We already covered the top 10 Best performing headlines – so read, review and emulate. Since no top 10 ‘Best’ list would be complete without the corresponding ‘10 worst’ list, here are the subject lines associated with the 10 worst performing emails campaigns, along with our opinion of what the recipient may have thought when they skimmed through their inbox.. and decided to delete the email instead of open it.
Join Us for a FREE Webinar on April 2 2009!
- Webinar about what? Why? From Whom? Aren’t most Webinars FREE?
Shop Early and Save!
- Oooh. Yet another promotional email. I’ve only received 219 of these today.
- What will I be shopping for? Early for what? Save how much?
Register to Win Your FREE iPod!!
- I already have 4 iPods.
- BTW, “Free” and “iPod” caused some of the emails to be filtered
(the email content for this email didn’t help either).
Security Spending
- Huh? I have no clue what this is about and I don’t have the interest in clicking to learn more.
- Better yet – I’ll add this company to the list of blocked domains – that’ll teach them!
Post-Trade Show Webinar: Expert Insights Into Key Trends and Observations from the Trade Show Floor
- This subject line was longer than some email bodies.
- Response rate performance generally drops-off beyond 55 characters for the headline.
(Company) Announces Partnership to Work with (Other Company)
- Who cares? I don’t know Company A or Company B and what will their partnership do for me anyway?
European Lakefront Elegance
- There isn’t a lake within 1,000 miles. What’s this gotta do with me?
Product Launch: New “Widget” Available (no mention of company name) or
Full Press Release Titles such as “(Company) Announces New Widgets”
- I’m too busy to be curious and click to discover what a “widget” is and why I should care.
Observations
We may not be the world’s greatest experts at pattern matching, but there are a few similarities within each group. For example:
You’ll notice that brief, matter-of-fact subject lines got better open rates than ’sales pitches’.
- Campaigns that offer “value” or resources vs. ask for an order generate a better response rate, at least based on open statistics (ie you are giving vs. asking to take).
- It’s important to note that these are headlines associated with best / worst performing campaigns, and we are only judging based on the open rates. Many email clients have a 3 sentence preview pane – so the open rate for each campaign subject above is heavily influenced by the quality of the email introduction text. That said, if the subject stinks the email probably does too.
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10 Best performing Email Subject Lines
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