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Testing has taught me that successful email marketing depends on one thing. The message subject. The message body can be a link, image, wall of text, or even em

Testing has taught me that successful email marketing depends on one thing. The message subject. The message body can be a link, image, wall of text, or even empty. Writing a good message subject is like writing a good headline. Though there are some differences between mediums. Allow me to share some with you. Email is personal. Your message subject has to feel (and read) like a one-to-one message. There are various ways to achieve this. One is to use a simple to when writing it. Instead of being overly logical, just break down the message into simple words. Example: Logical $product name will help you save $500 a year on office supplies. (The above is an actual headline I got from a serious company) Personal I'm a business costs consultant. My job is to help you reduce operating overhead. I have some pointers to share with you. I actually tested both headlines. The personal achieved a response rate of around 3.5% ( slightly above average ). The logical had a response rate of 0%, unless we count the emails calling me names for spamming them. All were cold emails from account randomnly selected from the web. Two. You should not adhere to any specific message subject length. Some ideas are better conveyed through 2-3 sentences. Others with one word. It all depends. Always test. Don't trash an idea beause of the length. Test it! Three is simple. Include a phone number, email address, URL on the message subject. Not long ago, I did an email campaign for a client. The message body was empty, but it had a very powerful message subject: I sell a system that helps you get more sales leads. 555-555-1234 - John. All cold emails. Response was very good, and it helped my client sell over 10K worth of products. But wait. Let me explain how it worked. When people saw the message they had two options. Either call John, or reply. Few ignored it. Why? Because of one simple human trait: We feel obligated to reply when we humanize messages. We would not want to upset John by not calling! He would be disappointed! People called, and/or replied to schedule a call. Hope you can benefit from this. I'm writing a book that shows how to write good copy. Keep posted, it should launch soon. If you are curious (or want to hire me), just shoot me an email (check profile).

dsr_ 14y ago
The logical had a response rate of 0%, unless we count the emails calling me names for spamming them. All were cold emails from account randomnly selected from the web. Yes, that's because you were spamming them.
- orangethirty 14y ago
  Yes. But do realize that most businesse/sales/marketing people write like that. So, even though they are not looking to spam and offer a real useful product, their message comes across as spam. And spam == sleazy.
  - hunvreus 14y ago
    I fail to see how the perceived usefuleness of the product prevents it from being spam. Unwanted mail is spam, useful or not.
  - ricardobeat 14y ago
    Randomly selecting emails from the web is what makes spam sleazy. You should build your own mailing list, from actual interested prospects who gave you their address.
- sixQuarks 14y ago
  The guy is giving you an incredibly useful tip and all you care about is the "spammy-ness" of the content. You've completely failed to see the point of his message.
  - TeMPOraL 14y ago
    This guy is giving an incredibly useful tip on how to trick people to interact with the spam he's trying to shove down their throats. These kind of things make the world a worse place to live.
    - sixQuarks 14y ago
      The point is, you can apply this knowledge to either good or bad. Like technology, it is simply a tool you can use. Ignore it at your own peril.
      - orangethirty 14y ago
debacle 14y ago
The logical subject is spammy, and most users will ignore it because of that.
- orangethirty 14y ago
  That's the point. A good message subject is not spammy.
  - debacle 14y ago
    A good anecdote has non-obvious value.
    - run4yourlives 14y ago
      There was a lot of non-obvious information in his comment. No need to be a douche.
  - gregcohn 14y ago
    TL;DR: Spam is most effective when it doesn't look like spam.
    - da_n 14y ago
      > Re your enquiry about our awesome product! I get a lot of spam with this type of shady subject line, seems like a well known fact.
orangethirty 14y ago
Let me address all those people who are saying this is spam. Marketing, believe or not, is what puts your food on your table. Not your precious code. If the code you write every day was not successfully marketed your children would ask for a loaf of bread for Christmas. Marketing is not evil, or sleazy. It is the tool through which we communicate to others that we offer good and meanningful products that will improve their quality of life. Spam is not an unwanted email. Spam is an email that does not, in any way, provide value to us. Nigerians telling me my rich Uncle left me $5,000,000 is not spam if I, indeed, had a rich Nigerian uncle. But I don't, so their message has no value to me. You do are not spamming people when you cold email then, just like you don't bother people when you stretch out your hand and smile! The number one sales technique of shaking hands and smilling is equal to sending a friendly cold email. Is cold emailing spam then? Not at all. Again, it depends on the value you are providing. Say I have a product that helps people who have disabled children. The product has been successfully tested in improving the quality of life of the parents and the children. Its downright awesome. Oh, and its an iOS app. I buy a list of the emails of people who have disabled children. Then I proceed to send them a message campaign highlighting how my app will make their lives better. Twenty five people respond and buy the app. Ten of those people who bought the app use it every day and it does, indeed, improve their lives. One email message improved their life. Is it spam? No. Because it provided value to them. But hold on. I'm not finished. Say I sent them a monthly newsletter of things they can do to improve the quality of life for their disabled children. Right on the middle of the newsletter is an advertisement for my app. Am I spamming then? No. I am providing value to them. So, all those of you who put down marketing people because its sleazy to sell, read the following: You would not even be a programmer if some marketing guy had not managed to successfully market computers. And that took a lot of mail campaigns (real mail). Some of it was junk, yes. But a lot of it provided value. So much in fact, that you probably learned how to code from some book or manual sold on one of the catalogs mailed, or handed out in computer stores. I personally benefited from this, because some salesman in some electronics shop convinced my parents to buy me a C64 instead of a Nintendo! Nowdays, I can provide my family with a good quality of life because one salesman decided to sell my folks on a computer. Not spam. Not sleazy. But very valuable.
- smacktoward 14y ago

dsr_ 14y ago

The logical had a response rate of 0%, unless we count the emails calling me names for spamming them. All were cold emails from account randomnly selected from the web. Yes, that's because you were spamming them.

orangethirty 14y ago
Yes. But do realize that most businesse/sales/marketing people write like that. So, even though they are not looking to spam and offer a real useful product, their message comes across as spam. And spam == sleazy.
- hunvreus 14y ago
  I fail to see how the perceived usefuleness of the product prevents it from being spam. Unwanted mail is spam, useful or not.
- ricardobeat 14y ago
  Randomly selecting emails from the web is what makes spam sleazy. You should build your own mailing list, from actual interested prospects who gave you their address.
sixQuarks 14y ago
The guy is giving you an incredibly useful tip and all you care about is the "spammy-ness" of the content. You've completely failed to see the point of his message.
- TeMPOraL 14y ago
  This guy is giving an incredibly useful tip on how to trick people to interact with the spam he's trying to shove down their throats. These kind of things make the world a worse place to live.
  - sixQuarks 14y ago
    The point is, you can apply this knowledge to either good or bad. Like technology, it is simply a tool you can use. Ignore it at your own peril.
    - orangethirty 14y ago

debacle 14y ago

The logical subject is spammy, and most users will ignore it because of that.

orangethirty 14y ago
That's the point. A good message subject is not spammy.
- debacle 14y ago
  A good anecdote has non-obvious value.
  - run4yourlives 14y ago
    There was a lot of non-obvious information in his comment. No need to be a douche.
- gregcohn 14y ago
  TL;DR: Spam is most effective when it doesn't look like spam.
  - da_n 14y ago
    > Re your enquiry about our awesome product! I get a lot of spam with this type of shady subject line, seems like a well known fact.

orangethirty 14y ago

Let me address all those people who are saying this is spam. Marketing, believe or not, is what puts your food on your table. Not your precious code. If the code you write every day was not successfully marketed your children would ask for a loaf of bread for Christmas. Marketing is not evil, or sleazy. It is the tool through which we communicate to others that we offer good and meanningful products that will improve their quality of life. Spam is not an unwanted email. Spam is an email that does not, in any way, provide value to us. Nigerians telling me my rich Uncle left me $5,000,000 is not spam if I, indeed, had a rich Nigerian uncle. But I don't, so their message has no value to me. You do are not spamming people when you cold email then, just like you don't bother people when you stretch out your hand and smile! The number one sales technique of shaking hands and smilling is equal to sending a friendly cold email. Is cold emailing spam then? Not at all. Again, it depends on the value you are providing. Say I have a product that helps people who have disabled children. The product has been successfully tested in improving the quality of life of the parents and the children. Its downright awesome. Oh, and its an iOS app. I buy a list of the emails of people who have disabled children. Then I proceed to send them a message campaign highlighting how my app will make their lives better. Twenty five people respond and buy the app. Ten of those people who bought the app use it every day and it does, indeed, improve their lives. One email message improved their life. Is it spam? No. Because it provided value to them. But hold on. I'm not finished. Say I sent them a monthly newsletter of things they can do to improve the quality of life for their disabled children. Right on the middle of the newsletter is an advertisement for my app. Am I spamming then? No. I am providing value to them. So, all those of you who put down marketing people because its sleazy to sell, read the following: You would not even be a programmer if some marketing guy had not managed to successfully market computers. And that took a lot of mail campaigns (real mail). Some of it was junk, yes. But a lot of it provided value. So much in fact, that you probably learned how to code from some book or manual sold on one of the catalogs mailed, or handed out in computer stores. I personally benefited from this, because some salesman in some electronics shop convinced my parents to buy me a C64 instead of a Nintendo! Nowdays, I can provide my family with a good quality of life because one salesman decided to sell my folks on a computer. Not spam. Not sleazy. But very valuable.

smacktoward 14y ago