Case study: How a large public university significantly sped up email production using Stripo

Clear and reliable emails are essential for universities, particularly when email serves as the primary official channel of communication with students. The larger the university, the more faculties and campuses it encompasses, and the greater the challenges during the email creation stage.

Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW Hamburg) shared insights into how selected units addressed email creation challenges by moving from largely manual processes to a more structured, template-based workflow.

Meet the university

Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW Hamburg) is a large public university with a decentralized structure. It communicates with students through central service units, individual faculties, and study programs. Central teams such as the Student Center, the International Office, Admissions, and central communications handle university-wide messages. Faculties and study programs support this flow with more specific information. Email is HAW Hamburg’s primary official communication channel, especially during application and enrollment and at the start of studies.

Potential university email production workflow complications

When working with universities, the Stripo team typically sees the following:

• the university consists of dozens of “micro-organizations”: faculties, departments, admissions offices, alumni associations, international offices, student unions, research centers, libraries, dormitories, and career centers;
• the responsibility for creating and sending emails frequently shifts between people: staff rotation, student volunteers, temporary coordinators;
• various university departments may be located in different cities or on different campuses, meaning different teams are using different email creation processes;
• communications and reports are sent from different systems (CRM, ESP, manual emails, Google/Microsoft, or internal platforms), often without a centralized source;
• data and target audiences are not centralized: Everyone has their own database, lists, and responsibilities.

All these factors lead to university teams facing the following problems when creating emails:

• inconsistent email layout style, branding, legal sections, accessibility, and display settings;
• the impossibility of manually checking every email due to its scale and human error;
• design chaos, reputational risks, unnecessary approval iterations, slow launches, and variable quality.

Challenge: Improve email design and coordination between teams without adding complexity

Email plays a critical operational role at HAW Hamburg. It is the primary official channel for communicating with students during key moments such as enrollment, onboarding, international coordination, and events. These emails are not part of marketing campaigns. They contain informational messages that must be clear, structured, and easy to understand for a diverse student audience.

Beyond welcome emails, they regularly send onboarding messages, international student communication, and event invitations, with content owned either centrally or adapted locally, depending on the topic.

Email responsibilities at HAW Hamburg are clearly divided:

1. Central teams manage standardized communication, such as enrollment and general onboarding emails.
2. Faculties and study programs prepare or adapt emails for study-program–specific topics using shared templates.

Several dozen people across the university are involved in creating, editing, or approving emails. Roles often change due to staff rotation, temporary coordinator positions, and student assistantships, so HAW Hamburg relies on standardized templates and clear documentation.

There was also uncertainty regarding tone and visual presentation, especially when communicating with younger students. Coordination between teams was time consuming, and design-related questions often resulted in additional coordination between central and decentralized units. This made it difficult to maintain consistency and scale email communication across the university.

To solve this, the responsible teams introduced an external email editor into their workflow to support structured layouts and improve coordination within the existing email environment.

Solution: Choosing a comprehensive tool for decentralized university email creation

When selecting an email builder, HAW Hamburg focused on practical requirements shaped by its public university environment.

The tool was supposed to have the following features:

• easy to use for non-technical staff;
• works reliably with Outlook and Exchange;
• meets strict data protection requirements;
• has the ability to create and manage centralized templates that can be reused across teams;
• cost effective.

HAW Hamburg reviewed different options within the framework of its established procurement procedures and selected Stripo accordingly. External newsletter tools were ruled out because of data protection constraints. Building an in-house solution would have required additional time and resources.

Stripo offered the best balance between usability, compliance, and effort. It supports centralized governance while allowing faculties and study programs to adapt content locally, which aligns well with the university’s organizational structure.

Workflow: How HAW Hamburg builds and sends emails

HAW Hamburg has established a structured workflow that strikes a balance between centralized control and decentralized execution.

1. Email templates are created centrally in Stripo. These serve as a foundation for most categories of student communication.
2. When needed, faculties and other units adapt these templates locally and then send the emails via Outlook or Microsoft Exchange.

This setup aligns with the existing university environment, enabling teams to work with familiar tools.

Audience data are managed within the university’s existing systems. Contact lists are either handled centrally or by the responsible units, depending on the communication context. For example, the Student Center prepares central welcome emails for new students using Stripo templates.

Here is an example of an email layout based on HAW Hamburg templates (the content is anonymized and simplified for illustrative purposes):

(Source: Email template example used by HAW Hamburg)

Decentralized units then adapt the design within the Stripo-generated template and add their own content. Although this process is currently supported by file-based distribution, more advanced solutions would be preferable; however, GDPR and opt-in requirements make using them impossible.

Working with templates

Faculties and departments do not create emails from scratch. They choose from a defined set of centrally created templates. These templates are used by multiple teams, including central units such as the International Office, the nine faculties, and other units. Placeholders for department names, majors, and other specifics make it easy to customize content while keeping the overall structure intact.

Templates play a key role in maintaining consistency. They ensure a unified design, clear structure, accessibility standards, and required elements, such as legal blocks. They also allow individuals to customize content directly in their preferred email software, typically Microsoft Outlook.

To maintain consistent communication standards, even when team members change, HAW Hamburg relies on shared templates, documentation, and tutorials to ensure continuity.

Here is an example of an email from a decentralized unit:

(Source: Email template example used by HAW Hamburg)

Localization

Localization is handled with the same structured approach. Central emails are provided in both German and English as separate templates. Decentralized communication depends on the requirements of each study program. Translations are managed manually to ensure accuracy and to maintain an institutional tone.

Results: Faster, more consistent email production across the university

Using Stripo supported HAW Hamburg in addressing the goals defined during the review of its email strategy. The results are evident in daily workflows and interactions between central teams and departments.

Here’s what’s changed in the university’s email production:

• faster email production: Thanks to the use of a drag-n-drop editor, email creation is quicker and easier to manage. Teams no longer build emails manually, reducing effort and streamlining the preparation process;
• consistent structure and design: Reusable templates and design modules ensure a consistent look and structure across all student emails, regardless of who prepares them;
• accessible to non-designers: The editor lets staff without design or technical backgrounds work with predefined templates in a structured way. This is essential in a university environment with many contributors;
• easier delegation without added workload: Faculties and departments can create and adapt emails independently using shared templates. This makes delegation easier without increasing the central team’s workload.

Overall, Stripo supports a stable, scalable email workflow that aligns with HAW Hamburg’s decentralized structure while maintaining clear, consistent communication.

Wrapping up

For HAW Hamburg, email is a core communication channel rather than a marketing tool. With numerous stakeholders, frequent role changes, and stringent requirements regarding data protection, the university needed a reliable way to ensure clear, consistent, and easy-to-manage student communication.

Stripo helped HAW Hamburg move from sending manual, text-based emails to applying a structured, template-driven approach without disrupting existing systems.

By combining centralized governance with local flexibility, Stripo supports a workflow that aligns with the university’s decentralized structure. This enables teams to work faster, maintain consistent standards, and confidently delegate email creation.

As a result, HAW Hamburg has built a sustainable email workflow that supports everyday student communication and can scale as the university’s needs evolve.