I can’t stress enough how imperative the subject line is to the success of your email campaign. Similar to a first date, a subject line needs to make a first impression that will be strong enough to open the gateway of further communication. It is the factor that decides whether the recipient opens or disregards your message altogether. It must be compelling and interesting in order to prompt the viewer to want to know more.

Don’t fall for common clichés such as “free” or “first time offered” but instead trigger an emotional reaction. A subject line that reads “I have the solution” is infinitely better than “Bad credit?”; “Bring Eyeballs to Your Blog” appears to be more interesting than “Blog Tips”. Likewise, Chicken Soup for the Soul wouldn’t have sold as many copies had it been called Great Short Stories.

There’s a simple solution to identify whether you are obtaining that emotional reaction: you must test a variety of subject lines. Testing has always been the key to direct response success, and in email its significance is amplified. For example, which subject line had the highest response, “Fortunes being made with this new invention” or “Cashing in on fortune-making trend”? Only by testing would it be possible to confirm.

Crayola Crayons tested 17 email greetings, all of which had the goal of getting people to fill out their survey. Some individuals received generic subject lines such as, “Help us help you”, other subject lines revealed an incentive, such as the possibility of a gift certificate, and then there was the simplest of simple, the subject line, “Crayola Survey”. The results were shocking.

“Crayola Survey” had the highest response rate; it nearly tripled the email marketing industry average response rate of 10 – 15%. “Crayola Survey” was such a successful subject line because Crayola included their company name in the greeting, and they had already formed a high rapport with their recipients. However, no marketer can be certain that this factor would be more influential than an offer without first putting it to the test.

Verbs, nouns, adverbs or adjectives, which part of speech increases the likelihood that emails will be read? Verbs initiate actions and reflect importance. Verbs have a greater power than nouns. Some general marketing examples are: “visit your nearest store”, “drop in at your nearest store”, and “hurry to your nearest store”. Many options exist, so your verb choice is crucial for an effective subject line.

Does safety lie in plainness? Not for email. Telling the recipient what to do helps convince that person to read beyond the subject line. For instance: “Information you should have about internet hacking schemes.”; the subject line begins with a dull, neutral noun. Consider the same message when beginning with a power verb: “Beware of internet hacking schemes”. The message doesn’t suffer with the word information missing, as beware is much more motivational.

Concentrating on verbs is usually a sound marketing decision, but even though well-chosen verbs have strength, other parts of speech are valuable as well. The typical, “How to…” catch phrase can be effective, but only if “How to…” is followed by a power verb such as win, beat or grab. Following “How to…” with be or go, can’t compete with a power-verb as a first word that demands attention.

So in closing, make a statement with your subject line that can’t be avoided and make it a priority to test them out, as you’ll never know what you might discover.

Renting an email list is a simple and quick process, which can typically be executed from initial list research to email deployment within a couple of weeks.  Also, as the initial list recommendation process is similar to that of renting a direct mail list, most traditional direct mail marketers will find themselves on fairly familiar ground with email.

There are however some differences with email prospecting.  Most significantly, email privacy policies do not allow the list owners to actually release the databases to the advertiser or a third party. Instead list owners broadcast the emails on the advertiser’s behalf.  To give you a better understanding, the following will take you through the process of renting an email list and executing a campaign.

To begin, it’s essential to have a clear understanding of your objectives, offer and target audience prior to contacting a list broker who can prepare a recommendation for your campaign.  If you know who you hope to reach, but are unsure of how to define your audience using the criteria available within most email databases, your broker should be able to provide insight or suggestions on how this can be done.  Once you’ve confirmed your desired target, your broker will research available lists and prepare a list recommendation for your campaign that contains a summary of suitable email lists, available quantities within your target market, and general pricing information.

Upon receipt of your feedback on the initial recommendation, the broker can then prepare a complete cost estimate based on the desired lists and budget, as well as any optional services that may be required for the campaign.  As the list owners deploy the emails on an advertiser’s behalf, it should also be noted that any test segments, personalization of the email, or other specific creative requirements should be discussed with your broker prior to obtaining an estimate, as additional fees may be incurred.

Once the estimate has been approved and your creative materials have been submitted, your broker will then arrange for the list owner to setup and send out tests for your approval.  Should the tests be approved, the list owner will proceed with the deployment on the scheduled deployment date.  However, should any changes be required, a final revised test will be sent out for approval.  Once the deployment has gone out, your broker will typically follow up several days later and submit a tracking report that summarizes the Sent and Successfully Delivered quantities, as well as Opens, Clicks, and the Clicks per Link that were obtained during your campaign.

In a nut shell, that’s all it takes to rent and deploy to an email prospecting list; although should you have any questions, your email list broker would certainly be happy to further discuss.

Wikipedia defines spam as sending unsolicited bulk email or electronic messages indiscriminately.  Although many consumers may not recite this definition, they would likely convey similar themes of irrelevant, impersonal and unwanted.

Although email marketing can be extremely successful for an organization, a principal question that must be asked is how to make your emails relevant and desirable to your recipients and therefore overcome any potential of your email being incorrectly perceived as spam. 

To increase the relevancy of your emails, it is recommended that you consistently segment your database to ensure that recipients only receive emails for offers that they qualify for and are likely to have an interest in.  For instance, a national retailer promoting an in-store sale at its Toronto locations should ensure that only those that reside within a reasonable driving radius from the participating locations be included within the mailing, as the offer is irrelevant to all others.  The same principal holds true for segmenting your lists by other identifiable fields, such as gender or interest areas.  Creating sub-lists and sending offers exclusively to those who have an identified or perceived interest in a specific offer will reduce the number of emails you send, but it should also result in higher conversion rates as well as a reduction in the opt-out rate of your list.

Although it’s nearly impossible to actually write a personalized email for each of your subscribers, it isn’t impossible to provide your recipients with a perceived personalized experience.  Not only can you increase the relevancy of your emails by using sub-lists, but by leveraging dynamic content you can also automatically insert specific email content based on a recipients previous purchase history, their geographic location, or any other information that exists within your database.  Including personalized content of this nature provides the opportunity to customize your offers to sell accessories and related products, or simply highlight individual products or services that are of likely interest based on a customer’s attributes or previous behaviour.  Furthermore, including basic personalization such as a greeting using the recipient’s name, including the current number/value of loyalty points that they have accumulated with your company or other similar, relevant information should increase a recipient’s engagement with and perceived value of your emails as well.

Unfortunately, despite your best efforts, some recipients may still find your emails unwanted.  There are various reasons why a recipient may choose to unsubscribe and regardless of their reason, opt-out requests must be respected.  However, there are practices that can be put in place to try and minimize the number of opt-outs you obtain.  For instance, if a recipient clicks on an opt-out link, instead of directing them to a landing page where they could only click on a “Yes” or “No” link to confirm their preference to unsubscribe, you should instead direct them to a preference page.  This preference page should allow the recipient to simply opt-out of specific types of emails or newsletters, or all of your future emails.  Also, it could permit recipients to identify their preferred time of day to receive your emails and the preferred format (HTML vs. plain text vs. mobile) that they receive.  This in turn should make the recipients more receptive to your email marketing offers and further strengthen your brand image as a respectful and conscientious e-marketer.