To personalize or not to personalize the subject line of email marketing, that is the eternal question. Email subject line personalization (i.e. putting your first name in email marketing email that is sent to you) is a hotly debated topic. Generally speaking, the conventional wisdom among email marketers is that putting their target’s first name in the subject line makes it more likely that the target will open their email. In the email receiving industries, however, email subject line personalization is generally considered to be a reliable indicator of a) bulk email and, often, b) spam.
So we figured that we’d ask you, our readers, because you guys are the targets. So, does your name in the subject line of an email marketing message or email from a business make you more or less likely to open the email?
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I really don’t care if a marketer puts my name in the subject line. What I DO care about is marketers who don’t want me to know who they are until AFTER I open their email. If neither the subject line nor the from line identify the company sending the email, then it’s trash.
I do hope you will follow this up with “unknown names” in subject lines — which I particularly dislike — and link to a (short term, in history) increase in general suckiness of general society. I’m speaking, of course, of getting emails — NOT from a trusted (by you) organization — but instead from an “unknown” hopefully ahead of that trusted organization. I often respond with a pre-written piece linking a willingness to “open” and read such mail to a belief in drinking baby and crashing through the doors of Congress wearing a MAGA hat.
It signifies — pending detailed examination — that is you open and actually read such an email — you likely are more accepting of a “social media” meme that all info from all matters — equally. We can easily see — especially with big majority opinions that Popes don’t really eat babies (how do you cook a baby?) that if all info is equal — you’re gonna get a bunch of crap in that info — and it will make our mutual world seriously suckier.
Dru