Use an attention grabbing subject line

Arouse curiosity, make bold statements, use controversy, dare to be shocking, include statements of fact and use humor.

Keep it short

Long subject lines may not fully display in email viewers. Be specific and descriptive.

Remember spam triggers

Avoid using all-caps, special symbols like “!” and “%,” and words like “FREE.”

Personalized greeting

Avoid using a generic greeting. Use the recipient's name when possible.

Make a good first impression

A strong and informative first line increases the chances that the reader will continue with the rest of the email.

Be concise

Answer the questions who, what, when, where and why immediately. The attention span of online readers is in the range of seconds.

Get to the point

Content should be easy to read, clearly defined and understood. Avoid the urge to include other chatter. Focus on how the reader’s needs match with your event.

Use the right tone

Don’t make your tone too formal or too familiar. Avoid abbreviations, slang and hyperbole.

Request action

Make certain the action you want the user to take is extremely clear. Include the benefits (activities, food, giveaways, etc.) that will interest your reader.

Make it easy to respond

The fewer steps the better. Include your full contact information and a variety of ways to reach you.

Style Guides

UCLA has its own editorial style guide maintained by Strategic Communications.

UCLA Dictionary of Style

For more general language not covered specifically by UCLA’s style guide, please refer to the Associated Press Stylebook and follow @APStylebook on Twitter for updates and reference.

Associated Press Stylebook   AP Stylebook on Twitter

Specific Style Points

AP Style List of State Abbreviations

When referring to a U.S. state (i.e., "UCLA is located in California"), use the entire state name. Major cities do not require a state name as well (i.e., "UCLA is located in Los Angeles."), but, when including the name of a state along with a city (i.e., "UCLA is located north of Culver City, Calif."), use the following abbreviations:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/journalism_and_journalistic_writing/ap_style.html

Exclamation points

Generally, one ! per communication is all that is needed. Do not use exclamation points in subject lines, which is a huge red flags for spam filters.

Specific Language

Do not use “fellow” (ie. fellow Bruins) in our communications, as it has a male only connotation.

Content

Select inviting photos, preferably of people. Look for photos with people's faces visible in situations where people are enjoying themselves and are either doing something interesting or posed comfortably.

Lighting

UCLA prefers daylight and natural light in photography as possible. Look for even lighting, particularly on people's faces.

Composition

As emails scale in size, images should be composed to be legible at small sizes. Typically, photos in emails are wider than tall but at a traditional 2:3 aspect ratio. Faces should be clear and legible, and extraneous elements should be cropped from photos whenever possible.

Preparing Image for Retina Screens

Due to high pixel-density display of modern screens, it is recommended to use images that are double the size (width and height) in which they are displayed. For example, if the image is designed to display 600px × 350px, save it at 1200px × 700px. Otherwise, your image will appear slightly blurry on retina screens.

The sample image content blocks provide the recommended size specifications.

Folder Structure

The email templates (5) are located at: Content Builder > Brand Templates > Templates
Sample images are located at: Content Builder > Brand Templates > Images
Content Blocks are located at: Content Builder > Content Blocks

Content Blocks

The five email templates provided are prepopulated with content blocks. You may add or remove them according to your needs. When rearranging content blocks, please pay attention to the padding values in between each block to make sure they are uniform.

Padding vs Margin

Notice that all spacing between blocks in the templates is achieved by setting the padding, not the margin. As padding is well-supported across most major email clients and margin is not, we recommend only adjusting the padding values for best results.

We have created custom buttons for your use that are supported across the major email clients. These come in various designs that are on-brand with UCLA.

Accessing the UCLA Buttons

The UCLA button content blocks are located at: Content Builder > Content Blocks
When inside an email or email template, click on the Content tab, then click the Folders icon. Once inside the folder structure, you will find the content blocks under Content Builder > Content Blocks.
The content blocks are organized by function, then attributes. You will see various buttons with left, center, and right alignment, as well as several color options.

Customizing Button Text and Link

Warning! If these instructions are not closely followed, there is the risk of altering the custom code that allows the button to format ideally across the major email clients.
How to access the Link Properties window:
Drag and drop the button of your choice onto your email or email template. (For information on where to find the custom buttons, see Accessing the UCLA Buttons.)
In the Content tab, you will see the edit window for the button. DO NOT edit the button directly in this window, as it may negatively change the formatting.
Double click on the button text. A pop-up window for Link Properties will appear.

Making Changes in the Link Properties Form

In the drop-down menu under Link to, you may designate the destination type of this button link.

1. Under Link URL, the pound symbol (#) is there as a placeholder for the link. Replace the pound symbol with your own URL.
2. Under Link Text, click the form field.
3. Find the text “Call to action” near the end of the code. This is where you will want to input the text for your button.
4. DO NOT delete or otherwise alter any code outside of the “Call to Action” text as doing so will impact the button formatting.
5. Do not check the box next to “include underline on hyperlink”

We have created custom social media icons for your use that are supported across the major email clients. These come in various designs that are on-brand with UCLA.

Accessing the UCLA Social Media Icons

The UCLA social media content blocks are located at: Content Builder > Content Blocks
For more information on the naming and folder structure of content blocks, see Accessing the UCLA Buttons.

Customizing the Social Media Links

How to access the Image Properties window

1. Drag and drop the social media icon content block onto your email or email template. In the Content tab, you will see the edit window for the icons. DO NOT edit the icons directly in this window, as it may disrupt the formatting.
2. Double click on the icon you wish to edit. A pop-up window for Image Properties will appear. Do not recommend use this form to make changes to the image source, dimensions, padding, or alignment.
4. Scroll down to the bottom of the form. Under Link, the main UCLA account for the social media platform is prefilled.
5. Click Edit to replace the link with your own social media URL.

Removing Social Media Icons

The social media icon content blocks come preloaded with six icons for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Follow these instructions if you need to remove some of the icons.
Warning! If these instructions are not closely followed, there is the risk of altering the custom code that allows the social media icons to render correctly.
Warning! Do not attempt to delete icons in the Content tab. Doing so will not affect the (invisible) columns in which each icon resides. This will result in uneven spacing between icons. (See example below after the Snapchat icon was deleted in the Content tab.)

How to access the HTML Editor tab

Click into your social media content block in your template or email.
On the left panel, notice the three tabs at the top for Content, Block Settings, and HTML Editor.
Select the HTML Editor tab.
How to find the code for each social media icon
In the center of the viewport under HTML Editor tab, you will see multicolored text which is the HTML code.
On the left side are line numbers. There are six lines of code corresponding to the six social media icons:

How to remove a social media icon
Find the line number for the icon you wish to remove.
Click and drag to select the entire line. Your selection should start with “<a>” and end with “</a>”.
Press the backspace button once. There should be a blank line where the code was.
Click the Done Editing button to complete the process.