Mass Email
SHSU’s official mass email guidelines covering branding, accessibility, compliance, approvals, and best practices for effective communication.
Mass Email Guidelines & Practices
Our Commitment to Responsible Engagement At SHSU, mass email is an essential tool for connecting with our community, sharing important updates, and supporting university‑wide communication goals. To maintain clarity, accessibility, and trust, all mass email communications must follow SHSU brand standards, legal requirements, and best practices for content quality and audience engagement.
- Use approved SHSU logos, colors, and brand elements.
- Use the official SHSU Emma templates to maintain consistent branding and accessible design.
- Keep layouts clean with limited fonts, colors, and graphic elements.
- Place the most important information at the top of the message.
- Avoid placing essential information inside images; include important details as real text.
- Keep messages concise, accurate, and relevant to the intended audience.
- Use clear headings, short paragraphs, and bullet points to help readers scan the message.
- Use descriptive link text that tells users where the link goes.
- Ensure messages follow SHSU’s editorial tone and writing style.
- Focus each email on one primary message or call to action.
- Add alt‑text to all images.
- Maintain strong color contrast and readable formatting.
- Use descriptive link text rather than “click here.”
- Break content into short sections using headings and bullets.
- Ensure emails are readable on both mobile and desktop devices.
- Avoid layouts or elements that may not work well with screen readers.
- Follow CAN‑SPAM, FERPA, and SHSU communication policies.
- Use only copyrighted or licensed images and media.
- Plan campaigns ahead of time to ensure timely and coordinated messaging.
- Limit campaigns to a clear beginning, middle, and end, typically no more than three emails.
- Space messages appropriately to prevent audience fatigue.
- Keep campaign messaging aligned in tone, branding, and purpose.
- Give each email a single, clear call to action.
- Consider whether mass email is the right communication channel before launching a campaign.
- Use Emma’s audience sharing and segmentation capabilities to send messages only to the groups relevant to your message.
- Avoid broad or general sends unless a message truly applies to the entire audience.
- Select audience segments intentionally to improve engagement and reduce email fatigue.
- Keep audience lists current and organized to ensure accurate targeting.
- Unsubscribe requests are processed automatically within Emma.