The Challenge
A few years ago, this university faced a campus-wide communication dilemma. Faculty, staff, and other various departments were using Microsoft Outlook in silos, and distributing emails to the campus community that recipients perceived as spam. With no opt-out functionality, no list management, and no way to track engagement, the university’s email communications had become disorganized and ineffective.
The situation reached a breaking point when the university president personally intervened, asking the marketing and communications team to find a centralized email solution that would stop the misuse of Outlook and create boundaries around campus communications.
The Solution
After conducting a comprehensive RFP process, the university selected Emma as their email marketing platform. The implementation began with their primary use case: sending a weekly newsletter to all students, faculty, and staff on campus.
What started as a solution to improve communications quickly evolved into a comprehensive campus-wide email marketing system, serving diverse needs across the university’s complex structure.
The Results
Massive Scale and Adoption:
- 176 sub-accounts across campus departments
- 600+ active users managing email communications
- 1.4 million contacts in their database
- Adding approximately one new account per week through word-of-mouth growth
Exceptional Performance Metrics:
- Top-performing accounts achieving 74% average open rates (20% is considered good)
- Student Experience department: 74% open rate with over 10,700 recipients
Diverse Campus Applications:
- 40% of sub-accounts serve internal health campus communications (hospitals, clinics, research)
- Academic departments, humanities centers, and student organizations
- Both email and SMS campaigns for student engagement
- Communications reaching students, faculty, staff, parents, and supporters
Key Success Stories
Humanities Center Transformation
Previously struggling with another well-known email marketing platform, the humanities department at this university was sending dense, eight-page newsletter content with no clickable elements or calls-to-action. After moving to Emma and implementing best practices, the Center now benefits from the following results:
- Achieved 74% open rates and 16% click rates
- Events now regularly sell out
- Streamlined communications drive traffic directly to their website
- Successfully expanded their audience beyond internal humanities students
Student Experience Department Excellence
This department manages student social events and community building initiatives:
- 11,000+ subscribers (60% parents/supporters, 30% students)
- 74% average open rate since account inception
- Events attract 5,000-6,000 students regularly
- Integrated email and SMS campaigns for maximum engagement
Benefits of Implementing Emma
1. Improved Communication Quality – Not only did Emma help the university centralize and organize their email marketing, they’re also now able to deliver beautiful, consistently-branded messages from several campus departments to a very diverse audience.
2. Actionable Data and Feedback – Emma’s reporting capabilities allow the marketing teams at the university to really dig in and see what emails are performing the best, as well as what messaging is resonating with audiences via heat maps, open and click rate statistics, and more.3. Strategic Marketing Education – Emma has provided a comprehensive platform where senior marketing leaders at the university can teach up-and-coming email marketers in other departments how to be successful and take advantage of this extremely important marketing channel.
Long-term Partnership Success
The university’s confidence in Emma led them to sign a sole-source agreement to continue their relationship rather than going through another RFP process. The platform has become integral to their communications ecosystem, supporting everything from major campus news to specialized research communications.
With minimal opt-out rates and consistently strong performance metrics, Emma has transformed the university into a model of targeted, effective email marketing across a complex academic institution.
