In a December 2008 Datran Media survey of 3,000 marketing executives from Fortune 1000 companies, 80.4% of respondents identified email as the strongest-performing advertising channel for their brands, and 82.4% said it helps increase sales through other channels.
For companies interested in generating similar results, the first step is to improve open rates through the use of effective subject lines.
We asked DJ Waldow, director of best practices & deliverability at Bronto Software; Ben Chestnut, cofounder of MailChimp; Dylan T. Boyd, VP of sales & strategy at eROI; and Greg Cangialosi, CEO of Blue Sky Factory, to weigh in on what makes a good subject line.
Here's some of what they came back with:
- Keep it concise, 35 characters or less, according to Cangialosi. "Longer subject lines will be truncated by some email clients," he said.
- Make it about the reader. Boyd suggests writing to the audience, not at them; keeping the customer lifecycle in mind; and personalizing the message based on profile or behavioral data. "Always pushing your sales agenda will reduce the open rate and conversion rate," he said.
- Make it actionable by providing a sense of urgency and a clear call to action (think verbs!). "Put the most important information and the key call to action first," recommended Cangialosi.
- Ensure your message is simple, clear, and informative. "If it is not simple, [is not] understood, and doesn't give a clear action or value, then it will be passed over," said Boyd.
- Avoid ALL CAPS and exclamation marks. "[ALL CAPS] feel like you are shouting for attention and not being respectful of your subscribers' time," said Boyd. Chestnut added: "If there are 100s of other emails in the inbox with subject lines screaming for their attention, sometimes whispering is the best way to stand out."
- Include your brand. "This is especially important if your company name (from line) is not that well recognized," said Waldow.
- Draw attention with buzz words like "Twitter" or "YouTube," said Waldow, who also offered, "I like to think about subject lines as headlines in newspapers. Does it catch enough of your attention to read on?"
For an idea of what works for us at MarketingProfs, here's a look at the Top 100 most effective subject lines from the MarketingProfs Get to the Point! Newsletters.
See whether any of these catch your attention...
- Potty All Night Long
- Four Blogs You Should Be Reading
- Seal Your Pitch with a Kiss
- Release Me Please!
- A Week at IKEA
- Twitter for Timeliness
- I See Riches on the Horizon
- Newsletter No-No's
- A Doctor Who Only Makes House Calls
- Widget for Dollars
- Did He Really Call It a 'Nymphomercial'?
- I Am McLovin!
- Playing Tag
- The Freeconomics of Online Media
- How Customers Are Like Lab Rats
- Sidle Up to the LiveBar
- The SEO Rapper
- Burger King Tells a Whopper
- Get 'em to Gawk
- A Coffee Klatch for Every Marketer
- Laugh 'Til You Cry
- Shameless Marketing Stunt
- A Super Bowl Strategy That Paid Off
- How Saying the Least May Achieve the Most
- Loaf Run
- Senior Makes Site Accessible
- Oh, Count the Ways You Can Annoy a Journalist
- Ranting and Raving
- Jingles 101 with Dinah Shore
- When Your Video Isn't Viral
- On-the-Fly Creativity
- Put That Checkbook Away
- Branding Tips from the Queen of Burlesque
- Time to Yelp!
- Get Over It, Kid
- Do You Have Peripheral Vision?
- Rules Schmules
- Create a Customer Walk-a-Thon
- Is Your Newsletter a Must-Read?
- Keeping Up With the Kremplers
- Subject Lines: Tell, Don't Sell
- Cool Open-Rate Stats
- Podcasting is Easier Than You Think
- Don't Be a Twit
- My Blog, Myself
- Think Small to Win Big
- Social Security Shenanigans
- Would Your Blog Get an A?
- A Resolution You Can Keep
- How to Measure That Long Tail
- You've Been Punk'd ... and Wiki'd
- The Cold, Creamy, Refreshing Story of Social Media
- The Wisdom of the In Crowd
- The Angel in Red Speaks to Us
- Glad You Could Make It!
- Springtime for Twitter
- Using Tricks of the Journalistic Trade
- We're Still Married to the Past
- I Like 'em Small and Focused
- Get Gored
- Will Dance for Gum
- It's Alive! It's Alive!
- conferences">No More Boring Conferences
- A Clearly Good Marketing Plan
- Yammer to Keep It Together
- Passengers: Your Captain Has Screwed Up
- Invite. Engage. Inoculate.
- The Slow Art of Customer Seduction
- How to Blow It in Five Words or Less
- Give 'em a Good Tease
- Taking the Email Plunge
- Analyze This
- The Deviant Approach to Creativity
- A Gentle Step into Web 2.0
- Sprechen-Vous Italiano?
- We're Short on Euphemism Today
- The Revolution Will Be Widgetized
- Inspiration from the Swat Team
- Why You Want Customers to Notice Your Zits
- Help Your Customer Live the Fantasy
- Remember Me?
- Pepsi's Scheme Fails Taste Test
- Mind Your E-Manners
- Time to Step Up Your Blogging
- Go Where the Current Leads
- Look at Me. Now CLICK.
- Warm Up Your Thinking Cap
- What You Can Learn From Starbucks' Mistakes
- Dumb It Up, People
- Those Jerks Are Talking About You. So Talk Back!
- How to Be a Better Blogger
- A Permission Marketing Primer: Picking and Choosing
- It's Time to Socialize, People!
- Stick to the Script!
- Loose Lips Sink Ships
- Customer Service the Lexus Way
- It's Talkification Time!
- Plurk It, Baby!
- The Cocktail Party Rule
- On Target
Want to learn more about optimizing your email communications? Check out Email Marketing Benchmark Report 2008 (FREE) from the MarketingProfs Store to learn how others are using email marketing. As a Premium Member, you have free access to this and hundreds of other templates, tools, case studies, research, and "how-to" guides to help you rapidly build effective marketing programs.