Centralising Alumni Communications : an introduction to the Communication Center
A few weeks ago, we laid the foundations to and rolled out the revamped communication center to all our customers globally. We thought it would be a good idea to write about where we are going with this and why we see the 'Communication Center' as a cornerstone to alumni engagement.
We envision the Communication Center to be hub for all your digital communications with your alumni.
For those of you who have tried the feature out already, the first release of the communication center encompasses a powerful email editor and campaign manager coupled with a better user interface. As we continue to develop the platform, you will be able to reach out to your alumni on multiple channels to cater to different segments of your alumni, including SMS, In-app messaging, push notifications and more.
Let's take a deeper dive into some of the biggest changes with the email tool in this release.
Easily switch between Rich Email & Plain Text
You can now create structured, graphic emails with the new email composer. Easy create new email structures and fill them up with images, to send out to your mailing lists.
If you need to create a simple email that you quickly need to send out, simply toggle the 'Simple Email' switch to switch to the plain text email editor.
Create and save email templates
Plan on sending out weekly updates or monthly updates? you can create a set template, that can be reused for subsequent email campaigns.
Schedule email for a later time
Want to send out an email on Saturday morning? you can easily schedule the email in advance so you have a peaceful weekend.
Preview email on mobile devices
Close to 66% of all emails sent are opened on a mobile device. So it's imperative that your emails look great on mobile devices too. Switch to the preview mode on the email composer to view what your email looks like on mobile devices.
Campaign performance analytics
You can now see how well your email campaigns performed with your mailing list. You get a quick glance into how many emails were delivered, opened and what the click through rates were. These analytics let gauge how responsive and welcoming your alumni are of your emails.
Be sure to watch this space for more updates to the Communication Center and for sneak peeks into what we are working on.
Tell us what you think in the comments section below. What communication channels do you usually use with your alumni that you would like to see added to the communication center? What are some parameters that you would like to track on your campaigns?
Blackbaud, the leading provider of software for powering social impact, and Almabase, the digital-first alumni engagement solution, have announced the expansion of their partnership to the education sectors of Canada and the United Kingdom. The partnership will provide institutions with a modern, digital-first solution to improve constituent data, drive self-serve engagement, and boost event participation.
A Unified Vision
The partnership aligns with Blackbaud’s commitment to customer-centric innovation across digital engagement, Advancement CRM, and financials.
“Partners bring integrated capabilities that extend capabilities and outcomes for Blackbaud customers. We are thrilled that Almabase’s offering, integrated with Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT® and leveraging Blackbaud’s best-in-class payment solution, Blackbaud Merchant Services™, is now available to even more of our customers around the world.”
- Liz Price, Sr. Director of Global Partners at Blackbaud