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Marketing and Communications

Email Newsletter Guidelines

Email newsletters are a key channel for informing, engaging, and inspiring our campus community. These standards and guidelines establish a cohesive, visually consistent approach to newsletter creation at the University of South Carolina, ensuring alignment with university standards while supporting meaningful engagement. All colleges, schools, units, and offices should follow these guidelines when producing internal or external newsletters.

Default Platform – Axios HQ

Axios HQ is the university’s recommended and default platform for newsletters due to its ease of use and reader-friendly, card-based design. Other platforms may be used when there is a clear business, technical or audience-based need. However, all newsletters — regardless of platform — must follow these standards.

Our goals are simple:

  • Respect readers’ time
  • Improve engagement
  • Reflect the university’s brand and strategic priorities.


Audience, Purpose and Value

Before drafting content, clearly identify who the newsletter serves.

Consider:

  • Audience needs and expectations
  • Familiarity with the university
  • Desired relationship with the institution

Audience definition should guide tone, content selection and design.

Whenever possible:

  • Segment audiences to increase relevance.
  • Review and clean distribution lists at least annually.
  • Remove inactive subscribers to improve engagement and deliverability.

Each newsletter should have a defined goal, such as:

  • Informing readers
  • Encouraging engagement
  • Driving a specific action
  • Building awareness or reputation

Go beyond broad categories. Understand your audience’s mindset and engagement level. The purpose should be clear to both the writer and the reader.

Every newsletter must clearly answer the question: Why does this matter to the reader?

  • Identify the primary benefit.
  • Focus on the most important takeaway.
  • Remove content that does not serve the audience or support the goal.

Measure What Matters

Before launching a newsletter, work with university communications or your unit to determine which metrics you want to use to determine the success of a newsletter. 

Success metrics should align with your purpose. Depending on your goal, evaluate:

  • Open rates
  • Click-through rates
  • Event registrations or sign-ups
  • Time spent reading
  • Other engagement indicators

Review high-performing content regularly and use those insights to guide future editions.

Brand Alignment

With the exception of purely transactional newsletters (HR deadlines, parking information, etc.),  all newsletters should support at least one university brand pillar:

  • Academic and Research Excellence
  • Student Experience and Outcomes
  • Access and Affordability
  • Economic and Social Impact

Content should reinforce USC’s mission, values and strategic priorities. 

Tone and Voice

Tone should follow the same as the brand platform's guidance on personality and tone: inspiring and uplifting, bright and optimistic, expansive and enduring, warm and welcoming, inclusive and collaborative, human and emphathetic. 

USC newsletters should be:

  • Professional, conversational and human
  • Clear and direct
  • Free of jargon and unnecessary acronyms
  • Consistent with the university’s brand voice

Structure and Length

  • Target 700–800 total words
  • Prioritize clarity and scannability over comprehensiveness

USC newsletters use Axios-style cards as the standard content unit.

  • 75–100 words per card (150-word maximum)
  • One clear topic per card
  • Do not combine multiple subjects in a single card
  • Weekly newsletters: 3–5 cards
  • Monthly newsletters: 5–8 cards
  • Place the most important stories in the first two cards.
  • Maintain consistent section order across issues.
  • Use a predictable structure to build reader expectations.
  • Clear, concise and informative
  • Ideally 5–8 words, (10-word maximum)
  • Communicate the main takeaway at a glance


Writing Standards

  • Use short paragraphs and active voice.
  • Lead with why the information matters.
  • Highlight people, outcomes and impact.

Each card should include one clear call to action:

  • Use direct, action-oriented language.
  • Avoid competing or unclear actions.
  • Follow AP Style with university-specific guidance.
  • Proofread and fact-check before sending.
  • Use bold and italics sparingly.
  • Keep text left aligned.
  • Use bullets for lists, deadlines, and key details.
  • End each bullet with a period if it is a complete sentence.
  • Use no punctuation if the bulet is a single word or phrase.
  • Use highlights or quick lists when appropriate. 

Typography, Color and Layout

Typography

Use university-approved fonts:

  • Headers: Arial (sans-serif)
  • Body text: Georgia (serif)

Typography should establish hierarchy and ensure readability across devices. Use the university brand toolbox typographic rules for spacing, size, weight, alignment, capitalization and bolding. 

Color and Layout

  • Follow the university brand color palette. 
  • Garnet, black and white should dominate.
  • Ensure strong contrast for accessibility.
  • Use white space to improve scannability.

Buttons should use clear, action-oriented text (e.g., “Register for the conference,” “Meet our students,” “Support USC Research”) and follow brand color standards.

Images and Visuals

Image Standards

  • Use images purposefully to reinforce content.
  • Limit to one high-quality image per card.
  • Prioritize original or university-approved photography.
  • Use stock imagery sparingly and only when necessary.

Images should be sourced from university libraries (e.g., Axios libraries or PhotoShelter) whenever possible.

AI Use

Do not generate images that depict fictitious people or events that did not occur.
Do not alter photos in a way that misrepresents reality.

Emojis may be used sparingly when appropriate to the audience and tone.

Accessibility

  • Include descriptive alt text for all images.
  • Add captions when helpful for context.
  • Adjust reading level based on your audience.
  • Write in conversational and inclusive tone and avoide jargon and acronyms.
  • Ensure sufficient color contrast.
  • Design for both desktop and mobile viewing.
  • Accessibility should be integrated throughout the creation process.

Links and Navigation

Link Standards

  • Use 2–7 words of descriptive link text.
    • Example: “Support USC Research” (not “Click Here”)
  • Avoid generic phrases.
  • Limit to 2–3 links per card.

Quality Control

  • Test all links before sending.
  • Ensure links point to relevant, current resources.

Video

  • Do not embed videos directly in newsletters.
  • Instead, link to videos using buttons or clear calls to action.

Tools and Platform Expectations

AxiosHQ (Default Platform)

AxiosHQ is strongly recommended and supports:

  • Consistent, card-based structure
  • Smart brevity guidance
  • Audience segmentation and management
  • Analytics and engagement tracking
  • Accessibility and brand-aligned templates

Communicators are encouraged to use Axios HQ (available at no cost) unless there is a clear reason not to. When using alternative platforms, all university standards still apply.

Interested in using AxiosHQ or learning more about email newsletters? Get in touch to start the conversation and explore your options.

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