News

What makes a Great Subject Line?

• Make it compelling
• Explain the contents of the email
• Intriguing subject line that alludes to what’s within the email
• Alternatively – very directly describe what’s within the email
• Create a sense of urgency to drive action from the recipient

(Short-term promotion or other Call-To-Action)
Examples*:
Best Open Rates (60%-87%)

1. [COMPANYNAME] Sales & Marketing Newsletter
2. Eye on the [COMPANYNAME] Update (Oct 31 – Nov 4)
3. [COMPANYNAME] Staff Shirts & Photos
4. [COMPANYNAME] May 2005 News Bulletin!
5. [COMPANYNAME] Newsletter – February 2006
6. [COMPANYNAME] Newsletter – January 2006 [ *|FNAME|* *|LNAME|* ]
7. [COMPANYNAME] and [COMPANYNAME] Invites You!
8. Happy Holidays from [COMPANYNAME]
9. ATTENTION [COMPANYNAME] Staff!
10. ATTENTION [COMPANYNAME] West Staff!!
11. Invitation from [COMPANYNAME]
12. [COMPANYNAME] Jan/Feb 2006 Newsletter
13. Website news – Issue 3
14. Upcoming Events at [COMPANYNAME]
15. [COMPANYNAME] Councils: Letter of Interest
16. [COMPANYNAME] Coffee Exchange – Post-Katrina Update
17. We’re Throwing a Party
18. October 2005 Newsletter
19. [COMPANYNAME]: 02.10.06
20. [COMPANYNAME] Racing Newsletter

Worst Open Rates (1%-14%)

1. Last Minute Gift – We Have The Answer
2. Valentines – Shop Early & Save 10%
3. Give a Gift Certificate this Holiday
4. Valentine’s Day Salon and Spa Specials!
5. Gift Certificates – Easy & Elegant Giving – Let Them Choose
6. Need More Advertising Value From Your Marketing Partner?
7. [COMPANYNAME] Pioneers in Banana Technology
8. [COMPANYNAME] Moves You Home for the Holidays
9. Renewal
10. Technology Company Works with [COMPANYNAME] on Bananas Efforts
11. [COMPANYNAME] Update – A Summary of Security and Emergency Preparedness News
12. Now Offering Banana Services!
13. It’s still summer in Tahoe!
14. [COMPANYNAME] endorses [COMPANYNAME] as successor
15. [COMPANYNAME] Holiday Sales Event
16. The Future of International Trade
17. [COMPANYNAME] for your next dream home.
18. True automation of your Banana Research
19. [COMPANYNAME] Resort – Spring into May Savings
20. You Asked For More…

*Study performed by MailChimp.com on campaigns sent to at least 100 recipients.
While it’s plain to see that some of the top email subject lines are for internal emails, it still gives you an idea of how you should be crafting the subject for those internal emails. For the subject lines with  the lower open rate, many seem more sales driven, or cliché.
Timing of your emails
Industries and target markets vary. You need to do testing to determine when the highest open and response rates occur in your market or in individual lists. When sending out an email, during holidays, with any sort of action required will most likely be neglected over a holiday weekend unless the recipient will benefit greatly from it. A great way to test for ideal timing is to perform A/B Testing, which we’ll discuss later.
From Line
From Lines have been known to have a huge impact on open rates. You wouldn’t open your door for a stranger, right? Make the sender well known and relevant to the subscribers.
Keep in mind, a company based domain is best so that your emails are coming from MARKETING@COMPANYNAME.com rather than COMPANYNAME-MARKETING@gmail.com which may cause the email to be sent to spam, or eventually blacklisted.
Having your email address Blacklisted means that more email services will recognize you as SPAM and it will quickly become difficult, if not impossible to continue with your Email Marketing campaigns. Are you Blacklisted? Check these sites to find out: CBL (Composite Blocking List), NJABL.org (Not Just Another Bogus List), SORBS (Spam and Open Relay Blocking System), Spamcop, and Spamhaus. If you are Blacklisted, follow the steps on this website to see if you can get off the list.
Preview Text – Preview text is not as bold in the main content of the email, but does show a brief preview of what the email is all about. This is a great opportunity to add any information you couldn’t include within your subject line or introduce the recipient to the content/idea of the email in more depth.
A/B Split Testing
A/B Split testing is the great way to ensure the best of the aforementioned is being used to reach your audience. A/B testing will send two variations of an email to a small text portion of your list, the better performing will then be sent to the entire list. It’s an excellent resource that a lot of companies use to guarantee their market is receiving the best marketing material at the right time.
If the majority of this seems too complicated, or too time-consuming for your business to accomplish on their own. Liquified Creative offers services for Email Marketing Campaigns that would require minimal involvement. Beautifully crafted, responsive emails to help ensure your campaigns are engaging and memorable.