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Division of Academic and Student Affairs 
Academic and Student Affairs Intranet

Email

With strategic use, email is a fast, efficient, cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to communicate with the campus community.

Personal Email

To ensure consistency across the division and university, we recommend using the divisions and university’s suggested layout in your email signature.

Email signature guide

Mass Email Tools

For a detailed guide on mass email list health, email formatting and analytics check out the NC State Email Marketing Best Practices. Below are some tools and guidelines and tips to help you get started.

Emma

Emma – the division’s preferred mass emailing service – allows departments and units to create audiences, send emails and analyze campaign data. Emma is recommended for departments who frequently send mass emails to audiences of 100 or more. Draft your email with the NC State Email Generator branded templates, then copy the HTML code to Emma for distribution.

To request an Emma account provided by DASA, contact us at dasa-communications@ncsu.edu.

Access Emma
Learn more about Emma

Email Generator

The NC State Email Generator makes it easy to execute your email marketing strategy with on-brand emails. The system uses WordPress to generate templated emails that can be imported into and sent through Emma, Gmail, Bronto, MailChimp and more, so you can avoid the clunky built-in editors provided by those services. There are free and paid versions depending on the complexity of your marketing needs.

Free Tier: The Email Generator has a free tier available to campus. The free tier offers two templates: a single column announcement email and a basic Bulletin-style newsletter. To begin using the free tier, simply log into the Email Generator with your Unity ID.

Premium Tier: A premium tier is also available with additional templates to meet a wide variety of communication needs. Premium access is approximately $2,000/year for each unit.

Access the generator
Email generator guide

Gmail

To email a small number of recipients (under 100 contacts), use your personal or department’s NC State Gmail account. Draft your email with the NC State Email Generator branded templates, then copy the HTML code to a new message in Gmail for distribution. Paste in your list of recipients into the “BCC” field of the email. Emails created with the Email Generator can also be sent to members of a Google Group. Analytics and campaign data are not available with Gmail or Google Groups.

Learn more

Under Tutorials, see Sending an Email, then Sending with Google Groups.

Campus Newsletter Database  

Packed with information about the e-newsletters published by colleges and units across campus, this inventory includes everything from audience data to distribution frequency and metrics. Feel free to add/edit your newsletters at any time. This tool is available to all campus communicators, whether you’re looking to share your news with relevant audiences outside your own network or develop new connections within the university.

We suggest you submit news or announcements to the following:

Access the database

Google Groups

Although everyone has access to the tool to make requests for new Google Groups, all DASA units should submit a request to DASA Technology via ServiceNow. Branded templates are available for emails to Google Groups – see Gmail and NC State Email Generator above.

Google Groups
Group setup

Google Groups for Campus Communicators

If you are in a communicator role within a DASA department, we suggest you participate in these groups:

DASA faculty and staff are automatically added to this group. The division has established requirements, guidelines and best practices to ensure all-division mass email remains an effective form of communication.

This group has representatives from all DASA departments The council meets once a quarter to share technology and communication updates, brainstorm and connect. Members are welcome to share campus-wide event announcements and campaign assets. To join this group, email Justin Hammond.

Managed by University Communications and Marketing, StateComm includes communication professionals across the NC State campus. The group meets intermittently throughout the year to share information, collaborate, brainstorm and connect with communicators across campus. Members are welcome to forward updates to the list at any time. Email address: group-communicators@ncsu.edu.

To join StateComm:

  • Sign in to Google Groups with your NC State account.
  • In the left hand menu, select All Groups.
  • In the top search bar, type StateComm and hit enter.
  • Select the StateComm group and click Ask to Join Group.

Best Practices for Internal Google Groups

  • A mass email message should be brief, self-explanatory, clear, and concise.
  • Include a succinct subject line that conveys the email’s purpose.
  • Provide a link or contact information about where people may ask questions or get more information.
  • Avoid sending frequent or repeated messages. Follow-up messages or reminders should seek other communication channels, with the exception of emergency communications.
  • Collaborate with others in the division to avoid redundancy and reduce the number of messages sent.
  • Links to web pages or Google docs are preferable to attachments.
  • Avoid acronyms and jargon. Do not use acronyms on the first reference in the body of a message. For example, write out “Academic Success Center (ASC)” on the first reference, then use ASC on future references.
  • Senders should avoid sending emails at the end of the day or on Friday afternoons to prevent their message from getting “lost” during non-work hours.