A customer called yesterday and asked a very good question about the ‘from name’ they are going to use for their email marketing campaigns.

The ‘from name’ is what appears in your recipient’s inbox as the sender of the email.

Since, in many popular email programs, all someone can see is the name and subject prior to deciding whether or not to open the email, the name represents a very important piece of the puzzle. Often times the name alone can severely impact your open rate.

The key thing when selecting the ‘from name’ is to use something that your customers will recognize. This is by far the most important question you have to ask yourself. If all of your customers know your store as “Widgets R Us”, then it is very important that is the name they see. Even if your name is John Smith that doesn’t mean it is in your best interest to put that on your email marketing campaigns. If people are only going to recognize your company name (in this example “Widgets R Us”) then you should use that.

On the flip side of the coin, if people know your name personally, then don’t feel obligated to use your company name.

As always, the key is to put yourself in your recipient’s shoes and figure out which name they will recognize most.

If you’re really unsure and you’re banging your head against the keyboard trying to figure out what name will yield the best results, then you can do some A/B testing. Send out an email to half your contacts with one name (maybe your company name) and then the other half with a different name (maybe your personal name). See which one performs better and then that will answer your question on what to do for future email marketing campaigns.