Mass User Group July 18, 2008

Today’s Agenda I Quickly –Privacy policy –Central 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 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 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 ?

Process documentation Brief as an example See the eComm site for more (coming soon) If you can’t define a process for your , 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 templates, in the footer consultancy.com/account/safesender.asphttp:// 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 in communications plans Mass in job descriptions Best practices

Discussion and Q&A General mass Lyris-specific

Next meeting Friday, August 15 2:00-3:30 p.m. Still in 238A? Bring a friend, enjoy a treat