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Introduction to Email

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Content of Bulk Email

General

The content of a message plays a big part in whether the message is read or even reaches its destination.

Care should be taken to avoid phrases common in spam (unsolicited bulk email) particularly as subjects or featuring prominently in the email. For example "Free Prize Draw", "Special Offer" , "One time mailing". Such phrasing will increase the likelyhood that the recipient will throw the message away or thet the message will be detected as spam and treated as such automatically.

Any bulk email should be short and, unless there are particular needs or unusual circumstances, free from formatting (ie sent as plain text). Any detailed or graphical information should be provided on the web. A link to this information can then be included in the email. See the formatting section for further details of formatting recommendations.

Emailing is a form of publishing. Care should therefore be taken not to email copyright material without permision of the copyright owner. This includes most web pages even if they are publicly available, as most are copyright with conditions attached to their use. Links to other people's web pages are generally acceptable, although some sites prohibit "deep linking" which are links directly to pages other than the home page. Whilst there is some debate about the validity of such restrictions, conflict with copyright owners can be costly and must be avoided.

Last Updated 21 October 2003. Please mail any comments to C.B.Bayliss@bham.ac.uk