Here are 10 reasons why email is no longer an effective tool to engage students:
1. Email isn’t mobile-friendly.
Students today are constantly on the go and they want information that is easily accessible from their mobile devices. If your emails aren’t optimized for mobile, they’re likely to get lost in the shuffle.
2. Email inboxes are overflowing.
The average person has over 120 unread emails in their inbox at any given time. With so many messages competing for attention, it’s no wonder your emails are being ignored.
3. Email messages are often treated as spam.
More than half of all email users say they have marked an email as spam simply because they didn’t recognize the sender. This means that even if your message isn’t actually spam, it could still get filtered out before it ever reaches its intended recipient.
4. Email is easy to delete.
Unlike a text message or a phone call, an email can be quickly deleted without any repercussions. This makes it all too easy for students to simply hit “delete” when they see a message from you in their inbox.
5. Email isn’t personal.
In a world where we are constantly inundated with marketing messages, students appreciate personalization and authenticity. Unfortunately, email is not well-suited for conveying either of these things.
6. Email lacks urgency.
Students often receive so many emails that they don’t even bother opening them unless they seem urgent. However, since most email messages don’t convey a sense of urgency, they often go unopened and unread.
7. Email isn’t interactive.
Unlike some other channels, such as text messaging and social media, email is a one-way communication tool. This lack of interactivity makes it more difficult to engage students through this channel.
8. Email isn’t timely.
Timeliness is critical when trying to engage students since most decisions need to be made within a certain timeframe (e..g., applying for financial aid or registering for classes). Unfortunately, email is often not delivered in a timely manner, which can render it ineffective for many purposes.
9. Students don’t check their email regularly.
A study by the Pew Research Center found that only 42% of young adults check their email daily . This means that even if you do manage to send a timely and well-crafted email message, there’s no guarantee that your student will see it in a timely manner.
10. There are better options available.
With so many other channels available (e...g., text messaging, social media, push notifications), there’s simply no reason to rely on email as your primary method of engagement..
In order to engage students in a way that will lead to positive outcomes, you need an effective engagement strategy. But with students today constantly bombarded with communications vying for their attention, how can you ensure that your messages will be seen? The answer may be the channel you use to reach your students.
Email may have once been an effective way to engage students, but times have changed. With so many other options available—options that are more mobile-friendly, personal, urgent, interactive, and timely—it simply doesn’t make sense to rely on this outdated channel anymore.. If you want to ensure that your messages are seen and acted upon by your students, you need to find a better way to reach them..
