Email recognition: Don't put a paper bag over your head

Latest posts | Feed | By Mark Brownlow on March 12, 2008

As part of an unplanned retro-week, we've been talking a lot about how the strength of the relationship between sender and recipient is ever more important for driving email success.

It's always been important, but in recent years it got a little overlooked in the technology rush: too many buttons to press and spreadsheet cells to fill.

There are various elements to this magic word "relationship." And I'm too tired to try and list them all (to be frank). But we can think about things like trust, loyalty, credibility, value etc.

Of course, any relationship or reputation you've built with the recipient is worth a pile of burnt beans if they don't recognize your email as coming from you.

And not recognizing the sender is one of the main reasons people will delete the email or mark it as spam, a point made again by Ben Chestnut in this more general article on spam complaints.

So how do you ensure your emails are recognized?

An obvious way is through the content and design of those emails. And here I'd simply point you to a superb article by Stefan Pollard, where he outlines various parts of the email (headers, logos, copy, snippets etc.) you can use to achieve brand recognition.

But recognition does not begin and end with the email itself. You set the stage for achieving recognition through other elements of your email program, too.

The start of the email relationship is particularly important. Among the many benefits of gaining explicit permission is that recipients are more likely to recognize your email simply because they're expecting it.

The sign-up process itself begins the process of recognition. You can link to sample emails. Or warn people what to expect on a sign-up confirmation page, as in this example.

The concept continues with the welcome messaging. Right after sign-up is a choice moment when a good welcome email (or set of emails) creates an awareness and anticipation that carries through to your "normal" emails.

(Lindsey Secord has a few welcome mail tactics and screenshots in this new article.)

Then we also need consistency...of presentation and frequency.

Recipients become used to a particular email structure and design. Significant changes need careful treatment to ensure the recognition factor is not lost.

Look, for example, at this table of winners and losers in subject line tests. Although ostensibly evaluating the impact of the word "free," the comparisons also suggest that dropping the brand/business name from the subject line has a negative impact. Lower recognition = lower open rates.

Consistency of frequency is also important. This doesn't mean only sending emails at a specific interval. But it does mean sending enough email that you're not forgotten. My rule of thumb is a minimum of once a month.

And as a final thought, we come full circle to the idea of relationships again. In an earlier post on the topic, we talked about sending professional, valuable, personable emails that build trust, credibility and loyalty.

If you're doing that then people will seek your emails out among the morass of inbox mediocrity. And half the recognition battle is already won...

Related posts:
What to put in the from line?
Recognition and relevancy
Recognition and open rates

Tags: email marketing, email recognition, email reputation, email relationships

[This post brought to you by Campaigner Email Marketing]
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