Summary
The CAS Communications team provides support for digital newsletters targeting external audiences, guiding units through planning, content development, Mailchimp setup, and performance evaluation. Units are responsible for providing content and alumni lists, while CAS manages editorial review, distribution, and analytics.
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CAS OPERATIONS
Services Model
Communications
To request support for your next digital newsletter, please contact the CAS Communications team via the Project Request Form. To get started, review the following guidelines and recommendations.
Define goals and objectives
Your goals and objectives should be clear, sustainable, achievable and measurable before structuring your publication, and they should be re-evaluated at least every 2–3 years for return on investment (ROI) and sustainability.
Determine audiences
Audiences may include employees, retirees, UD leadership, students, alumni, community and government officials. The CAS Communications team offers support for newsletters to external audiences.
- If your goal is developing alumni relationships, check with Development and Alumni Relations (DAR) for guidance and review the Campus Partners Resource Guide.
- Requesting an alumni list from DAR:
- Submit any list requests at least three weeks in advance.
- Submit two forms: the list request form and a confidentiality agreement. You can find both forms in the Campus Partners Resources Guide under "Donor and Alumni Data Communications."
- To provide the most up-to-date and accurate list/data of alumni, and since the lists and contact information are ever-evolving, campus partners are required to get a new list from DAR for each send.
- The unit must secure and manage all other lists.
Determine cadence
If the audience is internal, the unit is solely responsible for all aspects, including cadence. If the audience is external: CAS Comms recommends no more than 1x per semester (Fall/Spring).
Distributing the newsletter
- UD recommends the Mailchimp email platform. Individual units are responsible for the setup of email platforms, their cost and maintenance of patron lists. CAS Comms will walk through this process with your unit. Identify staff and/or faculty to be the project owner and provide user access to a CAS Comms team member.
- We strongly advise against emailing PDFs. PDFs were made for printing, not for digital-first communication. By avoiding them, we improve the experience for everyone, making the content more accessible, trackable, and updatable.
- They are usually not accessible and many people refrain from opening email attachments.
- Many people check emails on their phones. PDFs often look tiny, require zooming, and can be frustrating to scroll through.
- Once they’re out there, you can’t change them, track who read them, or make them accessible on different devices easily.
- For units new to Mailchimp, CAS Comms will help you set up a Mailchimp-approved “from” email address. Any replies to the newsletter campaign will go to a Google group associated with the email address. Let CAS Comms know which users should be in the Google group.
- List management: The CAS Comms team member will upload the DAR alumni list to Mailchimp and tag it for the current campaign.
Projected Timeline
- Units collect and provide all content at least 30 business days before the newsletter campaign send date.
- Units request DAR email list at least 21 days before the send date.
- CAS Comms completes an editorial review at least 21 days before the send date.
- CAS Comms builds the newsletter at least 14 days before the send date.
- CAS Comms sends the campaign.
- CAS Comms shares a campaign performance report within 7 days after the send date.
Plan the content
Units must collect and provide all content (copy, images) to CAS Comms. Share the content as attachments to the project request form or via a link to a Google Drive or doc. Content must comply with the following guidelines:
- News should take place during the period covered by the newsletter (i.e. spring 2025 news).
- If a story is too long (more than 200 words), we may link to it as a news story on the UD website.
- Organize your content by general topics such as "Department Highlights," "Student News," "Alumni News," "Faculty News," "Support Us."
- Provide a brief “welcome” letter from the director or chair that sets the tone and theme for the rest of the newsletter.
- For images, please provide the following:
- High-resolution, including a landscape image for the top of the newsletter.
- Model releases for images of students and guests.
- Captions and photo credits.
- Flyers (a graphic with text and images) as part of the content are not allowed; they aren’t accessible.
Launching the newsletter campaign
Using the Mailchimp platform, a CAS Comms team member builds and sends the newsletter to the unit’s external audience. They will complete the following tasks:
- Build the newsletter. Set up a draft newsletter with the following elements: newsletter title, featured image, welcome letter, topic categories and content blocks that may include an image, headline, paragraph, and link.
- Review. Send a test email to your unit’s newsletter team to proofread, edit and check links.
- Schedule and send the email campaign upon completion of the review process. Replies will go to the unit’s newsletter Google group members.
- Evaluate. Send the unit’s newsletter team a link to a Mailchimp-generated campaign report on metrics such as open rate, click performance and audience data.
- Publish (optional). Publish an archive on the unit’s website that links to newsletter editions.