Optimise your email to be read

Improving your email open rate will have a direct effect on your bottom line. Here are the best practices to follow to optimise your email open rate

The sender's name

The choice of sender name is very important, as it is often what your recipients will look at first before deciding whether or not to open your messages. Some use their company or brand name, others prefer to display a person's name. Sometimes you can even find a simple email address.

The sender name is decisive for the effectiveness of your campaigns

it forms the basis of the relationship with your recipients and will quickly determine whether your email is to be ignored, deleted or opened. The sender's name and subject line go hand in hand. No matter how catchy your subject line is, it will have no impact if the sender is vague, dubious or inappropriate.

Why 'From' is important

Consumers' inboxes are flooded with commercial messages, social network notifications and other transactional messages, and attention spans and time spent on email are declining. Messengers have added filtering and prioritisation features to their interface to allow users to sort and display emails by sender.

Mistakes to be avoided

Do not use an email address as the sender's name, as it is more difficult to read and therefore to identify. Moreover, it is characteristic of spammers.

Just as it is recommended not to use noreply®domain.com as a sender email: avoid "No reply" as a sender name. Even if it is email marketing, consumers hate to feel the automated side of these communications.

Don't be too long! Be precise, but concise, as the space for displaying the sender name is limited.

What works

Soyez constant, ne changez pas de nom d'expéditeur à chaque envoi. Si vos destinataires se sont inscrits sur votre site, ils connaissent votre entreprise. Ils s'attendent à recevoir des messages de votre entreprise une fois qu'ils se sont inscrits.

The sender's email address

You also need to choose a sender address. The choice of this address is important because it will have an impact on the image of your organisation and on the deliverability of the emails.

• Use an email address that really exists. Be careful because the address you specify in your emailing solution may not exist because it is not the one that is in charge of sending (it is the servers of your emailing solution that take care of this). Some anti-spam tests consist of checking that the sender's email exists.
• Your email must include your domain name. Avoid free addresses (@yahoo.com...). If you do not have a domain name, register your own domain name (with your company name and a .com or .net extension).
• Check the messages received at the sender's address. You may receive questions or complaints from recipients, which will help you to improve.
• Do not change your email address. Some of your recipients may have added you to their address book to ensure that they receive your emails. Messages from approved senders always arrive in the inboxes.

You should also be aware that the reputation of your sender address is stored and analysed by webmails. If you have a good reputation built up over time, it would be a shame not to benefit from it.

The subject of your message

• Keep it short, about 30/40 characters. If your object is too long, there is a chance that part of it will be truncated, and therefore your object will be incomplete. It is also considered that a short object facilitates understanding and encourages curiosity.
• The more specific your subject line is to your recipients, the more likely you are to increase your open rate. For example, include your subscribers' first and/or last names directly in the subject line for more impact.
• The subject line of your message should truly represent the content of the message, and should not deceive the recipient into opening your email and thus disappointing them.
• You can add a touch of urgency to your message to boost your open rates. Use words like 'last day', 'until monday'...
• Using the word "free" in the emailing may send your message into the spam box by the spam filters. However, you can use the word within the message.
• Avoid all caps and punctuation marks, many spam filters do not tolerate these characters, but you can use special characters to attract attention.

Your goal is to be read, by applying these few tips, you will see real improvements.