diff --git a/nest_crawler/alert_trigger.py b/nest_crawler/alert_trigger.py
index c33b240..c8ec45e 100644
--- a/nest_crawler/alert_trigger.py
+++ b/nest_crawler/alert_trigger.py
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ def send_notification_email(alert):
             smtpObj.login(os.environ["SMTP_USERNAME"], os.environ["SMTP_PASSWORD"])
             smtpObj.sendmail(os.environ["SMTP_FROM_EMAIL"],
                              alert.repository.owner.email,
-                             MESSAGE.format(alert_name=alert.name, now=datetime.now().isoformat()))
+                             MESSAGE.format(alert_name=alert.name, now=datetime.now().isoformat()).encode("utf8"))
             print("Successfully sent email")
     except smtplib.SMTPException:
         print("Error: unable to send email")