Mass mailing procedure

A proper mass mailing procedure is necessary to make sure the message is clear and reaches its target audiences, to avoid errors, misunderstandings, complaints, and GDPR or other legal issues.

Keep in mind: every communication is an opportunity to get trust from your audience. Trust Arrives on Foot and Leaves on Horseback...

General procedure

• Prepare the content of the message (please take multiple days, invite others to write and verify, use a Google Doc to prepare)
• Determine the target audience
• Choose the format and channel(s)
• Choose a proper structure
• Choose a good timing (closely related to the subject; not just before, during, or after holiday periods; not at busy moments)
• Do send the message timely (depending on the subject or activity)

Quality check

• Completeness of the message
• Right sequence of statements
• Did you cover all possibilities?
• No conflicting statements?
• Clear message?
• Keep it easy, don't use uncommon or difficult words (not everyone uses a native language)
• Correct, no errors, no confusion, trust (content, language, typing errors)
  • No privacy issues
  • Did you target correctly by language? (user likes to be addressed in their mother tongue)
  • Don't be technical
  • Verify all (language dependent) URLs
• Consistent layout
  • identity and style
  • section headers
  • paragraphs
  • did you include an image or a logo?
• Select the right audience
  • You might need to filter/remove geographic-top domains for specific Belgian subjects (e.g. tax exemption)?
  • Possibly apply other filters (make sure you reach the correct target audience, and don't rely on "collateral damage" spam, confusing, or unnecessary messages)

Format

Sender

Preferably from: infowikimedia.be. Put everyone in BCC (privacy; extremely important!).

Header

• Use a clear title.
• Include a link to the message on the web site, in case the text form the email is illegible.

Content

Pay attention to language-sensitive URLs (suffixes, translation).

Body

Use UTF-8 HTML encoding (properly handle accents).

When using a two-column table, make sure the columns are equally long, and aligned top. Preferably use dynamic CSS that is able to handle wide screens and smartphones.

Footer

• Proper signature
• Proper identification of Wikimedia Belgium NPO. There are strict legal requirements. Use a logo if possible or convenient. Make sure standard e-mail footers are activated (from the e-mail server).
• Include a message like:

The Wikimedia logos are the property of the Wikimedia Foundation. You are receiving this message because you have indicated that you would like to be kept informed about our activities. Please reply if you do not wish to receive further messages.

You could better send it as priority:low.

Distribution list

• Are you sure you can use the distribution list?
• Did you take the latest version?
• Did you systematically unsubscribe refused addresses?
• Can you possibly target the message by community? (split the body text in variants)
• Split by language
• Sort for easy handling of reply mail (duplicates, removal or updating of addresses)
  • You might later resend and adapted message with a subset of the recipients (reminder, ...)
  • Do not send reminder messages to people that already reacted
  • Send a reminder to participants of the activity shortly before the event starts

Technical pitfalls

• You can copy/paste from the web page (newsletter)
  • Start with an empty email (do not reuse a previous message)
• With Google Suite you can only send an e-mail to a maximum of 500 recipients
  • Split your distribution list if needed (use the option "Resend this message" for subsequent messages)
• Pay attention to accents (use UTF-8 encoding)
• Be careful to have a proper HTML encoding and layout

Final check

• Is it the right from address (info@ or other)?
• Everyone in BCC (privacy)?
• No more than 500 recipients?
• Title?
• Signature?
• No other possible errors?

Follow-up

• Addresses being served via a server will instantly reply "out of office" messages
• Addresses served via IMAP will only return "out of office" messages when the user connects to the server
• People might have questions, or remarks about the message
• Remove or correct failing addresses (user, domain, spam, mailbox full)
• People might opt-out (this is not possible for member-related messages because we have the legal obligation to communicate to all our members for statutory reasons).
• Users may always unsubscribe from the newsletter
• Add new users

See also

• Public relations
• Communications plan
• Marketing communication