I was contracted to carry out various pieces of communications work for the SFU Urban Studies Program, which I did part-time for four years. One of my first projects was to propose and then implement the switch from sending our program news via regular Outlook email messages to using newsletter (email marketing) software. This allowed us to more easily assemble our pieces of content, to create more visually appealing messages, and to track open and click rates.

I collected news items from faculty, alumni, staff, and students; edited them for grammar, clarity and consistency; sourced and inserted photos; formatted the entire newsletter; proofread it; circulated it for approval; and then sent it to our various lists, which I was also responsible for maintaining. The newsletter was delivered to approximately 800 SFU subscribers, including deans, directors and professors, as well as to prospective and current students, alumni and local urban professionals.

In many cases, we repurposed and re-used newsletter content for our social media channels and website news section, or vice versa, which I was also responsible for.

SFU, along with many other Canadian universities, used Campaigner for this purpose, due to its provisions for privacy and data storage within Canada. Our open rates were consistently in the 40-50% range during the time that I coordinated the newsletter. 

After I moved on and into the role of acting manager for the Urban Studies Program, I supervised the part-time staff who took over responsibility for our newsletter. To support this transition and maintain consistent standards, I created a step-by-step guide and newsletter checklist for the staff to use.