I know, I’ve never heard of him either.

At least I thought I didn’t. 

Because just as I was about to hit the “this is spam” button, I realized I had quite deliberately (and fairly recently) signed up for his newsletter.

I just didn’t remember, and his name, all alone and out of context, was nearly not enough to remind me.

We each receive a ton of emails every day. The political requests for donations, in particular, tend to come from people we’ve never heard of – with just their name in the email “from” line.

So, it’s more important than ever – and it’s been important since the beginning of email time – that you do whatever you can to remind the people who get your newsletter (many of whom, over time, may not know you personally) who you are.

My go-to for a long time has been “Name | CompanyName” in the “from” field (e.g., Michael Katz | Blue Penguin).

It’s not foolproof, but if they delete your email without opening it, nothing else matters.