FAQs

The Emma platform is for targeted and mass marketing emails and communications. It will empower colleges, schools and units across the university to effectively market to and communicate timely and relevant information to their key audiences.

The Emma platform is not for day-to-day emails, small lists, listservs or similar types of emails that can be sent through other tools like Microsoft Outlook.

The Emma platform is for marketing and communications or other staff who create, send and/or manage mass and targeted email marketing for their department or unit.

Emma is a widely used email marketing platform with an intuitive interface and user-friendly email marketing tools.

It includes features such as:

• Account and user permissions
• Segment and filter audiences
• Drag-and-drop email editor
• Branded and customizable templates
• Robust email analytics and insights
• Marketing automation (drip campaigns and triggered emails)

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Review our User Access page for instructions.

Once you have been given access and have completed the Emma User Agreement, you can log in using our short URL go.uic.edu/emma.

Note: After a certain amount of time of inactivity, you will be automatically logged out and redirected to an Emma login page. Instead of logging in here, bookmark and reuse the go.uic.edu/emma link.

No. We are using UIC’s single sign on (SSO) so you do not need an Emma username and password to log in. You can use go.uic.edu/emma to log in each time. If you are not logged in through UIC’s SSO, you will be redirected to the UIC login screen to use your UIC username and password.

Note: After a certain amount of time of inactivity, you will be automatically logged out and redirected to an Emma login page. Instead of logging in here, bookmark and reuse the go.uic.edu/emma link.

You can find a complete list of primary contacts on the User Access page.

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No. Your internal and external accounts are only visible to users who have been added to your specific accounts. Level of visibility also depends on the user’s role and permissions (for example, some user roles cannot see audience data). Emma users can only access accounts they have been added to.

If your user role enables you to view email sends, you will be able to see all emails for the entire account.

Anyone with the administrator role will be able to view the account dashboard.

Each college, school and chancellor/VC/VP unit is provided with two Emma accounts: an “Internal No Unsubscribe” account and an “External Allows Unsubscribe” account.

• Internal accounts are only to be used for required emails to internal audiences: current UIC students, staff and faculty with a uic.edu email address.
• This includes announcements, updates, deadlines, etc. that students, staff or faculty need to receive for their ongoing success at UIC.

• External accounts are for promotional, optional and/or marketing emails that recipients must be able to unsubscribe from.
• Recipients can be a combination of external recipients (anyone who is not a current UIC student, staff and faculty member with a uic.edu email address) and internal UIC recipients.
• This includes event invitations, advertising, etc.

No. We have a set number of accounts designated for each college, school and chancellor/VC/VP unit. We cannot accommodate requests for additional accounts at this time.

Your internal and external accounts are your real accounts. Accounts begin in the trial stage but anything you create will be saved and accessible once your account is activated.

For more information about 24-hour notifications visit the Emma support hub.

Yes. The official UIC colors are included in your account and are accessible in the toolbars in the email editor. No need to add specific color codes!

Arial is the global font available in all UIC accounts.

#0000EE or #0000FF are recommended to create hyperlinks that are accessible in your emails. Both are included in the email editor toolbars.

Yes. The email address is the primary identifier for each contact/recipient in our Emma platform. Contacts can unsubscribe from specific external accounts, and this will not impact their subscriptions in other accounts.

Learn more about UIC’s internal contact data integration with the Emma platform and how to further segment and filter your internal audiences including:

• UIC contact data fields including definitions and possible values for students, staff and faculty
• Update frequency for integrated and shared contacts
• Segmentation process for creating targeted lists of UIC students, staff and faculty

It depends. Any emails sent to our internal audiences (current UIC students, staff and faculty with a uic.edu email address) will be allowed and should arrive in the recipient’s inbox. The exception may be content or links that are flagged as suspicious or malicious.

For emails sent to one or more external recipients, it depends on both our overall sender reputation with various internet service providers (ISPs) and the content of the email. Content or links in an email that are flagged as suspicious or malicious may cause your email to end up in the recipient’s spam or junk folder.

We must work together to follow email marketing best practices to ensure our communications are seen as credible and trustworthy.

Please refer to the implementation timeline for more information on email sending.

The standard width for emails is 640px, with a maximum width of 750px. A width larger than 750px can cause formatting errors on both desktop computers and mobile devices.

While there is no technical limit on the number of rows you can include, it is best practice to keep your emails concise and visually appealing to maintain the reader’s attention. Emails that are too long or overly complex can cause recipients to quickly lose interest and can take longer to load, especially on mobile devices.

Yes. You must add a row or choose an existing row before you can add a content block.

Yes. UIC-branded templates have been created and added to both your internal and external accounts. Administrators can edit and customize existing templates and create templates from scratch. Once an account administrator has customized or created a template, it can be saved to allow other account users to create an individual email with unique content and images.

You can see email templates by clicking the “Create new campaign” button either on the home dashboard or in the Campaigns tab.

SMC will release more templates at a later date.

Yes. Users can duplicate emails. Administrators can create templates and save an email campaign as a new template for other account users to use to create new emails.

Only administrators can customize and save templates, so there is minimal risk of templates being updated inadvertently.

Yes. You must upload any files, images and documents you want to include in an email to your Emma account. You can do this in advance or when you create an email. You do not need to upload documents, videos or other files with a URL that you want to include as hyperlinks.

No. Currently, there is no integration between UIC’s PhotoShelter photo database and the Emma platform. You must upload the images you want to use to your Emma account, either in advance or when you create an email.

There are some photo editing options in the Emma platform, but it is best to edit your photos before uploading it to your Emma account.

No. Sending emails to listservs is not allowed on the Emma platform. Learn more about listservs.

Segments, filters and groups are various ways to create targeted email lists in the Emma platform.

It depends. Only account owners have the ability to share between subaccounts. However, they can grant this permission to administrator users on an individual basis.

Please check the training page for dates and recordings.

A recording of both the Emma Email Marketing 101 and the 201 sessions are available on the Emma training page.

For any email you send to one or more external contacts (anyone who is not a current UIC student, staff or faculty member with a uic.edu email address), you must allow the recipient the ability to opt out of your communications in compliance with the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act. Per the UIC Emma user agreement, you agree to follow best practices for managing unsubscribe requests.

Whether or not your emails will include an unsubscribe link depends on if you send the email from your Internal No Unsubscribe account or your External Allows Unsubscribe account. Use your Internal No Unsubscribe account to send required communication to current UIC students, staff or faculty with a uic.edu email address. Use your External Allows Unsubscribe account to send communication that is optional/promotional or that has one or more external recipients.

The primary Emma user roles for UIC subaccounts are:

• Administrator: everything including adding users
• Full: create and send emails, view audience data
• Editor: create emails
• Author: create emails only – ideal for students
• Response only: view only

For descriptions and permissions of each roles, visit the Emma HQ user page.

No. There is no limit to the number of users or user roles per subaccount. Administrators should be intentional about the level of access provided to ensure it aligns with the individual job responsibilities of each user.

Yes. A user’s role and permissions apply to the entire account and also determine their access to features and audience data. For example, an administrator role has access to everything in the subaccount including settings, audience data, etc. An author role has access to all email templates based on their permission but cannot see the audience tab or audience data.