A Well-Done “Change of Address” Email

Inbox Ideas | Email Marketing Tips by AWeber

Posted by Justin Premick

There ought to be some kind of warning label: Changing your “From” address can be hazardous to your email deliverability.

Do it, and a few things can happen:

All those people who added you to their address books (you have been asking them to do that when they sign up, right?) suddenly don’t have you in their address books anymore.
People who had been viewing images in your (HTML) emails suddenly don’t because they haven’t yet permitted images to display for emails from your new address.

But if you have to do it (and sometimes you do), then you should at least do it well.

Example of a Good “Change of Address” Email

A few months ago we showcased a whitelisting request that left a lot to be desired.

I noted at the time that the sender’s “approach to whitelisting [was] bass-ackwards,” but never went into detail about what a better whitelisting request would look like.

Well, courtesy of Dylan at The Email Wars, here’s an example of a well-done one.

Go take a look at the email - my thoughts below will make more sense once you do.

3 Things To Like About (And Learn From) This Email

The Subject Line
Ever had a friend change his/her email address and then email you to let you know? What subject line did s/he use?

I bet it was something like “My New Email Address,” right?

Well, that’s what Marriott did. Short, simple, just like a personal contact would. Brilliant.
Clear Messaging
It’s hard to mistake what this email is about.

Even if you have images off and don’t see the big graphic at the top, the first sentence of the email, and the judicious bolding of text (especially the “Before you close this email, please follow these 2 steps” line)
The From Address
They sent this request from their old/existing “from” address, instead of changing the address first and then asking.

If that seems like common sense, well… it is.

But you’d be surprised at how many people change their address, then send an email out from the new address, before you’ve added it to your address book telling you that if you don’t add the new address, you won’t get their email (do you see the irony here?).

Anyway, those are my thoughts on this “change of address” email, but I won’t steal Dylan’s thunder - go see the email and check out his thoughts!

Tags: Email Deliverability, examples

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One Response

Dylan Boyd
October 27th, 2008 at 10:36 pm

Thanks guys for the props. I will try to continue to give you good things to share with your clients and readers.