Email marketing for schools is a flexible and effective communication channel — especially for schools and universities. Whether you’re sharing internal updates, contacting recent graduates, or reaching out to potential new students, email marketing helps you connect with your audience in a targeted and meaningful way.
If you’re looking to get started, on our page for email marketing for higher education you will find everything you need to create impactful, professional emails that reflect your institution’s brand.
In this post, we’ll walk you through the key steps to building a successful email strategy for your school or university — from planning and content ideas to design tips and best practices.
Why Email Marketing is Essential for Schools & Universities
Cost-Effective Communication That Saves Your School Money
Email marketing for schools is a cost-effective and powerful way to enhance communication with students, parents, teachers, and staff. Beyond saving your institution thousands of dollars each year in printing and postage costs, it offers a modern, easy-to-implement solution to streamline your outreach efforts.
Reach Students, Parents, and Staff Directly on Their Devices
In today’s digital age, students and educators frequently check their smartphones, tablets, and laptops throughout the day. Email provides a direct, reliable channel to reach your school community instantly — whether you’re sharing urgent updates, upcoming events, or important announcements.
Personalize Messages to Different School Community Groups
Moreover, email marketing allows schools to deliver personalized messages tailored to different groups, such as parents, students, and faculty, improving engagement and building stronger relationships. This direct communication boosts transparency, fosters trust, and encourages active participation in school activities.
Automate Routine Communications for Efficiency
With email marketing for schools, you can also automate routine communications like enrollment reminders, newsletters, and event invitations, freeing up valuable administrative time. And thanks to detailed performance tracking, you can continuously refine your campaigns to ensure your messages resonate and make an impact.
Measure and Improve Your Outreach Effectiveness
Track email open rates, click-throughs, and engagement to refine your campaigns and ensure your messages resonate with your school community.
Top Email Campaigns for Educational Institutions
Email marketing for schools goes far beyond flashy sales messages — it’s a powerful tool to improve internal communication and connect with students, parents, staff, and alumni in a targeted, cost-effective way. Here are the most impactful email campaigns your school, college, or university should consider using:
1. Email Newsletters for Schools: Keep Your Community Informed
Most institutions are already familiar with newsletters. Switching from printed to email newsletters lets you share school updates, event highlights, and important announcements — while saving on printing costs and reducing your environmental footprint.
- Use it for: Monthly school updates, board decisions, new programs
- Who it’s for: Staff, students, parents, governors
2. Orientation Emails: Welcome New Students with Confidence
Start-of-year communications can be overwhelming. A well-designed orientation email helps students feel informed and supported from day one, with easy access to schedules, campus maps, key contacts, and must-know info.
- Use it for: Back-to-school info, exchange student support
- Who it’s for: Incoming students, international students
3. Feedback Emails: Hear Directly from Students and Staff
Email is a great way to gather honest feedback from your school community. Instead of printed slips, send a quick, mobile-friendly survey (e.g. via Google Forms) and use responses to improve courses, events, or campus life.
- Use it for: Course feedback, faculty evaluations, student check-ins
- Who it’s for: Current students, teaching staff
4. Use Email Marketing to Attract Prospective Students
Use email campaigns to showcase your institution’s strengths. Highlight upcoming open days, academic programs, research breakthroughs, or student success stories to stand out from the competition.
- Use it for: Admissions marketing, open day invites
- Who it’s for: Prospective students, parents, school counselors
5. Email Marketing for Alumni Outreach in Schools
Stay connected with your alumni community by sharing success stories, event invites, or giving opportunities. Since graduates often move, email is a more reliable channel than postal mail.
- Use it for: Fundraising, testimonials, alumni spotlights
- Who it’s for: Former students, donors, alumni groups
Best Practices for Email Marketing in Schools and Universities
Once you’ve chosen your email campaigns, follow these design and content guidelines to ensure your emails look professional and perform well.
With a drag & drop email editor like Mail Designer 365, you can build professional email templates for your school or university in minutes. Start with a blank canvas or choose a Design Idea from our selection of email templates for education.
Branding: Stay Consistent with Your School’s Identity
Every email you send on behalf of your institution should conform to your brand guidelines. Not only does this make it easier for recipients to recognise that the email has come from you, it also helps you to protect your reputation.
Start by inserting the logo or crest for your school in a prominent place in your design. Usually, this would be the email header. You should also keep other aspects such as the font family and color scheme consistent at all times.
Tip: In Mail Designer 365, you can save your logo header under "My saved blocks" to reuse in all future email designs.
Layout: Organize Content for Easy Reading
Especially when you are presenting large amounts of information to your readers, it's important to opt for a clear layout. There's nothing worse than trying to navigate your way through a cramped email to locate what you're looking for.
Be sure to use a healthy balance of text and images and use spacers and headlines to separate different sections of your email.
Tip: Mail Designer 365 offers you a wide range of layout options, including mobile-responsive table layouts, which you can use to clearly present important information.
Tone & Style: Adapt to Your Audience
When putting together your emails, it's also best practice to consider your target group. This will help you determine the tone you use in your email copy, as well as other important style elements, such as graphics and eye-catchers.
If you are creating email content for a younger audience (i.e. high-schoolers or college students) it's generally fine to use a more relaxed tone and even shake things up visually, e.g. with GIFs, memes, emojis, etc.
On the other hand, if the email is intended for a different audience (i.e. parents, governors, etc.), or you are sharing important information, it's best to keep the tone more formal and to refrain from any style elements which may distract from your key message.
Clear Calls to Action (CTAs)
Including a call to action (CTA) in your email helps point the recipient towards their next steps. This does not have to be sales-related! Here are a few examples of CTA links you can include in your institution's emails:
- Sign up for a class/activity/field trip/extra tuition
- Get tickets for an event/football game/prom
- Download an eBook/guide/worksheet/timetable
- Watch a video lecture/webinar
- Share your class feedback
- Follow us on Twitter/Instagram/Facebook/etc...
Whatever you opt for, you should ensure your CTA stands out well against the rest of your email and that the text is clear and concise.
Get Started with Email Marketing for Schools
We hope you’ve found this email guide for schools and universities useful and will consider applying some of these tips to your own email strategy. Getting started with email marketing for your institution is easy and affordable:
- Open the Mail Designer 365 app (Don’t have a Mail Designer 365 plan yet? Get your free trial here!)
- Use one of our dedicated email templates for education, or create your own design from scratch.
- Send finished designs directly using Mail Designer, send from your school’s email account, or export as HTML to use with your own service.
Until next time,
Your Mail Designer 365 Team