Is large mailing really what you want to do?
A large mailing is not always the best choice for the dissemination of your message. If, after you review the Summary of Effective Communication Methods for Large Audiences, and have determined that a mass mailing meets your needs, please review Mass Mailing Best Practices.
Policy related to sending your own large mailing
The Mass Mail Policy covers mailings that go to more than 1000 individuals, other than self-subscribed mailing lists.
- Sending to 1000 or fewer recipients — your mailing does not have to adhere to the Mass Mail Policy, but the guidelines here will be of assistance to you in distributing your message.
- Sending to more than 1000 recipients — you should submit your request through the Massmail system and in the Purpose of the Email field, type in all caps -- "WE ARE SENDING THE MESSAGE OURSELVES BUT NEED APPROVAL THROUGH THE SYSTEM". Once the message is approved, you will be notified.
- Select a category code for your subject line.
- The following notice should appear at the end of your message:
/***********
Distribution of this message was approved by the ????????. Neither your name nor e-mail address was released to the sender. The policy and guidelines for the UI Mass Mail service, including information on how to filter messages, are available on the Mass Mail service page.
***********/
Obtaining the addresses for your mailing
The table below indicates ways to obtain the addresses for your mailing.
| Population | Method | Notes |
| Faculty, staff | Web Query system | Contact your departmental HR unit representative for assistance |
| Students | Student Warehouse | Contact the Registrar's Office for assistance |
| Class List | Student Warehouse | Request Class List from Registrar |
| Mailing Lists | Self-subscribed | ITS Mailing List Service |
Entering the addresses in your mail client
Email clients vary, but in general:
- Put the addresses in the Blind Carbon Copy (Bcc:) field in order to:
- Hide the addresses from other recipients
- Prevent the display of all addresses in the Header of the message.
- If you do not do this, recipients must scroll past all of the addresses to find the message. Printing the message means printing all of the addresses.
- Punctuation, such as a comma, is not needed if you have a list of addresses, one per line.
- There are technical limitations on many campus mail gateways limiting the number of recipients.
Office 365: Allows up to 300 recipients in a single submission. If the message contains more than 300 recipients, none of the messages are sent and the error message says to send again with fewer recipients.
Your message wasn't delivered to anyone because there are too many recipients. The limit is 300. Your message has 378 recipients.
jdoe@uiowa.edu (jdoe@uiowa.edu)
Your message has too many recipients. Please try to resend with fewer recipients.
Best Practice for Rate of Mail Distribution
The ITS Mass Mail Service practice is to release 250 messages at a time to avoid overloading the outgoing and receiving the mail queues. Be sure to check with your administrator for guidance.