Two Urgent Details Your Email Must Have by Inbound Marketers

Number 1. Actual Person as the Sender.

The name you include in the “From” field of your email can have a huge impact on your overall open rates. SugarBush conducted a number of A/B tests on our own emails, and we have found that sending our emails from an actual person increases both the open and clickthrough rates for our email marketing efforts.

People feel a more personal connection to your email when they receive it from “Shannon Johnson” than they do from Company X, or worse, some version of “donotreply.com”. You can even consider adding the sender’s picture to the bottom of your emails, and signing off the email with their signature or nickname.

Experiment with how to position your “from” sender. Watch your open rates to determine if people prefer someone they hear from frequently, such as the relationship manager or sales rep, or if your company CEO nets more clicks. You may find that your best email open rates actually come from a combination of a person’s name and company name, e.g., Shannon Johnson, SugarBush. Including both a name and a company brand can help put context around your email marketing.

If you are creating five-star content, people will frequently look forward to your regular email communications, and open your messages because it comes from your company – so let them know it’s you!

Finally, whomever you choose to include as your sender, be conscious that people will expect an answer to any emailed replies, so have someone tracking your email accounts, and be prepared to address any questions or concerns you receive from your list.

Number 2. Company Branding.

Make sure your email marketing templates echo your overall company brand. You want the people opening your email to recognize who you are, and remember why they clicked on your email. While they don’t need to be identical, the design elements in your emails should echo your company style. A consistent brand image, language, and tone helps your audience relate to your content and expands your overall brand experience.

Consistent brand style also conveys the professionalism and planning that goes into your email marketing efforts.

The easiest way to ensure a consistent email style is to create, and regularly utilize, email templates, such as the ones that accompany this offer! In your template design, include your company colors, logo and any other important corporate branding elements.

When designing your branded templates, don’t overdo it, and pay attention to how long it takes to download your email messages. Emails with tons of design elements – big images or video, for example – can create problems in prospects’ inboxes than more basic HTML emails.

Some of your recipients’ inboxes will default to prevent images from downloading, or in other words, it will take too long to find and download all those images. You want the visual design of your emails to enhance the overall experience, not get in the way of the content, so make sure your design doesn’t inadvertently decrease your open rates.