CU Boulder’s College of Arts and Sciences conducts profound research and offers incredible opportunities to its students. However, the amount of information can be overwhelming and challenging for users to begin to find. In the past year, I have launched two newsletters meant to improve overall awareness of the exceptional work conducted by our faculty, staff, alumni and students. Their positive reception is indicative of our team’s capacity to effectively collaborate and meet our goals.
Have ya herd?
This weekly newsletter focuses on current stories published in Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine. We spotlight new content, pull compelling quotes, note trending research from the past week and offer a Friday diversion.
Overall, the newsletter has benefitted the magazine in two ways:
First, it sees sustained, engaged readership. With a little more than 4,300 subscribers, open rates hover around 55% and click rates around 10%. This drives traffic to our magazine’s website at the end of the week, when organic visits usually slow for our publication.
Second, we have experienced a substantial increase in faculty and staff story submissions, such that we have a backlog of work (a wonderful problem to have). There is a sense among our editorial staff that our campus stakeholders are excited to see someone actively promoting their work, which we hope boosts their sense of efficacy.
If you’re interested, feel free to subscribe.
Make your tracks
We send this newsletter every-other week to spotlight campus opportunities for undergraduates to engage with their academics, apply for internships, improve their academic or life skills, note important deadlines and, generally, deepen their CU Boulder experiences.
Our team has been pleasantly surprised at the degree with which students engage. Of our roughly 13,300 subscribers, open rates hover around 60% and click rates around 5%. Even more surprising is the degree to which staff members and parents read our newsletter. Their open rates hover around 80% and click rates at around 30%.
In general, the newsletter has effectively curated experiences that we hope pique our students’ interests. Ideally, this leads to stronger A&S student representation in professional development and academic success, such that they finish their degrees confident in their next steps.
If you’re interested, feel free to subscribe.
TEAM
Tim Grassley
Communications Manager
Cay Leytham-Powell
Managing Editor of Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine
Alex Steele
Graphic Designer
Clint Talbott
Assistant Dean for Communications
Tim Grassley 