What If You Sent an Email With the Wrong Name—On Purpose?

You’re drafting an email to a prospective student or their parent. You triple-check the merge fields, preview the test email and hit send—only to realize the name is wrong.

Panic mode.

Now pretend it's not just a single name—it's an entire email sent to the wrong audience. Instead of going to 40 students, your email goes to an entire database of 300,000+ people.

Unfortunately, this isn't a faux scenario.

In a marketing role of mine, one of our athletic coaches accidentally sent an email to every student in our Slate instance—past, present, and current—saying they’d seen them at a recruiting event for their sport and asking them to fill out a recruit form.

Let's just say I received one of the most panicked phone calls of my career.

We caught it quickly and went into crisis mode. My instinct? Follow up with a lighthearted, self-aware email that laughed it off while clarifying the mix-up. 

And guess what?

📌 In the next 48 hours, we had a record number of prospective student-athlete recruitment requests across all sports.

📌 A parent (who works in marketing!) even emailed me praising the way we handled it.

Yeah, we had quite a few funny comments and screen shots on social media. But, what started as a terrifying mistake turned into a surprisingly big win.

Why a ‘Mistake’ Email Might Actually Work

Errors in emails always get noticed. A student who might have ignored your message will open it if something looks off.

But instead of it being an actual mistake, what if it was intentional?

Let's put this into practice.

What if you wrote a subject line including a "wrong name" that catches their attention—only for the email to reveal that it’s a planned message reinforcing a benefit about your institution, such as personalization, class size or attention to detail?

"Unlike other colleges, we know names, [Right Name]. Because details matter—especially when it comes to your academic journey."

You’ve caught their attention, acknowledged their name and turned it into a personalized, values-driven message.

How This Could Be Used in Admissions

A strategically “wrong” name could be a way to reinforce:

✔ Personalization & Attention to Detail "At [College Name], we don’t make that mistake—we know every student’s name, story and goals."

✔ The Value of Small Class Sizes "At [College Name], you’re never just a number. In fact, your professors will know your name from day one—and we’ll always get it right."

✔ A Message About Standing Out "With so many emails flooding your inbox, this one probably caught your eye. That’s because at [College Name], we do things differently. We make sure every student feels seen, heard and valued."

But Does This Actually Work?

There’s anecdotal evidence that mistakes in emails—whether intentional or accidental—can increase open rates and engagement. Some marketers have experimented with deliberate errors, claiming they grab attention and spark curiosity.

However, there isn’t hard data proving that mistakes consistently boost response rates across all audiences. Email engagement depends on many factors—subject lines, sender reputation, timing, and content relevance.

That’s why the best approach to this is A/B testing.

• Try one version of an email with an intentional “error” and another without it to see how your audience responds.

• Track open rates, click-through rates and conversion rates to measure effectiveness.

• Make sure it aligns with your brand voice—because while some audiences may find it clever, others may find it off-putting.

Is This Genius or Crazy?

This strategy is not for everyone—and it needs to be executed well to work. But in a crowded inbox, where students and parents skim emails at lightning speed, an unexpected twist might be just enough to make them pause and engage.

Would you try it?