Choosing an email subject line and testing it.

By Dennis H.J. Miller, Search Marketing & Optimization Specialist

Yay, it's finally here, August, which is Email Month. What does this mean? In addition to our regular .Commentary, we will be sending out one email a week about how to strengthen your email marketing program. Take a look at our email schedule to see what lies ahead.

• Week 1: Choosing a subject line and testing it!
• Week 2: Creating preferences to use for segmentation.
• Week 3: What is email throttling and why should I use it?
• Week 4: Optimize your email with image optimization techniques and using CDN Technology.

Choosing a Subject and Testing it

Choosing a proper subject line can mean the difference between a successful email campaign and failed email campaign. As email marketing continues to grow, you have to catch the recipient's attention and give them a reason to open the email.

Testing: Personalization vs. No Personalization

Personalizing your subject line can increase your open rates significantly. The use of the persons name and/or the company represented will affect your open rates. Below are some examples of email subject lines.

Poor Subject Lines - - does not tell the reader who this is from even though there is an interesting "offer."
Store now opening. Come Visit!
August store specials 10% OFF.

Good Subject Lines - Tells the reader what it is but not who it is from.
August Email Newsletter - Issue 2.
Winter Park Newsletter - Fall 2008 Release.

Best Subject Lines - - Includes personalization and interesting information.
"Your Company Name", - Staff updates and company news.
"Personalized Name", - Enter to Win a Cruise Vacation from "Your Company Name".

As you can see, the more personalized the subject line becomes, the likelihood of your email being opened increases. But personalization is only the beginning stage of strengthening your email campaign to increase your open rates.

Testing: A/B Testing Different Subject Lines

Once you have a theme for you subject line it's time to test different variations. This is easy to do but does take a little setup time.

Here is an example how to setup up your scenario for subject line testing. If you have a list of 25,000 email addresses, randomly select 20% of you list and break it up into two segments.

Your “A/B” subject line test will include 2,500 email addresses each totaling 5,000. After 6-7 hours pull your report to see what version of the subject line had a higher Open Rate. However, don’t stop at just the open rate. Look at other statistics including click through rates on the email itself. For example one test we did with an email used short and long copy. While the long copy version received a lower open rate, when we delved further into the click through rates we saw that we actually had higher engagement (more click throughs) with those who opened the longer version compared to the shorter version.

You will then send your email to the other 80% of email receipts with the better performing email subject line. Below are two very good examples of what your A/B test subject lines might be like.

"Company Name" - Free Shipping on all GPS units this month.
"Company Name" - GPS units are on sale this week, up to 13% OFF.