New email address announcement: templates for contacts and auto-reply
Your new address is set up and your emails have moved. Now everyone just needs to hear about it. That sounds like a small thing, but this is exactly where emails get lost later: with the aunt who still has your old address in her address book, or the tradesperson who sends the bill to your old address. With three small steps you’ll reach almost everyone.
In short: Send a short email from your new address to all your contacts, with the recipients in BCC. Set up an automatic reply in your old mailbox that gives your new address. And enter the new address everywhere you have accounts. You’ll find templates to copy below.
Who you should tell
- Family and friends: everyone you write to regularly.
- Work, customers, business partners: including your tax advisor, property management and landlord.
- Clubs, school, nursery: you are often on mailing lists there.
- Doctors, tradespeople, service providers: everyone who sends you appointments or bills.
- Online accounts: Your bank, insurers, shops and authorities don’t need a group email. Change the address yourself in your account there. You’ll find a list in the article New email address: where you need to change it.
Template for family and friends
Short and friendly is enough. Simply adapt the text to suit you.
Subject: My new email address
Hi everyone,
I have a new email address: firstname.lastname@example.com. Please save it in your address book and only use this one to write to me from now on. I’ll keep checking my old address for a while, but at some point it will be switched off.
Best wishes
First name
Template for business contacts
Subject: New email address, effective immediately
Hello,
My email address has changed. From now on you can reach me at firstname.lastname@example.com. Please update your contact details, including for invoices and contracts. Messages to my previous address will be forwarded until [date].
Kind regards
First name Last name
Text for the automatic reply in your old mailbox
An automatic reply, also called an out-of-office message, reaches everyone you didn’t think of. You’ll find it in the settings of your old mailbox, usually under “Out of office” or “Automatic reply”.
Thank you for your message. My email address has changed: please write to me at firstname.lastname@example.com from now on. Your message has arrived and will be forwarded, but this address will be switched off soon.
Leave the automatic reply on until you close the old mailbox. Combined with forwarding, new emails will still reach you.
How to send your group email the right way
- Send it from your new address: That way everyone replies straight to the right place and can save the address with one click.
- Put the recipients in BCC: That way nobody sees anyone else’s address. With business contacts this also matters for data protection.
- Send in small groups: Many providers limit how many recipients one email can have. It’s better to send several emails to 30 to 50 recipients each.
- Add your new address to your signature: That way it appears under every email you write in the coming weeks.
Frequently asked questions
Should I send the email from my old or my new address?
From the new one. Replies then arrive in the right place straight away, and your contacts have the new address right in their inbox. A sentence about your old address in the text is enough so that nobody mistakes the email for spam.
How long should the automatic reply stay on?
At least until hardly any emails arrive at your old address. That is usually a few weeks to a few months. After that you can close the old mailbox.
How do I find out who is still writing to my old address?
Check your old mailbox regularly during the first few weeks, or the folder your forwarding sorts emails into. It’s easier with Mailovo’s address checklist: after the mailbox move, we list every sender you’ve received emails from in recent months for you to tick off.