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The funniest thing happened today. Well, maybe more embarrassing and goofy than funny. I write email messages to 4,000 of our Premium Plus members each week to announce our upcoming virtual seminars, and this time I screwed up the subject line. It brought an unexpected result!
Despite my rather cryptic subject line (which said "P+ anncmt, blog secrets"), over 500 people opened and read this email within 40 minutes of its launch. That's got to be a new record! I think it elicited a "What the --??" reaction because for the first time, my subject line made no sense at all.
Okay, it doesn't hurt that I've built up some trust with these readers by sending them useful info every week. But what about all those rules for writing a good subject line? Make it short, make it clear, make it compelling, don't mention Viagra... and then They Will Open.
I'm tempted to make next week's email subject line say, "Kbirtnuj Wawawa" just to see what happens to the open rate. Betcha I'd get few interesting replies, like the member today who wondered if she was missing a MarketingProfs secret decoder ring.
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Comments
A little mystery goes a long way...
Posted by: Mack Collier | 06.11.07
I have a sort of similar story. We once changed the sign up form for a web site to a much nicer one or so we thought. Sales went down immediately. There was not technical glitch, we found the form worked fine.
We waited a few days. Sales stayed low. We changed back to the old form and immediately sales went up again.
We violated the marketing axiom of only changing one variable at a time, so we don't know to this day what it was about the new form that caused the drop in sales. Nor do we know what it is about the current form that works well!
Neil
Posted by: Neil Anuskiewicz | 06.11.07
Just goes to show - difference can be a good thing or sometimes not. How's that for profound? :)
Posted by: Elaine Fogel | 06.11.07
I guess I could add one more lesson learned here...
Avoid writing email when you've had less than four hours of sleep. ;]
Posted by: Shelley Ryan | 06.11.07
This has more to do with having made a good name for yourself than anything else.
Even though you had something undefinable in the subject line, your recipients opened it because they knew they could trust you. If the same subject line had come from some unknown, chances are it would have ended up in the spam folder.
I'm a writer at Deliver magazine and we recently ran a survey from the University of Georgia which stated that people find spam more irritating than unsolicited mail.
The entire article is linked below. Your good reputation made them trust you despite your cryptic subject line. http://delivermagazine.com/columns/2007/05/09/can-the-spam/
Posted by: Nancy | 06.11.07
Thanks, Nancy! I'm pretty sure you're right. I get more messages than I deserve from folks who say they actually look forward to getting my emails.
Lucky me!
Posted by: Shelley Ryan | 06.11.07
I have been active on the web (building sites, email campaigns, etc.) for around 14 years now, and I "still" get suckered into opening emails once in a while that have indecipherable subject lines.
Is that because the artist in me wants to know what kind of person could have created such an expression?
Or is it because I have never seen a subject line written like that before, and not being one to leave well enough alone, I subconciously want to put myself in the position of not being able to say anymore about that particular subject line "I've never seen that before"?
So please... don't tempt me!
Posted by: Randy | 06.13.07
Randy, you might need to seek professional help. ;]
Posted by: Shelley Ryan | 06.14.07