Okay, guess if these subject lines were opened or neglected?
Tempting August NUSA Specials!
Your April Website Stats
MotorCycling Magazine Reader Survey
Final reminder for complimentary entry to attend the West Freelands BCI Cluster Conference 2006
Preliminary Floor Plans for Southern Village Neighborhood Circle members
SALE ends soon – up to 50% off all bras at Kara!
MailChimp just updated their second big email subject line study, revealing some interesting dos and don’ts for getting high open rates. Here’s a hint for you: You should also be aware of your own behavior. Which emails do you open? Where does your eye go first? Mine often looks at the From line (see number 6).
Here are eight more of their guidelines:
1. Keep subject lines fewer than 50 characters. “The exception was for highly targeted audiences, where the reader apparently appreciated the additional information in the subject line.”
2. Personalization does not increase open rates much. You’ve seen the subject lines, “[your name], this webinar is for you!” Their research says that personalization does not increase open rates very much. Providing a city name helps more. That makes sense. If I saw, “A new restaurant in Falls Church, Va.,” I would open it.
3. Don’t repeat subject lines. So maybe my SIPAlert Daily Week in Review should always have one or two words describing what follows—SIPAlert Daily Week in Review: Branding and Digital Ads. “While it is important to establish continuity and branding of the newsletter, ideally each new campaign should provide a clear indication in the subject line of what is inside this newsletter that is of interest.”
4. Build a good list. You’ve heard that before.
5. Valuable information tops promotion. There’s a reason content marketing is all the rage (and one of the four tracks at our Marketing Conference in Las Vegas, Dec. 11-13). But, if you are sending promotional emails: “Keep the message straightforward and avoid using splashy promotional phrases, CAPS, or exclamation marks in your subject lines. Subject lines framed as questions can often perform better.”
6. The From and Subject lines should work together. As much as possible, the “From” entry should not change and should concisely convey who you are. Save any humorous phrases or concepts for the subject line.”
7. Don’t sell what’s inside, tell what’s inside. People are currently being bombarded with email. Don’t be vague, don’t be too constant—although some will say that it does work for webinars, especially if you remove the people who already signed up—and be careful about using “free.”
8. Three words to avoid: Help, Percent off and Reminder. (That gives you a strong hint on one of the above questions.) Funny about “reminder.” I think we’ve all probably used that one—I guess we just ignore it.
Oh, about the subject lines up top. Here are the results:
Tempting August NUSA Specials! - .9%
(“Special” and exclamation points test poorly.)
Your April Website Stats – 92.6%
(Timely and useful information)
MotorCycling Magazine Reader Survey – 88.1%
(High affinity to activity/experience)
Final reminder for complimentary entry to attend the West Freelands BCI Cluster Conference 2006 – .5%
(“Reminder” is bad and subject line in this case too long)
Preliminary Floor Plans for Southern Village Neighborhood Circle members – 93%
(Timely information. Implied benefit for quick action. Over 50 characters in length – which is good for this targeted audience)
SALE ends soon – up to 50% off all bras at Kara! – 1.9%
(Percent off and exclamation point are not good)
Now I need to come up with a good subject line for this. Definitely not, “[your name] Reminder: Get % off help from us!!!”
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Ronn Levine began his career as a reporter for The Washington Post and has won numerous writing and publications awards since. Most recently, he spent 12 years at the Newspaper Association of America covering a variety of topics before joining SIPA in 2009 as managing editor. Follow Ronn on Twitter at @SIPAOnline