‘You/Your’ is Most Popular Subject Line Term for Marketers

According to Experian, the top e-mail subject lines reveal serious attempts by marketers to get personal with their recipients.

In November 2009, 20.9 percent of e-mail marketing subject line terms used by U.S. e-mail marketers included “you/your,” a marked increase from 17.2 percent in November 2008.

“Free” was second on the list, appearing in 12.4 percent of marketing e-mails in November, down from 16.9 percent in the same month in the previous year. “% off” was third with a 9.4 percent inclusion rate, down from 14.2 percent in November 2008, while “$” was fourth with a 9.2 percent rate, up from 7.7 percent in November of last year.

“Ship,” “off,” “get,” “save,” “welcome” and “gift” rounded out the top 10 subject line terms in November 2009.

The decline in the use of “free” and “% off” may indicate marketers’ attempts to launch fresh campaigns, since recipients are probably quite numb to these types of offers.

Nevertheless, “Offers of savings in general, however, remained important, and with good reason,” according to eMarketer. “More than one-half of adults said they were likely to open an e-mail containing promotions or coupons, and 30% said they would forward such an e-mail to others, up from 28% in 2008.”

For e-mail marketing subject line terms used by U.S. multichannel retailers in November 2009, “you/your” was included in 16.4 percent of subject lines, followed by “save” with 12.0 percent, “off” with 11.8 percent, “% off” with 11.8 percent and “welcome” with 10.4 percent.

“$,” “free,” “only,” “gift” and “ship” rounded out the top 10 list for multichannel retailers.

“Experian also found that e-mails encouraging visits to stores increased by 50% compared with 2008,” according to eMarketer. “And the use of “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday” more than doubled, as Web marketers included more Black Friday offers and consumers became more familiar with the latter term.”

In a guide titled “Best Practices in Writing Email Subject Lines,” MailChimp suggests that e-mail marketers avoid using “help,” “percent off” and “reminder” in subject lines, since they’ll negatively affect open rates.

Also, MailChimp says that while providing relevant locations in subject lines boosts open rates, including the recipient’s first or last name does not do as much.

Sources:</strong

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007581

http://www.mailchimp.com/articles/best_practices_in_writing_email_subject_lines/