Add the ability to set a custom ‘from’ name for the newsletter

Ideas
#1

Currently Ghost uses the name of your publication in the from: name field. This isn’t ideal as real names could increase the open rate of the newsletter… but your publication might not use your real name.

I’d suggest a field to add a custom ‘from’ name in Settings → Email Newsletter.

#2

Even better if the ‘from’ name could be defined by the authors name.

So if you have more writers on your site, the newsletter can have the person who wrote the newsletter/post as sender: For example “Kevin from Ghost” or “John from Ghost” instead of just Ghost.

Maybe even just first and lastname and not the publication name. So I think the ‘from name’ should be a part of the individual post and not in settings.

1 Like
#3

Yup, I’ve definitely wanted this feature for almost a year now. I keep getting lower open rates because my name isn’t in the from title.

Before Ghost 4.0, I was able to hard code my name into GhostMailer.js, but that hack doesn’t seem to work anymore.

1 Like
#4

Apologies - I had hard coded the wrong file. Here’s a link to the post with the fix: Is there a way to edit the name associated with the From: address of newsletter emails? - #7 by akarjeker

#5

Hey!

Have you tried what the Ghost team suggests?

From address

By default the ‘from’ address for mail sent from Ghost is set to the title of your publication, for example <noreply@your-publication.com> . To override this to something different, use:

"mail": {
    "from": "support@example.com",
}

A custom name can also optionally be provided:

"mail": {
    "from": "'Acme Support' <support@example.com>",
}

Try to use a real, working email address - as this greatly improves delivery rates for important emails sent by Ghost (Like password reset requests and user invitations). If you have a company support email address, this is a good place to use it.

Taken from here: Configuration - Adapt your publication to suit your needs

#6

Would also like the ability to have a different title for the emails than the actual posts.

#7

Wow, didn’t know this was possible, thanks. Would this also be possible somehow with Ghost (Pro)? With my setup I don’t self host unfortunately.

#8

I don’t know I’m afraid. If you are Ghost(Pro) customer, you can contact support: support@ghost.org

#9

I added this to my configuration file, and I’m still getting emails from:

PUBLICATION NAME <email address defined in Settings>

I know my config file is being read, because I updated the Mailgun settings in the file (improperly), and got an error upon sending an email, then I fixed the config, and mail started working again.

Any idea what to do to force the “from” field to be read?

#10

Looking at the code, it seems my config settings are always being overridden:

function getFromAddress(requestedFromAddress) {
    const configAddress = config.get('mail') && config.get('mail').from;

    const address = requestedFromAddress || configAddress;

(Lines 24-27 in GhostMailer.js)

And requestedFromAddress is being set as the value of message.from. I’m not sure how to trace that value back further. Is it because I have the value for “Newsletter email address” set in my Email Newsletter settings? If so, there’s no way to unset it.

#11

Config is for system emails (staff user invites, etc) - Newsletters are send using a bulk mail API with different settings. Currently it’s not possible to change the ‘from’ name on newsletters, but this is on our roadmap and will be possible in future

#12

Great. Thanks for the reply, John. I ended up editing mailgun.js and hard-coding it.

Would it be possible to add a line to the docs that clarifies the “from” setting only works for system emails?

Thanks.

#13

We do have some info about this distinction, linked in various places in the docs:

#14

For sure. I’ve read through that page, and I was aware of the distinction. But that page doesn’t get into how the from configuration parameter works. That explanation is only on the Configuration Help page, and as far as I can tell, it doesn’t clearly state that the “From” field only applied to Transactional emails.

Furthermore, everything else in the mail part of my configuration field is about bulk mailing, so it stood to reason that the “from” property would similarly apply.

  "mail": {
    "from": "'Sandor Weisz' <sandor@mysteryleague.com>",
    "transport": "SMTP",
    "options": {
      "service": "Mailgun",
      "host": "smtp.mailgun.org",
      "port": 587,
      …
    }
  },

Just wanted to lay out my experience and explain why I was confused. Thanks for listening, and for all the work you all are doing!

#15

Understood :) will be making updates to docs as well as an easier way to change ‘from’ name soon!

1 Like
#16

Hi all - just wondering if this is on a roadmap for Ghost (Pro) users. I’d love to be able to use this feature.