Campus Communication Campaigns – Broadcasting to Members
Campus Communication campaigns are one-time broadcasts that let you share important announcements, promote new courses, celebrate community wins, or deliver valuable content to selected segments of your member base. Unlike automated workflows that trigger based on member actions, campaigns are manual sends you schedule for specific dates and times.
This guide explains what campaigns are, when to use them instead of workflows, how to create and schedule effective campaigns, how to select the right recipients, and how to track performance to continuously improve your campus communication strategy.
What Campus Communication Campaigns Are
A Campus Communication campaign is a single message sent to a specific group of campus members on a schedule you control. Think of campaigns as announcements, newsletters, promotions, or updates that you initiate rather than messages triggered by member behavior.
Campaign vs. Automated Communication
The key distinction is initiation. You decide when campaigns go out based on your calendar—course launches, monthly newsletters, special announcements. Automated communications send when members take specific actions like enrolling, completing a lesson, or going inactive.
One-Time vs. Recurring
Campaigns are typically one-time sends, though you might create similar campaigns repeatedly. A weekly newsletter to all members is technically multiple campaigns sent on a schedule. The same newsletter sent automatically when someone joins is an automated workflow.
Broadcast Nature
Campaigns broadcast a message to many members at once. You write one message and send it to 10, 100, or 10,000 members simultaneously. Each member receives the same core content (though merge tags enable personalization within that shared template).
Control and Flexibility
Campaigns give you complete control over timing, content, and recipients. You can draft campaigns days in advance, schedule them for optimal send times, and make last-minute adjustments. This flexibility makes campaigns perfect for time-sensitive or strategic communications.
Campaign Use Cases for Education Businesses
Course creators and education businesses use campaigns for:
- New course or lesson announcements
- Monthly member newsletters
- Upcoming event or webinar promotions
- Community highlights and member spotlights
- Limited-time enrollment or pricing offers
- Important campus updates or policy changes
- Holiday greetings and seasonal content
- Content roundups and resource collections
- Survey or feedback requests
- Re-engagement campaigns for inactive members
When to Use Campaigns vs. Workflows
Both campaigns and automated workflows have their place in an effective campus communication strategy. Knowing when to use each ensures members get timely, relevant messages without communication overload.
Use Campaigns For:
Time-Specific Announcements
When you have news tied to a specific date—a course launching Tuesday, office hours this Friday, a flash sale ending tonight—campaigns let you schedule the announcement for maximum impact.
Strategic Communications
Monthly newsletters, quarterly member surveys, annual state-of-the-campus updates—these planned communications work best as campaigns where you control exactly when they go out.
Limited-Time Opportunities
Enrollment windows, early-bird pricing, bonus content available for the next 48 hours—scarcity and urgency work best when everyone receives the message simultaneously and knows they’re working with the same deadline.
Content You Create Regularly
Weekly tips, Monday motivation, Friday wins—if you’re creating fresh content on a schedule, campaigns let you send it when it’s ready rather than trying to automate the timing of creative work.
Broad Community Updates
Changes to campus features, new community guidelines, platform upgrades—information that applies to all members regardless of their course progress or enrollment date works well as campaigns.
Use Automated Workflows For:
Member Journey Milestones
Welcome sequences after enrollment, congratulations after course completion, check-ins after specific lessons—these should trigger automatically based on individual member actions, not calendar dates.
Behavior-Based Messages
Member hasn’t logged in for 14 days, member completed first lesson, member posted first comment—workflows respond to what members do (or don’t do) without you manually monitoring behavior.
Onboarding Sequences
New member orientation that delivers consistent information in a specific order works perfectly as an automated workflow. Every member gets the same high-quality onboarding experience regardless of when they join.
Drip Content Delivery
Lessons or content released on a schedule after enrollment (day 1, day 3, day 7) should be automated so each member gets the same paced experience.
Abandoned Action Follow-Ups
Started checkout but didn’t complete, downloaded a resource but didn’t enroll, watched a preview video but didn’t join—workflows can automatically follow up on incomplete actions.
The Hybrid Approach
The most effective education businesses use both. Automated workflows handle predictable member journey moments. Campaigns deliver timely announcements and strategic content. Together, they create a comprehensive communication experience.
Creating and Scheduling Campaigns
Creating an effective campaign involves crafting compelling content, choosing the right send settings, and scheduling for optimal engagement. Here’s the step-by-step process.
Starting a New Campaign
In FluentCommunity, navigate to Campus Communications and select "Create Campaign." You’ll be prompted to name your campaign (for internal tracking), choose a template or start from blank, and begin composing.
Naming Campaigns Effectively
Use descriptive campaign names that make future reference easy. "September Newsletter" or "Q4 Course Launch" tells you what the campaign is at a glance. "Campaign 47" does not. Good naming matters when you’re reviewing performance of past campaigns.
Choosing a Template
Templates save time and maintain brand consistency. Select a pre-built template that matches your campaign purpose—announcement, newsletter, promotion—or create from scratch if you need custom layout.
Writing Subject Lines
Your subject line determines whether members open your campaign. Review the subject line best practices from the Composing Campus Communications guide. Keep it concise, front-load important words, create curiosity, and consider personalization with merge tags.
Crafting Preview Text
Don’t ignore the preview text field. This appears next to your subject line in most inboxes and gives you extra space to increase opens. If you leave it blank, email clients will pull the first line of your message, which might be "View this email in your browser"—wasted opportunity.
Composing Message Content
Write your campaign message using the content composer. Apply the readability principles covered in earlier guides: short paragraphs, descriptive headings, bullet points, conversational tone, and one clear call-to-action.
Adding Personalization
Insert merge tags to personalize your campaign. Even simple personalization like "Hi {{first_name}}" increases engagement. Reference member progress, courses, or other relevant data when appropriate.
Setting Sender Information
Configure who the campaign appears to come from. Use a real person’s name when possible—"Sarah from Photography Academy" feels more personal than "Photography Academy." Set a reply-to address you actually monitor so members can respond with questions.
Choosing Send Time
Schedule your campaign for when members are most likely to engage. For most education businesses, Tuesday through Thursday mornings (9-11am in members’ local time zones) see highest open rates. Avoid Monday mornings (overwhelmed inboxes) and Friday afternoons (weekend mindset).
Time Zone Considerations
If your member base spans multiple time zones, consider scheduling multiple sends so each time zone receives the campaign at the same local time. A 10am send to all members means East Coast members see it at 10am while West Coast members get it at 7am.
Scheduling vs. Sending Immediately
For time-sensitive campaigns, schedule them in advance so you’re not scrambling to send manually at the perfect moment. For urgent announcements, immediate sending might be appropriate. Most campaigns benefit from scheduled sending.
Draft, Review, and Schedule Workflow
Save campaigns as drafts while working on them. Before scheduling, review thoroughly—check links, test merge tags, preview on mobile, and send tests to yourself. Once satisfied, schedule the campaign and confirm the send time.
Selecting Recipients – Segments, Tags, and Filters
Not every campaign should go to every member. Strategic recipient selection ensures members receive only relevant communications, which maintains engagement and reduces unsubscribes.
Send to All Members
The simplest option is broadcasting to your entire campus member base. This works for community-wide announcements, general newsletters, or broadly relevant content. However, even "all members" campaigns might exclude unsubscribed members or those who opted out of marketing communications.
Segmenting by Course Enrollment
Send only to members enrolled in specific courses. This is perfect for course-specific updates, new lesson announcements, or upcoming course-related events. Members in Photography 101 don’t need updates about Advanced Lighting techniques (yet).
Filtering by Progress
Target members based on completion percentage. Send encouragement to members who started but stalled at 30%. Send advanced tips to members who completed 100%. Send re-enrollment offers to members who completed one course but haven’t started another.
Using Member Tags
If you’ve tagged members based on interests, behavior, or characteristics (VIP members, event attendees, feature requesters), you can send campaigns only to specific tag groups. Tags enable flexible, multi-dimensional segmentation.
Membership Level Segmentation
If your campus has different membership tiers (free, basic, premium), send tier-specific campaigns. Promote upgrades to free members, share exclusive content with premium members, or announce new tier benefits.
Activity-Based Filtering
Target members based on engagement levels. Send to members who logged in within the past 7 days (active engagement) or members who haven’t visited in 30+ days (re-engagement campaign). Different activity levels need different messages.
Combining Multiple Criteria
The most sophisticated segmentation combines multiple filters: "Members enrolled in SEO Mastery AND less than 50% complete AND haven’t logged in for 14 days." This hyper-targeted approach ensures maximum relevance.
Excluding Segments
Sometimes it’s easier to define who shouldn’t receive a campaign. "All members EXCEPT those who completed Advanced Course" ensures you don’t promote beginner content to advanced learners.
Testing Recipient Selection
Before sending to thousands of members, verify your segment selection by viewing the recipient list. Make sure the filter criteria captured the intended audience. Send a test to yourself to confirm you’re in or out based on your own member profile.
Managing Unsubscribes and Preferences
Always respect unsubscribe preferences. Members who opted out of marketing communications shouldn’t receive promotional campaigns (though they might still receive essential transactional communications like password resets). Compliance isn’t optional.
Segment Size Considerations
Very small segments (under 50 members) might work better as personal outreach. Very large segments (entire member base) need broadly relevant content. Mid-size segments (500-2000) offer the sweet spot of meaningful reach with targeted relevance.
Tracking Campaign Performance
Sending campaigns is only half the strategy. Tracking performance tells you what’s working, what’s not, and how to improve future campaigns.
Key Campaign Metrics
FluentCommunity tracks several important engagement metrics for every campaign:
Open Rate
The percentage of recipients who opened your campaign. Industry average for education businesses is 20-30%. Higher open rates indicate effective subject lines and sender reputation. Track open rates to identify which subject line approaches work best for your audience.
Click Rate
The percentage of recipients who clicked at least one link in your campaign. Average click rates are 2-5% for most industries. Higher click rates indicate compelling content and clear calls-to-action. Compare campaigns to see which topics and CTAs resonate most.
Click-to-Open Rate
Of the people who opened your campaign, what percentage clicked? This metric isolates content effectiveness from subject line effectiveness. Low click-to-open rate means your subject line worked but your content or CTA didn’t deliver.
Unsubscribe Rate
The percentage who opted out after receiving this campaign. Normal unsubscribe rates are under 0.5%. Sudden spikes indicate content misalignment, too-frequent sending, or poor audience targeting.
Bounce Rate
The percentage of emails that couldn’t be delivered. Hard bounces (invalid addresses) should be cleaned from your list. Soft bounces (temporary issues) might resolve themselves. High bounce rates damage sender reputation.
Spam Complaint Rate
The percentage who marked your campaign as spam. This should be near zero. Spam complaints severely damage deliverability. They indicate poor list quality, irrelevant content, or members who don’t remember subscribing.
Interpreting Your Numbers
Don’t obsess over single-metric perfection. A campaign with 25% open rate and 8% click rate performs better than one with 40% open rate and 1% click rate if your goal is driving action. Define success based on your campaign objective.
Comparing Campaign Performance
Track metrics over time to identify trends. Are open rates declining (sender fatigue)? Are click rates improving (better targeting)? Compare similar campaign types rather than apples-to-oranges comparisons.
Identifying Top Performers
Which campaigns generated the highest engagement? Analyze what made them successful. Was it the subject line approach, the content topic, the sending time, the audience segment, or the call-to-action? Replicate success patterns.
Learning from Poor Performers
Low-performing campaigns teach you what doesn’t resonate. Don’t just note the bad numbers—investigate why. Test alternative approaches and measure whether changes improve results.
A/B Testing for Optimization
For important campaigns, create two versions with one variable changed (subject line A vs. subject line B). Send each to half your segment. The winning version guides future campaigns. Test systematically to build a library of proven approaches.
Segment Performance Comparison
Did your campaign perform differently across segments? Members in Course A might engage more than members in Course B with the same message, revealing content relevance issues or different audience characteristics.
Link-Level Analytics
Track which specific links in your campaign got the most clicks. This reveals what content members find most valuable. If "download template" gets 10x more clicks than "read full article," you know members prefer actionable resources.
Time-Based Analysis
When do most opens and clicks occur? Immediately after sending, throughout the day, or days later? This helps optimize future send times and reveals whether your audience engages immediately or at leisure.
Campaign Best Practices for Course Creators
These proven strategies help education businesses maximize campaign effectiveness while maintaining member trust and engagement.
Maintain Consistent Frequency
Establish a predictable campaign schedule and stick to it. Weekly newsletters every Tuesday, monthly roundups on the first Friday—consistency trains members to expect and value your communications. Erratic sending confuses and annoys.
Quality Over Quantity
One valuable campaign per week beats three mediocre ones. Every campaign asks for attention, your members’ scarcest resource. Earn that attention with genuinely useful content, not inbox spam.
Segment Thoughtfully
The more relevant your campaigns, the higher your engagement. Sending course-specific updates only to enrolled members respects everyone’s time and inbox. Broad "spray and pray" campaigns might reach more people but engage fewer.
Make Value Obvious
Members should know within seconds why this campaign matters to them. Lead with value, not preamble. "Here’s the lesson template you requested" beats "We hope you’re having a great week and wanted to share something we think might interest you."
One Primary Call-to-Action
Each campaign should drive toward one main action. Multiple competing CTAs create decision paralysis. Decide what matters most—lesson access, event registration, survey completion—and make that action abundantly clear.
Mobile-First Design
Over 60% of emails are opened on mobile devices. Keep subject lines short, use large tap-friendly buttons, avoid tiny text, and test every campaign on a phone before sending.
Respect Unsubscribes
Make opting out easy and respect those choices immediately. Frustrated members who can’t unsubscribe mark messages as spam, which damages your deliverability for everyone. Losing uninterested subscribers improves your metrics.
Clean Your Member List
Regularly remove hard bounces and members who never engage. A smaller, engaged list performs better than a large list full of inactive addresses. Quality over quantity applies to list size, too.
Test Everything
Before sending to your full segment, send test campaigns to yourself and team members. Check on multiple devices and email clients. Click every link. Verify merge tags populate correctly. Catch mistakes before thousands of members see them.
Learn from Every Campaign
Review performance metrics after each send. What worked? What didn’t? What surprised you? Continuous improvement comes from treating every campaign as a learning opportunity, not just a task to complete.
Coordinate Across Channels
If you’re also posting in your campus feed, sending in-platform notifications, or sharing on social media, coordinate timing and messaging. Hearing the same announcement on three channels in one hour feels spammy, not thorough.
Preserve Your Sender Reputation
Deliverability depends on reputation. Avoid spam trigger words (free, guaranteed, act now), don’t buy email lists, maintain low complaint rates, and send consistently. Damaged sender reputation means future campaigns land in spam folders.
Plan Campaigns in Advance
Create a campaign calendar for the month or quarter. Planning ahead ensures strategic timing, prevents last-minute scrambling, and helps you maintain consistent quality. Block time for campaign creation just like you’d block time for course content creation.
Balance Promotion and Education
Not every campaign should ask members to buy, upgrade, or enroll. Share free value, celebrate member wins, provide useful resources, and build relationships. Then, when you do promote, you’ve earned the right to ask.
Campus Communication campaigns are one of your most powerful tools for building community, driving engagement, and growing your education business. Master the fundamentals—strategic segmentation, compelling content, optimal timing, and performance tracking—then refine your approach based on what your unique member base responds to.
Every campaign is an opportunity to strengthen relationships with the people who’ve trusted you with their learning journey. Treat that opportunity with the respect it deserves, and your members will look forward to hearing from you rather than dreading another notification.