Newsletter Subject Line Testing
It’s that time of the month (no, not that time)…time to send my monthly newsletter. Iwas reviewing the results of my subject line test from February and found some interesting results. I tested whether including the word “Newsletter” in the subject of the email would have any effect on readership.
I was surprised to find that the email subject with the word “Newsletter” actually got a higher open rate, higher click through rate, and lower unsubscribe rate than the email that didn’t. I used Marketo to send the email using the 50/50 random sample function to over 30k emails which makes the test statistically significant.
Here are the results:
Email A - Subject does not include “Newsletter”
Open Rate: 12.28%
Click Through Rate (CTR): 1.83%
Unsubscribe Rate: 0.57%
Email B - Subject includes “Newsletter”
Open Rate: 13.86% (winner with 99.9% confidence)
Click Through Rate (CTR): 2.53% (winner with 99.9% confidence)
Unsubscribe Rate: 0.43% (winner with 95% confidence)
Conclusion
With all of the emails we get these days it’s nice to know exactly what you’re getting before you open it. Everyone on my list has opted in to receive our communications so clearly spelling out “hey, this is what you asked for” seems to work well. It’s a nice affirmation that keeping things honest with your customers pays off - even if in small ways.
