{% extends "content_template.html" %} {% from "components/table.html" import mapping_table, row, text_field, edit_field, field with context %} {% from "components/sub-navigation.html" import sub_navigation %} {% block per_page_title %} Guidance {% endblock %} {% block content_column_content %}
This guidance is for teams using GOV.UK Notify to send emails, text messages and letters.
It includes information about how to:
Create an account to see a short tutorial explaining how to create and send messages.
To send a batch of messages at once:
This section explains how to add:
You can see a list of formatting instructions on the edit template page:
Email templates can include:
Letter templates can include headings and bullets.
Notify does not allow bold, italics, subheadings, underlined text, HTML formatting or different fonts. This is because they can make it harder for users to read what you've written.
When composing an email or text message, write URLs in full and Notify will convert them into links for you.
You cannot convert text into a link. Research shows that recipients like to read the URL to check a link looks genuine before they click it. This is hard to do if the URL is hidden behind clickable link text.
If your links are very long, we do not recommend using a third-party link shortening service because:
To personalise the content of your messages, add a placeholder to the template.
Placeholders are filled in with details, like a name or reference number, each time you send a message.
To add a placeholder to the template:
When you send a message you can either:
If you upload a list, the column names need to match the placeholders in your template.
To add optional content to your emails and text messages:
For each person you send this message to, specify ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to show or hide this content. You can either:
If you upload a list, the column names need to match the optional content in your template.
You cannot add optional content to a letter.
Contact us if you want to send files by email.
Follow the instructions to send a file by email in our API documentation.
You can upload and send your own letters instead of creating a reusable letter template.
To upload and send your own letter from a PDF file:
Your file must meet our letter specification.
To change your email branding:
Notify lets you choose the email address that users reply to. You must add at least one reply-to address before your service can go live.
To add a reply-to email address:
The text message sender name tells your users who the message is from.
To change the text message sender from the default of ‘GOVUK’:
To change your letter branding: