Most of us have made a new year’s resolution at some point in our lives, whether it’s losing weight, getting better at a hobby, or being more patient. For your alumni association, consider rethinking how you create and share content!

January represents a great starting point to reconsider how you approach these types of communications, so read on for some tips about how you can better engage your community of alumni.

Make Small Weekly Updates

Rather than relying solely on sending single larger newsletters on a monthly or quarterly basis, it can be a good idea to send out smaller ones to your mailing list every week. The information could be as simple as what’s happening around campus, including sports scores, events at the dining hall, notable campus speakers, etc. 

These simple, short weekly updates can be a great way for alumni to feel connected to their alma mater by immersing them in the high-energy campus setting of the school that they love so much.

Don’t Forget the Larger Newsletters!

That said, it’s important to continue to send the larger updates as well. These are what alumni have come to expect, and they can perform a number of functions. In addition to serving as a great reminder and catalyst for fundraising, you can also use them to aggregate the information that you’ve assembled in the weekly updates. 

In addition, these larger updates represent a great way to let alumni know events coming up they can attend (both virtual and in-person) in advance. By listing all the events that are coming up in the following month or quarter, you allow your alumni to RSVP on the spot and update their calendars accordingly (although it doesn’t hurt to include reminders of these events in the weekly newsletters as well).

Create Recurring Topics

One way to keep alumni engaged in newsletter updates is to create recurring topics in your newsletter that provide new updates with each edition.

For example, one thing that you could do is connect with the history department of your school and mine their institutional knowledge to learn more about the interesting elements of the school’s history. You could get teachers, students or other alumni involved to contribute to these features. Eventually, these types of columns could very well become favorites for alumni, who will explore every newsletter hoping to find the most recent one.

Content for alumni newsletters can be easy and fun and now is the time for you to start thinking about new approaches to your content!

Contact us at Alumni Nations to learn more about alumni content!