1. Steal from the Best: Subject Line
Secrets from the Top 3,000 Retailers
Tom Sather, Sr. Director, Research
Bonnie Malone, Director, Response Consulting
Nick Cesares, Product Manager
Wednesday, April 22, 2015

2. Today’s Speakers
Tom Sather Bonnie Malone Nick Casares

3. Return Path: Email Optimization Pioneer
15+ Years of Email Expertise
• Global leader in email optimization, email fraud protection, and
consumer insight solutions
• Serving over 2,000 leading brands across retail/eCommerce, publishing,
social media, and financial services sectors
• 440+ dedicated email professionals
• Offices in New York, Indianapolis, Denver, Sunnyvale, London, Paris,
Hamburg, Sydney, Sao Paulo, and Toronto
Proven Data Infrastructure
• Benefits extend across more than 2.5 billion mailboxes worldwide
• Near-­‐real-­‐time analysis of trillions of messages annually
• Longstanding partnerships with major mailbox providers and anti-­spam
organizations globally

4. The Center of the Email Universe
Mailbox Providers
Email Service Providers
Global Brands
Anti-­spam Solutions

5. Helping You Achieve Unparalleled Performance
• Visibility into how much email was delivered to the inbox, by
domain, IP address, and campaign type
• Monitoring and analysis of your sending reputation
• Email program management to stay up-­to-­date on trends, and
dedicated service teams to handle any problem
• Experienced professionals dedicated to delivering higher ROI
Return Path develops strategic partnerships based on mutual goals
and deep collaboration with over 300 email solutions providers
around the world.
Offering tools, data, and support to help you get more
value from your email service provider

6. How Can My Email Marketing Deliver More Value?
Messages delivered to the
spam folder simply don’t
reach subscribers. You need
to know when messages fail
to reach the inbox, and how
to take corrective action.
Beyond opens and clicks,
subscribers’ interactions with
your messages send signals
that can influence inbox
placement and help you
strengthen relationships. To
improve engagement, you
need to see and measure it.
See -­‐ and Measure -­‐
Engagement
Reach the Inbox
See What Works for the
Competition
Top brands’ engagement and
response from email
marketing far outpaces the
average. You need to see
whose messages and which
tactics are capturing your
subscribers’ attention and
dollars.

7. Measuring for Success
Source: Salesforce 2015 State of Marketing

8. Email Content and Design is the Most Effective
Source: Salesforce 2015 State of Marketing

9. Setting Your Benchmarks

10. Apparel, Banking See Highest Mobile Opens
Source: Return Path – 5 Mobile Trends to Watch

11. Personalized promotional emails had
26% higher unique open rates and 41%
higher unique click rates than non-­
personalized mailings.
Experian "2013 Email Market Study" (2014)

12. Nearly 1 in 4 Subject Lines Never Tested

13. 74% of email marketers report having an
'excellent' or 'good' ROI, compared to
just 37% who do not test.
Econsultancy , "Email Marketing Industry Census 2013”

14. Four Ways to Be
Optimal with Subject
Lines

15. Be Mobile
Friendly
Be
Lifestyle-­
Oriented
Be
Personal
Be
Persistently
Testing

16. Be mobile friendly!
• Small screens, short
attention spans
• Frontload key words
• Variety of user
experiences
• Keep it short – no
truncating

17. •Exclusive: Friends & Family Get 20% Off
•Last call! Up to 80% OFF Ends Today
•Rewards member exclusive: __ for $25 Mix & Match Underwear
•Today only! 25% OFF + free shipping
•Ends tonight: 20% off your entire purchase

18. Which Subject Line was Read the Most?
• Sunday Funday
• Do the shuffle!
• It’s tough out there…
• Sundays > Mondays
• You can do it!
• We’re seeing double…

19. Sunday Funday!
• 20% Read Rate
• 17% -­ 18% Read Rate for
All Other Subject Lines

20. Be lifestyle-­oriented!
• Be better, faster,
slimmer, smarter
• Use phrases that
appeal to your
audience
• Be a great resource
• Pique interest

21. Marriott: The Email Tour Guide
• __ Must-­See Museums in
Philadelphia
• __ Destinations for
President’s Weekend
• __ College Towns to Visit

22. Which Subject Line was Read the Most?
• This Is What Every Athlete Wears To Be Better
• Our Job is to Make Runners Better
• This is Your Armour
• It’s Not Getting Warmer Out There
• Meet Our Latest Game Changers

23. Winner:
Meet Our Latest Game Changers
• 26% Read Rate
• 24% -­ 25% Read Rate for
All Other Subject Lines

24. Which Subject Line was Read the Most?
• Swimwear that makes waves
• #FIRSTLIKE: new arrivals just added
• BOUTIQUE FREAK
• WANNA GO OUT?
• Playing the Field
• Denim: Wear It Your Way

25. Winner:
WANNA GO OUT?
• 33% Read Rate
• 26% -­ 20% Read Rate for All
Other Subject Lines

26. Be personal!
• “First Name” doesn’t always
work
• What data points do you have
for personalization?
• Geography can be interesting

27. LinkedIn Gets Personal
•Congratulate _ on the new job
•__ & __ are looking for candidates like
you!
•___ has endorsed you!
•___ get even more out of your account
•__ added connections you may know

28. Which Subject Line was Read the Most?
• You’ll love this, Atlanta: __ music sweepstakes plus sweet deals
• __ NEW nonstops, Dallas! On sale now
• Double points on [Dallas/Austin] flights! Register now
• These Spring Sales Will Make You…
• Sale on spring travel. More daylight, less dollars

29. Winner:
Double points on [Dallas/Austin] flights! Register now
• “Dallas” newsletter had 23% read
rate, “Austin” 25% read rate
• NEW nonstops, Dallas! Second place
at 22%
• You’ll love this, Atlanta had 17% read
rate
• Non-­personalized campaigns had
16% read rate

30. Be persistently testing!
• What works today
may not work
tomorrow
• Strive to conduct at
least one subject line
test per month

31. Which Subject Line Split Test was Read the Most?
• jetBlue tested two subject lines promoting their
mileage pool for families:
• Your family can be points millionaires!
• Join Family Pooling & enter to win __ million points!

32. Winner:
Your family can be points millionaires!
• “Your family can be points
millionaires!” had a read rate of 42%,
compared to a 27% read rate for
“Join Family Pooling.”

33. Which Subject Line Split Test was Read the Most?
jetBlue tested two subject lines on Valentine’s Day:
• Love is a trip.
• Flying solo? Or with a seatmate? #loveisintheair

34. Winner:
Tie
• Both campaigns had a 28% read rate
• “Flying Solo?” had a slightly lower
“deleted without read” rate (10% vs.
11%)

35. Return Path Labs

36. Subject Line Optimizer

37. returnpath.com
Thank You