First names – should you use them in emails?

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Should You Collect First Names On Your Landing Pages?

READ TIME: 4 min (<– according to my read time calculator, the audio version took 10 min to read aloud )

Hey FIRSTNAMEGOESHERE

I wrote you three-quarters of an email about paddling but decided to bump it. It’s been a while since I wrote about email, which is allegedly the purpose of this newsletter.

So, let’s do that.

Last week on retreat someone asked me about using first names in an email. Are we still doing this? Even though I use them, I don’t recommend it for most businesses. I’ll tell you why in a sec.

I’ve been collecting first names since I started this newsletter in 2016 because that’s what Marie Forleo and Amy Porterfield were doing. Like an obedient girlboss-in-training, I followed suit. So did everyone else I knew.

Remember how cool it was to get an email that started with “Hey Your Name Here”?

So personal! So friendly! Tarzan knows my name!

But for most of us – including me – use of first names ended in the opening line. Eight years later, this classic merge tag isn’t wowing anyone.

Let’s also remember that not everyone is a marketer. In some B2C markets, starting an email with a person’s name is freaky/confusing. “OMG, is this person sending me a personal email?! WHAT IS THIS?!” Expect confused replies.

Before you add a “first name” field to your landing pages, ask:

Do you need that information? What are you planning to do with it, beyond a cool parlour trick that was en vogue eight years ago?

Fewer fields = higher conversions on your landing page.

The more fields you add to your landing page, the more conversions you sacrifice. Collecting names won’t impact conversions much, but add a field for phone numbers and conversions start to decrease. So you should only collect information that you can use to increase sales down the road.

If the goal is to personalize emails, a better option is to add a short survey and tag subscribers based on their title, desired outcomes, or something else that’s relevant to your offers.

For example, I often ask subscribers to tag themselves based on their interests. Like at the top of this email where it says, “​Click here to be added to the waitlist.​” If you click that, I can send a special email that’s tailored to my most eager buyers, acknowledge the action you took, and offer you something special (HINT HINT, NUDGE NUDGE).

Even rudimentary personalization like that will impact sales far more than me saying “What’s up, Friend” in your opening line.

Lots of things can go wrong with your clever merge tag.

Most obviously, you could misspell the tag and start an email with a misfired merge tag. No one wants to read an email that starts with, “Hey, FIRSTNAMEGOESHERE.” But we’ve all made this mistake. It’s embarrassing but also kind of inevitable.

Plus, subscribers will make errors in their form.

Every week I get multiple emails that start with, “Hey Trazam!” because I typed too fast on the opt-in form. I instinctively blame the sender, which is mostly my personality. Even so, spelling mistakes scream, “YOU = AMATEUR,” even when we both know it’s not your fault.

If you decide to use first names, make sure to capitalize and use fallback text when using them in your emails and newsletters. Our merge tag in ​ConvertKit​ (affiliate link) might look something like this:

The fallback text is often imperfect, especially when using first names creatively like I do.

Speaking of which—

I’m not taking the first name field off my landing pages because, unlike most newsletter operators, I use them all the time in creative ways. I love playing with them. I love thinking, “How can I work my subscriber’s name into my email and make someone laugh today?”

So I’ll continue to collect them and pay the (minor) conversion toll. But I am the exception to the rule. (Or maybe not! Another aspect of my personality is thinking I’m the exception to every rule.) Chances are you’re not using first names this way, and don’t need to be collecting this information.

Hear me out tho:

EMAILS, BUT BETTER is billed as playful and entertaining on ​my opt-in page​.* As you can plainly see, I’m having a great time here. I even planted an extra joke in this email for all the subscribers whose names I don’t have. (Hit “reply” and tell me if you got the joke! You can always ​update your information here​.)

That said, none of my peers in the newsletter growth industry collect first names. It’s kind of old hat. Everyone I know seems to be using ​Right Message​ to personalize emails, which I’ll teach more about in my upcoming program. ​beehiiv​ (affiliate link) also has an excellent post sign-up survey tool.

Okay, stepping off my soapbox now.

Hopefully this email has served as a reminder I actually know something about email. Not just a NATIONAL SPRINT CANOE MEDALIST

If you liked this email and you’re asking yourself similar questions about email, you’ll love +1KSUBS and you should probably let me dom you. Oops, I mean you should probably ​tag yourself as interested​.

I wasn’t really planning any advanced waitlist strategy, but now I definitely am

Also, you can send me your questions, no matter how amateur, if you want more emails like this one.

What burning questions does my reader have about email?

I want to know! Hit “reply” and share yours.

P.S. If you don’t see your name in this email, it means I don’t have it. You can ​update your information here​. Please do so if it’s spelled wrong!

(Don't change a thing if you’re my friend/subscriber Mike who signed up as “Jasper.” I sometimes write special jokes just for Jasper.)

*Olly Meakings from Senja published ​a teardown of my landing page​, in case you’re curious. Basically famous now.