The Whitelist

Recently, I came across a blog headline: “5 ways to guarantee you’ll NEVER be successful” and, as a typically ambitious American, I have to admit I clicked on it faster than I mass delete the emails in my SPAM folder. The catchy fear-inducing word “never” captured my curiosity, as in: “One: am I doing any of these things? and two: I want to learn what these things are so I’ll never do them!”

But then I ran across a very similar article on email marketing written by Danny Iny on the AWeber blog entitled: “Can ‘Bad News’ Lift Response Rates?”. Because I clicked on a blog that I’ve never bothered to read before due to a “bad news” title in the very same day, my interest was once again piqued. Given my recent experience, my thinking was, “Why yes, a “bad news” subject line WOULD increase email marketing response rates, and therefore, ROI.”

Typically, “bad news” email subject lines increase response rates initially because they:

• Prompt a question, rather than giving an answer
• Highlight a problem, rather than outlining a solution
• Evoke curiosity

These are three “musts” for a killer subject line that guarantee a high email open rate. While these kind of bad news subject lines do traditionally increase open rates initially, due to a feeling of panic and anxiety: “People read the email because they want to make sure they aren’t going to be negatively affected,” Iny writes, the overall results fall downhill from there. A negative-themed subject line can backfire over the long term because:

Your subscriber might not care about your bad news. If someone you actually know emails you with bad news, your stomach may drop a little bit and you feel your anxiety levels rising with concern. But “bad news” from an email marketer may result in disinterest, suspicion, or worse:

Your subscriber may lose trust in you. Many “bad news” subject lines open to messages that don’t actually contain bad news, and much like the fable of crying wolf, your subscribers might feel manipulated, or worse, deceived. “If your audience ends up feeling like you were employing cheap tactics to get them to buy from you,” says Iny, “then it will likely backfire.”

And a lack of trust means increased unsubscribes, possible spam reporting, and a drop in email deliverability. So if you’re considering implementing a “bad news” subject line email marketing strategy to increase response rates, think carefully and use them sparingly: if an initial boost in open rates ends up costing you subscribers in the end, you’re facing an email subject line strategy that will cost you big time.

Test Those Subject Lines!

In our last post, we talked about the importance of testing your email schedule for deliverability to mobile devices, given the prevalence of mobile devices on bedside tables and the increase in email engagement in the “wee hours” of the morning and weekends. This is a new trend that is only happening due to the surge in popularity of smartphone and email-enabled mobile devices. And once we get started talking about testing for email deliverability, it’s hard for us to stop!

After all, we encourage testing all the time. As a smart email marketer, you should choose something to test every time you create and send an email. It could be anything from your From name to when you send out your emails, to subject line variations. Constant testing falls into the category of email deliverability best practices for several reasons. First, anything you can do to improve your email deliverability rate is a good thing. And testing is the surest way to know how to increase your deliverability rate!  Second, once you’ve gotten into the inbox, anything you can do to improve interaction with your recipient is going to improve your email marketing ROI. And what is your number one way to guarantee increased email open rate? A successful subject line. Your email subject line is equivalent to the headline of a news article. A subject line is a teaser that either provokes interest or removes any possibility of it.

But how do you know if your subject lines are working? Why, testing them of course! And now that we’re focused on testing as an email deliverability best practice, the recent Email Marketing Reports article on subject line testing is very timely!

Three main lessons?

1) In subject lines, there are no absolutes. Even industry standards like “All subject lines should be short” have some caveats.

2) Find out what works best FOR YOU (really: your customers) by a simple A/B test.

3) Make sure you’re measuring what’s important to you. Is it open rate or click-through rate?

For five more lessons with additional detail on how to avoid problems in testing and interpreting, make sure to make it one of your email deliverability best practices to read the full article…today!

Email Subject Line Best Practices: Magic Words that Guarantee An Opened Email

Recently, I came across a blog post entitled “The Four Words That Will Get Your Email Opened” and I couldn’t resist clicking on the link.

Here’s what they said.

“You Are Not Alone.”

Those are the four words that, in a somewhat unscientific yet convincing study, demonstrated an email open rate of 90%. That’s incredible. But let’s think about why this may be.

As anyone with any level of familiarity with psychology knows, one of the biggest fears that humans have, as the social creatures we are, is being alone. And any message that counteracts this fear is one we are hardwired to listen to. And that includes email subject lines.

If the subject line alludes to 1) useful information contained within the body of the email, and 2) the email recipient is not the only one who will benefit from the information, your email open rates (and email deliverability) are bound to soar.

Make sure you reinforce this idea by crafting engaging and useful content in your email. Your alluring subject line may have gotten your email opened, but don’t betray the trust with providing empty statements, boring or useless information, or worse, failing to address what your subject line alludes to. The last thing you want to do as an email marketer is be a tease. Deliver on your promises, and in this case, your subject line is promising good information and engaging content, if only your subscriber will open the email.

What subject line keywords have you noticed generate the most open rates? Have you used the “You are not alone” approach? Leave a comment below and let us know how it’s worked for you, or if you experiment with it in your next email marketing campaign, share your results with us! We’d love to hear from you!

You Forgo Opens With a Forgetful From Address

This morning I received an email from a company I’ve been doing business with for about four years. Normally one would open such an email, right?

But the From name was only “Product Support Group” and the subject line said only “Updates to Google Algorithm.”

Looks like spam to me! Which product support group? What about the Google algorithms? Both the From address and subject line were too vague to be real.

But I’m an email marketer, and I wanted to see what kind of spam had made it through my filter, so I viewed it in my Preview Pane and lo and behold! It was a real email! And one I wanted to read.

Remember, people decide whether or not to open your email based on three criteria:

• First, the From address: Do I know this person or company? Do I trust them?
• Second, the subject line: Is this something that interests me?
• Third, the Preview Pane: Do I like what I see enough to get me to open the email?

I did open the email after seeing the Preview Pane view of it. But only as a curious email marketer. Not as an intrigued and trusting customer.

Email marketing best practices mean doing everything you can to not only get that email delivered (using email deliverability best practices), but to get it opened and acted on! Your From address is the first step. It must be relevant in the same way everything else about your email must be relevant. In this case, all they had to do was put the company name in front of Product Support Group and I would have opened the email.

Email subject line best practices mean using your subject line to coax the recipient to open the email. Something like “What you need to know about Google algorithm updates” would have prompted me to open the email.

This email came from a big, reputable company that normally does everything right. Maybe the challenge here was the email was from Support and not from Marketing. But you know what? Email marketing best practices apply across the board. The same email marketing and email subject line best practices that get your marketing email opened are going to get your other emails opened too.

Don’t forget the From. Make it work.

Add this to your list of email subject line best practices: Be honest.

Your subject line is the second factor people consider when deciding whether or not to open your email. (The first is the From line.) Obviously, your subject line is critical to your email marketing ROI for that reason.

But that does not translate into get them to open the email at all costs, even if that means lying in the subject line.

Think about the spam you get, and how blatant those subject lines lies are, like the trickery of “How are you?” Yes, it will get you to open the email, because that subject line will have you wondering, “Who is this?” But then you feel cheated after you open it, right? And realize you fell for their ruse?
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