Look to your website for email marketing subject lines

Are you still wondering what to put in your subject lines?  Have you read the tips, but you’re still not sure you’re if you’re doing it right?

Every email marketer is aware of the impact subject lines can have on your open rates.  Obviously there are a few things that factor into whether or not a subscriber decides to open your email (e.g. what your customer relationship is like, whether they recognized the From name, your history of sending relevant content), yet there’s something to be said for a subject line that piques interest. 

I’ve always recommended testing your subject lines (or your newsletters) before sending to optimize your results – using our A/B split testing tool can test lengths, alternative phrasing, or positioning of words (beginning or end of the subject line).  These are all ways to test the structure of your subject line though; how about the content?  Like your newsletter content, the content of your subject line needs to be relevant to the recipient if you expect them to open.

One way of generating good content is, of course, to look at what kind of content has a history of garnering high open rates and, when possible, try to create something in a similar vein.  The risk, of course, is that subscribers will become bored at some point.

So why not look at what they find interesting on your website?

Google analytics is a free Google tool that gives you access to statistics on your website traffic – how many people visited, how they found your website, which pages were viewed the most, etc.  Most online marketers make use of this, or a similar, analytics tool. 

Having a look at your site analytics gives you an overview of what content on your site people find most interesting.  Take this into account when composing your subject lines.  The top ten most viewed pages generally reflect what topics might be of interest to your readers. 
Many people probably find your site through search engines.  Google analytics will also reflect which keywords they used in their search that led them to your site.  The phrases these potential clients use are also a clear indication of what particular service, information or product it was that attracted them to your site.  Including some of these keywords in your subject lines could similarly draw recipients’ attention to your newsletter.  We’re so used to using industry specific phrases that we often assume outsiders use the same language to describe our products or services, but looking at search keywords will show you exactly how it is that they are describing your service – these words are familiar to them and recognition could draw higher open rates.

You can also review your company blog.  Which posts received the most reader comments?  Were they interested in getting more information on the topic?  Did the post generate a discussion among your blog followers?  Take a look at that blog title and surmise what it is that drew readers’ attention – it just might work for your newsletter too.

Often marketers just prefer sticking to what works (or what they think works) for them – or they simply find testing to be too time consuming.   More often though, I think they simply don’t know what alternatives to test.  The above content recommendations could help you expand your subject line repertoire – one of these options might just work really for your business.

Remember that you can also integrate your GraphicMail account with Google Analytics to track how much traffic your email campaigns generate for your website.