Learn the Email Subject Line you need to use to get your email opened every time in this guest blog from Omnisend

 

I don’t know about you but I often worry about the Email Subject Line to use when creating messages to my audience and so I am delighted to have a Guest Blog from Omnisend sharing their knowledge and experience with you.

In email marketing, there are so many beliefs, myths, and misconceptions surrounding the subject line. Many of them were once true but are no longer applicable in the current marketing environment. Others were simply assumptions that caught on as facts.

Either way, we’re here to examine some of the most commonly accepted “best practices” surrounding subject lines and comparing it with statistics recently gathered from the Omnisend platform. Using massive data gathered from real campaigns and real results, we’ll be able to determine whether these best practices still have merit.

 

1. Using the subscriber’s first name

Adding the subscriber’s name to the subject line is an easy way to personalise messages because it is done programmatically. This level of personalisation is supposed to give the feeling that the message was written specifically for you and not any of the thousands of other people subscribed to the same newsletter.

Recent subject line statistics support this. Addressing the recipient by their first name really does increase open rates. But, it’s only by 0.2%, which is not significant at all. It is also losing popularity among marketers as only 3.5% of all emails in the data pool used this tactic.

 

2. Using exclamation points

It’s been said that using exclamation points in subjects lines improve open rates because they incite a sense of excitement and urgency. But it seems like recent subject line research doesn’t really support this.

Based on Omnisend’s data, emails that use exclamation points in subject lines for newsletter campaigns have 1% lower average open rates. Even though that’s not significant enough to say that the opposite is true, it definitely doesn’t support the need for exclamation points.

Interestingly enough, however, the use of exclamation points is more prevalent in automated workflows where open rates were as high as 29% for emails with a single exclamation point in the subject line. Furthermore, it averaged 35% for those that had two or more. The trouble is in determining whether you can attribute those changes on the use of exclamation points or something else entirely (like the fact that automation workflows inherently perform better). Nevertheless, you don’t really need to avoid them but using these punctuation marks shouldn’t be the rule, either.

 

3. Using percentage discounts

A popular belief is that using % rather than £ amounts are more enticing. Supposedly, this is because percentage discounts make people think it’s much bigger than it is. On the other hand, currency figures are finite and might seem small.

On the contrary, Omnisend’s subject line data shows that emails that used currency signs enjoyed an average open rate of 29% while those that used percentages had 25% average open rates. Nevertheless, even if the £ performed better, both have incredible open rates so decide based on what works for your business model and not because of some rule you read somewhere.

 

4. Using very short subject lines

Anywhere on the internet, the prevalent belief is that people have extremely short attention spans so everything must be as concise as possible. That might have been true at one point. But is that still the case?

Recent subject line statistics show that subject lines containing 11 to 50 characters are most common among email marketers. However, the ones with 51 to 90 characters actually perform better. The shorter 11-50 character subject lines have average open rates of 33.8% while the longer 51-90 character ones average 40.5%

Graphic showing Open Rates of Short Subject lines

It’s so easy to make assumptions about best practices in email marketing. You can have one great campaign and rationalise why you go the results you did. But, like with everything else, assumptions should be backed by consistent data before they’re accepted as fact. The larger the data pool, the better. Plus, the more recent the data, the more you can rely on it to give you insights about current trends.

These subject line myths have been debunked using an immense data pool covering real results from a reputable company. Make sure you keep these in mind when developing your emails so you can really enjoy high open and read rates.

Logo for Omnisend - guest blog on Email Subject Lines

About Omnisend:

Omnisend is an omnichannel marketing automation platform built for ecommerce. Robust automation, smart segmentation, and precise targeting, all from one easy-to-use platform.

You can follow them on social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/omnisend

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/omnisend/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/omnisend/

Notes from Amanda:

As a new Virtual Assistant you might be wondering whether you need to be sending regular email newsletters to your clients, potential clients – and the short answer is yes.  But I totally understand that you might be worried about the mechanics of this and so we cover this in great depth as part of the VA Membership – your membership is the equivalent of £1.29 per day.

Our blog post from Summer 2018  “How to easily & simply stay in touch with your subscribers” might give you some ideas of what you can cover in your messages.  Do tell us in the comments box below what you try and how you get on tweaking those subject lines.