I ran a test on email subject lines for our newsletter

For three months, I sent our weekly newsletter with two different subject line styles. One was just the blog post title, like 'Q3 Marketing Trends'. The other asked a direct question, like 'Are you missing these Q3 marketing trends?'. The question style got 40% more opens every single week. I was sure our readers wanted simple info, but they actually respond way better to being asked something. Has anyone else seen a big jump from switching up their email approach?

3 comments

3 Comments

tylerj221mo agoMost Upvoted

Did you see that article from Marketing Brew about this exact thing? They talked about how question subject lines work because they trigger a tiny bit of curiosity that makes people feel like they need to answer it, even just in their head. Your 40% jump is huge, way bigger than the small bumps they were reporting. Makes me wonder if it works even better for a niche audience that really trusts you. What kind of open rate were you starting from before the test?

jamie7701mo ago

Yeah that "tiny bit of curiosity" thing from the article is spot on, @tylerj22. We saw our clicks go up too, not just opens. It pulls people into the actual email.

the_emery1mo ago

Hold up, is a 40% jump in opens really that meaningful? I mean, opens are a pretty weak number to chase. People open emails and delete them all the time. It doesn't mean they read it or clicked anything. You could just be getting better at writing bait-y subject lines that don't actually deliver better results for the business. I'd be way more interested in seeing if that question style led to more clicks or, you know, actual sales.