We were recently working with a client who was blasting out to 50k subscribers. Over lunch, we were discussing all the steps they were taking prior to sending out the email blast. The content was very relevant to the audience, but the open rate was around 5-10%. Not very good!

After digging a little bit more, I realized that they were not testing different subject lines prior to sending the email blast. The subject line of your email is free advertising. It should be compelling, could have a call to action, a promotion or a the title of a headline article. The existing subject was "Date, Company Name, Newsletter. Not very compelling to say the least. We began brainstorming on the different subject lines they could test. Keyword here is – TEST.

Prior to sending to 50k subscribers we recommended they test 3 or 4 subject lines with a smaller portion of the list. This measures what subject line is resulting in the higher open rate. This way the official newsletter launch date is 2 times more effective when it comes to the open rate of the actual email.  This was pretty important  to the client  as they have some high paying advertisers in the newsletter.

So in closing, try something different when it comes to your subject lines. Test with a small sub group of your subscriber list. We’ll talk more later on how you can segment your lists in order to send even more relevant copy.

Chow!