tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10292068.post820192187463189693..comments2008-06-28T12:14:10.691-05:00PowerHomeBiz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17804035004062295326noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10292068.post-82550912776880457162008-06-28T09:43:00.000-05:002008-06-28T09:43:00.000-05:00Hi I thought your readers might be interested on an update.<BR/><BR/>This story was based on a conversation I had at the email insider summit about an incomplete white paper (widely misinterpreted btw) I was working on. The research is now complete and if anything the results are even more conclusive than I had hoped for!<BR/><BR/>I run Alchemy Worx - a digital marketing agency with a 100% focus on email, and our findings are based on analysing over 600 subject lines and 200 million email messages and believe that this research disproves the widely held view that short email subject lines are better.<BR/><BR/>In the last eight years of working on our clients email marketing programmes we amassed plenty of circumstantial evidence that suggested longer subject lines could be as, if not more effective than shorter ones, so we commissioned this research to find out once and for all.<BR/><BR/>Our research supports the widely held view that short is best for opens, but what we have now demonstrated is that when it comes to subject line length, more opens = less clicks!<BR/><BR/>We discovered that although subject lines with 50 characters or less make more people open the email - the traditional view – however these people are less likely to then go on and click on content or offers within the message.<BR/><BR/>There is an inverse relationship between opens and both click and click to open rates, so unless you have no interest in clicks subject line tests should prioritise optimising click-to-open rates - a metric that analyses the impact the subject line on both clicks and opens simultaneously.<BR/><BR/>The study goes on to show that the click-to-open rates start to be optimised when the subject line is over 70 characters in length and continue to rise until well beyond 100 characters. This is true for both the number of characters and the word count. The more words there were in the subject line, the better the click-to-open rate (if anything the results are stronger for word count).<BR/><BR/>In summary our findings show that:<BR/><BR/>- Short subject lines less than 50 characters long or containing less than 6 words optimise open rates<BR/><BR/>- Long subject lines – over 70 characters or 10 words optimise both click and click-to open rates<BR/><BR/>We were also surprised to identify a “dead” zone!<BR/><BR/>- Subject lines of between 60 and 70 characters (6-10 words), optimise neither the open rate or click to open rates.”<BR/><BR/>Dela Quist<BR/><BR/>The white paper containing full results and analysis is now available as a free download<BR/>http://www.alchemyworx.com/subjectlines-lengthiseverything.phpDela Quistwww.alchemyworx.comnoreply@blogger.com