What email tool is best for your needs?

We have many different email tools available for you to use at the U of A. Ultimately, the tool that is best for you depends on what your particular needs are, and there are many things that you need to consider when making the decision.

Do you need to send your email to an internal or external audience or a mixture of both? What are your reporting requirements? What message are you trying to convey?

Here are some tools that you may consider using, depending on your particular use case:

On this page:

Gmail

The University of Alberta uses Gmail as its main email tool. Gmail is part of the Google services (including email, calendars, and drive space) offered to the university community. Everybody with an active CCID is able to use Gmail to send and receive emails through the ualberta.ca domain. Alumni who are no longer attending the university can also use Gmail through their alumni account.

You should use Gmail to email direct messages to individuals or small groups.

Mailist

Mailist is a distribution list tool that can be used by approved communications staff to send mass emails, such as newsletters and memos, on behalf of their business units to internal audiences. Mailist is connected to HCM, so communicators can send emails to automatically updated lists that can be filtered to target specific audiences. Pre-defined templates are available in the system, and when used in conjunction with BeePro, offer expanded design functionality.

You should use Mailist in the following cases:

  • When you need to send an informational message, such as a newsletter, memo, or announcement, to an internal audience.
  • When you are communicating about an event to internal audiences.

Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor is an email marketing tool that enables communicators to send emails, such as newsletters or memos, to large lists of subscribers (either external audiences, or a mix of internal and external audiences). Campaign Monitor uses drag-and-drop functionality and U of A branded templates to build visually engaging emails in order to grow engagement with subscribers, who can be targeted using list segmentation. Users can access insights and metrics about their email campaigns, such as opens and clicks, to track audience engagement.

You should use Campaign Monitor in the following cases:

  • When you need to send an informational message, such as a newsletter, memo, or announcement, to external audiences, a combination of external and internal audiences, or to alumni.
  • When you are communicating about an event to external audiences, a combination of external and internal audiences, or alumni.
  • When you need to send e-cards to either external audiences or to more than 10 people.
Please note that Campaign Monitor is the only external email marketing tool the Digital + Creative COE team directly offers support for. Other tools, such as Mailchimp, are unsupported. If you are not currently on the University’s Campaign Monitor account, please reach out to digstrat@ualberta.ca to discuss eligibility and migration options.

Groupize

Groupize is the University of Alberta’s enterprise event admissions software solution that delivers end-to-end functionality to support events. Groupize is easy to use, and anybody in the U of A community with a CCID can use it. Groupize allows event planners to manage all aspects of their event from beginning to end: everything from sending invitations, enrollment, attendee management, advertising on social media, and fee collection can be done directly through the system. Event planners can communicate with invitees and attendees via email directly through the system.

You should use Groupize when you need a platform to plan an event, and for emailing attendees directly.

Slate

Slate, or UAlberta Launchpad, as it is known to our current and prospective undergraduate applicants, is the University of Alberta’s undergraduate admissions solution. Launchpad is used by prospective undergraduate students to apply for admission to UAlberta. On the staff side, Slate is used by admissions officers at the Registrar’s Office to handle the admissions process, and by Recruitment Marketing to send emails to prospective students and applicants.

You should use Slate when you need to email students (for recruitment purposes only). 

Please note that Slate is only available for use by the Registrar’s Office and Recruitment Marketing, and is not available for the wider U of A community.

Events Page

While not an email tool, the event page is a way for communicators to promote University of Alberta events. The page lists upcoming University of Alberta events. It is often used in conjunction with other tools, like Campaign Monitor and Mailchimp, to advertise events to both internal and external audiences.

You should use the event page when you want to promote an event via the website.

Kudos App

The Kudos app is a solution that allows people within the U of A community to send a variety of e-cards. Senders have a wide range of topics to choose from, including: welcome, thank you, retirement, birthday, holiday, thinking of you, congratulations, encouragement and more. Anybody in the U of A community with a CCID (staff, faculty, and students) can send an e-card through the Kudos app.

You should use the Kudos App when you want to send e-cards to less than 10 internal contacts.