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[ssanders]

Thank you, Lisa. 

Are there sites out there that provide one line subject lines?  Say ones that have converted well.   

I understand now.   

[joblythe]

Lisa

You are spot on with the "Notification of Payment" subject line.  I HATE THOSE.  In fact I detest them so much I have recently unsubscribed from two lists because of them.  The real shame is that normally these newsletters have been good reading and informative.

WHY spoil a good thing with stupid subject lines?

Be warned, anyone, if I am on your list - don't hit me with "Notification of Payment".  I take time to respond to these ones and let the sender know EXACTLY what I think of them.  However, like most automated services - they just don't seem to see the need to reply.

And on the subject of subject lines - it is definitely a good idea to make a note of ones which attract your attention because you may be able to use them further down the line.  Also make a note of the ones which hack you off - and NEVER use them!

Most of all - test, test, test.

All the best . . . . .

[Jennifer Herold]

I've found the best results for me in subject lines are humorous or curious. 

For example, I ran an email marketing campaign with something like :

"The Cow Jumped Over the Moon"

stupid right?

in the actual email copy I 'played' a bit more on the nursery rhyme...

anyway...it got me like over 50% open rate and even more CTR.   The way I look at it is (as myself who gets over 3000 emails a day)  I wanted something to 'stand out' in the inboxes...and it worked.

I expanded on that with other varying nursery rhyme type stuff like "Humpty Dumpty Fell.."

Worked great for about 4 weeks on open and CTR.  I think if you get really imaginative you can increase the viability of your email marketing campaigns....

Think 'outside' the box...

 

[Lisa Preston]

That kinda reminds me of those old coffee commercials, the one that was an ongoing love story...

[ElevatingYourBusiness]

A long way around the tracking email thing using a free program is to register for snipurl.com  Once you do, and create URLS, they're tracked.   I used it a while before the email program I use (and do not recommend, as I'm looking for something new) added a tracking feature.

[Ron Killian]

Only thing about using their name in the subject line, with so many marketers do it as well, could end up getting lost in the crowd, or just one of the "others". Losing it's effectiveness.

[Chris Lockwood]

> To find out your open rate simply use both the text and the HTML sections of your email broadcasts.  Just be sure to place the code in the HTML box from notepad so you don't have extra HTML that will create higher spam scores.

I've tried doing this with aweber, but whenever I use the HTML box, the test emails I get have the HTML code visible (like viewing source of a web page), so I'm afraid to broadcast like that... what's the point of testing if people won't be able to read the message easily? And yes, I did have text in the text box as well and have tried this with several email addresses.

I also get broadcasts from some people that look like that, HTML code visible. And I'm using email readers that can handle HTML emails, since I'm able to view those from senders like amazon with no problem... so I figured aweber must not be handling those properly.

Also, to comment on another post, when you talk about testing on 5000 or 10,000 addresses, that would be the entire list for most people.



> Be warned, anyone, if I am on your list - don't hit me with "Notification of Payment".  I take time to respond to these ones and let the sender know EXACTLY what I think of them.  However, like most automated services - they just don't seem to see the need to reply.

I don't like that subject line, either. But if you've just taken yourself off someone's list. why should they bother replying to you? I wouldn't, because you may be one of those anti-spam wackos that reports my personal reply to you as spam, plus if you've already left the list, what do you expect them to do?

[MarketingJunkie]

Here's a great tip I discovered to quickly develop a great list of tested subject lines to get your email opened...

... Try it out at message board sites (like here).

While it's not scientific, it's pretty darn close.

I've posted literally thousands of posts and discovered a pattern that gets my posts opened -- and it usually works just as well in my emails.

With that said, here are my all-time favorite subject lines virtually guaranteed to get you super high open rates to your emails:

HOLY CRAP [2-3 words go here]
Problem With __________ -- Can You Help Me?
Did Anthony Blake Really Make These Mistakes? <-- obviously replace famous name with someone familiar in your industry

I devoted a two broadcasts on this...

... Look for the section of audio titled, "Best strategies and methods to get your email opened..." at:
http://www.marketing-ideas.org/Stump-Markus-593.php

The very next week, Mike Corso (a regular now on Stump Markus) made a typo... and instead of starting his email subject line with HOLY CRAP used TOTAL CRAP instead... the good news is he was able to get an 80%+ open-rate increase and a 400%+ clickthru increase... he talks about it in detail here:

http://www.marketing-ideas.org/Stump-Markus-600.php

[Chris Lockwood]

It would be interesting to know how much those subject lines actually affected the total clickthroughs and sales.

You can use a weird subject line to get more people reading, but how many of them click the link?

For example, those fake payment notifications might get a high open rate, but when people open them and get angry, how likely are they to go to the site and buy something?

[John Ritz]

The key is to make sure your subject line ties to the content of your email body.

I had great success with this subject a few days ago: Salesletter first draft

Looks boring, doesn't it? Hell, I didn't even bother to personalize it with their first name. Or (GASP) make it look like a headline!

But it looks like a personal email, and that's why it gets opened. But back to my point: the email was about a blog post I made about coming up with that salesletter first draft, so there was no subject "bait and switch".

Another tip: initial the first letter of the subject in many cases, but not the other words. Why? because it looks like the sort of email mom or grandma might send (or a colleague or friend, you get the idea).

Not too many people capitalize the first initial of every word in a subject. Why not look natural and emulate that?

I wouldn't do it (or recommend it) if it didn't work.

Cheers,

John

[JHardin]

Hey John, Thanks for sharing that data with us. I reminds me of how important a list is. And It also supports the old 3 time exposure rule. Are your customers single or double opt ins?
Good Pluck

[John Ritz]

My prospects are always double opt-in. If a prospect becomes a customer, in certain rare occasions, I'll move them from the prospect list to the customer list as a single opt-in.

Cheers,

John

[MarketingJunkie]

Here's another email marketing method I discovered since posting here...

... Embed your emails with a number... a large number... an odd large number.

So far, my absolute hands' down winning email subject line to date (both open rate and click thrus) was this:
$39 ebook = $21,145,924.30 in just 12 months

To see other people doing it, take your spam inbox and sort it by subject line (high to low)... you're going to see a bunch of email subject lines starting with a number.

- Markus Allen







Email Marketing Software

[Don Morris]

Hey, Markus! Thanks for jumping on a topic that's been quiet for a year. 

So, if we put numbers in our subject line are the messages more likely to end up in spam folders?