Successful email marketers are constantly looking for ways to tweak and optimize their messages in order to come as close as possible to the elusive “magic” formula that guarantees the best results. But one aspect of email creative that even these folks are reluctant to change is the From address via which their emails arrive in subscribers’ inboxes, and with good reason.
A very valuable—yet exceedingly difficult—component of email marketing is getting subscribers to “safelist” a From address, which ensures that future messages from that sender will be delivered directly to the inbox without issue. This is why many email marketing messages list the From address in the pre-header with a request for the recipient to add it to their address book.
Messages from senders not on recipients’ “safelist” will often appear with the content obscured and trigger a warning message such as this (from Hotmail):
Obviously, inclusion on the “safelist” is a big victory for any email marketer. So what happens when you—for whatever reason—need to change your From address?
You could take the approach that Nautica took on a recent email I received. Having been on their mailing list for some time, I was a bit alarmed to see the above “You may not know…” warning display in my preview pane when I clicked on the message. My first thought was that a spammer was trying to trick me by using a familiar sender name as a disguise, but reading the subject line didn’t give any indication that the message would be harmful. So I checked the From address, which was “nautica@email.nautica.com.” This is where the importance of branding came into play, because if that From address had looked in any way suspicious I might have marked the message as junk (remember, the content of the message was blocked in my preview pane, so I had no visual evidence to verify the safety of the message). Seeing the From address with the Nautica domain name eased my fears, and I marked the message as safe.
Upon doing so, the message content displayed in my preview pane, and it was immediately clear what had caused the confusion:
Nautica did a good thing on this message by calling out the fact that they had changed their From address, and doing so in a spot where I would be hard pressed to miss it. In just this top portion of the message, there were two mentions of the new address with the standard request to add them to my address book.
There is a risk involved with changing your From address, as this situation showed. If it must be done, just remember the importance of maintaining a brand-friendly sending domain and—as Nautica did—it wouldn’t hurt to go the extra mile and inform recipients why your message was suddenly being flagged as potential SPAM.
Trying to get new customers to opt-in to your email marketing program can sometimes seem like a daunting task. Even with the most well written description of how amazing your emails are and all the benefits customers will receive, it still remains a big challenge for marketers in every industry.
If you feel like you’ve tried everything in the book to give people a reason to opt-in, perhaps its time to consider using an offer. Here are a few things to keep in mind when developing a promotional offer for list growth:
1. Evaluate Your Resources- If you are thinking of giving away something tangible as a reward for signing up – consider the fulfillment commitment. Giving away t-shirts might seem like the perfect offering, but if you don’t have the resources or finances for handling the fulfillment, you could be in the midst of a logistical nightmare.
2. Test Your Offers- Depending on the industry you are in and your potential customer base, you will want to first test your offers to see what works best. You might think that your customers would love an XYZ Co. golf towel, but they might prefer a calendar. Testing your offers will give you a good idea of what items are driving the most opt-ins.
3. Consider a Sweepstakes– One of the best ways to generate some interest in your email program is to use a sweepstakes entry as an incentive to opt-in. Rock Creek does an excellent job of promoting their monthly sweepstakes in both their email and on their website.
4. Offer a Special Discount– If your resources and/or finances are limited, a discount (percentage dollar amount off) is another great way to get people interested in your email program. These can be printable coupons that they can use in your store, or a unique code that they can use when purchasing online. K-mart does a nice job with offering their customers a nice $5 off for online and in-store purchases.
By doing a little legwork to see what works best for your company, using an offer could be an excellent way to grow your email marketing list.
With today’s economy bearing down on marketing budgets around the country, many marketers are turning to email marketing to maximize the ROI for their marketing buck.
As marketers begin to feel more heat on their email marketing strategies, it is easy to begin considering weeding out email campaigns that don’t directly generate sales.However, in this economy it is even more important than in the past to continue building relationships with your customers/subscribers.Even if your monthly newsletter only provides information and doesn’t include sales opportunities, this doesn’t mean you should begin cutting out these campaigns to save marketing dollars.
Don’t fall into the trap of sending only “sales blasts” that don’t offer up any incentives for your readers to continue opening your future emails.Instead be persistent in strengthening your relationships by offering relevant information that your subscribers can continue to expect when they see your email arrive in their inbox.
If you come across opposition in sending out these emails that don’t immediately lead to profits, consider incorporating an ad banner in a side column of your email newsletter that promotes your products/services without overpowering your relevant messaging.Another option to consider is selling ad space within your newsletters to bring in additional revenue.See my blog post from earlier this year on this topic for ideas on how to optimize your emails with relevant ad banners.
Take a step back and realize that this is a key time to stay at the top of your customers’ minds.They may not be ready to purchase today, but continue to build your relationship… and you could be the first thought that comes to mind when they are ready to purchase in the near future.
Has your company had success in growing relationships through email that eventually generated sales?We would love to hear your story!
It is pretty typical for companies to use a functioning but not monitored email address as their “from name” in an email marketing strategy. Examples of this are the common “info@” or “sales@ “ structure. If a company has a large list or sends frequent mailings it is possible that this inbox could receive thousands of reply-to messages. Some of the more common include out of office replies and the dreaded “hard bounce” undeliverable, but what about the others -customers who do not pay attention to the “do not reply to this message” text, change of address notifications, challenge/response triggers, etc. Developing a plan to monitor these messages could provide some significant benefits.
A study of a B to B publisher done by Bamboo Cricket (a 3rd party service who can monitor/respond to your inbound email) found that as much as 6-8% of the sender’s outbound email volume resulted in an inbound response. As one would expect, most of these messages were non-essential, but over 9% were, in fact, high value communications requiring a human response.
If these results are typical, lets say you sent a message to 100,000 recipients, you would receive a “reply” from 6,000-8,000 of them, of which 540-720 would be high value communication. Would you let your call center or customer service department ignore 700 inquires? In this economy it is important to take advantage of every opportunity to build loyalty and retain customers.
There is no question that personally reviewing thousands of inbound responses can be a lot like panning for gold. You could spend all day with nothing to show for it, or perhaps you may find a few nuggets. Whether you develop an entire plan around this process or just do an Nth message sampling, you may find that “there is gold in them there replies. ”
Successful email marketers are constantly looking for ways to tweak and optimize their messages in order to come as close as possible to the elusive “magic” formula that guarantees the best results. But one aspect of email creative that even these folks are reluctant to change is the From address via which their emails arrive in subscribers’ inboxes, and with good reason.
Trying to get new customers to opt-in to your 
With today’s economy bearing down on marketing budgets around the country, many marketers are turning to 
It is pretty typical for companies to use a functioning but not monitored email address as their “from name” in an 
