The phone rings. You answer. The voice on the other end says, "Hey, Art, buddy. How are you doin'?"
You don't recognize the voice. He never identified himself - and now you're in an awkward position.
Do you play along hoping you'll soon figure out who it is? Or do you embarrassingly ask, "Sorry - uh, who are you?"
It's the same thing when you get an email that has a "From" name and/or address that gives no clue as to who the sender is. Except ... most likely, you just delete it and run the risk of missing an important email.
For your business -- it's mission critical that you identify yourself in a way that your contacts will recognize the sender and want to open your email.
And therein lies the rub - you have options, all which need to be tested 🙂
1. COMPANY NAME VS. PERSONAL NAME AS SENDER
The name that appears in the email "From" field can have a huge impact on whether your email even gets opened. Test whether it's best to send from your company's name, the name of an actual person at your business, or a combination of both.
For example, we've found that emails sent from "Art Basmajian / Barron Marketing" perform better in terms of open rates and CTR than emails sent from just "Art Basmajian."
After even more testing, we found that when we changed it to "Art Basmajian [Barron Bullet]" for our weekly marketing-focused emails...we got a substantially better open rate. It identifies the purpose of the email and is instantly recognized.
2. SALES CONTACT AS SENDER
Many email marketers may choose themselves, a CEO, or some other authority figure as the name in the "From" field. But have you ever considered sending from the name of a contact's salesperson?
With dynamic merged content, you can do this to see whether it improves email performance. I mean, if a lead is already in the sales process, it makes sense that they'd rather hear from their sales contact instead of a marketer, right? Infusionsoft makes it easy to do this.
3. PERSONAL VS. ALIAS EMAIL ADDRESS
You might also consider whether the email address (domain) from which you send your email needs to change. Does your list resist the idea of receiving an email from an alias like "support@company.com?" Do they prefer seeing something like "linda@company.com?" Maybe. Maybe not. Only one way to find out.
Case Study: For years we sent our Barron Bullets from info@barronmarketingsolutions.com - we recently changed the "From" address to art@barronmarketingsolutions.com. Delivery was significantly better. How did we know? The open rate was higher which meant that emails were getting into more inboxes.
4. FAMILIAR VS. PROFESSIONAL TONE
The copy of your email can take a lot of different tones. Nailing the right one takes a thorough understanding of your buyer avatars, as well as some plain ol' trial and error. Test different tones -- familiar versus professional, for instance -- to see which resonates most with your audience.
For Barron, our sweet spot is to be conversational and include some personal story-telling to drive home a marketing principal.
5. LONGER VS. SHORTER EMAILS
Truthfully, there's a place for both.
The key is this ... include what your reader NEEDS to know and STOP. Otherwise, you're just talking to hear yourself talk.
6. SUBJECT LINES
Writing amazing email subject lines is a tricky mix of art and science. And the only way you'll know what get's your recipients' attention is to do an A-B test. In the end, it doesn't matter what great stuff you have in the email body if no one opens the email. So this is a biggie.
(Refer to a post on answers to top email marketing questions for our recommendation on how many characters is best for a subject line ... and a major tip for optimizing subject lines for mobile users.)
Here's an example of an email subject line swipe that you can put into play immediately: "For ____, This Works Like Crazy."
This is a great results-driven subject line that will get people to open up your email and take a closer look. The idea here is to use the classic combination of something the reader wants with a way to get it. By including “this works like crazy” you are saying “here’s how to get what you want.” Just fill in the blanks and provide the "what they want" part.
EXAMPLES:
For losing 10 lbs. FAST, this works like crazy...
For adding yards to your golf drive, this works like crazy...
For communicating better with your teenager, this works like crazy...
For retiring early, this works like crazy...
Now just test one of these with another variation and see which pulls better results.
Seize this day and take action!
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