How to Write Winning Subject Titles For Email Marketing (Part I – Length)
Are you one of those guilty of creating your subject titles at the last moment? Think twice if you are, because subject title is easily one of the most important parts of your message.
Those who know its importance are quick to ask for “the best way” or some “sure win” formula, and then follow it like it’s Word of God. Wrong! Rather, it’s more a Work of Art.
While there are guidelines that you can follow, there is no magic formula or template in creating winning subject titles that will guarantee you a higher response rate.
Just like a work of art, one size does NOT fit all.
But what we can do as Marketers is to understand the factors that contribute to a winning subject title, and then put them into practice, with constant testing and improvements.
Subject Title Length
In general, the shorter the better, according to Email Marketing Metrics Report. (See pages 11-14). Findings show that shorter subject lines result in dramatically higher open and click rates.
Here’s another interesting study by Alchemy Worx on Subject lines – Length is everything that challenges the Shorter Is Better theory.
In summary, this study shows that:
1. Shorter subject lines generate higher open rates, a measure of reader interest, but much lower click-to-open rates
2. Longer subject lines earn a much higher click-to-open rate, an indication of real relevance
3. Subject lines somewhere in between (dead zone*) optimize neither the open rate or click to open rates.
(*The dead zone represents the likelihood that marketers tend to fall into when they over simplify multiple/complex propositions, or lengthen unnecessarily strong single propositions)
The lesson here is to look beyond number of characters or number of words. Instead, focus on giving your target audience a reason to respond to your email. Also, you’ll need to test, test and test what works best (using simple A/B tests) with your target audience and the types of messages you send.
For example, a promotional email with a single offer or call to action might do well with shorter subject titles. While an informational content driven newsletter for client retention and relationship building objectives might need a longer subject title to communicate its propositions adequately. So it’s important to find a balance between length and communicating multiple or complex proposition(s).
The bottom line is: While you’ll need to keep your subject titles compact and concise, don’t sacrifice on message for the sake of keeping it short. Use enough to communicate your value proposition adequately.
Part II – Personalisation coming up.
Tags: email marketing, marketing, subject title
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:53 am
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December 8th, 2008 at 3:08 am
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December 8th, 2008 at 6:22 am
Nice post. I must say, I have never considered length but only the value proposition, so I found this interesting reading. I am wondering if the presence of an active verb helps or hinders as we try to communicate that proposition? I would think survey researchers would also be very interested in this post.
December 8th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
@Michael: Studies have shown that the use of active verbs (or what Marketers call Action words) results in a higher open rate than those that don’t. Generally.
But like everything else, the copy writing needs to be done right. It should not appear like you’re hard selling. It needs to trigger interest and stay relevant to your target audience.
There’s a few approaches that people to write action words title. Possibly phrase it like a question “Want to improve your…” or create a sense of urgency “10 days left to download…” or the How To approach “How to increase your Marketing ROI with…”, etc.
You’ll need to keep testing to know what works best.
I’ll be blogging more on this topic, so stay tuned to Part II.