Want to drive web traffic with an email campaign? Before you impact web traffic, your prospects or customers have to open your email, then click through to your site or landing page.
In its bi-annual report about email metrics released in June 2009, Email list manager provider MailerMailer, revealed the most popular subject line words that help compel readers to open the message include:
- News
- Party
- Newsletter
- Free
- Night
- Sale
- Com
- Update
- Holiday
- Week
The report also found subject lines containing less than 35 characters often get more attention and open rates decrease as the subject line length increases. Subject length is not an absolute rule so you should test your actual open rates using character length as one of your metrics. Don’t forget, the relationship you have with the email recipients will have influence open rates. Subject line length is not a stand alone variable for success.
MailerMailer found click through rates were also linked to shorter subject lines, though the response rate may actually be related to the fact that shorter subject lines account for more open emails.
The subject line along with the From line is the first exposure your recipient has to your message. After you develop a strong subject line, or two to three if you’re testing for the best one, consider whether anyone would confuse your email subject line for spam. Stay away from vague lines and tired gimmicks like FREE!!! Or $$ in the subject line.
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