Email best practices: Your “from” line

This is a picture of my email in-box from today

I see a mix of organization names, individuals’ names, program names, and a combination of the above. In scanning this list, I know the names of a few of these individuals, but not most of them. I know what some of these programs are, but not others. But I definitely know the name of these organizations, and I have chosen to subscribe to emails from them.

Your users:

• Don’t know the name of your marketing director, your sales director, your customer relationship manager, etc.
• May not know the name of your CEO
• Don’t know your programs by their catchy names

On the other hand, every single user DOES know the name of your organization, and has a relationship with your organization

Therefore, whether you are a nonprofit asking for money, an association communicating with members, or a software firm reaching out to customers, your mass email communications should come “from” your organization.

In order words, I recommend that you don’t use an individual’s name as the “from” for your organization emails.

This recommendation goes against those of some marketers, I know, but it’s smart practice for several reasons:

• Supports your brand identity
• Reinforces that the person is having a relationship with the organization rather than a staff person or individual program
• Protection against awareness loss if you have turnover of staff (even your CEO)

Another benefit is that it distinguishes your organization’s emails from any messages that are actually sent by individuals – say, an individual salesperson contacting a prospective customer based on a previous interaction, or a program lead contacting people about a specific program they are participating in.

If you are skeptical, I invite you to try out this new approach – use A/B testing a few times – and let me know what happens. I look forward to your feedback!