Chip had a great answer to this question today in BtoB that I thought I'd share:
Answer: E-mail recipients put more weight on who the e-mail is from than any other item when choosing which e-mails to open, which to delete and which to complain about.
Our “from address” testing shows an increase in open rates and click-through rates when the “from” name, “from” address and subject line are appropriately branded. It also shows a reduction in spam complaints.
An e-mail service provider should give you a choice of how your “from” address is managed. For example, possible options for XYZ Brand include:
Option 1: news@xyzbrand.com
Option 2: xyzbrand@xyzbrand.com
Option 3: news@xyzbrand.espdomain.com
Option 4: xyzbrand@xyzbrand.espdomain.com
In options 1 and 3 above, the “name” side of the e-mail address (left side of the @ symbol) isn’t branded. This is the first item I’d recommend testing in your business. We recently changed to option 2 (a branded e-mail name) for several clients based on statistically significant tests showing a response increase and a complaint reduction when compared to option 1.
Options 3 and 4 are typical implementations with an e-mail service provider (ESP). Both options use a subdomain of the ESP (espdomain.com), enabling the ESP to more easily support reply mail management or manage DNS issues, such as Sender ID or SPF authentication (since they maintain control of the root domain).
How does using an e-mail domain different from your own affect response rates and complaints? The jury is still out. However, a recent Gartner Group survey of 5,000 online buyers found that more than 1 million consumers were scammed out of $925 million in 2004 because of phishing attacks. Think that makes consumers aware of the brands their e-mails come from? Of course it does.
If consumer reactions to spam and phishing are any indication, it would seem the best solution is one that doesn’t obfuscate your brand in any way. Leverage your asset and use your name in your “from” name, “from” address and subject line.
Chip House is VP-privacy and deliverability at ExactTarget, an Indianapolis-based provider of permission-based e-mail marketing solutions.
While I agree in principle, I would say that my service provider claim better deliverability rate when using their email address. We do customise the first section (before the @), but use their name for after the @.
I guess it's a trade-off - between deliverability and implications to brand.
Posted by: Richard Leader | September 05, 2005 at 02:40 AM
The challenge with sending with the ESP's domain is, to me, a pretty straightforward issue. Because there is no standard in place that allows email senders to track which subscribers have added your FROM address to the user's address book/safe list, and if you're asking the user to add the from address that contains an ESP's domain, then think of what happens should you ever decide to switch email marketing vendors: you'll need to change your FROM address and have to start from scratch asking people to add your NEW FROM address to their address book. Until your subscribers do this (now, for the second time), several leading email programs used by your subscribers may not display your images in your HTML messaging.
Regarding the above comment regarding better deliverability when using the ESP's domain, frankly, I'm with an ESP and I'm pretty shocked another ESP would claim that. The vast majority of consumer ISPs will use IP address or IP address block as the primary tool in determining white listing status, not domain of the FROM address (even though white listing does not always guarantee delivery to the inbox, or at all (i.e. if a specific user has you blocked), not the domain of the sender. Domain of the sender, in general, is more important for B2B mailings where you might have to worry about blacklisting issues. In almost all cases, I think it makes more sense to use your own domain - your ESP has a lot of clients, their overall volume is higher, and it's probably more likely that your ESP's domain (anywhere in the email content, or FROM, REPLY-TO or RETURN PATH address, will trigger filters rather than your own - I've witnessed this first hand with links from some leading web analytics companies). At any rate, even if you're using your own, ESPs and other companies that specialize in deliverability consulting/tools (i.e. www.returnpath.biz, www.habeas.com, www.pivotalveracity.com) should be able to help with deliverability regardless.
While we're on the subject, if you use your own domain with an ESP, make sure you've got SPF set up for your FROM address. That can help with your delivery performance as well to certain ISPs. Your ESP should be able to assist you with this process.
Posted by: Justin Foster | September 10, 2005 at 03:18 PM