Retail Electronic Marketing Tip

Tip #408 - Get Your Email Opened

(5/6/10)

Dear Tip of the Weeker,


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The Tip this week was inspired by the teleseminar on Email Marketing that Susan gave yesterday for the folks at Best One Tire... it's an excerpt from the Retail Mastery System.

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The name that you use in the "from” line in your email marketing plays a crucial role in a recipient's decision about whether to open your email message – or hit the delete button. 

Many emails are deleted because recipients don't recognize the name of the sender.  To be sure yours gets opened, use your store name (i.e. Gabby’s Gifts and Gourmet), your newsletter title (i.e. Gabby’s Gazette), or your list name (i.e. Gabby’s Gifts Frequent Buyer Club) in the "from" line on your email marketing messages.

Your own name can be used if it will be immediately recognizable.  Don’t use your own name if most of your recipients won’t immediately recognize it…and don’t assume that they will.  They may recognize your face, and even know your first name, but that may not translate into knowing your name in their inbox. 

If your retail store name is “Jim Smith Floral”, using Jim Smith will probably work as a “from” line.  But if your store name is “Flowers Designed by Jim”, they may not recognize Jim Smith, and if your name is actually April Smith – well, that’s even worse! 

Don’t repeat the name used in the "from" field in your subject line… that’s just wasting valuable copy real estate!  For instance, if you’re sending a message from “County Line Nursery”, the subject shouldn't be “County Line Nursery News”.  They already know who it’s from.  A better subject would include a benefit the customer will get by reading the newsletter:  “Pruning Guide and Perennial Planting Report Inside.”

Your subject line should tell the reader a little bit about the content of your email and give them a reason to open it. The subject line should be at least one of the following: interesting (to the reader), useful, fun, funny, urgent, exciting, intriguing, curious, shocking, controversial, emotional, heart-warming, scary and so forth. Stay away from cutesy or spammy subject lines.

A recognized "from" name plus a "grabber" subject line will definitely increase your email open rates and improve your customer relationships.

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