Think about this morning when you opened your email. Most people – especially small business and nonprofit professionals, go through a similar dance with the contents of their inbox. You quickly scan that first page of waiting emails for any major “fires” that need to be addressed and then you start at the top of the page and make your way down the list, quickly sorting each email into one of three categories – now, later or never.
You were likely not conscious of this. And I’ll apologize now for calling it to your attention because the next few times you open your inbox, you will be strangely aware of this usually subconscious process. You may find yourself cursing me for the next 48 hours each time you begin to fight this battle of priorities – which is the right word for this dance. And you need to be conscious of it, not so much as a recipient, but as a sender of important messages — and for the record, this applies to social media as well as email. You sort facebook posts and tweets in much the same way.
So how do you make sure your messages and posts fall into the Now category? You obviously don’t want to be a never. And the truth is, a later is a hopeful and well-intentioned never. There are three pieces that play a roll in the Now, Later or Never game.
The From Name – meaning who the email came from or who posted the social media post
The Subject or Headline – that short title we give our messages to entice a reader to give it a few minutes of attention
Timing – are you sending and posting at the optimum time for your own audience?
The most important of these three is the from name – who sent or posted the message. I’ll write about how to write a subject line that works and how to figure out the best time for your messages and audience in separate posts. But for now, let’s look at the from name.
The from name in an email is where it says WHO sent the email – it’s not the email address but the name that appears in the list of emails waiting for attention in your inbox. It’s most important because relationships and our connections rule the universe in terms of our priorities. WHO the message comes from is your make or break moment between a now, a later or a never.
If you can send from a person’s name, or post as a person (not a brand), you’ll get more people stopping to take a moment and read.
When we get emails or see posts from a brand name, we very often will mentally file these messages as “marketing” – and immediately throw them into the later or never category. But if it comes from a person, we generally pause and consider the message. (which is when your subject line kicks in) so send from a person’s name.
If you think they only know your company name and not YOUR name, then piggy back off the recognition of that brand name by combining your name with the company name. When I send emails to Constant Contact customers, I send from Julie Niehoff, Constant Contact so that they stop because it’s a person’s name but they recognize me from the brand name they work with.
If you have multiple sales people who manage groups of accounts, send to those accounts from that sales person’s name. That is the person they have the relationship with so having them see that name in the from line is going to give you a better shot at winning the battle of priorities.
Stay tuned for posts on subject lines and timing. For now, keep this in mind – it’s extremely important that people on your email list recognize you and reasonably expect to get an email from you.WIhtout that basic and implied level of permission, you will not see real results from email or social media activies. And make sure you are asking your customers and fans to share your messages and offers. You cannot over estimate the power and value of word of mouth.
Julie Niehoff 