"He turns not back who is bound to a star." -Leonardo da Vinci
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Improve Your Online Small Business Profits
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Email subject lines make or break an email campaign.
Your subject line is the difference between a reader
opening your email or trashing it.
Two recent studies confirm that having a good subject line
is crucial. The first study recently conducted by MailChimp
analyzed the open rates for over 200 million emails. They
found that open rates range from an amazing 93% to a
dismal 0.5%. The second study was just completed by
MailerMailer's analyzing 270 million email messages.
The findings from these two studies highlight 12 essential
components of a good subject line. Let's review them . . .
1) Short
Yes, shorter is better. Subject lines should always be
under 50 characters and under 35 characters are the best.
MailerMailer found that opens are 5.08% points higher (or
+28.2% comparatively) for subject lines under 35
characters. Clickthroughs are a whopping 1.66% points
better (or +78.6% comparatively) when the subject line is
short.
2) Avoid 3 Words
Help
% Off
Reminder
MailChimp found these 3 innocent looking words are a
death knell for email. They rank up there with having a
spam word in your subject like "Free" or "Sex". Yes,
spammy words in your subject must also be avoided.
3) Personalize
Personalizing a subject line still pulls in readers.
Personalized subject lines even with generic messages get
higher open and clickthrough rates than generic subjects
with personalized messages.
However, using a name is not always the strongest
personalization factor. A localization, such as including a
city name, generates higher open rates.
4) Branding
Put your company name in your subject line. Your
company name should clearly be shown as your "From"
address, but also including your brand name in your
subject will increase opens.
It is a rule of thumb that when people recognize who an
email is from they are more likely to open it.
5) No Promotions
You do not want to make your subject lines read like an
advertisment. Avoid putting sales phrases, CAPS and/or
exclamation marks into them. The studies show the
stronger the commercial pitch in the subject line, the less
likely it's going to be opened.
6) Descriptive
The best subject lines describe the contents of the email
message. If you message is interesting and relevent then let
your readers know about it. Mailchimp notes "the best
subject lines tell what's inside, and the worst subject lines
sell what's inside."
7) Urgency
Both artificial and natural urgency are effective at getting
readers to open an email and take action. Artificial urgency
is set-up in the form of having a discount with a deadline.
Natural urgency occurs when you have a course start date
and enrollment deadline or a limited number of products
and only a handful left.
When your subject line highlights the urgency to take
action now, you get higher open rates.
8) Don't Repeat
Using the same subject line or minor variations of the same
subject line over and over does not work. When you repeat
subject lines each subsequent mailing for your campaign
will experience a clear decline in open rates. Studies show
you will see your open rates decrease by more than half in
you repeat your subjects.
9) Frequency
When you over mail to a list your open rates drop. Inform
your subscribers of the frequency for your emailings upon
sign-up. Stick to your mailing frequency and avoid sending
out too much mail. Yes, 2 messages a day is over mailing!
Try spacing out your mailings be it a few a week or a few a
month.
10) Equal Time
Don't leave your subject line to the last minute! Both
studies strongly encouraged marketers to spend as much
time on writing the subject line as the rest of the message.
And One More Bonus Tip . . .
11) Send to Yourself
Want to find out if your subject is effective? Send it to
yourself. Does your email grab your attention? Does your
email stand out among the other messages in your inbox?
Does your email look interesting and worth opening? Does
it look like spam?
Use yourself as a test and see if your subject line can pass!
There you have 11 tested and studied subject line tips. If
you're looking to improve your email marketing results,
start by improving your subject lines.
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Abbie Drew
DEMC Editor
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