Auto Email Guidelines

This documentation shares guidelines for written aspects of automated emails, including tone, style, consistency and accessibility. It does not cover visual design considerations but will direct you to the appropriate resources.

Refer to this documentation when creating new and revising old automated email messages sent by services you manage.

Email Structure: Crafting your Email

Subject Line

Your subject line should be succinct and get the reader’s attention. If they must do something after reading this email, let them know there will be a call to action.

For example, instead of using this…

Try something more direct like this…

If no action is required and your email is just informational, do not draw attention in this manner. Creating urgency when none is required will make readers less likely to pay attention to these types of emails.

This email is informational for most of its readers, so the subject line is misleading:

In this case, either the audience should be adjusted to only those who do need to take action, or the subject line should be adjusted to remove urgency.

Greeting

When available, populate the reader’s first name. If first names are not available, you could address your audience as users of a particular service or as members of a designated group, so they are aware of why they are receiving the message.

Using a casual and polite greeting like “Hello,” can be beneficial, or it could look like a phishing attempt. Work with your Comm Rep to determine cases when a casual greeting could be used.

For example:

The first sentence after your greeting may require you to let the reader know why they are receiving the message. Work with your Comm Rep to determine if this will be necessary for the specific message.

Body

The body of your email should be factual and direct. Refrain from using jargon to keep your message clear (unless the audience is a small, technical group who would understand the jargon). You should also refer to your service using the external name that the audience would understand. (For example, use CarmenZoom instead of Academic Web Conferencing.) A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself, “If my parents were reading this, would they understand what’s happening and what they need to do?”

Introduction

If your email message will express a call to action (CTA) that the reader MUST do, be sure to mention that CTA early on. Assume your reader will only read the introduction—while you have their attention, relay all necessary details.

Keep your CTA focused on the activity the user must complete. For example, if you need users to visit a website and verify information, focus on the task: verifying the information. In particular, do not list a link and instruct users to log in early on in your email. This is a common phishing tactic. If clicking a link and logging in is a necessary step in the process, list that link further down in the body of the email.

Supporting Information

In the main body of the email, you can include other important details that the reader must know. In many cases, this could include auto-populated fields. Be sure to include context with these fields so the reader knows what they should be doing with the given information. If the reader does not need to know the information or cannot act on it, don’t include it. Even a simple statement before populated fields can make all the difference:

More detailed information or additional resources can be linked instead of including them in-line. Learn more about links in the Accessibility section.

You can also include reasons why this change is happening or the action must be taken. For most automated emails, the “reasons why” will be a lower priority than the “what I must do” portion included in the introduction.
 

Conclusion

The conclusion of your email should reiterate the CTA and provide a way for readers to get help or ask questions.

An example of a concluding sentence: If you have questions or need further assistance, contact the Service Desk at 614-688-4357 (HELP) or visit go.osu.edu.

Signature

The majority of emails sent automatically by our systems will be coming from the Service Desk, using the ServiceDesk@osu.edu email address. Anything coming from this email address should have the same signature block for consistency and legitimacy. If your service allows, The Ohio State University horizontal logo (with alt=”The Ohio State University”) can be used in place of the first line:

If your automated email will be sent to a smaller, targeted audience, it may also be coming from a different email address. In this case, your signature block must match that email. The order of information and style should remain the same, but the service, team or group can be substituted:

The link for support may not always be the Service Desk. For example, the Teaching and Learning Resource Center could be used if that is a more appropriate source for support.

Do not include social media links in the signature block, as this implies the information in the email can also be found on our social channels. In a formatted footer, social icons may be included, but they should be tailored to the specific audience.

Reminder: Even if your emailing system allows you to type in a “from” name that could differ from the “from” email address, Outlook will still display whatever name is attached to the email address.

This is just something to be aware of while you are creating consistent signature blocks that match your “from” mailing address.

General Guidelines: Style, Accessibility and Security

Editorial Style

The university has chosen to follow AP Style for written communications. To stay consistent with other messaging across the university, any emails sent on behalf of our organization must adhere to these style rules. You can visit Ohio State’s custom AP Stylebook online when on campus. When working remotely, please contact your Comm Rep with AP Style questions.

A few common style mistakes to avoid include:

• OSU: You should never refer to The Ohio State University as OSU. We are not Oregon State University. There are very few exceptions and these are related to character limits. For written email messages, always write out Ohio State.
• Dates and times: AP Style does not use –th or –st endings on dates. To avoid confusion, AP Style instructs 12 a.m. and p.m. to be written as midnight and noon. Also, when writing times referring to the Eastern time zone, do not include EST or EDT.
  • Join us on Friday, May 29, from noon to 2 p.m. for a happy hour! Do not show up on May 29th from 12-2 p.m. EDT or you will be out of style.
• Ampersands: A custom style choice made by Ohio State is to avoid ampersands unless it is part of a previously established official title, such as the Kuhn Honors & Scholars House. The custom stylebook’s only other exception is when trying to save characters on Twitter.
• Main campus: Do not use “main campus” to refer to the Columbus campus.

Accessibility

All automated emails should be accessible, whether they are formatted or plain text. When you utilize your Comm Rep and the Design Team, accessibility is always a top priority. When crafting a message on your own, you should consider the following:

• Clear and concise: If your writing is concise and simple, a larger audience will be able to consume it. It will help people with cognitive disabilities, people who aren’t native speakers, and users of mobile devices. As mentioned in the email structure section, put your main points up front and avoid jargon.
• Headings: Never use headings for styling purposes. If your email requires headings to break up topics, be sure they are nested appropriately, and never skip a heading level.
• All caps: Avoid using all capital letters for style or emphasis on words that are not acronyms as this can be difficult for many people to read and may be read as individual letters by screen readers. All caps should be reserved for acronyms or very sparingly styled through CSS (text-transform: uppercase) for single words or short phrases only.
• Links: Hyperlinked text should be descriptive enough to let the user know what content the link will load. On occasion, the web address can be spelled out if it is something that is known and understood by the particular audience (my.osu.edu, go.osu.edu/IT, etc.). When exposing the web address in the hyperlink text, be sure to remove “https://”, use CamelCase and capitalize any acronyms. Never use “click here” or “learn more” as your link text.
  • Bad example: To find out more, click here.
  • Good example: Learn more about creating accessible links.

Learn more about web content accessibility.
 

Spam and Phishing Considerations

Here are some general rules to keep your emails out of the “Report Phish” inbox:

• Review your emails for proper spelling, grammar and punctuation. This includes spaces between sentences. You should also refrain from using exclamation points.
• Keep your word choice conversational. Spammers often use translation software to send their messages in a variety of languages, which often leads to awkward phrasing. You can add legitimacy and the human element by keeping your tone natural and by using words you would use in person when speaking.
• Follow the formatting guidelines. Your email, whether fully formatted or plain text, should look like it is coming from The Ohio State University. Many legitimate emails get reported to Report Phish because the “look” is off.

MarComm Review

A&P Marketing and Communications and OTDI Web & Design reps are here to make you and your services look good, and we are happy to consult with you to clean up existing emails and start fresh with new auto-generated emails.

You must reach out to your Comm Rep any time your email system goes through a large change and your templates need to be refreshed. Even if there are no major changes, templates should be updated annually to accommodate changes in email systems and be sure the latest best practices for accessibility and security are taken into account.

You must contact your Comm Rep in the event that the names of our organizations change, or the contact method changes.

You should also reach out to your Comm Rep when you are aware of an upcoming message from a vendor. Even though the vendor message is out of our control, your Comm Rep can help you determine if a “heads up” message should be sent from our organizations.

A more streamlined process is under development that will incorporate email content and design review alongside regular security and accessibility audits for your service.