(Updated March 29, 2018) You’ve jumped through all those hoops to get that email delivered to the inbox. That in and of itself is a feat, so good job on your email deliverability! But…now what? Now you’re depending on the recipient to open it. Otherwise, what’s the point? And just because you got it to the inbox doesn’t mean they will open it.
A delivered email is not yet an effective email
Just because your email got delivered doesn’t mean it’s going to get opened, let alone acted upon. But you can increase the likelihood that it will. To help your email “deliver” once delivered, follow these two best practices:
- Use a carefully crafted subject line
- Use an appropriate From address
Use a carefully crafted subject line
If you’ve been working in email marketing for any length of time, you know the best way to determine an effective subject line is through A/B split testing. So I’m not going to tell you how long it should be or how short it should be or what it should say. You are the best judge of the subject lines for your brand and your target audiences. But I will say, spend time on it! Even today in 2018 as we update this 10 year old blog post I still see lazy subject lines in my inbox every single day. Those types of subject lines will undo all of the hard work you went through to master your email deliverability because they will dissuade the recipient from opening your email, not persuade them to do so.
Use an appropriate From address
When deciding which name or email address shows in the From field of your email, remember that more email recipients do check who the email is from when determining whether to open an email–or not. To follow through on your email deliverability, follow these best practices for your best From address:
- Use and/or change labels as appropriate. If you’re segmenting (and you are segmenting, right?), you might need to use different From names depending on the audience you’re targeting. Do not do no do not use a sales@ From address ever! Or admin@ or info@ or anything else like that.
- Keep a static From address for each email you send to that list, unless you have a really good reason not to. That way, recipients get used to that From name and it becomes familiar to them.
- Don’t use a specific person’s name unless that name is known to the recipient. For example, if I say just Marco Marini, they won’t necessarily know who that is and will be less likely to open my email as a result. However, if including the company name increases the recognition factor, do it that way, as in Marco Marini – ClickMail Marketing.
- Ask people to add your From address to their safe sender’s list or address book. This will help to ensure that your email deliverability to that recipient stays high, and that’s a level of engagement that indicates they want to hear from you!
Email deliverability must come first, to get those emails to the intended inboxes. But make sure you’re taking steps to get your emails opened too…or else you’re undoing all of your hard work to get there in the first place.
About the Author: Sharon
