Mass E-mail User Group

July 18, 2008

Today’s Agenda I• Quickly

– Privacy policy– Central e-mail opt-out system– Solicitations & surveys– Large numbers

• Jennifer Herold/CCE Marketing

Today’s Agenda II• Brown bag lunches• Lyris’ spam analysis checker• Words and punctuation to avoid• Process documentation• Safe senders/junk mail/address books• UMConnect support• Future topics & presenters• Lyris questions/demos?

Quickly I• Privacy statement review• Continuing to meet on central e-mail opt-out• Solicitations

– All must be pre-approved by the University of Minnesota Foundation (UMF) or the Minnesota Medical Foundation (MMF)

Quickly II• Surveys

– If to alums or donors, UMF or MMF must approve

– If you think your audience is mostly alums or donors, UMF/MMF, they might already have answers to your questions

– Lyris survey tool issues– Get experienced help in constructing any survey

Quickly III• Huge numbers

– 12.5M messages since 8/24/2007– 3,510 total mailings– 328 days considered– 38K messages/day (not business days)

Jennifer Herold/CCE• One of, if not the, largest marketing operation

using mass e-mail at the U

Brown bag lunches• Beginning in August• UR will come to a college or unit and present

to communicators and tech staff on mass e-mail at the U

• Do’s, don’ts, best practices• Drop us a line

Lyris’ spam analysis checker• It’s an old version of SpamAssassin• It’s not perfect but, it will catch really

egregious problems, and some more minor ones that add up

• Run the check when testing a mailing • It’s not a substitute for good, considered e-

mail writing, only a check• Quick demo

Words and punctuation to avoid• Came up a bit in how to write effective

subject lines• Spam filters are picky• A single word might not set anything off, but

a phrase, combination of ‘bad’ words, or excessive repetition might

• “Free, exclusive, discount means savings!!!”• Who is editing your e-mail?

Process documentation• Brief as an example• See the eComm site for more (coming soon)• If you can’t define a process for your e-mail,

the risk of error increases• Write up a process and stick to the steps• “It needs to go out NOW” mailings need a

process, too

Safe senders• Web pages slated to appear with instructions

for various clients• Instructions geared to adding umn.edu to

safe senders/address book/junk mail filter, not specific addresses

• Standard language will be provided and included in the e-mail templates, in the footer

• http://www.e-consultancy.com/account/safesender.asp

UMConnect support• We’d like to record meetings• Audio should be done in UMConnect instead

of phone• If anyone can help in supporting UMConnect

during a meeting, let us know

Future topics• UMF presenting at the next meeting• Other groups willing to share?• Forward to a friend• Mass e-mail in communications plans• Mass e-mail in job descriptions• Best practices

Discussion and Q&A• General mass e-mail • Lyris-specific

Next meeting

Friday, August 152:00-3:30 p.m.Still in 238A?

Bring a friend, enjoy a treat