I hate not getting confirmation for an event that I have registered to attend – or worse, not getting any pre-event details at all. So, trust me, I was disheartened to hear from attendees of an event that my team hosted last fall that they hadn’t received any email confirmation details.
Attendee: “We never received instructions on where to go?”
Me: “You didn’t get an email two days ago from us? We didn’t get any bouncebacks?”
Attendee: “Who was it from?”
Me: “Our SVP of Marketing.”
Attendee: “Who is that? Never heard of him, must have deleted it.”
Big lesson learned. In email marketing, the FROM line is important. I would argue that it is the single most important element in building trust with the recipient of your email message. In fact, your email FROM line could be preventing you from even getting in the door. Consider the following about your FROM line:
- Opportunity to build loyalty. Always have your brand represented in the FROM line no matter what. People will recognize your company or product brand before they remember an individual person’s name. When in doubt on what to do with your FROM line – just make it your brand – it is familiar.
- Match follow-up communications. If a human being will be following up on the email communication, the FROM line is a great opportunity to build affinity to that person’s name and warm up receipt of the phone call or message. Again, ensure the brand is represented.
- Consider your relationship. Who are you talking to? Is it someone who you just met? Is it a customer you are currently doing business with? Is it a strategic partner? The relationship could be a big determining factor for your FROM line. For example, if they just opted-in to receive communications from your company and you are sending a welcome message – trust me – they probably don’t know any of your sales reps. But, they are more likely to remember your brand at that point in time. If they are further along in the evaluation process or business relationship – they may be more responsive to an individual that they know.
- TEST, optimize, and then be consistent. Of course, there are never any absolutes. Testing your FROM line can give you a big lift in open rates and click through rates. One client saw a 37% increase in open rates alone by adding the brand to the FROM line. Formats to test out:
From: Eloqua
From: Jennifer Horton, Eloqua
From: Jen, Eloqua
From: Jen with Eloqua
Consider this – I got this email last week:
It was from Apple iTunes Store…I immediately right-clicked to get those images to see what the latest offer was…
Posted in: Email Marketing, Event Management
Agree on importance of From line. Wanted to share what *Center for American Progress Fund* uses. They don’t want to use the name of their organization because the only thing that will show up on a mobile device is “Center for Am…”. Instead they have opted to use sender name followed by an alternate name: *Alan Rosen, I Am Progress*
[...] From Name is the company name at this point since the relationship with the prospect is just getting off [...]
[...] Email From Lines: One client that I was working with saw a 36% increase in open rates by simply adding the company [...]