Email and text notifications

General guidance for email and text notifications

Note: This notifications guidance applies to emails and texts we send to Veterans related to interactions they have with VA—like reminders or updates related to their submitted online forms, disability claims, and health appointments. We’ll be adding more guidance for text notifications soon. This guidance does not apply to outreach emails and texts that VA communications teams send for awareness and education about VA benefits and services.

Follow our content style guide and existing patterns

• Email and text notifications should use plain language and follow our VA style guide wherever possible. This includes addressing the recipient as “you” and using “we” to refer to VA. Review our top 10 plain language standards
• For some types of emails, VA Notify has sample templates with plain language content that’s ready to use. You’ll just need to fill in any manual variables and adjust other content as needed. This includes the emails in the form submission status pattern. Review the form submission status pattern.

Protect Veterans’ personal information

• Always get approval for new or updated notifications from a VA privacy officer. Find your product’s privacy officer (link only works on VA network)
• Email and text notifications are not secure, so we can’t include Veterans’ personally identifiable information (PII) or protected health information (PHI).
• Privacy officers may allow exceptions to the PII/PHI rule when a Veteran opts in to receive PII/PHI in their notifications. But you must work closely with the privacy office and get specific approval for any notifications that include PII/PHI.

Additional resources

• This page focuses on providing guidance on how content should be written. To learn more about how emails are structured, visit the Email template.

Email notifications

Subject line

• Aim for no more than 9 words and 60 characters in subject lines.
• If the goal of the email is to prompt the Veteran to take an action, make the subject line a CTA starting with an action verb.
  • Like this: Review your dependent information for VA benefits
• If it’s a reminder or confirmation email, make the subject line a short phrase or statement.
  • Like this: VA appointment reminder
  • Like this: We’ve received your VA form
• If it’s a post-submission failure notification (part of the zero silent failures initiative), start the subject line with “Action needed”.
  • Like this: Action needed: We couldn’t process your VA form

Salutation and closing

• Personalize the email with the Veteran’s first name in the salutation as “Dear ((first_name)),”—but never include both first and last name, because this counts as PII.
• Don’t include a closing or sign the email as “VA.gov” or “VA”.

Note: Don’t say “Thank you for your service” in the closing or anywhere else in the email. Research has found that some Veterans may have negative feelings about this phrase.

Heading levels

• Heading level 1 should start off the email and be either exactly the same wording as the subject line, or a slightly more detailed version of the subject line (for example, using “We received your VA form” in subject line and “We received your authorization to release medical information” in H1, to keep subject line in character limits).
• Heading levels 2, 3, and 4 are also supported to chunk content, making it more accessible and easier to scan.

Action Link

• Action Links serve as the primary way for a user to complete the primary call-to-action or find need-to-know information.
• Begin the Action Link with a verb and always include the purpose and destination—if the destination leads to the VA website, add “on VA.gov” as the destination.
  • Try to use a brief, clear Action Link like “Submit your disability claim on VA.gov” or “Check COVID-19 symptoms on the CDC website”.
• Use only one Action Link—it should exist as its own line.
• It is not necessary to use an Action Link for informational emails where there is no action for the reader to perform (e.g. a contact info update).
• Avoid using “Click here,” since not all people are physically clicking Action Links.
• Avoid using generic text like “Learn more” and “Read more” by themselves.
  • Like this: Learn how to pay your copay bill on VA.gov
• If necessary, Action Links can be used within a Blockquote.
• Where relevant, follow general VA content guidance for links.

Links

• Links should be used for secondary purposes like navigating to additional resources (e.g. FAQ) or linking contact information.
• Use no more than 3 links in the body of an email.
• Where relevant, follow general VA content guidance for links.

If you’re using VA Notify, use the analytics link generator for UTM tracking.

Bulleted lists

• Bulleted lists are supported to break up paragraph content. The style follows the VA design system bullet styling.

Bolded text

• Bolded text is used to emphasize important information as needed.
• It should NOT be used to establish hierarchy. Headings are used to establish hierarchy.

Divider

• This is a horizontal line used to create visual separation between two sections, signifying a change in topic.
• Avoid using dividers between short, individual items that are close in proximity.
• Dividers should be used to separate the Footer from the rest of the email content.

Blockquote (formerly known as the Feature Card)

• Use the Blockquote component to display important details, like confirmation numbers or the date of an upcoming appointment.
• Use only one Blockquote in each email.
• If the Blockquote displays information from an online form confirmation screen, make sure the data field labels (like “Date submitted”) match between the Blockquote and the confirmation screen.
• Do not use bolded text for headings.
• Action Links are supported within a blockquote.

Contact section

• Include a contact section so users can reach out if they have questions.
• By default, “Have questions?” heads the contact section with an appropriate heading level (2 or 3, typically) and is followed by “Visit https://va.gov or call 800-827-1000 (TTY: 711). We’re here Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. ET.” as the content.
• Contact details can be adjusted as needed.
• If the user is required or recommended to reach out to the VA in the body content, the contact section can be removed to reduce redundancy.

Footer

• Use the footer to explain why we sent this email and tell people not to reply:
  • Like this: You’re receiving this email because you submitted a form on VA.gov. Don’t reply to this email.