Shel Horowitz's Monthly Frugal Marketing Tip, December, 2005

When I first went online in 1994 (not counting an abortive foray in 1987), most people didn't have e-mail, and those who did typically got fewer than a dozen per day (not counting discussion lists). Back then, if you wanted a stranger to read your email, all you had to do was send it.

Not any more, though!

As we are all increasingly buried in e-mail, the majority of people *don't* read everything they receive. In fact, they don't even receive everything sent to them.

I personally delete hundreds of unread messages every single day--and even then, mail piles up in my inbox. Most of the ones I delete are obvious junk. But still, I often find out later that mail I would have liked to receive didn't get through. Either I thought it was junk and deleted it, or it simply didn't reach me. Just yesterday, a valued colleague wrote to me and a few other people asking for advice and hinting at future work. I did not receive his note, and only found out because one of the other people he asked used "reply to all." He is whitelisted and in my address book, but his mail did not arrive.

So...how can you increase the chances of getting through?

In Part 1 of this three-part series, we'll look at the single most important factor, according to various studies: the from field. And empirically, I'm convinced this is true. Many times I've just been going through my spamfilter, about to trash something with a spammy subject line, and I happen to notice it's from someone I know and/or respect--which earns it a place in my inbox

* Get your own domain name, and let it reflect your business name, personal name, core competencies/services/products, or some other credibility-building factor. It's a ridiculously small investment, and increasing your open rate is one of a dozen good reasons to have domain email. Oh, yes, and you'll have the best response to .com, .org, or .net names, in that order. Avoid domains with country codes that signal spam-haven, like Russia (.ru), South Africa (.za), or Brazil (br)

.* Use your real name. Which would you more likely open? Mail from Shel Horowitz (shel@frugalfun.com) or mail from Studmuffin365@hotmail.com? Would you open anything from Cranberry U. Thornwacker (yzzzzkhj@clueless.com)? For some reason, spammers often create very fanciful names, often composed of odd nouns, on either side of a middle initial.

* The sender's name and e-address should reinforce each other. If I get a mail from Stephanie Jones, davidorloff@marketingexpert.ru, I definitely won't open it. But if the subject line happened to entice me, I'd at least glance at it if it came from David Orloff, Marketing Expert at the same address.

* Get known through other channels, so that your name and email address are recognizable before you ever write to this person. Discussion groups provide one avenue, and telling your own newsletter subscribers on your thank-you-for-subscribing webpage how to whitelist you is another.

Thank you reading this back issue of Shel Horowitz's Monthly Frugal Marketing Tips, published every month since May, 1997; please click here to view the complete archives, grouped by subject. Shel is an internationally known copywriter and marketing consultant, author of Grassroots Marketing Getting Noticed in a Noisy World, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First and several other books, and creator of the Frugal Marketing web site. Please click here to contact Shel.