News
 How
to Test Your Email Subject Lines
Copywriting guru Nick Usborne shares his thoughts on
why testing email subject lines is important.
Usborne shows you how to test your email subject
lines – the right way.
Over the years I have worked on email and
newsletters with a number of large companies. When
the lists have been big enough I have always
recommended that we test subject lines before
sending to the complete list.
Why? Because identifying the best subject line out
of a group is perhaps the hardest of all calls. In
fact, over the years, I have never been able to
consistently guess which subject line will get the
best open rate.
There are a couple of principles to follow with
every email subject line
1. Don’t get on the bad side of the spam filters. So
watch for “bad” words, too much capitalization,
exclamation marks etc.
2. Identify yourself. Get your company, product or
newsletter name in the subject line. So when people
scan their new emails, they will recognize you as
being welcome. Beyond that, you just have to test.
Here’s how I have done it...
A couple of days before the main send, I test four
or five different subject lines against 500-1,000
names each, depending on the size of the list.
Twenty-four hours later I check to see which line
achieved the highest open rate. If you can, also
check the click-through rates. Sometimes the line
with the highest open rate won’t be the one that
ultimately brings you the highest revenues.
Once you have picked your winner, use that line with
the main send of your email or newsletter.
Is it worth the trouble?
Absolutely. I have tested newsletter subject lines
where two of them appear to be very similar, but one
has achieved an open rate almost twice that of the
other. If you don’t test, you’re just guessing.
- Nick Usborne
is a copywriter and consultant with more than 20
years experience in the advertising and marketing
industry. His website is ExcessVoice.com.
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