Tailoring “From” and “Subject” Lines for Email Clients

So you got a great email message design, wrote a perfect Subject line, added your company name to the From field and you think you’re ready to send the email out. Wait a minute. You work may not be over yet. You probably will need to spend some time for optimizing your From and Subject lines. What does it mean and why is optimizing the From and Subject lines so important?

You know different email clients render the From and Subject lines in different ways. This is one of the challenges of distributing email newsletters.

Some email clients limit the quantity of characters if the From and/or Subject lines. So, if your Subject is too long, it will be cut off and may be unreadable for the recipient. In some email programs the From and Subject lines are interrelated – the longer the From field, the shorter the Subject line is allowed. The From field can be displayed either as Name + Email Address, or Name, or Email Address in different email programs.

It’s good if you know what email clients your recipients use to view your emails. You can then tailor your "From" and especially "Subject" lines to display properly for all the recipients. If you don’t have the information about your recipients’ email programs, try to optimize your message at least for the most common email clients listed in the table below.

How most popular email clients render the "From" and "Subject" lines

 

Email client
"From"
char.
"From" shows
"Subject" char.
Notes
Outlook
User
Name+ Email
User
The user defines the length of the "From" and "Subject" lines
 
Outlook Express
User
Name+ Email
User
The user defines the length of the "From" and "Subject" lines
 
AOL 8
15/16
Email
51
 
AOL
16
Email
72
 
Yahoo
30+
Name
80+
The "From" and "Subject" lines depend on each other – a longer "From" reduces the space for the "Subject"
Hotmail
20
Name
45
The "From" and "Subject" lines depend on each other – a longer "From" reduces the space for the "Subject"
 
MSN/Hotmail
20
Name
45
The "From" and "Subject" lines depend on each other – a longer "From" reduces the space for the "Subject"
 
Eudora
User
Name
User
The user defines the length of the "From" and "Subject" lines
 
Excite
20
Name
40/80+
If "From" is longer than 20 char, "Subject" expands to 80+ on 2 lines. If "From" is 20 char or less, "Subject" is cut off to 40 char
 
Juno
32+
Name
55+
The "From" and "Subject" lines depend on each other – a longer "From" reduces the space for the "Subject"

 

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