The document provides tips for developing an effective subject line strategy. It recommends analyzing statistics on popular keywords to see what works and doesn't work. Key tips include giving a reason to open, focusing on benefits and being timely. Tactics to avoid include being too forceful, looking like a reply, using exclamation points or stale terms. It stresses the importance of testing subject lines continually since what works can change quickly.

1. Devise a subject
line strategy?1.
We looked at which words and phrases were the most
popular, and then categorised them by objective. This
gives you solid statistics by keyword on what works and
what doesn’t, and will give you some great ideas on how
to improve your results.
What does work?2.
Give them a reason to open:
Summer
Weekend
Sell the benefits:
Be relevant and timely:
Educating people (boring!):
Stale content:
Don’t get stuck in a rut using the same old terms:
Don’t forget to test
and test and test...4.
In the Adestra Subject Line Analysis Report, you will discover the trends of subject
lines from over 2.2 billion emails. These trends cover the keywords and phrases that
recipients respond to better than most, and also, which ones are over-used and
ineffective for your sector.
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What doesn’t work?3.
Being creative is great – but don’t be crazy and
try things for a short term gain. If you used the
subject line“Free Beer!”then guess what? You'll
get a huge amount of opens, but lose credibility
when recipients realize the subject has nothing to do with your
message. Be careful not to prioritise short term response gains over
long term brand harm. Here are some tactics that really don’t work.
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Being too forceful:
Trying to look like a reply or a forward:
FW:
Report
The real enemies of badly performing marketing
strategies for subject lines are assumptions and
biases based upon past experience. What may
have worked last week can stop tomorrow, and
what failed epically last year may make you a
million this year. That’s why you need to test, test,
and test again. And again. And for good measure, do it again.
Adestra Subject Line Analysis Report 2013
Keywords for killer subject lines
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With all the clutter in the world these days, making
your email stand out is more difficult than ever.
Download the report now at:
www.adestra.com/subjectlines
%
14.7 %
30.1
%
%
18.7
%
1.7
%
%
42.6
%
3.7
%
%
60.9
%
%
60.8
%
35.5
%
%
49.6
%
22.8
%
%
37.7
%
26.6
%
%
49.5
%
13.8
%
%
18.7
%
0.7
%
%
54.8
%
23.7
%%
13.2
%
18
%%
3.5
%
8.5
%%
17.2
%
8.6
%%
34.8
%
47.7
%%
38.1
%
61.8
%%
23.2
%
10.2
%%
28.3
%
8.3
%%
50.7
%
135.4
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Notice the strategy with
the subject line?
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It’s always consistently personalised with the company name, a
single product offer plus free delivery. That’s what the recipient will
associate with the brand.
Having a subject line strategy is important!
steps to writing
a killer subject line
Keyword
Open rate
variance vs.
average
Keyword
Click rate
variance vs.
average
4 @
How much time do you spend
developing your subject line strategy?
If you’re like 9/10 marketers, then the answer is“not enough!”
Many marketers spend hours creating their email and then pick a subject line as the
last step, forgetting that if your subject line isn’t good then no one will see all of your
hard work!
Not all of your emails will get opened all the time, but your
email campaign is not solely defined by opens and clicks!
Your subject line is prominent whether your emails are opened or not.
Open rate
variance vs.
average
Click rate
variance vs.
average
%
5.1
AA BB
FREE
BEER!
Multiple messages separated by commas
Multiple messages separated by pipes
%%
27.5
%
90.7
%%
19.5
%
36.4