1) Choose the right length ‘From’ name and subject line

Different email clients have different display lengths. For example Hotmail displays around 55 characters in the subject line while some versions of AOL may only display 45.

In addition some email clients display the ‘From’ name while others display the ‘From’ address in the preview. Therefore be careful not to have an address that customers would not recognise.

Here is a table giving you a breakdown of major email clients and their capabilities:

	From name or address displayed?	From length	Subject line length
Outlook	Name	20	50
AOL 8/9	Address	15	50
AOL Web Version	Address	16	40
Yahoo	Name	Multi-lines	Multi-lines
Hotmail	Name	22	40

2) Beware of Spam filters

Spam words used in the subject line can score double points compared to if they are used within the body of the message.

Also remember to standardise on a ‘from’ address as recipients will add this to their safe senders list.

3) Use a female ‘From’ name

While there is no hard, reliable research to support this many online marketing gurus have suggested using a female persons name in the ‘From’ name as this generates better open rates.

While there can be many reasons for this why not try it yourself – split your email campaign into two splits to see what difference in results you get.