Reggie's articles appearing in Catalog Success

Change the Subject
The latest tricks to drive open rates and get results

June, 2008
By REGGIE BRADY

Subject lines carry a lot of weight.  They drive open rates and results. After e-mail recipients look at your “from” line and recognize your company or service, the next thing they do is look at the subject line to see what might interest them.

Let’s examine some of the latest techniques for getting customers past the e-mail client and into your site.

Feel free to use “free”

In the past, marketers were warned not to use the word “free” in a subject line.  The concern was that it triggered spam filters and reduced chances of delivery.  Since “free” is the most powerful four-letter word in a marketer’s arsenal, many have continued to experiment and use it. 

Here are two pieces of good news.  First, the ISPs are not putting as much weight behind filtering the word “free.”  And second, “free” increases open rates.  So, if it makes sense for your offer or promotion, try testing “free.” 

Many catalogers offer free shipping from time to time.  This is a guaranteed winner and you’ll want to be sure to highlight this in subject lines.

Keep them short and direct

Long subject lines can be truncated in some email clients.  Keep subject lines between 45 to 50 characters, including spaces.  If you do use a longer subject line, put the most important information first.

EmailLabs has an easy-to-use tool on its Web site that allows you to preview how your from and subject lines appear in various email clients.  It’s worthwhile to check it out at: http://www.emaillabs.com/tools/from_subject_line_tool_popup.html

You may want to keep your subject lines even shorter.  MailerMailer released a subject line study in late 2007 that examined open and click-through rates for subject lines less than 35 characters vs. longer subject lines.  Here are their results:

Spend time crafting subject lines

Too many companies put all their focus on creating their emails, leaving the subject lines as last minute inclusions to the message.

I like the way the cataloger Wine Enthusiast approaches this.  Its marketing head likens a subject line to a catalog cover.  Catalogers know the cover makes a big difference to sales ? a subject line performs the same function. 

Wine Enthusiast’s email copywriter comes up with 10 suggested subject lines. The marketing team reviews them and sometimes comes up with additional ideas.  Once marketing pares the list down to a few winners, the team takes a quarter of the file to do A/B or A/B/C test. 

Tests can include small tweaks.  They tested “Wine Enthusiast Wine Refrigerators” vs. “Our Wine Refrigerators.”  The use of the word “our” provided better results, perhaps because it made a stronger connection between the company and the email recipients.

Speak to me

Think about personalizing your subject lines.  Your recipients’ eyes are naturally drawn to their own names, which focuses attention.  Be judicious about this.  Although it works, that doesn’t mean that every subject line should be personalized.

MailerMailer reported on the impact on results for personalization in subject lines.  The difference turns out to be substantial.