

Opt-in Forms: The RFI forms on your college's website, landing pages, and social media channels are used to capture email addresses.

4. Establish a Timeline

Decide how frequently you'll contact your list and inform your audience of this schedule upfront to set expectations and reduce the likelihood of unsubscribes or spam reports. Consistency is key for building trust and keeping your brand top of mind.

Expand
title3. Build Your Email List

Create an email list with prospects who are excited to hear from you. There are many creative ways to grow your email list. Instead, successful list building focuses on two key components that work together to increase your subscriber count: lead magnets and opt-in forms.

  • Lead Magnets: Incentives you offer in exchange for a prospect's email address. Examples include newsletter subscriptions, admissions checklists, or guides on specific academic programs.

  • Opt-in Forms: The RFI forms on your college's website, landing pages, and social media channels are used to capture email addresses.

Watch Our Video on Lists

https://vimeo.com/1021075197?share=copy
Expand
title4. Establish a Timeline

Decide how frequently you'll contact your list and inform your audience of this schedule upfront to set expectations and reduce the likelihood of unsubscribes or spam reports. Consistency is key for building trust and keeping your brand top of mind.

  1. Understand Your Audience: Tailor your email timing and frequency based on audience preferences and engagement.

  2. Test & Optimize: Use A/B testing to find the right cadence.

  3. Consistency: Maintain a balance—frequent enough to stay relevant, but not overwhelming.

  4. Personalization: Ensure content feels relevant to recipients.

  5. Give Control: Allow users to set their preferred email frequency.

  6. Track Performance: Use analytics to adjust cadence as needed.

What is Email Cadence? What Marketers Should Know + Best Practices

📄 How to Access Email Templates

  1. In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Marketing Email.

  2. In the top right, click Create email.

  3. In the dialog box, select an email type.

  4. Click the Drag and drop tab.

  5. Existing templates will be listed under the Saved templates section.

  6. Click Manage saved templates in the top right panel.

  7. Click the View dropdown menu or Sort by dropdown menu to filter the list of templates.

  8. To preview, manage, or create a new email from one of your templates, click the Actions dropdown menu, then select an option:

  9. Preview: render the desktop and mobile version of your template.

    1. Edit: modify your template using the drag and drop email editor.

    2. Clone: duplicate a template.

    3. Use this template: create a new email using the template.

More details can be found here: Manage and edit your saved marketing email templates
Expand
titleHow to access email templates
Access Email Templates

Access Your College’s Email Templates

To see your college’s emails in HubSpot, navigate to Marketing > Email.

If you cannot see emails or do not have access to create them, you will need to reach out to your college enrollment and marketing teams for permission.

  • Here, you will see the emails already in place for your college. If you have questions about existing emails in the system, contact your local college Marketing department for clarification. In general, District Marketing and your college marketing team have collaborated on your college’s emails, so these will have consistent branding, proper formatting, and compliance.

Note

Important—If you need to create a new email, we strongly encourage you to consult with your local Marketing office for assistance

Expand
titleBuild a New Email

Build a New Email

Note

Important—If you need to create a new email, we strongly encourage you to consult with your local Marketing office for assistance

  • Navigate to Marketing > Email.

  • Clone an existing email to ensure consistency with branding and compliance. To do this, locate an email with a layout and design that suits your needs, hover over the email title, and select the Clone button that will appear off to the right.

  • Next, you will select your college, which HubSpot refers to as a “Business Unit.” You will also need to choose whether you want this email to be a Regular or Automated email. A Regular email cannot be used in workflows for email automation, meaning it can only be sent to existing lists. An Automated email, on the other hand, is dynamic and can be sent as users are added to lists that exist in workflows. You can change the email type in the editing phase, though not after an email has been published.

  • Change the name of your email, as it will inherit the name of the email you cloned.

  • Emails in HubSpot work off drag-and-drop elements. On the left, there are various options, shown as icons, that you can drag directly into the email builder, such as image, text, and button, among others.

    • When images are uploaded to an email these images are stored under Library > Files. This folder is one that is shared amongst all of the colleges. In order to help others keep track of their images, please name your images starting with your college acronym or move them once uploaded into your college specific folder.

  • Once you add elements, HubSpot uses standard word processing tools to format your message.

  • You can also add personalization tokens to your email. For example, if you would like to reference a student’s name in the greeting, you can select Personalize. Then on the "Insert Token" window, select "Contact" and then the "First Name" token

When using tokens, be sure to include a “Fallback Value” to be used if the email recipient’s information is not available.

Expand
titleConfigure Email Settings and Send

Configure Email Settings

  • Before sending your email, you will also need to go into the Settings tab to choose your email settings.

  • Here, you need to indicate the From Name, the From Address, the Subject line, the Preview Text and any other details you would like to include.

  • Once done, you can preview your email to ensure it looks correct on desktops and mobile devices. It is strongly recommended that you send yourself a test email to ensure that any personalization or content appears correctly to the recipient. When you receive the test email, make sure any links work and go to the correct webpage.

Send Your Email

  • When you are ready to send your email, navigate to the Send or schedule tab, select the Contact list you would like to send to from the dropdown , and choose Send Now or Schedule for Later.

  • When you are sure everything is correct, select Review and Send.

  • Also be sure to add your email to the correct folder using the Actions dropdown.

If this is an automated email, your email will be sent through a workflow. You can learn more about HubSpot Workflows here.

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For additional instructions on creating and managing emails, view All all HubSpot Marketing Email articles.