What’s Your Line?

August 20, 2014      Admin

I’m a sucker. Headlines like this always grab my attention: The Best and Worst Words to use in Email Subject Lines — New Research. Confess … which online fundraiser amongst you isn’t poised to click on that article and discover the magic words that will double your open rates?

“Belford! You haven’t hotlinked to the article”, you’re shouting. I can hear you.

Well, unfortunately, that isn’t the article of your dreams. Believe me … I read it and I’m sparing you the trouble. Their top three lift-inducing words were: Jokes, Promotional, and Congratulations. The worst three were: Suburbs, Decoder and Inland. Apparently these findings were empirically derived.

When was the last time you were on the verge of including ‘suburbs’, ‘decoder’, or ‘inland’ in your subject line?! As in: “Free decoder ring to first 1,000 donors living in inland suburbs!”

Instead, go back and read this Agitator post: Thank You MailChimp. MailChimp actually provided some useful counsel about more effective email subject lines.

But here’s what the “Best and Worst” headline really triggered for me …

What about ‘best’ and ‘worst’ direct mail copy leads? Have you ever seen any studies on that?

You might insist that each mail appeal is unique, so how could there be such a thing as a ‘proven’ turn of phrase for everything from fighting cancer to fighting whalers. But arguably each email appeal is also unique, and yet there seem to be ‘best’ words.

Or maybe we should be looking for ‘best’ and ‘worst’ Johnson boxes? (Thank you, Frank H. Johnson.)

Or going back a step (it’s all about getting the message opened, right?), identifying the ‘best’ and ‘worst’ carrier teaser.

I’ll settle for any of these. Tell me … have you seen, heard of or used a ‘proven’ direct mail line?

Tom

P.S. OK, here’s the link to Best and Worst Words to Use in Email Subject Lines … don’t say I didn’t warn you!

3 responses to “What’s Your Line?”

  1. Mandy says:
    August 20, 2014 at 10:23 am

    Emotion is the biggest factor in headlines and subject lines.

    Emotional headlines and subject lines get clicked more than anything. The best tool I’ve found is the Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer.

    http://www.aminstitute.com/headline/

    BTW, the headline: “The Best and Worst Words to use in Email Subject Lines — New Research” score 38.46%, which is pretty good.

    You’re welcome.

  2. Mary Cahalane says:
    August 20, 2014 at 12:39 pm

    I love that thing, Mandy! Use it all the time. It’s helped me to improve.

    And I agree – emotion!

  3. Tom Ahern says:
    August 20, 2014 at 1:19 pm

    Here’s a DM opening that worked wonders bringing affluent strangers onto a community foundation’s cultivation list:

    Welcome … I hope.

    And here’s another DM opening that’s (so far) led to 10,000 gifts for a hospital system:

    You came to Sharp as a patient, in need of help.

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