The email quality checklist should be followed by the email author for every email before being submitted for release.
The "Name" of an email must follow this format (see the four colored sections each separated by a single space)
Department:<SPACE>Campaign-Name<SPACE>Audience<SPACE>Date-Identifier
-
- The "Department" portion of the name allows Digital Marketing to quickly assess who is sending the email when scanning through the email drafts list, since certain departments get more quality control assistance.
- SGR: State Government Relations (readcl@jmu.edu)
- CFR: Corporate and Foundation Relations (teicheca@jmu.edu)
- DR: Donor Relations (donorrelations@jmu.edu)
- FDTN: Foundation (jmuf@jmufoundation.org)
- FE: Family Engagement (family@jmu.edu)
- MM: Madison Magazine (hefferjm@jmu.edu)
- MT: Madison Trust (brockps@jmu.edu)
- OAG: Office of Annual Giving (rischmke@jmu.edu; fraveles@jmu.edu; stoveram@jmu.edu)
- OPG: Office of Planned Giving (plannedgiving@jmu.edu)
- SG: Strategic Gifts (gilletkm@jmu.edu)
- TEST: Test (digitalmarketing@jmu.edu)
- UA: University Advancement (ford2wa@jmu.edu, brockps@jmu.edu)
- UMB: University Marketing & Branding (marketing@jmu.edu)
- VS: Valley Scholars (valleyscholars@jmu.edu)
- W4M: Women for Madison (brockps@jmu.edu)
- BIGIDEAS: Big Ideas (brockps@jmu.edu)
- CMP: Campaign (brockps@jmu.edu)
- AA: Academic Affairs (provost@jmu.edu)
- ABP: Alternative Break Program (abp@jmu.edu)
- ISNW: Institute for Stewardship of the Natural World (bodleam@jmu.edu)
- IT: Information Technology (helpdesk@jmu.edu)
- LIB: Libraries (libraries@jmu.edu)
- SA: Student Affairs (dukesweekly@jmu.edu)
- SPE: Strategic Planning & Engagement (engagement@jmu.edu)
- UCC: University Career Center (dondzimr@jmu.edu)
- Xlabs: X-Labs (ludwigpm@jmu.edu)
- CHC: Campus History Committee (shackekl@jmu.edu)
- ARB: Arboretum (mahonjs@jmu.edu)
- DEI: Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (vpdei@jmu.edu)
- ERA: Ethical Reasoning in Action (ethicalreasoning@jmu.edu)
- FA: Financial Aid (fin_aid@jmu.edu)
- FF: Furious Flower Poetry Center (furiousflower@jmu.edu)
- PCE: Professional and Continuing Education (harshrp@jmu.edu)
- PRES: President (long2pa@jmu.edu)
- REDI: Research, Economic Development and Innovation (research@jmu.edu)
- UCOMM: University Communications (vassmg@jmu.edu)
- UE: University Events (universityevents@jmu.edu)
- UREC: University Recreation (gibsonkj@jmu.edu)
- AAAD: African, African-American and Diaspora Studies Center (aaadstudies@jmu.edu)
- CAL: College of Arts and Letters (evans2re@jmu.edu)
- CE: Civic Engagement (dukesvote@jmu.edu)
- CEVC: Community Engagement & Volunteer Center (cevc@jmu.edu)
- CGE: Center for Global Engagement (kulzerzl@jmu.edu)
- CHBS: College of Health and Behavioral Studies (chbsinfo@jmu.edu)
- CISE: College of Integrated Science and Engineering (radochlm@jmu.edu)
- CISR: Center for International Stabilization and Recovery (bowersha@jmu.edu)
- CoB: College of Business (wood3cr@jmu.edu)
- COE: College of Education (coemarketing@jmu.edu)
- CSM: College of Science & Mathematics (csm@jmu.edu)
- CVPA: College of Arts and Visual Performance (stevenwr@jmu.edu)
- GCFE: Gilliam Center for Entrepreneurship (cfe@jmu.edu)
- GPSYC: Department of Graduate Psychology (szwedode@jmu.edu)
- HART: Hart School of Hospitality, Sport and Recreation Management (wood3cr@jmu.edu)
- HC: Honors College (blacksbx@jmu.edu;thoma3hn@jmu.edu;lee22jw@jmu.edu)
- IIHHS: Institute for Innovation in Health and Human Services (farrarsm@jmu.edu)
- MBC: Morrison Bruce Center (morrisonbrucecenter@jmu.edu)
- MSAT: Masters in Athletic Training (fryejl@jmu.edu)
- OPDE: Office of Professional Development and Engagement (COB) (colliesb@jmu.edu)
- PHIL: Philosophy and Religion (kirkpadx@jmu.edu)
- POLSCI: Political Science (ferraikm@jmu.edu)
- PSYC: Department of Psychology (ugpsyc@jmu.edu)
- SADAH: School of Art, Design, and Art History (jmuartsalumni@jmu.edu)
- SCOM: School of Communication Studies (scom@jmu.edu)
- SMAD: School of Media Arts and Design (smad@jmu.edu)
- SOM: School of Music (macombse@jmu.edu)
- SSLS: School of Strategic Leadership Studies (ssls@jmu.edu)
- TGS: The Graduate School (dosscd@jmu.edu)
- The "Department" portion of the name allows Digital Marketing to quickly assess who is sending the email when scanning through the email drafts list, since certain departments get more quality control assistance.
-
- The "Audience" portion of the name helps us schedule emails appropriately so that a single audience does not get bombarded by emails on a single day or hour. Valid audiences are:
- Alumni: Alumni (general)
- Corp: Corporate contacts for Corporate Relations
- Donors: Donors
- Faculty: Faculty/Staff
- Friends: Friends of JMU
- FS: Faculty/Staff, Students
- FP: Faculty/Staff, Parents
- FSP: Faculty/Staff, Students, Parents
- Lapsed: Lapsed givers
- LYBUNT: Gave last year but unfortunately not this year
- Never: Never-givers
- Non-Donors: not current fiscal year donors. That would include nevers, lapsed, SYBUNT1-4, and lybunts
- OA: "Older Alumni": Alumni who have graduated more than 10 years ago
- Parents: Parents of current students
- SP: Students, Parents
- Students: Current students
- SYBUNT: Gave some year but unfortunately not this year.
- TBD: To Be Discussed
- YA: "Younger Alumni": Alumni graduated in the last 10 years
- MIX: Any mix of the above
- The "Audience" portion of the name helps us schedule emails appropriately so that a single audience does not get bombarded by emails on a single day or hour. Valid audiences are:
-
- The "Date-Identifier" helps us to quickly determine roughly when the email was created, so we can quickly scan through lists of emails to determine which emails are old and possible to delete from drafts. It needs to be a date without spaces, however if more than one email is sent for the same campaign on the same date to the same audience, just add a numerical suffix to the end of the "Campaign" section to distinguish it from the other sends. For example (note the bolded parts):
- MT: Request-for-submittions-send1 Donors 2015-03-05
- MT: Request-for-submittions-send2 Donors 2015-03-05
- The "Date-Identifier" helps us to quickly determine roughly when the email was created, so we can quickly scan through lists of emails to determine which emails are old and possible to delete from drafts. It needs to be a date without spaces, however if more than one email is sent for the same campaign on the same date to the same audience, just add a numerical suffix to the end of the "Campaign" section to distinguish it from the other sends. For example (note the bolded parts):
- Here are examples of valid email names (note the spaces between the different colored sections):
- MT: MadisonTrust2019 Donors 2015-02-05
- UA: SocialToaster YA 2015-01-21
- OAG: EOY_giving-send2 MIX 2015-12-28
- SUBJECT LINE: Is the subject line effective? See:
- Documentation for creating effective subject lines
- How to write effective subject lines
- Infographic: How to write the perfect subject line
- Subject line examples
- 50 characters or less recommended
- If the email has a video, it his HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to have "[video]" in the subject line
- If resending an email to the same group, did you change the subject line?
- PREHEADER: Is the preheader effective?
- Effective email preheaders
- Can be fairly long... iPhone Mail shows two lines of preheader text
- CATEGORY: Is it being sent under the correct category? ("General Information" is NEVER the correct category)
- FROM FIELD: Make sure the "from" field has a "jmu.edu" address. If it’s not, it will be considered spam by some major email providers.
- "REPLY TO" FIELD: Is this a real email and not "noreply@email.imodules.com"?
- SENDER IDENTITY: Is the sender identity accurately prepopulating the footer in the preview?
- FOOTER: Did you replace the "Department email goes here" or "Department phone goes here" in the footer?
- Did the email start from an iModules template?
- Does the email use only the official JMU colors?
- Do all the hyperlinks work?
- Is the "##Webview##" token there?
- Is the "##Unsubscribe##" token there?
- Images
- Do all images have alt text and long descriptions?
- Are all images saved at 72ppi?
- Is the header text and logo approrpriate for the sender?
- If the email is from the President, it should use the university seal. All other emails should use the block JMU logo.
- The text below the logo should identify the sender or sending department.
- Are all fonts Arial?
- Is anything underlined that isn't a link?
- View the email in a browser and resize your window to be as small as a mobile browser. Does the interface respond and is it still readable?
- Does your email contain tokens such as ##First Name##? If so, are you 100% sure that every recipient has a valid value for that token? Really? Didn't think so. Don't use tokens then :) - If you MUST use tokens, then it will require a data audit for every record in the send. This process would include Barry King, and the work would have to be scheduled and prioritized appropriately.
- If tokens are being used, a real send must be sent to a few accounts to make sure the tokens resolve correctly. It is not enough to send a "Preview." After it has been validated that the tokens work, a new release with the actual list of recipients can be scheduled.
- If there is an event link or give link (answers to all should be "yes"):
- Does the form have identity checkpoint turned on?
- Is "pre-populate" checked?
- Was the link generated using the hyperlink builder?
- Are there any hyperlinks that are non-jmu urls? If so, hide them behind hyperlinked text. It's ok to show jmu.edu urls though, as long as they're not really long and ugly.
- If there is one or more links to give, did you check that every appeal code is correct in all links with appealcodes?
- Does the notification email go to the appropriate email address?
- If you used a csv recipient list:
- Does the first column header EXACTLY say "Preferred email" (without quotes)
- Does the second column header EXACTLY say "First Name" (without quotes, regardless of having them in the list or not)
- Does the third column header EXACTLY say "Last Name" (without quotes regardless of having them in the list or not)
- Does the first column have emails?
- Does the second column have first names (if there are any)?
- Does the third column have last names (if there are any)?
- Are you sure the recipient list contains the actual people that need to receive the email?
- Did you upload the recipient list?
- Have appropriate audience managers been notified and/or looped in for approval? Use the tables below to determine if your email needs approval and who the audience managers are.
- Voice of the institution emails are directed by the President and/or Senior Leadership.
- Intra-audience emails are sent by the audience-manager to the audience they manage.
- Extro-audience emails are sent to an audience that the sender does not manage.
|
Type of email |
Notify audience manager? |
Get audience manager approval? |
|---|---|---|
|
Voice of the institution |
YES (notify EVERY audience manager below, for every audience, regardless of the audience(s) being sent to) |
no |
|
Intra-audience |
implied |
implied |
|
Extro-audience |
YES (notify only the audience managers corresponding to the audience(s) being sent to) |
YES |
|
Audience |
Manager(s) |
|---|---|
|
Alumni |
polglaph@jmu.edu |
|
Parents |
kitetl@jmu.edu |
|
Donors (any solicitation) |
campbecg@jmu.edu |
|
Employees |
If using a "Z" list, check if it is more than a week old. |
- Preview:
- Have you sent a preview of your email to your stakeholders for approval?
- Did you check the preview on both desktop and mobile devices?
- Release request:
- Have you submitted a release request?
If you have any questions about the checklist or process, please contact the Digital Marketing Team.
Digital Marketing
Hours of Operation:
Mon - Fri 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
