Last month I gave four reasons why the status quo isn’t good enough for your email marketing.
One reason was growing email competition, so it seems sensible to review some of the things you can do to ensure it’s your email that gets attention in the inbox.
We’ll start with the in-email factors (from line, subject line, preview pane and preheader) and then address out-of-email factors (which most people forget about).
The from line
We tend to focus on the subject line, but we also know that the name of the sender is at least as important in helping recipients decide whether an email is worth attention or not.
You actually have a lot of choices, including:
- Organization name
- Brand name
- Person’s name (e.g. account manager’s name)
- Program name (e.g. name of the email loyalty program)
…or a combination (e.g. John Smith – Acme Supplies).
The choice you make is simply based on what you think most recipients are likely to recognize. Some senders find using a person’s name as the from line is beneficial, as it establishes a more human connection. But there are provisos for this approach.
First, the name has to be meaningful. Such as if you have a famous CEO or brand advocate, or can tie email addresses to the recipients account rep.
Second, mail from a person raises different expectations than mail from a company. You need to have systems in place to properly manage replies, for example, that are directed at the sender personally.
Third, you need consistency. If you start using different names, it can lead to confusion.
At the very least avoid those bland, anonymous sender names like “office”, “marketing” or “info”. Note also that display space may be limited, especially on mobile devices, so keep the from line short: put the identifying words as close to the beginning as possible.
“Acme Marketing” not “Marketing at Acme”.
While most email software displays the sender name, the sender’s email address can also be displayed. Thunderbird, for example, displays both in the preview pane (if the sender’s not a known contact).
So the email address should include recognition elements too. If “replies” are going through your ESP’s system, work with them so that the displayed address can still be tied to your organization.
news@smartinsights.ESPdomain.com or smartinsights@ESPdomain.com is a heap better looking than SD123frg@ESPdomain.com.
The subject line
If you want the subject to help with recognition, then include a brand, organization or publication name in there, like these companies do:
- HP’s Fourth of July Sale STARTS NOW!?
- Amazon.com: New Releases in Humor Books
- eMarketer Daily – College Students Annoyed by Mobile Ads
You can use text formatting to help the recognition element stand out:
- [Sherpa Chart] Effective email marketing tactics
Studies suggest branded subject lines lift results, but there is a compromise here. The branding takes away space you might otherwise use for words that drive interest and action. As always, you’ll need to test to find the best solution for your situation.
The preheader
An email’s preheader is the text you find at the very top of the message. On most emails it serves an administrative function, pointing people to a “web version” of the email if it displays oddly, or requesting you add the sender to an address book:
A growing trend is to put enticing marketing copy up there, too, as this newsletter demonstrates:
That has three main benefits.
It’s more of an attention grabber than bland admin links. It communicates the value of the email quickly, encouraging action without the need to look down the message. And, if done right, it shows up in the inbox display at Gmail, which appends text snippets to each email’s subject line.
The preview pane
Most email software and webmail services let users preview an email without having to open it. This preview area (the preview pane) is displayed below or to the side of the inbox.
The preview is another chance to present recognition elements to the recipient as they go through their messages. The problem is that preview space is limited, and can take both horizontal and vertical forms.
So the only part of an email you can be sure will appear in a preview pane is whatever is in the top left of your template. That’s a clear design hint and one reason why many senders put their logo in that position.
Of course, don’t forget to include a branded alt attribute in your image HTML so that the recognition effect remains even if images are blocked.
Out-of-email issues
Of course, all of your email marketing is actually driving recognition and attention.
If you are a sender that promises value and delivers it, then people will actually look out for your emails. The best senders can put out messages on stupid days (like a B2B mail on a public holiday) and still get attention, because their readers are actively seeking out their messages.
Other things you might do include:
- Link to sample emails from your sign-up pages, so people will recognize the message when they start appearing in the inbox
- Send an immediate welcome message after sign-up and ensure that the in-email elements in the message reflect those used in future emails. People expect and look for welcome messages and sign-up confirmations, so you can use them to train recognition
- Ensure the design of the emails reflect the design, style and colors of the brand and/or website, so there is no disconnect to overcome between what people expect your message to look like and how it actually looks
- Maintain consistency of presentation. If you do change your layout or design, ensure enough recognition elements are retained so that a quick glance will still alert readers to who you are
- Don’t go too long between sends. The longer you leave it, the more risks you take with recognition. My rule of thumb is at least once a month
So how about you? What else are you doing to boost inbox recognition?
Digital marketing tactic: Email marketing
Digital marketing technique: email copywriting, Email Design, Email strategy
Advice type: Best Practice
Expertise level: Intermediate
(+2 rating, 2 votes)
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Good summary of the key points. I’ve just been running some email tests related to this topic.
Using the CEO’s name in the from instead of the brand name raised the open rate 32%. We also re-enforced the connection to the CEO by including a headshot above the fold. Good then? Read on…
However, the conversion rate which represented the marketing objective set for the campaign was unchanged. But the real kicker was the unsubscribe rate went up by 150%.
The results are all statistically significant for the sample sizes used (if you like stats it was a 99.5% confidence level).
So the usual rules apply, always test, always set a metric which represents your objective and review all your stats. A good open rate does not map to a successful campaign.
We also did some testing around use of symbols in subject lines and it didn’t make any difference. Of course it might work for you.
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Thanks for sharing this Tim : a timely and scary reminder that you have to think beyond the email open and clickthrough.
I have seen tests which show that using the individual’s name can help against campaign goals, but generally where the person feature is known by the recipient. If not it’s best to keep with the brand name.
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Wanted to add my thanks for sharing those numbers Tim. Do you have any thoughts on why the unsubscribe rate went up?
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Great article, covers a lot of the basics that if gotten right, will constantly drive value from your email marketing efforts.
I’ve done some testing myself (in the b2b world) where adding a person’s name increased opens by 20%, we also tested formatted html emails very much like personal email as opposed to html w/ images increasing the click throughs and conversions (obviously, depends on the market you’re in)
Does anybody have any thoughts on the deliverability issues with outlook 2010?
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Great insights here Mark – very useful for me as I’m just new to this and learning the ins and outs. Baby steps for now.
Tim – thanks for those numbers. It is truly amazing how measuring (or focusing) on the wrong thing can lead to unwanted results. It seems obvious, but not assuming anything must almost be one’s mantra when creating an email marketing campaign.
Being new to this I can only speculate why adding the CEO’s name to the email would ultimately lead to an increase in the unsubscribe rate, however as a consumer I will say that I am used to receiving information from companies and expect that a newsletter be like a digest of all the information I am looking for from a company. If I see the name of the CEO as the sender, I might even subconsciously be thinking that I am getting a different newsletter, one that features more of his thoughts. For me, this is like the note from the editor at the beginning of a magazine. I am interested in what the magazine has to say, not the editor, and so I almost always skip that section. If Wired were renamed Chris Anderson’s Wired or Wired: from the desktop of Chris Anderson – I would immediately be less interested in the magazine.
I don’t know if that comparison is apt, but again, that’s my speculation.
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Enjoying the comments. Thanks all for contributing.
Sounds a plausible theory Darren. I think there may be several factors at work. For example, it may be as banal as the CEO’s name getting people to pay more attention and thus realizing that it’s not what they want and unsubscribing…
One thing to note on from line tests is to repeat them down the road. If you start using a person’s name (particularly one that isn’t recognisable), some of the early attention boost might come from curiosity, which won’t last more than an email or two.
There’s a more general principle there about the short-term value of novelty.
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