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Testing EMail Subjects

Businesses often neglect about the subject used in their email campaigns and worry about Email open rate. Consumers are more likely to open an E-Mail newsletter with the subject “X Trends Update" than with the subject "X Newsletter #103". But you will be surprised to learn that popular formula used to create titles in Blogs (X Number #12 according to US Industry Reports, How to...., Top 10 ways to... and similar titles) are least effective when it comes to newsletters. That might be because we know that a newsletter is addressed to hundreds of other people but it is still is in your inbox. It's personal, whereas clicking on a link to reach the web page is your choice. So instinctively, we avoid any e-mail that looks like a sales pitch.

Action steps for testing Email Subjects

1. Don't follow industry trends when it comes to testing E-Mail subject lines. 

2. Avoid common mistakes like the one mentioned above but when it comes to testing open rates and click rates, use A/B Testing and user segmentation.

3. A/B Testing will allow you to send two versions (different subject lines) of your newsletter to a small fraction of your mailing list. Based on the open rate, you can come to a conclusion.

4. You can segment visitors based on their behavior. There will be prospects that will open your newsletter but might not read it completely. Most E-Mail Newsletter clients will not allow using codes to capture scroll rate and time spent on the email. So it is important to track the number of opens rather than unique opens.

A combination of number of opens and click patterns will allow you to segment prospects. For prospects that have shown eagerness to learn more about your products and services, provide them with special reports and case studies about your services (preferably once a month in addition to the newsletter).

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