Doing an e-mail campaign? Putting the word “free” along with the offer in a subject line is a definite plus, no matter what you’ve heard.
In fact, e-Post Direct discovered that in a six-week e-mail test it ran recently. “The free-offer subject line lifted response rates by 26%,” said Michelle Feit, president of the e-mail marketing list company.
The subject line, “Free direct mail encyclopedia” beat out the benefit subject line, which said, “Boost sales, increase profits and expand marketplace awareness.”
Feit also discovered that the day of the week matters, depending on who you are. For corporate executives, responses were highest on Wednesday. For sales and marketing, the highest response day was Thursday, she said.
Friday works, as long as it’s not summer. “When we started the test it was late spring, and at the three-week snapshot, Friday was the best day,” Feit said. But, as summer dawned, “Friday fell off dramatically.”
The bottom line on creative is that HTML beats out text, lifting results by 32%.
E-Post Direct conducted the test earlier this year, e-mailing out some 150,000 pitches in all. Recipients were a VNU business audience.
“We saw that by testing all these different segments and learning what is the best subject line, day to mail and copy and design to use, we could actually lift our results by 180%,” Feit said. “Those variables have a real effect on the success of a campaign.”
Feit is speaking on Tuesday at 10:30 a.m., along with Steven Roberts, CEO of sister company Edith Roman Associates Inc., and Bob Bly, an independent copywriter.
