The email subject line is an important factor that greatly influences open rates and engagement.

However when it comes to putting a marketing email together, most of the planning and development goes into the content of the email.

Keys to success

The subject line is usually the last thing on a marketer’s radar, but it's important to remember it is one of the primary factors that your recipients use to determine whether your email is worth their attention. 

So much so that individual keywords can hold a big influence over whether your email gets opened or not.

How keywords influence subject lines

Take the following example. In most circumstances the words News and Alerts have, for the most part, similar meanings.

But when it comes to an email subject line, the difference in using Alerts over News is almost a 9.5 per cent increase in open rates!

Despite similar meanings, recipients attach positive or negative perceptions to certain keywords. These perceptions translate back to open rates.

Subject line success

Here is a sample of keywords and the effect they have on open rates. The most popular terms are Sale (23.3 per cent), Gift (12.4 per cent) and Exclusive (12.3 per cent).

The least successful keywords are Register -9.6 per cent), Get (8.6 per cent), Only (-4.1 per cent) and Download (1.4 per cent).

Testing keywords

Take note that every organisation and their list is different. Certain keywords are going to resonate better with your audience than others.

In order to find out what works best for your communications, analytics should be run on past campaigns.

Highlight keywords to see their effect on recipient engagement and compare it to similar keywords or phrases.

Also, try AB split testing subject lines and build an archive of words that perform the best. This will help you structure better subject lines in the future.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Wei Tan has over 8 years digital marketing experience and is currently Co-founder of email marketing agency The Orchard. Wei has a passion for email marketing and works closely with some of Australia’s best known brands in developing tailored email marketing programs focused on delivering solutions based on three core principles: Growth, Conversion & Retention.

The Orchard provides email marketing services, including creative, strategic and campaign management.

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