File Attachments and Group Email.
Group email systems do not use file attachments in the same way individual email systems do. They accomplish the same effect however, without clogging server bandwidth by sending the files all at once.
To attach a file in group email, upload it (insert Hyperlink | Upload), and your email will be delivered with a click-able link to "download the document now".
FYI - If you really want to understand the reason for the way Group Email systems handle this the way they do, think about sending a 2MB document to 500 recipients. That would trigger a Gigabyte of server transfer all at once and slow down the system for everyone. Recipients tend to request the attachment at varying times, smoothing out the server workload.
Your smartphone users will also appreciate the flexibility to download the documents on their schedule.
Newsletters and Group Email
Group email is an effective way to communicate your newsletter, and you can save thousands of dollars in printing and mailing costs by using the group email system.
If you have been producing a traditional newsletter, you may need to do a few things a little bit differently to achieve your desired results. Consider this:
- Readability
Traditional newsletters are organized for the print medium. They do not "read well" online, and especially not in an email inbox or preview window (which is how most people are going to "open" your newsletter).
The best practices for distributing a newsletter communication via email is to create a separate email with short summary paragraphs and hyperlinks to the *real* article which should be pages or events on your web site.
- Technology
Newsletter layouts are a snap using a desktop publishing technology. But most consumers do not have MS Publisher (or even MS Word), so you need to use a universally accepted technology such as HTML (built using the TCO Editor) or make the file a PDF (Adobe Portable Document Format - universally opened in any browser).
- Deliverablity
A long email with many graphics and a lot of formatting commands is much more likely to be moved into the spam folder. it is just the way the Internet works. Consider the email news from the USTA/ I think they do a very good job of updating various pages on thier web site, and then sending a short (no more than 1 1/12 pages tall) newsletter presenting the highlights of the news with clickable hyperlinks to get more detail.
- Accessibility
Increasingly people are using smart phones for email. Email tends to be "scanned" for highlights and quickly filed or deleted.
Recommendations
- Your web site (eCalendar and Pages) should be the primary source data for your newsletter. There isn't anything anything that goes into a newsletter that is not also or even primarily more important to have on an updated web site page or eCalendar event.
- Group email should be used to present summarized highlights with click-through (hyperlinks) to the *real* details that you need to communicate. The email should not be more than 1-2 times the height of a browser window. Most users will scroll down that far, but rarely will scroll right to left or "read" something more than 2 pages tall.
- Your newsletter should be saved as a printable document (PDF) to preserve the look and layout that you intended, and your "newsletter announcement email" should provide a link to the printable version of the document. This is accomplished through the use of the Document Library and a hyperlink to the printable PDF.
- Create a group email template for your newsletter announcement. You have the ability to create a re-useable template with your layout, branding and signature line. So once you update your calendar and web pages, and you upload your newsletter to the document library, you can simply place a hyperlink to download the printable version.