The subject line is the most important part of an email. It’s the first hint as to what the message is about. If it doesn’t entice subscribers, they may never open the message.

When looking at email statistics, it’s important to know the difference between email delivery and email deliverability.

Delivery
Email delivery means an email is successfully delivered to the receiving server. Email Service Providers (ESPs) will provide reasons why a message was rejected (bounced) to the sending ESP. Based on how many emails were accepted and rejected, we can accurately measure delivery rates. We strive for at least a 98% delivery rate.

Deliverability (Inbox Placement Rate)
Email deliverability means your message arrives in the recipient’s inbox as intended. However, we are unable to know what percentage of emails arrive in the inbox vs the junk folder. We can make inferences about deliverability by analyzing some key engagement metrics (bounce type and reason, open, click-through, and unsubscribe rates). Engagement is also important to help achieve high deliverability.

After the subject line, the preheader text is the next thing recipients read when they receive your email campaign. Preheader text is the short summary that immediately follows the subject line when viewing an email in an inbox.

These two elements help the recipient decide whether to open your email. And, as you know, the email must be opened before the recipient can proceed to a click-through and take the desired action.

We recommend keeping the preheader text between 85 and 100 characters long. If a preheader is too long, readers may lose interest. Use the preheader to tell readers what the email is about, why it’s relevant, and to support your subject line.

Even if a subscriber chooses not to continue receiving your messages, we want to ensure their ongoing positive impression of Mutual of Omaha.

Keep the length of the email short and concise. We recommend staying between 75 to 125 words, as these lengths of emails typically receive better response rates. Newsletters may be longer but use a hyperlink to share any further details when possible.

Use bullet points to identify key points in the message and repeat the main message throughout the creative but avoid repeating the exact subject line word for word within the email.

Detailed information around how to write using our voice and tone can be found in the Brand Standards.

Go to Brand Standards

Sender Name
The sender "from name" is one of the most important factors for recipients when deciding whether to open an email. It is important that the "from name" is recognizable, effective, and consistent. For most customer facing emails, it’s best to use ‘Mutual of Omaha’ as the from name as it is the most recognizable in the over-crowded inbox.

Sender Email Address (Sending Domain):
The sender email address, also known as the sending domain, is the web address that comes after the @ symbol in an email address. Sending domains are tied to IP addresses and help build credibility and deliverability for emails. They allow recipients to easily identify who the email is from and if they can trust the email. Below are domains we currently use for Mutual of Omaha emails being sent by the Email Marketing team:

@e.mutualofomaha.com
@notification.mutualofomaha.com
@secure.mutualofomaha.com
@rpd.mutualofomaha.com
@advisor.mutualofomaha.com
@ws.mutualofomaha.com

Email should be more than a one-way conversation. Using a “no-reply” email address as the reply-to address in your marketing email puts a wall between you and your recipients. It stunts two-way communication and will likely discourage engagement.

Allowing customers to reply directly to an email campaign facilitates opportunities for conversations you’ve never had before. All feedback is valuable, so opening yourself up to this form of communication feedback will only help your program in the long run. We always recommend having a close the loop option on emails we send. Suggestions for this would be setting up a shared Outlook inbox or routing replies to a monitor customer service inbox.

Your call(s) to action is one of the most important pieces of content in your email. After persuading your subscribers to open your email with an enticing subject line and preheader, your next goal is to get subscribers to engage with your content.

Delivering an actionable, inspiring CTA is the biggest content opportunity within your email. Build content around your CTA by deciding what your end goal of the message is and what action you want to drive with the CTA. The message of the email should support the CTA to help inspire a click.

Be clear and concise in your CTA and don’t ask for too much up front. Sometimes one CTA in your email is enough (for example, if you’re promoting a sale, or want someone to download an eBook). Other times, a few CTAs are appropriate. Test what resonates with your audience best and don’t be afraid to take some risks.

All Mutual of Omaha links, including Mutual of Omaha’s logo, should always be directing back to Mutualofomaha.com. The links must be tagged using the appropriate UTM parameters. We recommend using the following format: