Email Marketing Best Practices Don't Forget the From Address

You Forgo Opens With a Forgetful From Address

This morning I received an email from a company I’ve been doing business with for about four years. Normally one would open such an email, right?

But the From name was only “Product Support Group” and the subject line said only “Updates to Google Algorithm.”

Looks like spam to me! Which product support group? What about the Google algorithms? Both the From address and subject line were too vague to be real.

But I’m an email marketer, and I wanted to see what kind of spam had made it through my filter, so I viewed it in my Preview Pane and lo and behold! It was a real email! And one I wanted to read.

Remember, people decide whether or not to open your email based on three criteria:

• First, the From address: Do I know this person or company? Do I trust them?
• Second, the subject line: Is this something that interests me?
• Third, the Preview Pane: Do I like what I see enough to get me to open the email?

I did open the email after seeing the Preview Pane view of it. But only as a curious email marketer. Not as an intrigued and trusting customer.

Email marketing best practices mean doing everything you can to not only get that email delivered (using email deliverability best practices), but to get it opened and acted on! Your From address is the first step. It must be relevant in the same way everything else about your email must be relevant. In this case, all they had to do was put the company name in front of Product Support Group and I would have opened the email.

Email subject line best practices mean using your subject line to coax the recipient to open the email. Something like “What you need to know about Google algorithm updates” would have prompted me to open the email.

This email came from a big, reputable company that normally does everything right. Maybe the challenge here was the email was from Support and not from Marketing. But you know what? Email marketing best practices apply across the board. The same email marketing and email subject line best practices that get your marketing email opened are going to get your other emails opened too.

Don’t forget the From. Make it work.

About the Author: Sharon

Sharon Ernst from BetterFasterWriter.com is on a mission to improve the business and marketing writing skills of today’s workforce with her blog, newsletter and online classes. Her newest class on intermediate email copywriting covers 19 tips and techniques non-copywriters can put to use right away for better results. The class has real-life examples and before/after comparisons to make the lessons stick. Find her class at www.betterfasterwriter.com/intermediate-email-copywriting-class. When she’s not busy helping employees, managers and marketers master their writing skills, she and her husband are busy raising pigs, cows, chickens and vegetables on their 20-acre farm.

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