How U of Guelph FIBs its way to effective email marketing

By Sharon Aschaiek | January 11, 2023

44%.

That is the average open rate of recruitment and admission emails sent by the University of Guelph.

Yes, higher ed marcomm folks, you read that right.

Their open rate is double the average email open rate across all industries, which, in 2022, was 22%, MailChimp reports.

Anyone else salivating to know their secret sauce?

No word of a lie, the answer is FIB: F-shaped pattern, Inverted pyramid, Buzzfeed.

By using these three techniques to shape the content and format of their email messages, the unit is reaching more prospective and current students than it ever has before.

I thought, if we use these three approaches, I bet we’re going to have more readership…the bounce rate is going to be less,” says Angi Roberts, manager of marketing and communications for undergraduate student recruitment and admission. Looking at our statistics, she says, show “we’ve got a significant captive audience of students who are opening our emails.”

F-shaped pattern

Like many innovations over the last three years, the FIB formula evolved in response to the pandemic. With the university largely operating virtually, she wondered how to make their unit’s emails stand out amidst the barrage of digital communications.

Her first step was to organize the placement of copy in an F shape, as research shows this the common pattern our eyes follow when scanning information online. It is a go-to layout for news and blog sites that can help with boosting readership.

So when Roberts and her team of four craft the one to two email messages they send out each week, they place the most important information horizontally in the first few lines, and much of the rest vertically in a list down the left side.

“Research shows they’re not reading emails left to right like a novel,” Roberts says. “They’re scanning, they’re looking for keywords that apply to them…so this is an easy-to-read format that helps us capture their attention.”

Inverted pyramid

As the wife of a journalist, Roberts is quite familiar with that profession’s use of the inverted pyramid in reporting. It’s a story structure that places the most fundamental information at the top. The remaining details follow in the order of need to know, to nice to know.

For instance, she says, an email about upcoming campus tours would first reference the dates, how long they are, what they will see, and who will lead them.

“What I see happening elsewhere is a paragraph about the university, its beautiful campus, how lovely it is as this time of year, how our students are enjoying their time here, we have award-winning gardens…and then by the way, you should come for a tour,” she says. The inverted pyramid structure, she says, remind content creators to communicate in a way that caters to the audience’s needs.

Buzzfeed

From the popular web news site Buzzfeed, Roberts has learned the value of organizing content in bulleted lists, or what are called (shudder) listicles. With attention spans having shrunken dramatically, lists allow for fast and easy consumption of information. Also a la Buzzfeed style, the content is also written in a way that is concise and snappy, to keep it engaging.

The Buzzfeed hack also applies to email subject lines. Inspired by the site’s famous attention-grabbing and often number-based headlines, Guelph commonly uses subject lines that read like “Five reasons to book a campus tour” or “Six times to visit campus”.

Other key steps Roberts’ team takes to maximize email open rates include: repeating important information two to three times; minimizing pictures and graphics #000 to keep messages short; and running content by co-op students in her office to ensure it’s not too formal or trying too hard to be cool.

Results

Roberts and her team have been applying the FIB technique to emails for about a year and a half and, as mentioned, enjoy a stunning 44% average email open rate.

What’s also noteworthy is this kind of performance happens even during quiet times like fall, when readers aren’t in the thick of the admission cycle.

Roberts says a future goal, when new software is in place, will be to track the effectiveness of their emails’ calls to action. In the meantime, she knows that with FIB, they are doing what matters most in their communications — keeping students front and centre.

“The thing we always try to remember with each message is that it’s about the student and their journey, not the university.”