Best Practices - Bulk Email Service

The current recommendation for "bulk" or "mass" email delivery services that include external recipients is Mailchimp. If you need to use a different platform, the general principles below still apply.

Setup

Mailchimp:

• Ask the Communications web team (websupport@haverford.edu) to set up your initial account, making sure that you have budget money available for the monthly fees.

• Review all of Mailchimp’s help documents regarding email marketing: https://mailchimp.com/resources/email/

Non-Mailchimp:

• Open a ticket with your service provider and the IITS Service Desk to ensure the necessary steps have been completed to allow messages to come from "haverford.edu". Failure to do so will result in messages not being delivered.

All:

• Required: Have a sign-up form integrated into your website. websupport@haverford.edu can assist with form creation.

• Remember: you may not add people to your audience list who have not agreed to be messaged by you, and your platform must allow them to opt out of receiving your messages at any time with one click.

• Each user accessing the email service needs their own login, tied to their Haverford email address. Do not share account logins with others, including student workers. 

Content

Before you start creating content from scratch, think about what you already have from a previous “news” or a “social media” post. Your content should be clear and concise. Most people are bombarded with emails every day, so keep yours to the point to make it easy for your subscribers to scan them quickly if they need to.

• Use chunks of content to help users find information

• Use headers for important information and group content with them that is logical

• Use buttons for “calls to action”. 

• If you are sending information regarding events, make sure the dates and days match, times are accurate (a.m. and p.m. along with timezone), and location is clearly stated. 

• Include links for more information. All the information does not need to be included in a mass email. VERIFY your links before sending the email. Ask someone else to verify all your links.

Images within emails can add user engagement but should not be the sole source of information. Tips for using images in email campaigns:

• Do not utilize images as content. An image or graphic with text is not accessible and cannot be interacted with by everyone.

• If you are including images or graphics that contain text, write plain text copy written to place below the image

• Resize your images before uploading them. All images should be optimized.

  • Use jpg file types, not png (unless transparency is necessary like a logo)

  • Images should be no more than 1200 pixels on any axis (height or width)

  • Image files should be no larger than 100 KB

• Prepare the alt text that describes your images