eROI Days Email Agency

Subject Line Research: Response Goes Down As the Characters Go Up

The issue of subject line length is something that gets debated endlessly around the marketing water cooler. Most people know that anything longer than 55 characters (and, just a reminder, the spaces do count!) will get cut off. And many have heard the maxim that 35 is really a better number to aim for. But, does anyone know how the length of the subject line actually affects response?

Response rate (as measured by clicks) goes down dramatically when the subject line is longer than 50 characters.

Click-through rates for subject lines with 49 or fewer characters were 75 percent higher than for those with 50 or more.

What about open rates? While the difference wasn’t as dramatic, we found that subject lines with 49 or fewer characters had open rates 12.5 percent higher than for those with 50 or more.

Testing your subject lines on your list is the only way to know what will work and what won’t. But, this research clearly shows that, in fact, brevity is the better part of valor.

I promise to add to this blog entry with the source of this study.

eROI Predictions for 2006
In an effort for all of us to remember some of these outlandish predictions, we went with the beloved Top10 format.

10. Online viral campaigns will continue to spread like the plague.
Marketers finally get it – viral marketing is here to stay. The multiplier affect of great marketing, online public relations, co-creating with your customers, and lead capture for minimal cost is too much for marketers and business owners to pass up. 2006 will see a rise in viral campaigns. Some will feel forced, some weak, but the most innovative and creative campaigns will be rewarded with huge online traffic and leads. Our five favorite online viral campaigns in 2005 are:
a. Death Jr Hamster Game – Konami
b. Chinese Back Street Boys
c. Kettle Foods Crave Site
d. Darth Vader Mind Games – Burger King
e. JibJab’s ‘2-0-5’ video

9. Email design and content will matter more.
Assuming email addiction has set in more and more as we predicted last year, we are becoming more and more jaded with email in our inboxes that have predictable content and weak design. Don’t tell me that you spend 5 minutes admiring every email that hits your inbox – holmie don’t play that. The average email recipient spends 2.8 seconds reading an email. This time per email is decreasing rapidly year over year. As humans, we love a pleasant surprise; something that makes us stop and look a little bit longer so we can tell our friends and colleagues about it. Email template and brand consistency will continue to be important, but more marketers will take advantage of unique headline banners to their newsletters and other email communication.

8. More blogs than websites for most.
It’s not whether or not to have a blog in ’06, it will be how many blogs. Disclaimer: we are ridiculous – eROI maintains four blogs and five websites (www.eroi.com and four micro-sites). Companies will realize that a blog for each vertical niche of their product or service offering (or for segmenting their customer base) is the way to go in ’06. Why? For three main reasons:

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