Email subject line testing is probably the easiest tactic to directly improve your email campaigns and that is why one of the most profitable tactics you can employ in order to improve the return you are getting from your email marketing activities. The dotMailer team already covered the importance of the subject line testing better than I would ever do so I decided to share some actual testing ideas (or as scientists call it - Hypothesis) which you can easily apply to your next email campaign.
1. Capitalisation
Start really simple. Before even trying to test different variations of your subject line try simply test the way you display it. Completely capitalised subject line will obviously attract more attention in the recipients' inbox but at the same time might look spammy. Test all possible capitalisation variations to find the most optimal format.
(ALL CAPS version won by 11% in this particular test)
2. Word Choice
Even most ordinary offers can be stated differently increasing the appeal for your recipients. Try testing percentage discounts (10% off) against money value (up to 100$). Or adding strong value words like "Save" or "Optimise" in the beginning of your subject lines to strengthen the value you provide.
3. Size matters
Whatever people might say but with subject lines size definitely matters. And if majority would think that shorter lines (50 characters max) work better that is not always the case. Test short, straight forward subject lines vs. long creative 'wordsmithed' statements. Sometimes a long subject line is the only way to ensure that main value proposition of you email campaign is properly communicated.
Additionally to the actual character count, try placing the offer in the different parts of the subject line. Even this type of insignificant change might easily generate 5%-10% increase in you open rate.
4. Brand & Name Dropping
This point covers plenty of test possibilities. You can test including your brand name vs. not. Or test the actual placement of the brand name combined with the rest of the subject line. Moving forward you can try to include very well known brand names as well which will obviously attract the attention of your recipient. Examples can be:
Even Amazon is doing "insert your service here" wrong
Learn to "insert your service here" like Google's CEO
Finally, if your brand equity is really strong, sometimes it might be more lucrative to focus an entire subject line on brand values and test it vs. offer only. Here is an example of one of my recent tests:
(Brand name is covered to keep the client's competitive advantages untouched.) In this particular test the subject line 2 mentioning the brand produced a whooping 18% increase in open rate.
5. Think outside of the box
With such an extremely rapid growth of email marketing as the prominent revenue generating tactic your respondent's inbox is polluted by hundreds, if not thousands, of subject lines and sometimes you need to go that extra mile in order to stand out. Subject line testing allows you to go that mile without wasting all your recipients on the way. Try testing really extraordinary ideas and measure the impact. By extraordinary I mean:
- Shock and Awe - think about really shocking news or weird comparisons. Compare the lack of your UVP to death or hunger. Adding the F-word might actually help depending on your industry
- Pop culture reference - "Lady Gaga shares her SEO secrets"
- Insult your readers - "Don't be an idiot! - Read this now"
- Promise really huge things - "5 productivity tips can change the course of history"
As you can see there are no common rules or limitations and only truly curious internet marketers will reach the highest open rates. Happy testing!
Author's Bio: Kiril Bunin is an internet marketing consultant helping clients in various tactics including email marketing optimisation. This article was written on behalf of Monitor.Us providing free website monitoring services.