From image-based emails to HTML: How university library reduced email production time by up to 50% — Case study
When people need reliable information or expert guidance, libraries remain among the first places to which they turn. University libraries do much more than provide access to books. They connect students and researchers with specialized resources, academic support, and the services they need throughout their studies.
Email has an important role in that communication. It helps libraries share news, promote events, introduce available resources, and keep the university community informed. To do this effectively, every email should be clear, visually engaging, and easy to read on any device.
The Bibliotecas de la Universidad de Concepción transformed their email communications to meet these goals. In this case study, you’ll learn how the team moved from image-based emails to HTML and reduced the time required to create campaigns after adopting Stripo.
Expert
Meet the company
The Bibliotecas de la Universidad de Concepción system (Bibliotecas UdeC) manages a network of libraries located across the university’s campuses in Concepción, Chillán, and Los Ángeles.
The mission of Bibliotecas UdeC is to provide the university community with access to information, promote cultural development, preserve the university’s bibliographic heritage, and support teaching, learning, and research.
The challenge: Limited functionality of image-based emails and slower email production
The library serves the entire university community, including undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students. For this reason, it is important that every email follows a consistent visual identity and communication style. The main difference between campaigns is the content, which is tailored to the needs and interests of each academic audience.
Previously, Bibliotecas UdeC used to send emails in the form of images. This format had many drawbacks: the inability to add multiple links, poor image quality, and inconsistent rendering across different devices.
The decision to change the email format came following a recommendation from the Information Technology General Department, which suggested switching to HTML-based emails to improve their visual quality and functionality. This change also made it easier for the technical team to manage and distribute email campaigns.
The solution: An intuitive HTML email builder for consistent communications
The library’s team evaluated email builders based on the following criteria:
- ease of use;
- support for professional HTML email templates;
- compatibility with existing mass email distribution systems;
- capacity to maintain a consistent visual identity across all communications;
- no requirement for advanced coding skills;
- optimization of production time;
- ability to reuse email templates;
- reliable email rendering across different devices and email clients.
Stripo was the best option for the library due to its ease of use, flexibility, and compatibility with the HTML format required by institutional email delivery systems. The platform enabled the team to create more visually appealing, functional, and professional emails without requiring advanced programming knowledge.
The ability to work with more than 1650+ prebuilt email templates and editable blocks helped standardize communications and speed up email production. Another important aspect for the production team was the ease of exporting and sharing emails with the technical team responsible for mass distribution.
Note from Stripo
Email export simplifies the transition from email creation to distribution and removes the need for technical expertise when preparing campaigns.
Stripo supports several export formats, allowing teams to choose the option that best fits their workflow. Emails can be exported as an HTML file, an archive, or a raw HTML code, making them easy to transfer to the delivery platform or other systems used within an organization.
Compared to other alternatives, Stripo offered a more intuitive solution that better suited the library’s needs.
The workflow: Centralized email production with reusable templates
Decentralized communication in a large organization often creates challenges in maintaining consistency and quality. Even with institutional guidelines for the proper use of brand colors, typography, visual identity, and image quality, teams may lack the technical or communications expertise to avoid design and message inconsistencies.
The Communications Unit of Bibliotecas UdeC is currently the only one within the system to use Stripo. Therefore, the creation, editing, and updates of email templates are centrally managed by this unit, ensuring visual and communication consistency across all outgoing messages.
The Bibliotecas UdeC system encompasses 12 libraries. The Communications Unit has centralized responsibility for creating and coordinating email communications. This unit receives requests from various libraries and academic departments, prepares email content, and manages approval with the Head of the library before the email is distributed.
The university maintains a centralized database of students, faculty, staff, and other members of the university community. The library management system is integrated with this database, which allows the library to use audience data for segmentation and personalized email communications.
The library segments its audience based on several criteria and sends relevant content to each group. One of the main segmentation criteria is the students’ academic journey.
For first-year students, communication focuses mainly on introducing the essential services offered by the library and helping them integrate into university life.
For upper-year students, newsletter-style emails are sent to share electronic information resources and study and research support materials.
The library also regularly informs its subscribers about student competitions, sends invitations to events and educational activities organized by the library, and distributes a newsletter every two months featuring the most important news and highlights from that period.
(Source: Email from Bibliotecas UdeC)
Internal communications and emails sent to up to 3,000 recipients at a time are distributed manually by the library staff. The Information Technology General Department handles mass email campaigns and communications intended for larger audiences through an automated platform.
A structured process from request to delivery:
- The email creation process begins when the Communications Unit receives a communication request.
- Based on that request, the team creates and designs the email in accordance with the university’s communication guidelines.
- The email is then reviewed and approved by the Head of the library.
- Once approved, it is forwarded to the University’s Communications Department for final review and permission to distribute.
- Finally, the Information Technology Department sends the email to the intended audience.
The team typically works with two master templates, which they adapt for different types of communications. This approach ensures that every email aligns with the institutional identity of the Universidad de Concepción.
(Source: Email from Bibliotecas UdeC)
Among Stripo’s features, the Communications Unit appreciates template duplication the most. It significantly reduces email production time and makes it easier to preserve the same design standards across campaigns.
We also value the ability for multiple people to collaborate on the creation and editing of the same email, making the workflow more agile and efficient.
Lorena Flores-Gallegos,
Note from Stripo
Stripo simplifies collaboration on email projects. Multiple people can co-edit the same email simultaneously, making changes as needed.
Team members can leave comments right in the email template and receive feedback in real time. This eliminates the need to discuss edits in separate chats or wait for email replies, helping everyone stay aligned while working on a campaign. Real-time collaboration allows everyone to work in unison throughout the email campaign process.
The results: Professional emails with up to 50% faster production
While the Bibliotecas Communications Unit does not track the exact time or effort saved, it estimates that producing each email or campaign now takes approximately 40-50% less time than in the past. Before implementing Stripo, email design and preparation took longer due to manual image work and the limitations of the format.
The team highlights the following results after implementing Stripo:
- standardized and more professional email design;
- improved visual consistency across the library’s communications;
- reduced time spent on email production;
- lower technical complexity associated with creating HTML-based emails.
The use of Stripo simplified the workflow and improved the overall quality of messages sent to the university community. Thanks to reusable templates and more intuitive editing tools, the process has become much more flexible, especially when it comes to creating and customizing emails.
One of the most memorable moments was the first time I used Stripo and realized how simple and intuitive it was to edit emails. I was especially impressed by how quickly we could create messages with such a professional appearance, without requiring advanced technical knowledge. That represented a major improvement compared to the way we had worked previously.
Lorena Flores-Gallegos,
Wrapping up
What started as a transition from image-based emails to HTML has evolved into a more structured and efficient email production process. Bibliotecas UdeC serve students at every stage of their academic journey by providing access to information, specialized resources, and support for learning and research.
With Stripo, Bibliotecas UdeC has made its email communications more professional, visually appealing, and consistent while spending significantly less time during the production phase. By simplifying email creation and streamlining communication workflows, Stripo helps Biblioteca UdeC deliver on its mission more efficiently.
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