Use contact details in "To" field

[JulieL34]

Would like to be able to insert the subscriber's first and last name in the "to" field so their name can be placed with their email address. This can't be that hard, most of the ESPs offer this, notably has been doing it for a long time. I can't imagine why you didn't see that as an important option to offer.

[Frankie_P]

Hi @JulieL34 does personalizing your subject line with a contact’s name not fit your needs on this?

[JulieL34]

No, it doesn't. For a couple reasons. One: I have read and heard from many people that more weight is given to email messages that have the addressee's name in the To field, not just their email address. But no way is provided that I can see to add it into the To field. Second: I personally find it a little creepy (or at least annoying) when marketing emailers insert my name in the subject line, as if they think this will make me believe that they know me.

definitely offers this feature, right when you're setting up the email it asks you if you want to personalize the "to" field (and offers several ways to do it). I don't know why they offer it but i bet that's based on similar research to what I've read. They put it right in front of you--you can skip; over it if you're not interested, but it's right there reminding you to think about it.

[Frankie_P]

Hi @JulieL34 thank you for following up with these details! I have opened up your idea on this so other users can weigh in as well.

[JulieL34]

I understand you guys don't want to mention your competitors in your "community"--but you could at least put something in place of the company name when you delete it, like xxxx or ____.

That way people know you have done it and it's not an error made by the community member.

But thanks for opening up the idea anyway. I'm interested to know what research anyone is aware of in terms of the impact on delivery, of including a name along with the email address in the "to" field.

[Caitlin_M]

This is a valid idea but I'm thinking of some scenarios where this may confuse the recipient. If a contact entered their personal information when signing up but an email is being sent to a larger group of contacts (thinking of certain role addresses like info@ or office@ off the top of my head), how would this be perceived by the individual recipients if they are not seeing their own names? I'd like to hear your thoughts about this. Not shutting down the idea. Just trying to better understand how this would be beneficial for you.

[JulieL34]

I have a few thoughts about this.

First, as I'm sure you know, Constant Contact discourages us from even signing up role addresses, for the same reason, that people may get it who aren't expecting it and aren't that interested in a particular thing. My own opinion is that people who receive mail as part of a group that receives mail addressed to a role address will be "smart enough" to know that it may be someone else in the group who requested the mailing.

Second is that even quite aside from this, the vast majority of people who sign up for most email newsletters or store mailing lists, etc. are in fact individuals. So it seems like a very small percentage of any mailing list would even fall within the group of people who have the potential to be confused.

Most important from my perspective is what I posed this two years ago! I have seen a lot of research online that indicates that having a name in the "To" field improves the deliverability, especially when it exists across a list. I don't know why that is the case, and I don't know if the researchers have hypothesized a reason, but my best guess is that it would give a list "more points" so to speak about being a legitimate list--one that actually "knows" via some form of contact, not only the people's email address but their name. And again, my second point, very few addresses are sent to role addresses, I believe, especially because it is so discouraged.