Email headers

By Mark Brownlow | Post to del.icio.us

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Next topic: The subject line

Now that you understand the important elements of professional newsletter management and delivery, let's look at the structure of the newsletter itself. Even ignoring the actual content, there are a surprising number of structure and layout issues which affect the impression imparted by your email.

The innocuous email headers viewable in preview panes and inbox lists are an oft-neglected opportunity to build the foundations of impact and influence. These headers can:

Regardless of the software or service you use to send out your newsletter, you can normally control at least the subject line, and usually the from and reply-to headers as well. Make use of the opportunity!

The "to" header

The "to" header normally appears as one of the following:

  1. The email address or name of the recipient, e.g. mark@blahmadeup.com or Mark Brownlow
  2. A generic newsletter-related address or title, e.g. listmembers@blahmadeup.com or Keeping the Key list members
  3. An anonymous, generic recipient, e.g. List member

The best approach is to have the recipient's actual email address or name in the "to" field. Sending email to an individual, rather than a list encourages readers to think of your newsletter as a one on one, personal communication.

The further away you get from a personalized "to" field, the more likely you are to be mistaken for spam. And the less likely you are to communicate that personable touch, one which encourages that feeling of connectedness mentioned in Chapter 1.

At the very least, you should have your newsletters sent to a generic newsletter-related address or title. Simply sending them to "list members" encourages recipients to think of the newsletter as a one-way, anonymous, even heartless, communication.

Some publishers prefer a generic newsletter-related "to" field, so the recipient can use the "to" field to filter the newsletter to an appropriate folder. But as we'll see, both the subject line and "from" field are better suited for that.

The "from" header

The "from" header can serve two purposes. It gives the recipients a good identifier to use when filtering incoming mail, and it gives the publisher the opportunity to identify the newsletter and connect with the reader.

The "from" headers used in newsletters can take various forms:

  1. An anonymous email address or sender, e.g. mailer@somelistservicex.com or Some Mail List Service
  2. A person, e.g. mark@blahmadeup.com or Mark Brownlow
  3. An organization, e.g. Brownlow Enterprises, Inc.
  4. A website, e.g. newsletter@blahmadeup.com or KeepingTheKey.com
  5. A newsletter, e.g. Keeping the Key or keepingthekey@mailistservicex.com
  6. A combination, e.g. Mark Brownlow of KeepingTheKey.com

So how do you decide which is best for your newsletter? The first guideline is never use an anonymous, meaningless email address or sender name. It's impersonal; you're hardly likely to generate much reader enthusiasm for someone called "mailer".

Anonymity also increases the risk of being deleted as spam. The "from" field must clearly identify the origin of the email.

Using the editor, author or publisher's name or personal email address reinforces the idea of a personable one-on-one communication. However, it's less effective (even confusing) if readers are not familiar with that name.

In such cases, you're perhaps better off going with an organization, newsletter or website reference, especially if they have a high recognition or impact value.

Another danger with using a real name or personal address is that readers use that name or address as a filter to move your newsletter into an appropriate folder. If you happen to be communicating directly with any of your readers, it could be that your personal communications also get shunted into the "newsletter" folder.

This can be avoided by using slight variations of your name in personal communications and newsletter communications, e.g. "Mark Brownlow" in one and "Mark J. C. Brownlow" in the other. (J. C. are my middle initials.)

Perhaps the ideal solution is to combine a name with a more identifiable entity, e.g. J.M.Bloggs at Company.com. This combines "personable" with "recognition". Unfortunately, the settings in email software usually mean that the "from" field display is relatively narrow.

You haven't normally got a lot of space to work with, so you might be better off with either the name or the organization, if you want the from header displayed in full on a reader's screen.

The "reply-to" header

Since this header is not normally displayed to the reader, its direct importance is limited. However, like it or not, readers will use the reply-to address to send feedback, manual unsubscribe requests and the like.

This is the case even if you highlight feedback and other contact addresses in your mail and even if you clearly state that the reply-to address is not monitored or even capable of receiving messages. People are simply used to hitting the reply button.

The key point here, then, is to ensure (where you can) that the reply-to address can accept incoming mail, and that such mail generates a quick response.

Do not assume that a failure to get a response from a reply-to address will encourage people to seek out an alternative way of contacting you. Many will simply keep sending to the reply-to address, getting increasingly frustrated and angry at the lack of response.

By the time they do seek out alternative communication routes (an email address, a website form etc.), they're not happy, and your chances of winning impact and influence are considerably lower than they might otherwise have been.

Fortunately, most email services, systems or software allow you to insert a custom reply-to address into your outgoing newsletters or they can at least forward mails arriving at the reply-to address to an email account of your choice.

One thing I do not recommend is making your reply-to link the automatic unsubscribe address. It does make unsubscribing very convenient, but you will get many readers hitting the reply button to send feedback or ask a question. They'll then find themselves bereft of any future newsletter issues, to their (and your) consternation.

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