Try These Email Subject Line Tests

July 8, 2009 – 4:15 am

Aside from your email “from” address, which remains a constant, the subject line is the only other variable that determines whether your email gets opened or trashed. Consequently, testing subject lines can yield big results.  Here are a few variables to consider testing:

• Offers: percentage off, dollars off, gift with purchase, free shipping
• Personalization: name, company name, area of the country
• Top selling products: test one category vs. another
• Top rated products: ditto
• Brand name: including it vs. not
• Deadlines: a date, length of time or other cutoff for an offer
• Seasonality: tying your featured products to a time of year, or holiday vs. not
• Two-part subject line: adding a brief offer such as “+ 20% off” to an existing subject line

Often offers are the only thing that marketers think about testing, but there are lots of other possibilities. To get a statistically valid reading of which open rate is better, try to mail enough so you’ll get at least 100 opens for each portion of an A-B test.

By Val Gosset | Posted in Email marketing, Online marketing | Leave a Comment

Free DIY Banner Ad Tool

July 6, 2009 – 4:15 am

For online advertisers looking for a free, easy resource for creating online banner ads, check out AdReady. The service allows users to choose from dozens of design templates, upload images and text, and customize the resulting banner ads for their own look and feel.

AdReady makes their money on media placements. You specify your target market and monthly budget, and they do the rest.

By Val Gosset | Posted in Ecommerce, Online marketing, Resources | Leave a Comment

Should You Capitalize Your Email Subject Line?

July 3, 2009 – 4:15 am

I’ve never heard any discussion of this subject, or seen any test results, but I suspect that whether an email subject line is upper and lower case may have an influence on results.

Think about it: for most personal emails, lower case is the convention. Commercial emails tend to be upper and lower case, making them look more like a headline. It’s like announcing, “This is an ad.”

It wouldn’t surprise me if an initial cap on only the first word of the subject line would outpull the more common upper and lower case treatment. Anyone care to test and share results?

By Val Gosset | Posted in Email marketing | Leave a Comment

A Surprising 30% Jump in Email Opens

July 1, 2009 – 4:15 am

Direct marketers who do a lot of testing know that seemingly inconsequential changes can make a big difference in results.

In my last blog post, I mentioned that two-part email subject lines – with a short offer such as “+ 10% off” added at the end – are growing in popularity.

But does the order of the two parts matter? You bet! For instance, which of these do you think performed better:

Holiday Preview + Take 20% Off  or
Take 20% + Holiday Preview

The very same content, with only the order of presentation reversed. You wouldn’t think it would matter much, but the second subject line outperformed the first by 30%!

Don’t assume that these results mean that the offer should always come first. As with all things in direct marketing, test.

By Val Gosset | Posted in Email marketing | Leave a Comment

Hardworking Email Subject Lines

June 29, 2009 – 4:15 am

In my last blog post, I reviewed examples of email subject lines that did not encourage recipients to open. Here, from the other end of the spectrum, are examples of subject lines from gardening companies that work well:

MAXIMUM Tomato Production. Not only does this offer a benefit of widespread interest, but it does so in just three words. No chance of this subject line getting truncated on delivery!

Mosquitoes Bugging You? Here’s Help. A classic problem-solution subject line, also efficiently written. Note how much better it works with the main topic –“mosquitoes” – as the first word, rather than “Here’s help if mosquitoes are bugging you.”

Make All Your Plants Self-Watering + Take 10% Off. Two strong benefits in one subject line. It’s becoming common to couple a product-related subject line with an offer such as “10% Off” or “Free Shipping.”

Top-Rated Lawn Care Products. Top-rated products and best-sellers nearly always trigger strong open rates. Most companies don’t do enough of these emails. It helps to include a specific product category rather than the more generic “Top-Rated Products.”

Simple, Natural Garden Fertilizers - Free!  Here’s something that any gardener can use – and it’s free, to boot! How could you not open an email with that subject line!?

What are your nominations for best and worst subject lines? I’d love to hear them!

By Val Gosset | Posted in Email marketing | Tagged | Leave a Comment

Do You Make These Mistakes In Email Subject Lines?

June 26, 2009 – 4:15 am

I just reviewed dozens of subject lines from gardening company emails, in search of the truly enticing as well as those that never should have hit an inbox. All were evaluated with three criteria in mind:

1. Is the subject of the email clearly identified?
2. Is there a benefit?
3. Is the message conveyed in 40 to 50 characters (the maximum most recipients see in their in box)?

Here are some prime examples of what NOT to do:

July Monthly Update. No topic. No benefit. No offer. No urgency. No open!

Perennials Again. Sounds like that was written by someone who was bored with their job.

The Rose Blows. Huh?

P. Allen Smith Gardening Newsletter – Basil Varieties. I don’t mean to pick on P. Allen Smith, but he makes the common mistake of repeating a long newsletter title at the beginning of every newsletter. It’s especially unnecessary here since the “from” line is pallensmith@email.pallensmith.com. Most recipients probably receive the email with the subject line truncated and never see the newsletter topic in their in box.

Garden & Landscape Tips, Summer 2009: Issue 15. Well, “garden & landscape tips” promises a benefit, albeit a rather generic one and not particularly compelling. But “Summer 2009” and “Issue 15” don’t sell at all. In fact, they’re simply two different ways of identifying the issue in question, a waste of valuable selling space.

Remember, the subject line and “from line” are the two elements that people rely on when deciding whether to open or delete your email, so it’s worthwhile crafting the strongest open line possible.

Stay tuned for some good examples of email subject lines in our next post.

By Val Gosset | Posted in Email marketing | Leave a Comment

Easy-to-Fix Email Bounces

June 24, 2009 – 4:15 am

A large percentage of email bounces stem from one common problem: typos. Two common types of typos are easy to fix.

1. Missing punctuation. Often, the problem is as simple as a period missing in “.com” or the @ sign missing before the ISP name.

2. Misspelled ISP. Sometimes there’s an obvious misspelling in the ISP name. For instance, Verizon may be misspelled as Verison.

It’s worthwhile scanning your bounces and correcting any caused by these problems. Some companies with larger volumes have spell check built right into their email signup process.

Another tip for minimizing typos: make your email signup box long enough to accommodate even the longest of email addresses. If the person signing up can see their whole address in one glance, it’s much easier for them to spot and correct any mistakes.

By Val Gosset | Posted in Email marketing | Leave a Comment

Getting Your Email Opened: The 3 Most Important Factors

June 22, 2009 – 4:15 am

We all know that a compelling subject line and recognizable “from” address are of prime importance in getting people to open our email messages. Yet there’s a third factor that’s just as important, yet often overlooked: the preview pane.

As many as 80% of your recipients first see your email in a preview pane, which allows them to view a small section of the email to help them to decide whether open it. What you may not be aware of is that preview panes come in all shapes and sizes. The most common is a horizontal format with small pane, used by 50% of preview pane users. Another 25% use a horizontal format with large pane, while 13% use a vertical format with small pane and the balance a vertical format with large pane.

This means that the upper left corner of your email – the area visible in every preview pane – deserves extra attention. Don’t load it up with administrative text or graphics that don’t sell. Use it for teaser copy that entices the recipient to open the email and read further.

By Val Gosset | Posted in Email marketing, Enewsletters, Online marketing | Tagged | Leave a Comment

Welcome, Oakes Daylilies!

June 19, 2009 – 4:15 am

We’re pleased to welcome Oakes Daylilies of Corryton, TN as a new client. Long a Garden Watchdog Top 30 company, Oakes has built a reputation for large, vigorous plants and superb customer service. With over 400 varieties of daylilies to choose from, Oakes serves both the backyard hobbyist and avid collector. We’re looking forward to helping them grow!

oakes daylilies

By Val Gosset | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Make Sure Your Sell Sheets Sell

June 17, 2009 – 4:15 am

While filing material I picked up at a trade show the other day, I had the opportunity to scan many sell sheets back to back. Only a couple really sold, for a whole variety of reasons. Here are a few pointers to make sure yours do some heavy lifting:

1. Emphasize Benefits Over Specs.  Divide your content into benefits, proof elements and specifications. (See our blog post on the difference among these.) Benefits and proof elements sell; specifications may be necessary, but they’re not a reason to buy. Make sure your headline focuses on your most important benefit, rather than simply stating the product name.

2. Include Two Types of Benefits.  Most sell sheets need to emphasize two types of benefits: those for the immediate buyer (such as why the garden center can expect strong sell-through), and those for the end user (such as why the product will make the consumer a better gardener).

3. Illustrate the Product Well. Favor a hero shot of the product over multiple equal-sized shots. Show the product in use. Use smaller supporting shots to illustrate packaging, retail displays and/or easy assembly.

4. Make Copy Easy to Read. Stay away from long paragraphs of copy. Break up key points with short bullets. Pay attention to photo captions, which are always highly read.

5. Include a Call to Action. Don’t make people search for your contact information. Include a prominent phone number and/or URL with an “Order today.” When appropriate, include an offer with a cutoff date.

Incorporate these few elements, and you’ll make your sell sheets more effective than 95% of the competition.

By Val Gosset | Posted in Advertising | Tagged | Leave a Comment