When Bad Subject Lines Are Really Good
Writing by Brick Marketing on Friday, 18 of July , 2008 at 8:23 pm
You`ve heard the rules on writing great subject lines over and over. And chances are, you pretty much stick to them in hopes of boosting your open rates. But what if I were to tell you that sometimes supposedly “bad” subject lines actually end up pulling in more readers?
Making an offer in the subject line is often considered spammy and poor taste. BUT, it can work for you if you have an established brand name. Let`s say you see an email from Office Depot offering you a 50% discount in the subject line . . . wouldn`t you want to check it out?
Other poor subject line tricks that can work include the following:
- No call to action. Sometimes the newsworthy headline is worth opening the email for.
- Boring subject line. You`d be surprised at how many dull, but informative subject lines have made it to the top 10 list!
- Too informal. While you might feel that your email should appear to be from a business, sometimes that friend feel is enough to get people to open the email.
Not all rules have to be followed all the time. Try experimenting with your subject lines and find out which ones work best with your particular audience.
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Comment by Chad White
Made Friday, 25 of July , 2008 at 3:33 pm
The truth that all email marketers need to recognize is that you’re not trying to maximize open rates with your subject lines–you’re trying to maximize clicks and conversions. You do that with the subject line by setting the right expectations for what the subscriber will find when they open the email. Short, mysterious, clever and vague subject lines can trick subscribers into opening an email at a higher rate, but then you get lower clicks because you didn’t get the right subscribers to open the email. Longer, more descriptive subject lines get the right subscribers to open the email–the subscribers that are most likely to click on the offer.
Not convinced, check out this article about how longer subject lines generate more clicks than shorter, more vague subject lines:
http://blog.emailexperience.org/2008/07/challenging_subject_line_lengt.html
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