A Well-Done “Change of Address” Email

By October 3, 2008

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

A few things can happen when you change your “from” address:


  • 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 follow these tips on how to do it well.

How to do it well

1. Keep the subject line simple

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

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

Sounds good. Short, simple, just like a personal contact would. Brilliant.

2. Use clear messaging

It should be hard to mistake what your email is about.

Include a big graphic at the top with bold lettering that explains that you are changing email addresses. Make sure the graphic also requests that the reader add the new address as a contact. In the body of the email, include multiple references to the change. Consider a closing that gives step-by-step instructions for how readers can add your new address as a contact.

3. Use your old “from” address

Send your request from your 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?).

 

Looking for more tips about writing emails? Download this free What to Write in your Emails guide! You’ll get a 7-day email course and 30+ email templates (just fill in the blanks and copy and paste the content into your emails!).

 

 

Posted By

Justin Premick

Former Director of Educational Products

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4 Comments

  1. Dylan Boyd

    10/27/2008 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.

  2. Inder P Singh

    1/25/2009 7:56 am

    Justin,

    Yes, I do see the irony in your example. The reader would only receive the email in their inbox if they had already added the new email address to their safe addresses list. Since this is not the case here, the request to add the new email address would most likely not even be read.

    Thanks for providing a good post from which to learn.

  3. Ann

    12/28/2012 11:51 am

    Just wanted you to know- I found this post very helpful and then had to stagger all over the ‘net looking for the Marriott change of email announcement. So if anyone else needs it, it’s here now: http://eroi.com/good-example-of-the-address-change/

  4. JoJo Zep

    10/15/2013 4:18 am

    Just wanted to comment regarding the Subject Line. I don’t think that a simple ‘My New Email Address’ is good enough these days it can easily be seen as spam so would suggest actually putting your name in the subject eg. ‘Joe Smith – My New Email Address’. This way Joe Smith will be recognizable to the persons and actually see what Joe Smith is saying.