Hi Everyone

I just read an interesting article on Media Post website:

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=128966&lfe=1

about whether to use a First Name in Email Marketing Subject Lines or not.

I am in disagreement with the content of the article because it is missing the point that the majority of businesses are small to medium businesses and they SHOULD personalise their email subject lines.

Here is a small extract from the article.

My comments I left on the MediaPost Website follows this extract.

“I’ve received over 500 emails so far this year in which the subject line included my first name. “Morgan, Book Now & Save on Top Travel Deals” … “Morgan, Get Dad a 58″ Samsung Widescreen.”

Congratulations, you have a whiz-bang email tool with mail merge functionality. But it’s no longer novel. The wow-factor has officially subsided…

When I see an email with my name in the subject line, my first thought is not “Phew! These guys know my name!” No, it’s become a red flag for spam.

In fairness, it used to work. When I analyzed the use of name personalization in subject lines six years ago, there was a slight uptick in open rates for subject lines that contained a name personalization string. I looked again three years ago and there was no difference in open or click rates when name was included in the subject line. “Dear [First Name],” at the top of form letters had no impact on click-through or conversion rates. If I cared enough to look today, I suspect the results would be worse.

But why bother? First, there is the potential for mistakes.  Some people, like me, make up names when forced to provide an email address. I did this with one company I suspected of having questionable privacy practices. Each email I receive from them starts, “Hi, GetSpammed!” reminding me I didn’t trust them in the first place.

- Morgan Stewart -

These are my comments I left as a post.

An interesting post Morgan but I think you are missing the point with Email Marketing and First Names.

The majority of businesses which make up the market place are small to medium enterprises.   Their loyal customer base, whom they may know personally, expects an email with their first name to be used.

In Australia small businesses represent 70% of the business transactions.  So, when the local motor mechanic sends out an email to his 1000 people, many of whom he knows personally they would be peeved not to have their first name mentioned.

Email Marketing is about

1. The List;

2. The Relationship with the List; and

3. The Offer.

All three must be congruent.

So, I disagree with your comments in so much as there must be a lack of relationship with clients if the first name doesn’t matter.

Email Marketing is not about ‘blasting’ names out to the masses like many corporations do.  It’s about carefully constructed, strategic messages which resonate with your clients.

So, keep the First Name if you are a small to medium business.  Send out email messages which your customers love to receive and to heck with the large corporations, don’t follow them, they don’t know their customers personally like you.  Kurt Johansen – Australia’s Email Marketing Strategist.

There you have it – I always recommend to my clients to use the first name in their email subjects because it would be rude not to.

And…

When you pen your emails write it as you are writing to only one person. That’s the skill to master with email marketing.

Cheers and Great Selling

Kurt

Australia’s Leading Email Marketing Strategist