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How to Get Higher Email Opens By Split Testing Subject Lines Are your email open rates struggling? You might be making mistakes you don’t even know you’re making. You can find out with a split test. Last week, we explained the power of a good split test and showed how it can be done with sign up forms and lightboxes. But split tests don’t end once your list has taken shape. You can also test different elements of your emails to see what makes for more successful emails. One of the easiest things to test is your subject line. Subject lines are crucial because they are the very first thing people see in their inbox. If it doesn’t intrigue them, it could also be the last thing they see of that email. What are people testing? Consistency ClickZ, a marketing blog, did a test (and a retest) of a consistent subject line for a newsletter vs. a subject that indicated the topic of that edition of the newsletter. The consistent subject was “Subscriber Newsletter,” and the test ensured that the key theme of the newsletter was in the first 25 characters (ie “Prime Real Estate”). Despite common advice that a consistent subject line helps open rates, ClickZ found the opposite: More people were opening and engaging with the newsletter when they knew what would be covered. Though consistency was impacted by the change, the insight provided by the title allowed people to determine if it would be worth reading. When people knew ahead of time that they would be interested in what the email had to say, they engaged more with the content as well. Style Here at AWeber, we tested direct, relevant subjects against creative, sometimes ambiguous subject lines. The more direct subject lines were the clear winners. Though the creative subjects could be intriguing in the inbox, if people weren’t sure what they were going to gain from opening it, they were less likely to do so. These are the subject lines we tested, organized by style: Clear Are Blacklisted Link Shorteners Getting Your Emails Blocked? Grow Your Email List 99% Faster: How One Site Did It 43 Free Animated GIFs For Your Email Campaign Email Timing: A Look At 6 Marketers Email Marketers, Here’s What to Watch For in 2012 What Do Teens Really Think Of Email? Creative Customer Spotlight ? SEER Interactive AWeber’s AWesome Anthony A. Selling Digital: The Perfect Last-Minute Christmas Gift Getting Earth-Friendly Beyond Email Threadless’ Frequency Alert: Hot or Not? Why You Want Your Emails Filtered The clear subject lines outperformed the creative ones in every metric. These were the numbers: What’s the next test? The split tests above give just a small snapshot of what’s possible when it comes to testing your subject lines. There are so many variables that go into the subject that it’s important to take them all into consideration, then test them one at a time. Some variables to consider, courtesy of The WordStream Blog: Length (does shorter or longer work better for your audience?) Personalization (including their name or other details in the title?) Use of Numbers (are they better spelled out or as numerals?) Question Marks and other icons (Eye catching or annoying?) Humor (Do people respond well to jokes or do they prefer a straightforward approach?) Scarcity tactics (Do people act on urgency?) As always, even if you think you know what your subscribers like best – it’s worth the test. Some things to consider? There is a lot of research out there about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to headlines. Though these aren’t hard and fast rules, we want to give you some of the highlights to make your tests more effective. What to avoid: In short, the spam filter. A few things to steer clear of: CAPS LOCK IN YOUR SUBJECT LINE Lots of punctuation!!!!!! Spammy words such as free, winner, or profits Any combination of these things Though these tactics might catch someone’s eye in their inbox, if they’re coupled with other spam concerns, they’ll be caught in the spam filter first. What to do instead: Convince your reader, through the subject line, that your content is worth their time and won’t take up too much of it. According to Copyblogger, there are a few key things that accomplish this: “How to” headlines Headlines with numbers, indicating a list Simple, direct statements Headlines that sound like news, not an ad The use of “you” It’s your turn Use these tips, consider your variables and run some tests! We’d love to hear your findings in the comments section. Hidalgo Jones Autoresponder Marketing Systems http://autorespondermarkrtingsystems.com Support: autorespondermarketingsystems@gmail.com Blog: http://blog.autorespondermarketingsystems.com Affiliate Disclosure: I am grateful to be of service and bring you content, Like this e-mail or blog post, free of charge. In order to do this, please note that whenever you click the links in my e-mails or Blog and purchase items, in most (not all) cases I will receive a referral commission.