Subject lines: new insights
Latest posts | Feed | By Mark Brownlow on October 04, 2007
Nothing beats curling up in front of the fire with the beverage of your choice and a nice new study on subject lines.So put on the kettle and head on over to MailChimp, who compared open rates with subject lines on over 200 million emails to come up with some conclusions on what works and what doesn't.
Lots of interesting stuff in there, such as the effect of repetition and the impact of localization. (Pus the schadenfreude value of learning some folk get open rates of less than 2%.)
What the study confirms is that it's not just about the actual words you use. The impact of the subject line is modified by other factors, such as previous experience with the newsletter, from lines etc.
Interestingly, the authors issued a press release specifically about the negative effects on open rates of three words when used in subject lines: help, % off and reminder.
The "% off" factor fascinates me. Are the low open rates caused specifically by the use of that particular phrase?
Or is this phrase associated with low open rates because it often appears in emails whose other characteristics might be causing an open rate drop (such as lazy and badly-conducted promotional email campaigns with sleazy senders)?
In other words, if I have a high-value email program with a great reputation, would using % off in the subject line still have such a big negative effect on open rates?
And let's not forget that open rates are not the final measure of email success. Are those that do open more likely to convert because it's a discount offer?
I'm sure retail emailers will have additional insights.
All of this reminds us that whatever route you take with subject lines, the only way to be sure you're taking the right one is to test alternatives on your audience.
More on email subject lines | Tags: email marketing, subject lines, email open rates
[This post brought to you by Campaigner Email Marketing]
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