Introduction: About Narayana Business School

Narayana Business School (NBS), founded in 2001 and situated in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, is one of India’s top B-schools. With a strong scholarship culture, NBS offers high-quality management courses with a special emphasis on practical training, leadership, and industry interface.

Beyond academics, NBS has always placed high value on its alumni community as a pillar of development. Over the years, the institution has established a strong and diverse alumni network spanning various geographies and industries. Recognizing the immense value of alumni engagement in institutional brand building, student mentorship, fundraising, and professional networking, NBS has been actively involved in nurturing its alumni relations.

However, with the advent of the Internet age, the institute began facing significant challenges in staying connected with its alumni on a regular basis.

Challenges:

Despite the quality and number of its alumni, Narayana Business School came aross numerous participation issues that rendered its communication strategy ineffective:

1. Low Alumni Involvement

Auld Lang Syne activities such as annual events, tedious newsletters, and occasional email reminders were not producing high turnout figures. Alumni lost contact or found it unnecessary, and the interest declined.

2. Poor Email Campaigns

Previous campaigns via email yielded awful response rates. The click-through ratio was nothing close to the hoped-for rate, and opening of the majority of emails did not take place. Thus, vital announcements such as event invitations, webinars, and vacancy announcements did not attract significant responses.

3. Absence of Personalization in Communication

The institute also used a one-size-fits-all strategy in outreach. Its email was not segmented and was not personalized, and thus the same message was being delivered to a new graduate and a corporate executive leader — diluting the overall relevance and strength of the message.

These problems collectively contributed to undermining NBS’s goal of creating an active, healthy, and emotionally engaged alumni community.

The Solution: Developing AlmaShines Alumni Engagement Platform

In order to re-strategize, NBS partnered with AlmaShines, an alumni engagement platform specifically designed for utilization by various institutions of learning. AlmaShines granted NBS access to many tools that allowed for targeted communication, automation of campaigns, and real-time data analysis.

Principal Features Utilized by NBS:

🔵 Custom Bulk Mail

NBS could develop different email templates for different alumni groups based on graduation year, current occupation, interests, and geography. This allowed alumni to be addressed with communications that could conceivably reflect their own experiences and expectations.

🔵 Automated Campaigns

Instead of follow-up by hand and sporadic communication, NBS used automation workflows for:

• Birthday greetings

• Event invitations

• Newsletter announcements

• Feedback. questionnaires.

These automated messages were delivered at the best times, enabling timely and regular interaction.

🔵 Advanced Segmentation

AlmaShines allowed NBS to segment their alumni database effectively. For example, a Mumbai event would be selectively promoted to Mumbai alumni and entrepreneurship content selectively promoted to startup founders and business owners. Communications were therefore optimized and maximized.

🔵 Real-Time Analytics and Optimization

With AlmaShines’ dashboard, the NBS team could monitor click rates, open rates, bounce rates, and user engagement in real-time. This facilitated the institution to test subject lines, content, and send times — maximizing campaigns for greater engagement.

Milestones & Results:

The change in alumni engagement was not only palpable but also measurable. With the implementation of AlmaShives came several important achievements:

📈 Achieved a 50% Click Rate

Emails delivered via AlmaShines registered an open rate of more than 50%, a significantly higher rate than 16 times the education industry standard benchmark (2.26%–3.00%).

These rates of such high click-through are evidence that graduates found the information to be valuable and important enough to take action on — whether that involved registering for an event, opening an e-newsletter, or giving feedback.

Industry Benchmark Comparison

Increased Alumni Engagement

NBS saw alumni activity spike:

• More enrollment for webinars, guest lectures, and mentorship programs

• Greater response to questionnaires and feedback surveys

• Greater visibility and alumni posting of institutional announcements

Greater Communication Effectiveness

There was manual campaign setup and tracking before AlmaShines. Automation and segmentation enhanced communication efficiency:

• Less human error

• Faster campaign execution

• Minimize workload for the alumni office

Main Points for Other Institutions:

• Segmentation matters. Segmenting messages to alumni segments increases response and relevance.

• Automation avoids time-wasting and promotes communication consistency.

• Analysis of data should lead strategy, not speculation.

• Emotional engagement, combined with technology, creates deep engagement .

Conclusion:

Narayana Business School’s use of AlmaShines is evidence of the digital transformation power in engaging alumni. With leverage on the power of strong segmentation, personalization, and automation, NBS transformed a failed email campaign into a best-practice approach to engagement.

This case study is evidence of the strength of the ability of data-driven technology and segmented messaging to not only drive metrics like click-through rate and open rate but also drive emotional resonance, loyalty, and long-term equity from an alumni community.

Narayana Business School has now set a new benchmark in alumni engagement and has become a digitally matured and relationship-centric school.