Cherry Blossoms

Audience Lists

We build audiences for your digital communications using the below recommended audience criteria for most broad-based communications, like newsletters, appeals, and event invitations. If you have a custom or more targeted audience in mind for the purposes of your communication, please let us know when you submit your Project Inquiry Form. We can work with you to develop an audience strategy that meets the needs of your communication and follows email marketing best practices.

Newsletter Audience Criteria

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Outlined below is the recommended criteria for a broad-based newsletter:

  • Alumni (all years)
  • Faculty and staff (current, emeritus, associate and affiliate - if they have any)
  • Current students in the department (undergrad and grad)
  • Donors (all years, all levels, all gift types, hard and soft credit)
  • Major gift prospects
  • All past department event registrants and attendees
  • Committee members (if applicable)
  • Anyone on the ‘Friends of ’ list stored in University Advancement's database
  • Anyone on the ‘Friends of ’ list stored in Marketo (not in University Advancement's database)
  • Newsletter subscribers (Marketo stored preference for people who have signed up from a department's website)

Annual Appeal Audience Criteria

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Annual appeals serve a more specific purpose than newsletters, therefore the audience criteria is more specific:

  • Alumni of all years
  • All active prospects 
  • Donors within the past 7 years (all gift types, hard credit and soft credit)
    • Omit anyone with an open or active proposal
  • Newsletter subscribers (Email preference for people who have signed up from a department's website)

Event Audience Criteria

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Same audience criteria as newsletter:

  • Alumni (all years)
  • Faculty and staff (current, emeritus, associate and affiliate - if they have any)
  • Current students in the department (undergrad and grad)
  • Donors (all years, all levels, all gift types, hard and soft credit)
  • Major gift prospects
  • All past department event registrants and attendees
  • Committee members (if applicable)
  • Anyone on the ‘Friends of ’ list stored in University Advancement's database
  • Anyone on the ‘Friends of ’ list stored in Marketo (not in University Advancement's database)
  • Newsletter subscribers (Marketo stored preference for people who have signed up from a department's website)

For donor-focused or small capacity events, CAS Advancement will reach out to you and the Major Gift Officer for your department to curate a specific list that meets the needs and intentions of your event.

When to use Outlook vs Marketo

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Departments often ask "Can I just send a quick Outlook email to my Marketo newsletter audience?" Take a moment to think about the scope and purpose of the email. These are the criteria that drive our responses.

Training Video: When to use Outlook vs Marketo

  • Outlook
    • Small focused groups
    • Internal audiences
      • Current students
      • Faculty
      • Staff
    • Transactional or operational emails
      • Thank you for your donation
      • Personal invite or stewardship
      • Event reminders, updates for registrants
  • Marketo
    • Broad-based communications/solicitation emails
      • Newsletters
      • Event announcements/invitations
      • Appeals
    • Large lists that include external audiences
      • Current students/faculty/staff
      • Donors
      • Alumni
      • Event attendees
      • Other external departmental constituents

Why use Marketo for broad-based communications and solicitation emails?

  • We built all CAN SPAM Act requirements into our templates
    • Don’t use false or misleading To/From/Reply email addresses
    • Don’t use deceptive email subject lines
    • Identify the purpose of the message
    • Tell recipients where you’re located
    • Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you
    • Honor opt-out requests promptly
  • Our templates are compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1
  • Marketo collects and stores unsubscribes from any communication
  • We are trying to protect you from litigation (Each separate violation of the CAN-SPAM Act is subject to penalties of up to $43,792)

Audience List Best Practices

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How to Add Someone to Your Email List

  • Every department that we send emails on behalf of has a Subscription Preference that syncs to our email platform. We always include a department's subscribers in their newsletter and event emails, unless requested otherwise, so the best way to ensure that someone will receive emails from your department is to have them subscribe to your department's email communications.

Email Subscription Management 

Please contact the Advancement Services team anytime at CASadser@uw.edu with questions or for more information.