Mass Email Communications

Contact lists must be regularly updated from their master data source – Vision, Banner, Ignite, etc. Every email address contained in contact lists within each subaccount counts toward Baylor’s contract limits with Emma. Therefore, we have extensive processes to remove email addresses from the university’s main alumni, student, parent, faculty & staff, donors and other master sources of data - addresses that have unsubscribed, bounced, changed or are otherwise no longer needed. Older contact lists must be removed in order to keep Emma below our contract limits. 

Vision, Baylor’s Customer Relationship Management software, is the University’s repository for all information. Many of you have likely gotten lists pulled from the data that Vision houses.  

However, when lists are imported into Emma from external sources, that information is not shared back to Vision and thus lives solely in Emma’s lists. External data and lists are neither tracked nor maintained by Baylor, potentially leading to expired information and miscommunication. 

Emma Support recommends a new pull of data from Vision at least every 30 days. All new groups that are created in your subaccounts should be dated in the name to keep track of when the group was imported into the Emma system. 

Example: 2025.08.15 Emma Users 

We will periodically survey all subaccounts and archive lists that are past the 30 day mark. This naming scheme helps track those groups that might be out of date. 

Baylor email abides by a practice that affords the most accessibility for the greatest number. To ensure that all audience members can read emails sent by Baylor, there are a few color choices that are best practice. The most common faults are unified graphics that contain the text in the graphic (ex. event flyers made on Canva), no alt text assigned to graphics, and yellow text on white background.  

Screen readers cannot scan a graphic for the relevant text; similarly, screen readers often also search for alt text to provide content and if none is there, deliver no information; further, the visually impaired have trouble discerning the difference between yellow and white, as there is not enough contrast.  

Baylor’s use of Emma has evolved since its implementation. Changes have been deployed across subaccounts that affect a wide range of Emma’s features. One of the most significant changes has been to how the templates handle unsubscribes, which are managed from within the Emma system. To make the best use of this, we have updated many templates to include proper unsubscribe code. 

However, Emma template changes are not retroactive to campaigns that have been sent or are in the drafts tab. Users should not duplicate campaigns older than six months. New campaigns should be created using the shared template in your subaccount. If template changes need to be made, please let Emma_Support@baylor.edu know.