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How changing an email subject line added 56% in sales.

Written by: Liz Walker

Article Overview: We subscribe to a results company for its marketing research results. We get to see data we can trust on issues of real importance to our clients—like this investigation into how to make the subject line of an email work best. It’s common sense to say that emails reaching out to clients and prospects won’t work if they don’t get opened, but this experiment demonstrates that there are other things you can and should be measuring if you don’t want to leave money on the table.

How changing an email subject line added 56% in sales.

Let's look at the experiment, and what you should learn from it: In this case, a florist wanted to increase the effectiveness of a "Thank you" email campaign to previous customers, and entice more of them to increase their purchases. They sent out two emails, with exactly the same content but different subject lines. Any differences in results could only come from the difference in the subject line.

They used an email service that allowed them to measure the "who opened the email and who didn't" open rate, and the "who clicked through to a web site and who didn't" clickthrough rate. Customers could also order on line, so they could also measure the sales resulting from the program. Both emails offered a 15% off special offer.

Subject Line #1 was "Thank You For Making Us Your Florist Of Choice".

Subject Line #2 was "15% Off - Our Way Of Saying Thank You!"

Here are the open rate results: 20% of recipients of version #1 opened the email, but only 15% opened version #2, the one with the specific 15% Off offer. That's a 26% difference.

Does that mean putting a specific offer in the subject line is a bad idea? Based on this, many people might think so-it looks at first glance that being too aggressive will put people off.

But look what we see when we dig a little deeper. 60% more people who received version #2, with the 15% offer, clicked through to the website. And version #2 ended up earning 56% more dollar sales.

Sure fewer of them opened the email, but they spent a lot more money.

What can you learn from this?

First, what you measure is important. In this case, if the florist only looked at who opened the email, she would have been badly misled. She might have planned future campaigns that practically guaranteed she would miss out on sales by 56%!

Second, testing is important. This advertiser had at least a 50-50 chance of guessing wrong with "gut feel"-and a potential huge business loss.

Third, if you use email, you need a batch or broadcast email solution that allows you to do this kind of testing and measurement. Don't just send out to a huge "to" list-you will never be able to get the measurement and practical, business-building knowledge you need.

Related Articles
  How to Write an Effective Subject Line
  A Strategic Look At Email Subject Lines From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
  17 Tips For Email Subject Lines That Grab Attention
  How to Write Effective Emails? Tips and Best Practices
  The Art of Email Marketing Campaigns Wealth Creation via Email Connection

Article Tags: advertiser, bad idea, business loss, campaigns, dollar sales, email service, first glance, florist, line 1, money, rate customers, special offer, subject line, subject lines
Referred by: http://www.makingprofitspour.com



Related Forum Posts
Re: Subject line Etiquette - [quote="jvprosperity":b50c4a20]Another email rant: Is there some place on the internet that outlines proper "Subject line" headings? There mus be a system out there that people use to be more efficient email senders. Not everything that comes into my mail box requires my immediate attention. I would love to educate myself and the people who send me emails on proper subject lines. Maybe something like: "Urgent Review: <<Title of document>>" "Decision Required: "<<Subject matter>>" just something for me to quickly scan the subject lines and decide which ones need my immediate attention. Anyone know of such email standards that exist out there?[/quote:b50c4a20] The only messages I get that say Urgent or Decision Required etc are spam. I tell people to put something relevant to their business with me in the subject line - this is especially important for the people who fall into my junk mail. Chris
Re: Subject lines should carry over in threads... - [quote="OmnivoreInk":2av4pw6l][quote:2av4pw6l]I think it's also important for all of us to remember to include a "Subject" heading when posting, [/quote:2av4pw6l] When one creates a new thread, one obviously has to put in a new title. BUt when one REPLIES to a thread, the original poster's subject line should carry through - so that a new title doesn't have to be typed in. What is the trick of this, anyway? Sometimes the subject line DOES come through, I seem to remember, but more often than not I have to type something in. And people sometimes dont' realize that when they hit REPLY, the subject line doesn't carry over, so they don't even realize their new post doesn't have a title.[/quote:2av4pw6l] I've found that when I click "quote" - it carries over the subject line, if I just click reply, I need to add a subject line. Shri
Subject line Etiquette - Another email rant: Is there some place on the internet that outlines proper "Subject line" headings? There mus be a system out there that people use to be more efficient email senders. Not everything that comes into my mail box requires my immediate attention. I would love to educate myself and the people who send me emails on proper subject lines. Maybe something like: "Urgent Review: <<Title of document>>" "Decision Required: "<<Subject matter>>" just something for me to quickly scan the subject lines and decide which ones need my immediate attention. Anyone know of such email standards that exist out there?
Subject lines should carry over in threads... - [quote:1cqzca87]I think it's also important for all of us to remember to include a "Subject" heading when posting, [/quote:1cqzca87] When one creates a new thread, one obviously has to put in a new title. BUt when one REPLIES to a thread, the original poster's subject line should carry through - so that a new title doesn't have to be typed in. What is the trick of this, anyway? Sometimes the subject line DOES come through, I seem to remember, but more often than not I have to type something in. And people sometimes dont' realize that when they hit REPLY, the subject line doesn't carry over, so they don't even realize their new post doesn't have a title.
Re: Subject line Etiquette - [quote="jvprosperity":btyoa0j1]Another email rant: Is there some place on the internet that outlines proper "Subject line" headings? There mus be a system out there that people use to be more efficient email senders. Not everything that comes into my mail box requires my immediate attention. I would love to educate myself and the people who send me emails on proper subject lines. Maybe something like: "Urgent Review: <<Title of document>>" "Decision Required: "<<Subject matter>>" just something for me to quickly scan the subject lines and decide which ones need my immediate attention. Anyone know of such email standards that exist out there?[/quote:btyoa0j1] Hi Andy, The only system I know of at the moment is the "Set Priority" feature on MS Outlook. It allows you to add an exclamation mark to flag the message as being of high, normal or low priority. However, I'd say that a "sender" is still better off using the phone rather than sending an email that's labeled "urgent".


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