Best and Worst Email Subject Lines Compared

by Carol on October 31, 2009

The most important element of your email is your subject line. Of course, this makes perfect sense – think of your own email habits. How many times do you just scan the subject line before you “deep six” (as my Navy veteran Dad would say) the email into your trash?

This study at email marketing specialist MailChimp analyzes over 40 MILLION emails sent from customers through their service, and separated the ones with the highest open rate (from 60% to 87%) from the lowest open rate (1% to 14%). Then, they pulled 20 from each pile for a side-by-side comparison:

Best Open Rates (60%-87%) Worst Open Rates (1%-14%)
  1. [COMPANYNAME] Sales & Marketing Newsletter
  2. Eye on the [COMPANYNAME] Update (Oct 31 – Nov 4)
  3. [COMPANYNAME] Staff Shirts & Photos
  4. [COMPANYNAME] May 2005 News Bulletin!
  5. [COMPANYNAME] Newsletter – February 2006
  6. [COMPANYNAME] Newsletter – January 2006 [ *|FNAME|* *|LNAME|* ]
  7. [COMPANYNAME] and [COMPANYNAME] Invites You!
  8. Happy Holidays from [COMPANYNAME]
  9. ATTENTION [COMPANYNAME] Staff!
  10. ATTENTION [COMPANYNAME] West Staff!!
  11. Invitation from [COMPANYNAME]
  12. [COMPANYNAME] Jan/Feb 2006 Newsletter
  13. Website news – Issue 3
  14. Upcoming Events at [COMPANYNAME]
  15. [COMPANYNAME] Councils: Letter of Interest
  16. [COMPANYNAME] Coffee Exchange – Post-Katrina Update
  17. We’re Throwing a Party
  18. October 2005 Newsletter
  19. [COMPANYNAME]: 02.10.06
  20. [COMPANYNAME] Racing Newsletter
  1. Last Minute Gift – We Have The Answer
  2. Valentines – Shop Early & Save 10%
  3. Give a Gift Certificate this Holiday
  4. Valentine’s Day Salon and Spa Specials!
  5. Gift Certificates – Easy & Elegant Giving – Let Them Choose
  6. Need More Advertising Value From Your Marketing Partner?
  7. [COMPANYNAME] Pioneers in Banana Technology
  8. [COMPANYNAME] Moves You Home for the Holidays
  9. Renewal
  10. Technology Company Works with [COMPANYNAME] on Bananas Efforts
  11. [COMPANYNAME] Update – A Summary of Security and Emergency Preparedness News
  12. Now Offering Banana Services!
  13. It’s still summer in Tahoe!
  14. [COMPANYNAME] endorses [COMPANYNAME] as successor
  15. [COMPANYNAME] Holiday Sales Event
  16. The Future of International Trade
  17. [COMPANYNAME] for your next dream home.
  18. True automation of your Banana Research
  19. [COMPANYNAME] Resort – Spring into May Savings
  20. You Asked For More…

* Study only included campaigns sent to at least 100 recipients.

Surprised at how “boring” the high open rate subject lines were? I was! The article goes on to explain one of the reasons for the success of the left-hand column is because the recipients trusted the subject line, and found the information inside to be what they had signed up for.

Just goes to show you, it pays to be honest. Make your content reflect the subject line, and make sure people are getting what they signed up for when they requested to receive information from you via the form on your website!

Read the entire article on MailChimp here.

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Tagged as: Email Marketing, mailchimp

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