How to properly and clearly state who the email is from

Let’s just use example names for this discussion. Let’s say:

1. Your company name is “Electronics Closet”
2. Your web site is www.electronicsstore.com
3. Your email address is isellectronics@aol. com

I am using these examples because they are very similar to the customer’s that I am referring to. Now keep in mind all of these 15,000 subscribers have bought from this web site and they have all been asked to receive email from this company so they know who this online store is.

 

Let’s summarize how this looks to a subscriber:

1. They shopped online and bought something at www.electronicsstore.com
2. They get an email in their inbox from isellelectronics@aol.com
3. The subject line is “Announcing New JVC Receivers.”
4. And at the top of the body of the email is the name of the store “Electronics Closet.”

If you received this email in you inbox are you confused? I think I might be - I went to www.electonicsstore.com and bought some electronics, now I am getting email from "isellelectronics" announcing new JVC receivers. That to me would seem like someone is spamming me and that they probably got my name from www.electronicssotore.com. So now I am mad at electronicsstore.com for selling my name, then I click “SPAM” and don’t shop at that site anymore.

 

Then if I do get to the body of the email, before I click "SPAM," I see at the top of the email “Electronics Closet” and say who the heck is that? I am now confused and I surely click “SPAM.”

 

Don't Make Your Subscribers Think

You see "you don’t want to make your subscribers think, not even for a second." All of these subscribers know who www.electronicsstore.com is and probably know that isellelectronics@aol.com and Electronics Closet are the same as www.electronicsstore.com. However, people on the Internet, and especially on email, don’t think. They don’t want to think, they want what they are looking for, they want it quickly, and then they want to move on. If you force them to think, even for a second, you lost them.

 

So to assume that your subscribers are going to connect all of the dots and put all of these names together, without thinking, and magically say to themselves - "oh yes, this email is from isellelectronics@aol.com who is the same as "Electronics Closet" of which is also the same as www.electronicsstore.com of which is the same web site that I bought something at " - is wishful thinking.

 

So what do they do? They click “SPAM” or “DELETE” or both...

 

And what does that do? It dramatically decreases your conversion rate.

 

So what to do...

So to decrease your complaint rate, and increase your conversion rate, first make sure all of you subscribers are opt-in. Then, after that, make sure all of your contact info matches up to what your subscribers are most familiar with. And in most cases that is probably your web site URL. In this case it is www.electronicsstore.com.

 

So, in this case, you should have:

1. An "electronicsstore.com" email address (i.e. cathy@electronicsstore.com)
2. Then, at the very beginning of the subject line put the store name in brackets so the subject
   line would be: “[Electronics Store] – Announcing New JVC Receivers.”
3. Then at the top of the email, in one size smaller font than the body, tell your subscribers why
   they are getting this email
• “You are receiving this email because you…”  You signed up at our site or you asked
  to receive our emails at the conference, etc…
4. And last, at the very top of the email you don’t need your company name. What you need, that
   will greatly increase your conversion rate, is the “why am I reading this email”
   headline. The benefit-oriented headline that tells the reader “what it is and what’s in it for them.”

This benefit oriented headline will cause your reader to stay there and read your content and have a much higher likely hood of doing whatever it is you intend them to do. (Go here to read more about creating headlines that elicit action - coming soon).

 

Your want to draw the customer in - carefully

You see, the more people who open your email the higher your sales conversion. The more people who read your headline and say “ah that is something that can be of benefit to me’ the more your conversion sales. So you are essentially drawing the customer - carefully, just as they want to be, and it all starts with them knowing who the email is from.

 

If they fail to immediately recognize, without thinking even for a second, who the email is from the odds are greater that they will click the dreaded “SPAM” button. Then that decreases your conversion rate.

 

Think about how you read email, you don’t read, you scan. Here is your typical process:

1. The first thing you do is scan over who the email from. If you don’t know who it is from what
   do you do? You either delete it or click the “SPAM” button or both.
2. If you know who it is from then you quickly scan the subject line to see what it is about. Then
   what do you say to yourself? You either say “ok, I want to read that because it is of interest to
   me” or you say “ah, not interested” – DELETE.
3. Then if you finally get to the part where you open the email you need further convincing that
   this “open” is worth your time and that you made the right decision to open it. Give your
   readers what they want; they want reassurance that they did the right thing and that it is
   worth their time.
   • And in this case what they did is open your email now give them a big juicy,
     benefit oriented headline that leaves them no choice but to read the rest of the email
     because they can’t wait to get what the headline says. And remember they are not
     going to read your email no matter what you say in the headline so make your body
     copy “scannable” . (To learn this technique, click here – coming soon).