Tara Robinson of Zugunruhe Coaching forwarded me a link to a study at MailChimp, an email service provider, that listed the subject lines of the best and worst open rates for clients using their service. The results were very surprising based on my experience. Here are the top 5 for each side:

THE BEST (60% – 87%):

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

THE WORST (1% – 14%):

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

At first glance, it would appear that boring, generic, subject lines with company names listed beat out Valentine’s day gift lines every time. In fact, MailChimp says:

On the "best" side, you’ll notice the subject lines are pretty
straightforward. They’re not very "salesy" or "pushy" at all. Heck,
some people might even say they’re "boring." On the "worst" side
however, notice how the subject lines read like headlines from advertisements you’d see in the Sunday paper. They might look more "creative," but their open rates are horrible.

However, there are a couple of variables NOT mentioned here that might make all the difference in the world.

First off is the size of these lists. I’ve seen it reported before, and I’ve certainly noticed it from anecdotal evidence, that the larger your list, the lower your open rate. Now, obviously a 1% open rate is abysmal, no matter your list size. Maybe this is because over time subscribers become less likely to open your email newsletters. Generally, they know what you have to say, and they may be so busy that they don’t have time to read another article on Web marketing, or they already bought their Valentine’s day gifts.

Secondly, the spamminess/deliverability of the messages. If the "worst" ranked subject lines were coming from companies that used words and phrases that set off junk filters, that would definitely reduce the deliverability and thus open rates of these email missives.

Thirdly, many of the "best" messages appear to be intra-office messages. If companies are using this email service provider to send messages to staff, (i.e., [COMPANYNAME] Staff Shirts & Photos, ATTENTION [COMPANYNAME] Staff! and ATTENTION [COMPANYNAME] West Staff!!) then it’s likely that the staff needs to read these emails.

Fourthly, what appears in the "from" line. Other studies have shown that the "from" line has the biggest impact on open rates, even more than subject lines.

Fifthly (is that even a word?), how these companies got their list. I’m assuming that MailChimp is a legitimate email service provider (ESP), so they have rules on how you can generate a list. For example, most ESP’s won’t let you import a purchased list. In fact, Constant Contact will call you if you import a list that’s big enough to raise a red flag to ask how you developed your list.

Lastly, the companies behind these emails. Now, I’m not sure if the following email subject lines are related to the MailChimp brand, but look at these subject lines from the "worst" list:

1. [COMPANYNAME] Pioneers in Banana Technology
2. Technology Company Works with [COMPANYNAME] on Bananas Efforts
3. Now Offering Banana Services!
4. True automation of your Banana Research

I’m guessing these banana missives are all coming from the same company, and perhaps they’ve already proven that their email newsletters provide no value to their readers.

And even though I’ve already used the word "lastly" already, how about the time of day these emails are delivered, or their frequency, or whether they deliver on the promise when people first subscribed to them?

There’s a number of reasons why an email may fall on the "best" and "worst" list, and subject line is just one variable.

MailChimp sums up by saying:

So what’s our advice for email subject lines? This is going to sound
"stupid simple" to a lot of people, but here goes: Your subject line
should (drum roll please): Describe the subject of your email. Yep, that’s it.

When it comes to email marketing, the best subject lines tell what’s inside, and the worst subject lines sell what’s inside.

I’m not sure that this is what I took away from their list. There are a lot of email subject lines in the worst list that describes what’s in the body of the email, i.e. "Valentines – Shop Early and Save 10%." And, I’m not sure that "[COMPANYNAME] Newsletter – February 2006" from the best list is very descriptive.

I will agree with one of the findings of MailChimp, however:

Always set your subscribers’ expectations during the opt-in process
about what kinds of emails they’ll be receiving. Don’t confuse
newsletters with promotions.

You can see the full list of best and worst performing email subject lines here.

If you’d like to learn more on how to build your email subscriber base, and get your emails delivered and read, be sure to check out our Working Lunch Seminar, How to Use Email Marketing to Build Your Business, this Wednesday, May 9th in our offices in Portland, Maine.

Rich Brooks
Email Marketing for Businesses