To Firstname fix or not firstnamefix - That is the question!

I personally hate it when I get 'personalized' emails sent to me. I find it very insincere when obviously the sender doesn't know me from squat. I always address my own emails "Hi everyone" because I think sincerity is important.

However, I would like to know how other people have found that folks on their lists have responded. At the end of the day, we all just want to give people what they want!

I've always liked it. Jim Cockrum was the first person I got emails from with my name in subject box. They always got opened.

But everyone's different...

I do it, I like it, and I voted in your poll.

Have a great day and I'd love to see the results of your research.

1) Spammers use first names too, so I don't mind if you don't call me Adrian.

2) If you call me Adrian, again I don't mind.

3) HOWEVER ... if you call me FIRSTNAME (or other codes) - as MANY internet marketers do it from time to time, there is a big chance to "fire" you. So ... take care!

I like first names and have used it frequently.

It gets me ready to open an email.

I think that it works good

All the Best

I think it works well outside the internet marketing niche.

But we all know that if someone uses your firstname, they don't actually know you.

I switched to mail only as of 1st January 2010 and conversions are up 10% on my squeeze page.

That's enough for me to change - currently, that's around an extra 250 subscribers a months!

Use of the first name or the full name works very well for me. Even with the welcome e-Mail I get personal responses back from many of my subscribers. This often time sets the ground work for a personal relationship with them. Even though all of my members are getting the same e-Mail.

Ken Leatherman

HEHEHE well I have received numerous emails normally from an aweber account stating Hi Firstnamefix I think to myself . firstnamefix who is he after a while I began to think he was quite a popular fellow:p

That is a good one too. Lol I don't think the first name hurts I know a lot of folks seem to like being addressed people like to hear there name even during conversation like' You know John I was driving down the road the other day and saw a man that looked identical to mickey mouse .John i almost hit the tree on the side of the road I was so shocked to see that. " people like to hear their name for whatever reason I use it well not firstnamefix but subscr_firstname that one in my AR never shows up messed or whatever but I often wondered if used firstnamefix would they try and find out who he is???? :p
-WD

Depends on execution. I wouldn't go beyond "first name" catches as I haven't seen much benefit (it seems to be a hassle for the subscriber).

In parts of the IM niche I haven't seen much benefit in A/B split testing at all.

Outside IM I have had more successful results.

Whether you use First Name or Firstname Fix I still think it's funny that some big names in the IM world still don't test their broadcasts. Just last week I got an affiliate email from a well known worker that said "Hey Firstname" in the body of the email. It has the exact opposite effect of being personalized when it refers to the reader as "Firstname".

If you're going to include a First Name field, make sure it's labelled as such because if it's labelled Name some people may enter both their first and last names. Heck, a few may even include their middle name! Even though I've completed hundreds of online forms over the years, I still occasionally encounter situations where I'm unsure if to enter my full name. Imagine how phoney it would look if a guy named John Hancock Doe keeps getting messages stating "Hi John Hancock Doe" instead of "Hi John". It would be even worse if the full name appears further down in the message.

Also, IMO if you're gonna include a name field, it would be wise to set the auto-response to be delayed for an hour or so. They're some pretty speedy typists around but I doubt any of them can type 250 words per second. Magic!

As to the poll, while it may seem that firstName_fix would be better than firstName, there may be a few edge cases where users intentionally spell their name with a lowercase first letter and want to be addressed that way. Nowadays, people use all sorts of styles. What if The artist formerly known as Prince were to sign up to be on a mailing list and entered his love symbol? How the heck would we fix that? These are things we need to consider. lol