Always Consider the Human Element

In this article, Stefan Pollard tells us to always review our messages to make sure they're immediately recognizable by the recipient:

Use a recognizable sender line.
The sender line or from name can make or break you in the inbox. Readers look for familiar identities; if they don't recognize you, they'll delete and possibly report your messages as spam. Always format your sender line to show the most recognizable name, usually your brand or company name, not the person who hits "send."

Write a clear, concise subject line.
Brand the subject line with your company, newsletter name, or product brand, whichever is more relevant to your readers. Also, consider context. What else is in the reader's inbox? Do your subject lines stand out? Do they look like your competitors or, worse, the spammers who operate in your market niche?

Optimize your presence in the preview pane.
You have about two seconds and maybe 4 square inches of message-body real estate to convey your identity or brand and to describe clearly what the message contains. If you fail this test, the reader may delete your message without opening it or may report it as spam.

Comments

[Jeff.Wang]

I think it is also a great idea to personalize the subject line, say, Jeff, let ** create resume for you, things like that might draw you and your recipient closer.

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[Tamara] Although you have to be careful with this and definitely test it with a small subset of your list, because it's a tactic that spammers often tend to use. So test it first!