Email best practices and communication guide
1. Personalization and audience engagement
- Personalize content. Use recipient names where possible. Personalized mailings yield higher open rates and higher click rates.
- Sender profiles. Use recognizable, human sender names with short titles (e.g., "Chief Safety Officer Steve Patterson") rather than generic office names to build trust.
- Replies. Route replies to a live, monitored inbox (or shared inbox) with a clear reply name.
- Social sharing. Include social sharing buttons to boost click-through rates by up to 158%.
2. Copywriting and content structure
- Keep it brief. Aim for 50 to 125 words per message. If the copy is too long, move details to a website and link to them with a short summary.
- Readability level. Write at a high school senior reading level using clear, simple language (e.g., use "do not need to" instead of "exempted").
- Active voice. Use active voice to compel action (e.g., "If your advisor contacts you" instead of "If you are contacted by your advisor").
- Translate jargon. Convert internal terms to plain language (e.g., "does not count for credit" instead of "non-credit bearing").
- Scannability. Use white space, bullet points, and headings to break up long text. Reserve underlines for active hyperlinks only.
- Emojis. Use sparingly and only for informal, internal communications. Always test across multiple email clients before sending.
3. Subject lines and preheaders
- Subject line length. Keep subject lines between 30 and 50 characters (written in Headline Case). Mobile screens cut off text after 25–30 characters.
- Include action. Place the call to action or primary topic in the subject line to convey urgency and set clear expectations.
- Preheader text. Keep preheader/preview text under 100 characters (sentence case) to add key context before the email is opened.
4. Calls to action (CTAs) and link formatting
- Limit to one primary CTA. Clicks increase by 42% when reducing CTAs from four to one. Introduce and place the CTA early in the email.
- Make it stand out. Use bold text, contrasting colors, or buttons to offset the CTA. Use action-oriented verbs ("Register," "Sign up," "Schedule").
- Accessible link text. Avoid generic text like "click here" or "learn more." Highlight specific descriptive phrases (e.g., "register for the workshop").
- Click targets and spacing. Ensure buttons and links are large enough for mobile touch screens and appropriately spaced within paragraphs.
5. Send classification: commercial vs. transactional
| Attribute | Commercial emails | Transactional emails |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | "Nice-to-have" communications (newsletters, invitations, marketing, solicitations). | Essential operations, policy, leadership, or emergency updates. |
| Audience | Internal and external contacts. | Internal audiences only. |
| Unsubscribe | Required: Must include standard footer unsubscribe and subscription options. | No Unsubscribe: Must reach all intended recipients without opt-out links. |
| Compliance | Requires physical mailing address for CAN-SPAM compliance. | Sent strictly on a need-to-know basis. |
6. Testing, timing and quality control
- Timing. Send emails first thing in the morning for peak engagement.
- Consistency. Maintain a predictable sending schedule (same day and time) to build reader habits.
- Test thoroughly. Always send a test email to yourself and across different devices/clients. Over 70% of users immediately delete poorly rendered emails.
- View online links. Include a "View as a webpage" link at the top of mass communications
- Approvals and awareness. Establish unit-level approval workflows. Coordinate large-constituency sends with Marketing and Communications.