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.
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