Mobilize Mail Opinion

A client has asked us about changing the FROM address in their emails so they can provide a more descriptive text to help with subscriber recognition. We thought about this question for a while and decided to run a couple of tests to see what would be the impact of changing the FROM address.

Now before we begin the FROM address field in an email can comprise of two parts:

The senders email address such as "Newsletters@mobilizemail.com",

A text part such as "Mobilize Mail". The text part if provided is sometimes displayed instead of the email address.

So for a FROM address you could have: "Mobilize Mail <newsletters@mobilizemail.com>".

In most modern email clients this would be displayed as:

If you did not have a text part in the FROM address then the email would be displayed like this:

When you click the reply button your email client is normally smart enough to use the email address that was supplied within the FROM address.

Best Practices for the FROM Address

The most common best practice around the content of the FROM address is to provide something that will spark some form of recognition with the subscribers such as your business name or your full name.

In the example above the FROM contains "Mobilize Mail" which alerts the subscriber instantly to who sent the email. The subject line also provides a good indication of the intent of the email.

Now, what happens if after a while you decide to change the FROM address to something else?

For example:

That should not be a problem should it?

Well there are a number of considerations to think about before you make the leap. For example what if the subscriber added a rule in their email client that located your emails based on the FROM content?

Below we can see a subscriber has created a mailbox rule for any email that contains "Mobilize Mail" in the FROM field.

By changing your FROM address you may in fact be damaging your existing relationship with the subscribers by making their existing mailbox rules redundant or worse causing your emails to be deleted or moved to the trash folder.

How did the email clients like the change?

One thing that we were interested in was how an email client would deal with a change in the FROM address if there was a current address book entry.

For example below is an Entourage address book entry for "Mobilize Mail".

When an email is sent to the client this is how the FROM address currently appears:

Now lets change the address book entry for Mobilize Mail to "Joe Bloggs" as below.

We then send the same email again to this subscriber with the same FROM address which is "Mobilize Mail <newsletters@mobilizemail.com>".

Below is how Entourage now displays the FROM address. Entourage completely ignored the FROM address in the email!

We can see from this example that Entourage will display the details within the address book for the sender not what has been added to the emails FROM address.

This could be a pain for some email marketers who frequently send out emails using the same email address but change part of the FROM address.

In order to see how some of the more popular email clients dealt with changes to the FROM address with an existing address book entry we created the following simple test:

1. Create an email campaign with the following FROM address "Mobilize Mail <newsletters@mobilizemail.com>" and send to the test email lab.
2. Once the email arrived add the senders details (in the FROM address) to each email clients address book including the text part which is "Mobilize Mail".
3. Send the second email campaign and change the FROM address to "Mobilize Mail Newsletter Service <newsletters@mobilizemail.com>".
4. Finally send the third email campaign but only have "newsletters@mobilizemail.com" in the FROM address (no text part).

What we are looking for is if the address book entry overruled the change in the FROM address of the email. The findings are below:

Apple Mail:

No problems with Apple Mail.

Entourage:

Bummer! The Entourage address book controls the FROM address!

Eudora:

Gmail:

Interesting. All 3 emails are grouped by the "Mobilize Mail" contacts entry which works like an address book. When the email group is clicked all 3 emails are expanded – see below.

Lotus Notes:

Lotus Notes is happy.

Outlook 2007:

All good here.

Thunderbird:

Changes showed up in Thunderbird.

Windows Live:

Yahoo! Mail:

Our testing identified only one email client namely Entourage that refused to display the emails correct FROM address if there was an existing entry in the address book for the recipient.

Gmail grouped the emails together based on the "Contact" entry which is not great but at least the correct FROM address details are displayed when you click on the email group.

Our Tips for the FROM Address

Even though only one of the email clients refused to display the emails FROM address (namely Entourage) and instead displayed the address book details you should still seriously think before you change your FROM address text or email address.

Subscribers these days create rules to help them manage their email which includes rules using the content of the FROM address.

We recommend that caution should be taken to any decision to change the FROM address details. If you do need to change the details then warn the subscriber in at least one email prior to the change so any changes they need to make can be done at their end.

Every couple of weeks I wait with baited breath for the next installment of Tim Ferriss’s exciting life. Tim Ferris is a man who states that he only works 4 hours a week to earn more in a month than some people earn in a year. I have read his book and love it so it was an easy leap to get me to sign up to receive updates to his blog via email.

Sometimes Tim provides a little movie dealing with something interesting which automatically appears within my email client. In the last installment it was how to “peel” a hard-boiled egg without peeling!!

To view the movie within my email client all I have to do is play it. The movie starts in seconds and there is no latency and well – it just plays where it is – no trips to a web site or nothing.

I thoroughly enjoy watching the movies and told many of my friends to sign up to his email alerts.

What I forgot to mention was that unless you are using Apple Mail as your email client you are not in fact going to see the movies nor in Tim’s case will you ever know they were ever present!

You see Apple Mail as of this posting seems to be the only email client that plays flash movies.

In order to prove my statement I ran Tim’s latest email blog alert through our email test lab – see the results below:

Apple Mail

Go Tim!
Tims video in Apple Mail

Entourage

Interesting that Entourage at least provided a blank space where the flash should be running. At least you know something might be missing.

Yahoo! Mail

There is even no mention of the movie not even a little broken icon to make me wonder what I am missing.

Gmail

Nope – nothing here.

Outlook

No surprises here. Outlook 2007 would be the last email application I would expect flash to run in.

Outlook Express (Windows Mail)

A warning about the flash file is all that Outlook Express can muster.

Thunderbird

Thunderbird at least displays a blank area where the flash should be.

Windows Live Hotmail

Hotmail doesn’t want to know about the flash file either.

So is it Worth Sending Flash Movies in Email?
Looking at the results the only reason you would bother inserting flash movies in an email is if you knew for a fact that most if not all of your subscribers used Apple Mail.

If not don’t bother. You can try and fiddle with wrapping the flash in a table or a DIV and provide a backup image but I doubt that even the image would appear if its anywhere near the HTML that deals with the flash file.

In Tim’s case I doubt he is even aware of this issue and maybe its not a concern as most people would just visit his blog.

Mark over at Email Marketing Reports has a number of articles on the subject including this one.

The May 08 Habeas study reveals consumer attitudes towards email and online interaction with businesses. There’s some really valuable insight here for your online marketing…

Email vs other communication mediums – will it survive?

The study confirms increasing concern about email fraud, scams, spam, viruses, and privacy, but…despite all this:

What about emerging platforms such as mobile?

There is an increasing trend toward consumer use of mobile devices such as internet-enabled phones, but far from superseding email, they will provide another arena for it. Just like Web sites, mobile versions of email need to be compact and focused to reach mobile users effectively. This is an opportunity not many businesses are tapping into yet, but will become more commonplace – probably for businesses with more time-sensitive services. It could be worth thinking forward to be ahead of the game…

What are the most important factors for success?

The study confirmed interest from consumers in gaining more control over their online interactions with businesses, and noted other trust factors:

What things will most scare your customers off?

Previous studies have shown a real ‘email insecurity factor’ among consumers, in fact nearly 60% keep different addresses for entities they trust vs don’t trust. If you can make it into their latter category, your emails will likely attract ready attention.

So…stick with email but keep looking forward with good reputation management

Far from being eclipsed by other emerging communications methods, consumers expect email to be the main workhorse channel into the future. Organisations that build trust with consumers through forward-looking reputation management strategies will stand out and gain long-term competitive advantage. As a brand expert recently said…your reputation is your brand – the most important asset your business has.