UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I can do the following steps on my UNIX box interactively, but cannot send an email with a script. Can someone help? I need to send an email or some other notification when a cron job fails.

telnet xx.yy.zz.ww 25
helo
mail from: 123@123.com
rcpt to: my@email.net
data
subject: email test
the dog
is in
the house
.
quit

Any other suggestions to solve my failed cron message problem.

Code:

@hourly /usr/local/bin/doit || (echo "the dog is in the house" | mail -s "email test" my@email.net)