|
|
Talkin' Tech: Best
Practices for Mass Email |
Talkin' Tech page provides
guidelines for:
Planning your Email
Make Sure your Message is
Heard
Anti-Spamming Legislation
Requirements
Does your department send
email to groups of students or other persons? It is critical
that you follow best practices when sending email to large groups,
so that:
- Your emails reach the
correct people
- Your email is not
identified as spam
- Your actions are not
violating current SPAM legislation
- You avoid putting an
extreme burden on the CCAC mail servers
- Undeliverable mail is
kept to a minimum
Use the instructions
and links found on this page to improve your methods and techniques
for emailing large groups. (Our recommended method is to
EMAIL MERGE, which personalizes your
email.)
Click on any word in
red
to
see more information on that topic!
|
Planning your Email
Plan what you wish to say, and
identify the audience to which you will
be sending your message.
|
Internal
CCAC
Employees
|
Outlook
Exchange
Global
Lists
offer
the
ability
to send
to CCAC
Admin,
Faculty
, Staff
by
location
or
across
the
College
Use this
method
ONLY
when
necessary.
Use the
CCAC
Bulletin
Board
whenever
possible,
rather
than
broadcast
emails
to all
users.
If you
must
broadcast
an email
to a
large
user
community,
keep you
message
simple.
REFRAIN
from
using
large
attachments,
which
bog down
the
email
system.
Post
your
content
to the
CMS
system,
where
appropriate,
and
include
a link
in the
message
to the
webpage.
You may
use Word
to
compose
an
attractive
document,
and use
the
File/Send
to
Recipient
menu
option
so that
employees
can view
all the
attractive
formatting.
Links to
web
pages
actually
work
better
when
send via
Word,
instead
of
Outlook.
When
sending
within
the
Microsoft
Exchange
system,
all
formatting
is
preserved
When
sending
the
email,
include
the
Group
Name
(CCAC
Staff)
in the
bcc:
field,
and send
to
yourself
in the
To:
field.
This
eliminates
the
further
broadcasting
of
replies
if the
recipient
inadvertently
selects
"Reply
to All".
Do
NOT
use the
Read-Receipt
option
for mass
email;
this
generates
excessive
traffic
on the
network
Be
specific
in your
subject.
Remember
that
many
adjunct
and
part-time
employees
may not
recognize
your
name or
our
common
acronyms.
Your
subject
should
clearly
describe
what
your
message
will be,
so that
they are
more
likely
to open
it.
|
|
Students,
Applicants,
Prospects,
Former
Students,
Alumni |
Your
list
should
be
extracted
from the
Datatel
database.
If you
are
requesting
downloads
through
the ITS
Operations
Center,
be sure
to
mention
if you
will be
sending
email
with the
list.
The most
efficient
method
for
sending
email to
these
groups
is to
use the
Email
Merge
process.
Click
here for
a
demonstration
of the
steps
for
EMAIL
MERGE.
These
emails
will be
sent to
recipients
OUTSIDE
our
Outlook
Exchange
System.
For this
reason,
many
recipients
may not
have
email
programs
that
support
html
formats.
Do
NOT
use
tables
and
special
formatting
in Word
that
will not
be
translated
to
non-html
formats.
See
below.
|
|
Faculty
|
If you
send to
CCAC
Faculty
in our
Outlook
Exchange
global
lists,
you will
miss
many
adjunct
faculty
members.
To
ensure
that
your
message
is
received
by all
faculty
with an
email
address,
it is
recommended
that you
download
faculty
lists
with
emails
from the
Datatel
database.
Follow
the
other
guidelines
listed
above
under
Students
|
ITS Staff
can prepare your mailing list for you.
See the
Colleague: Job
Requests web page
for procedures and an email template for
submitting your request.
|
Make Sure your
Message
is Heard
Check your list
BEFORE you send via the
Email Merge. Below see a sample of
an excel spreadsheet that was downloaded
from Datatel. It is important that
you manage this list BEFORE
you perform the mail merge.
1.Remove or fix
obvious bad addresses
(see
yellow cells above).
REMEMBER to go to the
person's record in Datatel and
REMOVE or FIX
the email address on the NAE screen.
2.Address
students'/ applicants' preference for
correspondence. Queries should include
the Mail Preference
(shown in
BLUE above).
If there preference is PS (Postal Mail)
or if they have no email address, you
will need to send via Postal Mail
3.Do NOT
send to anyone who has asked to
unsubscribe from mailings. Their
Mail Code will appear as NM No Mail
(see GREEN cells above).
You should always EXCLUDE these records
from your queries. (If you have
requested lists from the ITS Ops Center,
they will exclude these records whenever
you specify that the list will be used
for mailings (postal or email).
4.Provide the full address (http://www.ccac.edu) of any
website that you want viewed via email. If the
non-Exchange recipient is not using an HTML email editor,
they may not be able to view or access the website address.
5.Do not attach files to emails that are being sent to an
non-Exchange recipient. Attachments may force a user
of a proprietary email service provider over the provider's
email quota limit; therefore, the email will not reach the
intended recipient.
6. Post
additional content information to a
website.
Important:
the CMS system should only be used for documents that are
appropriate for viewing by audiences outside the college.
Avoid uploading large documents to the CMS; convert toPDF
whenever possible.
If you have files that you
want an non-Exchange recipient to see, post them on your
department's
CMS website
in a PDF format which requires full version of
Adobe at additional cost. However, you may use a
free
Electronic Document Converter,
but it may not
be as user friendly. Keep in mind PDF is the
desired file format because Adobe Reader is a free
download (and generally comes installed on most
computers); therefore, you will not have to worry about
what word processing software a student has on their
home computer.
7.Again, keep any
non-Exchange emails simple.
Keep colors and font styles to a minimum
and do not use table or pictures.
Remember that plain simple text can
still deliver a powerful message and
will reach all or the majority of your
intended recipients |
Click Below to See How a HTML edited CCAC
Exchange Email appears to an non-Exchange Recipient:
Also, you may
want to consult these best practices
from these proprietary email service
providers:
Anti-Spamming
Legislation Requirements
Due to recent
Anti-Spam Legislation, you must be aware
of the following requirements and
guidelines:
We must provide a
disclaimer which states how we received
their information, as well as an option
for them to UNSUBSCRIBE
from the list. Please use
the following disclaimer on broadcast
email messages that are sent to an
external audience:
If a person asks to be
unsubscribed, your
office must perform the
following:
-
In Datatel, go to NAE,
enter NM (No Mail) in
the Mail Codes field.
(All queries run from
Datatel should be
designed to exclude all
person records with the
NM field in the Mail
Codes field).
If you don't have access
to NAE, contact
Enrollment
Services
via email.
Specify your Subject
clearly, so that recipients quickly
recognize who the message is coming
from.
Subject:
CCAC Enrollment Services Grades
Available on CCAC Central
More
Information on Anti-Spamming
Legislation:
The CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for
Business
Email Marketers Must Honor "Unsubscribe"
Claims
|
|
|
|
|
|
