Don’t read this email. No, don’t! Stop! Don’t click!

Many of my clients are beginning to follow my lead in sending out regular correspondence to their existing customers and their prospects. The motivation is not so much to “sell, sell, sell!” but to cultivate genuine relationships over a period of time by providing their readers with useful and interesting information.

One of the challenges involved in email marketing, however, is getting people to open the email. We average a respectable 45% open rate for our mailouts but every now and then dip down into the 30′s or shoot above 50%. I find it interesting to analyse the statistics that our software gives us to identify what subject lines produce spikes in our open rate and which ones result in slumps.

While you may think that any mention of ‘sex’ would result in spam filters going out of their way to block an email, our August email ‘Who is the Sexiest Web Designer?’ resulted in 54% of our list opening the email – our highest ever.

The suggestive ‘”We shouldn’t be this excited about a website! Its wrong isn’t it?….”‘ the week prior managed 52% and the drama-filled ‘How I saved my reputation with one click (a useful tip for the future)’ was opened by 53%.

Conversely, the mention of email spam in the subject ‘Wasting time sorting through email spam? We’ve got the solution’ resulted in our second biggest slump at 35% and the ernest, but long, subject line ‘An outrageously simple way to track the success of your advertising (9 out of 10 advertisers don’t do it!)’ has been awarded, so far, only 33% (tragically, I consider this one of the most important and useful free bits of advice I’ve sent out).

So what works? Subject lines with a bit of fun, sass, sex-appeal or drama seem to work best. Topics that seem too boring, too serious or sales-oriented seem to get trashed. Don’t expect anyone to open an email entitled, simply, ‘Newsletter’!