Mass E-mail and Effective Electronic Communication

Contents

• Introduction
• 1. Using Existing Communication Channels
• 2. E-mail Best Practices
• 2.1. Effective Communication
• 2.2. E-mail Etiquette
• 2.3. Minimizing the Load on the Network and Servers
• 3. Mass E-mail Policies and Procedures
• 3.1. Approval
• 3.2. Procedures
• 3.3. Supported E-mail Clients
• 3.3.1. Eudora
• 3.3.2. Outlook
• 3.4. Mass E-mail Checklist

Introduction

Electronic communications (including e-mail, websites, listservs, and voice mail) are used extensively at Iowa State University. In particular, e-mail is a powerful electronic communication tool when it is used effectively. Recognizing that, the university seeks to enable the distribution of e-mail across campus as efficiently as possible and to have e-mail be beneficial rather than disruptive to people in their work.

Because of the high volume of e-mail as well as our dependence on its reliable delivery, it is important that we observe best practices to ensure effective use of e-mail on campus in a manner that benefits all of the Iowa State University community, from both the technical and personal aspects.

When e-mail is used for large-scale distribution it has the potential to disrupt normal operations by overloading the network, decreasing the efficiency of the mail servers, or disrupting routine network traffic. Following guidelines for large-scale or mass e-mail can help smooth out e-mail traffic so it continues to flow smoothly for everyone.

The first section of this document notes existing electronic communication channels that should be used when appropriate. The second section notes best practices for e-mail. The third section covers policies and procedures for large-scale mailing. We encourage the inclusion of the best practices noted here in departmental and college guidelines.

Objectives:

• Ensure University resources are used effectively.
• Preserve e-mail as an effective communication tool.
• Maintain accessibility to network by all users.

1. Using Existing Communication Channels

The most effective communication method is often one that uses an existing communication channel. Presenting your news or information in a publication that your target audience is already reading can increase the probability of your item being read. Combining smaller items of interest together can yield greater effect to the overall communication. A key point is that the news or announcement must be relevant to the publication and, thus, to the audience.

To assist with effective communication to the university community, Iowa State University has many existing electronic communications or publications that are published or updated regularly. When you want to disseminate an announcement to the university community, you should use one of these methods if it is appropriate to the publication rather than doing your own mass e-mail.

All faculty and staff receive Inside Update, a weekly e-mail update of university news and announcements that supplements the faculty/staff newspaper. Inside Update is sent on Wednesday evenings for arrival by Thursday morning. Departments are encouraged to submit short one-paragraph announcements that are of general interest to faculty and staff. To refer readers to additional information, include a Webpage address. Send submissions to

News and announcements for faculty and staff that are of more specific interest than that included in Inside Update are posted online in Faculty/Staff Announcements. Send submissions to

News and announcements specific to students are posted online in Student Announcements. Send submissions to

Both the faculty/staff and student announcements sites are linked from Iowa State's News Service. The News Service site carries news and features of interest to general audiences, including not only the campus community, but alumni, students, prospective students and their parents, Iowans, and others with an interest in Iowa State University.

2. E-Mail Best Practices

2.1. Effective Communication

E-mail is a quick and easy way to send a message but that doesn't ensure it's the most effective method for communication. If you send a short e-mail to 400 people, it may take only one minute of your time. On the receiving end, however, that same e-mail can take 400 minutes of time to read. Consider the following points to help determine if using e-mail to convey your message is the best choice for effective communication.

• Appropriate method. E-mail is not always the appropriate or best method to disseminate information to your intended audience, especially if you're not able to target a specific audience. For some announcements, other methods (newsletters, online postings, etc.) may be more effective in reaching the audience.
• Content of mailing. When mailing to a diverse group of individuals, it is likely that some recipients don't need or want the mailing. Complaints from a large number of individuals can temporarily load down the e-mail system and/or your e-mail inbox.
• Perceived importance to recipient. If the recipient does not care to get unsolicited communications of the type you are sending, it may persuade them to ignore future communications from you or others.
• Segment intended audience. Targeting a pre-defined or specific group will yield better results than if you send an e-mail to a non-specific or generic audience.
• Repeated or frequent contacts. If you will be making repeated contacts, it is more effective to only contact those people who have opted to receive those notifications rather than blanketing a group of whom only some are interested. Also, you should offer individuals the ability to easily opt out of the mailing when it is no longer of interest to them.
• Relevant to University business. Is the e-mail relevant to the University's core missions, or is it important in protecting physical, financial, or human assets? If not, distributing a mailing to a university e-mail list may not be appropriate.

2.2. E-Mail Etiquette

• Use the blind carbon copy field for addressing when the list of recipient addresses is lengthy. If you use the blind carbon copy field for the recipient list, the names and addresses of all the recipients won't appear in the received e-mail. When the recipient list is lengthy, your intended reader might not scroll through the long list of names to get to the message. Also, sometimes, it is best not to reveal the identity of the recipients to each other (e.g., when the nature of the e-mail may be sensitive or personal).
• When it is important for those receiving the e-mail to know who else is receiving that e-mail, enter the recipient addresses into the "To" and/or "Cc" fields. Otherwise, enter the recipient list into the "Bcc" field.

2.3. Minimizing the Load on the Network and Servers

Mailings that have a small distribution list usually don't have a noticeable impact on network traffic, although best practices should still be observed. Mailings that have a large distribution list (more than 1,000 addresses) can have a significant impact on the network traffic. Following the guidelines below will help minimize the impact on the network. Information on large-scale electronic mailings is also contained in the following section of this document. If you have questions or need additional information on doing a large-scale electronic mailing, contact the Solution Center at

• E-mail messages should be short since each copy of e-mail takes up disk space until read. Long documents should not be included in a mass e-mailing. Reference longer documents by using URL pointers to Web pages.
• Sending a large mailing during off-hours is highly recommended since these kinds of mailings impose a heavy load on the mail system. "Off-hours" is defined as midnight to 8:00 a.m. on weekdays; all day Saturday; and midnight to noon on Sunday. Avoid doing a large mailing (more than 1.000 addresses) during the normal 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. business day.
• Break a large mailing into smaller chunks (100-250 addresses each) if mass e-mail is determined as a suitable method to reach the audience. This helps to spread out the load on the network. IT Services maintains a utility for doing this automatically with big mailings.
• Setting up the addresses correctly is extremely important. For large mailings, don't put a list name or list of addresses in the To: field. Instead, you should put your own e-mail address in the To: and From: fields and place the list name or list of e-mail addresses in the Bcc: field. Using this method keeps the list of recipients from being displayed with the e-mail and keeps anyone replying to the e-mail from sending his or her response to the entire list, creating more traffic than was originally intended.

3. Mass E-mail Policies and Procedures

3.1. Approval

All electronic communications are expected to comply with relevant federal and state laws, as well as University regulations and policies, including those governing public computing resources, security considerations, and ethics in computing.

Permission to mail to a group is not needed if you are the authorized agent for the group or are conducting normal University business (e.g., reminders to Library patrons about book due dates). The role of approval is delegated to specific governing groups (e.g., P&S Council may mail to P&S staff; Faculty Senate may mail to faculty). Before using a list that someone else owns, you must ask permission to use it. Access to a list does not necessarily imply permission to use.

If you wish to do a large mailing to a group and are from outside of the unit, area, or division, you must get approval from the office authorized to give permission to mail to that audience (see the table below). Exceptions or requests that fall outside the scope of this table will be handled on a case-by-case basis. Direct your request to the head of the division or unit for the intended audience.

3.2. Procedures

• After obtaining approval to do a mass mailing, obtain authorization to use the appropriate mailing list. All list owners are encouraged to consider the benefits of moderating or otherwise controlling access to large lists. This applies whether a list has been created for one-time use or is maintained as a standing list, whether compiled manually or from the central database, and whether membership is involuntary or by subscription. Authorization to use a mailing list is given by the list owner or the person/office empowered to give such permission.
• If a list needs to be extracted from an IT Services database, the person authorizing the use of the list must send approval to the appropriate IT Services analyst, who will process the actual request for list extraction.
• Using a utility to assist with a large mailing can be useful in spreading out the load on the resources. IT Services has a script called "bigmail" for such a use. There also are instructions for using bigmail. The bigmail script runs on Unix systems but Macintosh/Windows users can telnet to a suitable machine and run the script. The script takes a flat file of e-mail addresses (one address per line) and sends out the same text message to each e-mail address in that file. Bigmail mails in units of 100 every 2 minutes (for example, mailing 1,000 messages would take a minimum of 20 minutes).
• In some situations (e.g., administrative uses) there may be some charges by IT Services for list extraction and processing. After obtaining approval to use a list, the requestor should send e-mail to solution@iastate.edu to initiate the process; include "Text for mass mailing" in the subject line.
• Remember that while e-mail is a good mechanism for short-term communication, it is not instantaneous when one is mailing to a large group. It can take several hours to send a message to a large group and up to 15 hours to send a message to all of the campus community.
• To discuss further options and procedures, contact the Solution Center at or 515-294-4000.

3.3. Supported E-mail Clients

3.3.1. Eudora

• Click on New Message.
• Enter your e-mail address in the To: field (or that of the person who should receive the replies).
• Enter a descriptive subject in the Subject: area.
• Enter the recipient e-mail addresses in the Bcc: area, separating each with a comma.
• Type in the message.
• Click on Send, as usual. The receivers will not see who else the message was sent to.

3.3.2. Outlook

• Create a new message.
• Click on the View Menu.
• Click on the BCC Field Option.
• A box with the button BCC will come up in the header area. Enter the recipient e-mail addresses, separating each with a semicolon.
• Type your message.
• When finished typing the message, send the message as usual. The receivers will not see who else the message was sent to.

3.4. Mass E-mail Checklist

Before you send a large-scale mailing, you should ensure you can answer "yes" to each of the following questions:

• Is e-mail the best or appropriate method to get information to your intended audience?
• Have you clearly identified the intended audience and the appropriate mailing list to use to reach them?
• Is the message relevant to the university's core missions?
• Have you included in the content of the message:
• A "From:" address where replies will be received
• The office, organization, or individual sending the message
• Contact information if there is a question, comment, or complaint about the message
• An explanation of why the recipient is receiving the message
• Required information presented succinctly
• Pointers to Website or elsewhere for additional information, if applicable
• An approval notice
• Have you included only plain text in the message body (and no attachments)?
• Do you have authorization to use the mailing list?
• If your mailing will go to more than 1,000 recipients, do you have approval to do a mass mailing to your intended audience?
• If your mailing will go to more than 1,000 recipients, are you using a mailing method to minimize the load on the network?

Copyright © 1995-2008, Iowa State University of Science and Technology. All rights reserved.

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