Meet 'Inside Marist': The New Digital Newsletter
Inside Marist, the school’s latest digital newsletter, was first launched last April. Photo courtesy of Marist College Media Relations.
If you’ve been keeping up with your inbox, you have probably heard about Inside Marist — Marist College’s newest digital news platform.
Inside Marist is a recent initiative launched last spring by the Office of Communications and Marketing. The digital newsletter, sent out every Tuesday via email, includes information about campus news, student profiles and achievements, upcoming events and more. It is complemented by both social media posts and stories posted online.
Daryl Richard, a Marist alum and recently appointed Vice President of Communications and Marketing, helped create the newsletter with the hopes of connecting with the Marist community through a broader platform.
“The idea of this newsletter started with the question of, ‘How do we elevate the Marist story?’” said Richard. “It’s part of a larger communications strategy; how do we make Marist and the Marist name known nationally and internationally as a college of choice?”
One of the most appealing aspects of Inside Marist to Richard is its audience reach. In its first few weeks, the newsletter was sent to over 71,000 inboxes, including current and prospective Marist students, faculty, parents and over 50,000 alumni.
The team is comprised of staff and student workers in the Office of Communications and Marketing, with writers, photographers and more. Student involvement, Richard says, helps the newsletter best serve readers by keeping the team up-to-date on student body interests.
Being a digital platform, interactions with the newsletter provide data insight to the team on what touchpoints readers are most interested in reading about. This allows them to serve more information catering to those topics.
“Our story ideas go through so many different lenses, and we’re trying to make sure that each issue will appeal to every current student on campus while also appealing to high schoolers or parents of high schoolers,” said Richard. “I think parents appreciate getting that inside peek at what’s happening on campus, seeing what life could be like for their son or daughter.”
The newsletter has proven to impact those not only off-campus but on-campus as well. Following the publication of an article about North Road Communications last spring, Richard said, a public relations firm reached out to request graduate information on students in the program.
“That’s the beauty of digital communication, right? It just grows quickly,” said Richard.
As a former student at Marist, Richard served as Editor-in-Chief of the Marist Circle. He describes the Circle and Inside Marist as “complementary and different.” They are complementary in that they both cover Marist news and events and are different in that Inside Marist has “a broader editorial mission,” according to Richard.
Going forward, Richard hopes to see the newsletter continue to “tell the Marist story” and expand the institution’s reach worldwide.
“As a former student at Marist myself, there’s a lot of personal pride for the school and a passion to see it grow. Marist is an amazing institution that offers so much. This is our chance to elevate the recognition of that, but also to personalize it,” said Richard. “I think that’s what is so important about storytelling — it’s not just about selling a place, but putting a human face to it.”