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This presents a challenge for higher education establishments: how do they meaningfully connect with prospective students, current enrollees, and even parents at once?
The answer lies in meeting them where they are, on both social media platforms and in their inboxes.
Individually, social media and email marketing services are powerful. But when used together? That’s where the magic happens.
Combining email marketing and social media creates a unified channel strategy that strengthens your messaging, increases visibility, and builds trust across every stage of the student journey.
For marketing leaders in higher education, it’s not about choosing one over the other but about creating a seamless experience across both.
Let’s see how your team can use both these marketing channels effectively and boost your engagement with your target audience.
Why Integrating Email and Social Media Marketing Campaigns Makes Sense for Higher Education
To effectively combine email marketing and social media in higher education, focus on using both channels together to strengthen your brand presence. Use social media to turn followers into email subscribers—and vice versa.
Maintaining a consistent brand presence across all channels—including social media, email campaigns, and other popular platforms—builds audience trust and enhances your institution’s reputation.
Marketing to students and their families isn’t a one-size-fits-all game anymore. Parents still rely on email for application updates, financial aid details, and open day reminders.
Meanwhile, Gen Z? They’re scrolling through Instagram, exploring universities via TikTok, and trusting social media more than Google to find what they need – 46% of them, in fact.
That’s exactly why combining email marketing and social media makes so much sense for universities.
When you use both channels together, you’re not just doubling your reach to the target audience, you’re creating more personalised, consistent, and visible communication. Email delivers an unbeatable 42:1 ROI, while social media brings energy, immediacy, and shareability.
Together, they boost engagement and drive conversions at every stage of the student journey.
Even Gen Z, who love discovering things on social, still check their email, especially when it comes to personalised content, interactive polls, or must-know deadlines.
8 Best Practices to Integrate Social Media and Email Marketing in Higher Education Institutions
If you’re ready to turn your channels into a unified student engagement engine, here are eight proven ways to combine social media and email marketing in higher education.
1. Add social icons to all university emails
Here’s a quick win that often gets overlooked: simply adding social media icons to your university emails. These are prime opportunities to drive traffic to your social channels without being pushy.
Students (and parents) are already reading your emails, so why not make it easy for them to explore more about your institution through social media? When you consistently include social icons for platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, or Facebook, you organically grow your social media follower base.
The email footer is a classic spot, but don’t be afraid to get creative. A mid-email callout like, “Want to see what campus life looks like this week? Follow us on Instagram” can work wonders.
This approach helps you connect email marketing and social media without extra work. See how Kepris University does this seamlessly by integrating social links into their emails to encourage followers:
2. Embed social media posts in newsletters to encourage followers to convert
Static newsletters can sometimes feel… well, static. One of the easiest ways to bring your emails to life is by embedding real-time social media content. These bite-sized moments add energy, context, and authenticity that text alone just can’t deliver.
For prospective students especially, this is gold. They’re not just looking for course details; and they will feel what it’s like to be part of your university community. Seeing candid student stories, behind-the-scenes events, or even graduation celebrations gives them that sneak peek they’re craving.
Plus, repurposing your best-performing social content in emails gives it a longer life and more reach. It’s a smart way to bridge the gap between social media and email marketing.
3. Use email marketing campaigns to promote social media-exclusive events or contests and grow your social followings
Want to get more eyes (and clicks) on your university’s social media content? One simple way is to use your email campaigns to hype up social-only events and watch the cross-platform engagement take off.
Instagram Q&As with current students, TikTok challenges that highlight campus life, or even a digital scavenger hunt with exclusive promotions and prizes up for grabs are great opportunities to promote on your email campaigns.
Announcing these in your emails builds instant curiosity and a bit of healthy FOMO. This kind of tactic creates moments that showcase your campus culture, creativity, and student voice.
4. Retarget email subscribers with social media ads
Not every student who signs up for your course, updates or downloads your prospectus will take the next step right away. With the right social media and email marketing strategy in higher education, you can stay top-of-mind. This is where retargeting comes in.
You can build custom audiences and provide targeted ads to students who’ve already shown interest by uploading your email subscriber list to platforms like Facebook or Instagram.
For example, let’s say a student filled out a form to learn more about your business program but didn’t apply. You can gently nudge them with a social ad featuring a video from a current student, an upcoming webinar invite, or even an early application deadline reminder.
This handoff between social media and email marketing makes sure your message doesn’t fall through the cracks.
5. Collect email addresses through social media campaigns or Growing your email list
Your social media platforms can also be powerful tools for growing your email list. With the right strategy, you can turn Instagram Stories, Facebook lead ads, or even LinkedIn posts into highly effective list-building opportunities.
Think beyond the usual “subscribe to our newsletter” prompt. Instead, create campaigns that offer value, like a scholarship giveaway, early access to virtual open days, or a free student guide to surviving the first year.
For example, IOWA Western Community College ran a campaign announcing the availability of scholarships, directly tapping into one of students’ biggest concerns which is affordability.
To make it seamless, direct them to a clean, mobile-friendly landing page with a short form (just name and email usually does the trick). A clear call to action and a compelling headline help boost conversion rates and click through rates even further..
This bridges social media and email marketing campaigns beautifully and expands your reach.
6. Launch a cross-channel welcome series for new students or applicants
When a student signs up through your website or social media, that’s your moment to start building trust and excitement.
Start with a warm, timely welcome email that thanks them for their interest. Then, over the next few days or weeks, roll out a series of emails that bring your university to life.
To take it a step further, reinforce your welcome emails with social media ads that echo the same messaging. If your email talks about your vibrant campus culture, your Instagram ad might show a student event in action.
That email marketing and social media alignment builds brand awareness and keeps it consistent, recognisable, and relevant, especially to Gen Z, who move fluidly between multiple platforms.
7. Share email-exclusive content previews on social media
If you want to grow your email list while boosting open rates, you have to give students a reason to be curious. Teasing your newsletter content on social media is a clever way to drive subscriptions and engagement.
Platforms like Instagram Stories or LinkedIn are perfect for this. Post a sneak peek of what’s coming, like, “Be the first to see our new virtual campus tour – sign up now!” or “This month’s newsletter includes insider tips from our admissions team.” These little previews create intrigue and nudge prospective students to opt into your emails so they don’t miss out.
It’s a subtle but effective way to connect email marketing and social media.
8. Use UGC from social media platforms in your email campaigns
There’s no better way to show what campus life is really like than by sharing it through the eyes of your students. User-generated content (UGC) adds credibility and a human touch to your email campaigns.
You can repurpose tagged photos, short videos, or testimonial quotes from Instagram, TikTok, or even LinkedIn to enrich your emails. These snippets give prospective students a peek behind the scenes at what it feels like to be on campus, attend events, or even just grab coffee between classes.
For example, during finals season, Columbia University shared a series of UGC posts highlighting the best campus study spots straight from their students. It was helpful and authentic, and it was exactly the kind of content that students connected with.
This is where social media and email marketing work hand-in-hand. Social media provides the content, and email gives it structure and reach.
Just one thing: always get permission before using student content and credit them whenever possible. It shows respect and encourages more students to share their stories, fueling future campaigns.
What Tools And Integrations Can You Use To Make It Work?
Bringing your email marketing and social media strategy is more than just creating great content. It is also about having the right tools in place.
Start with integrations that make cross-channel coordination easier. For instance, syncing Facebook Ads with your Email Service Provider (ESP) lets you retarget subscribers or build lookalike audiences from your existing student database.
Various Platforms like Mailchimp, HubSpot, Klaviyo, and Salesforce Marketing Cloud can automate workflows, personalise messages, and segment your audience based on behaviour or stage in the student journey. But setting them up and getting the most out of them can be tricky.
That’s where InboxArmy comes in.
Our team of certified email experts can help you integrate your ESP with social platforms, build advanced automation workflows, and set up campaign tracking with UTM parameters. We’ll make sure your email marketing and social media efforts work in harmony.
Closing Thoughts
Social media and email marketing are important platforms for higher education institutions to reach and engage the current students, parents, alumni & prospective applicants. Social media builds brand awareness while email marketing via followers while email marketing provides a targeted approach for driving lends and improving conversion rate.
Today’s students and their parents aren’t sticking to just one platform. Gen Z might discover your university on TikTok, check their inbox for a course brochure, and chat with your admissions team on Instagram. Parents, on the other hand, may prefer the clarity of email.
To truly connect, higher education institutions need to stop thinking in silos. It’s time to move toward a cross-channel strategy where email marketing and social media work hand in hand to engage, inform, and convert.
At InboxArmy, we help you do exactly that. We can help you create an integrated approach that reaches students and parents wherever they are.
Are you ready to make your channels work together?
