Shownotes
In this episode of Do This, Not That, host Jay Schwedelson dives into the art of email subject lines, revealing the latest tactics and strategies to boost open rates for both B2B and consumer marketers. From personalization tricks to avoiding common pitfalls, this episode is packed with actionable insights.
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Best Moments:
(00:40) Introduction to the podcast and topic of email subject lines
(02:47) Top tactic for B2B marketers: Personalization with recipient's company name
(03:53) Top tactic for consumer marketers: FOMO plus specifics in one subject line
(04:46) The effectiveness of "this versus that" in subject lines
(05:29) Mid-subject line capitalization of a word to increase open rates
(06:34) Words to avoid at the start of subject lines
(07:36) Mention of podcast sponsor Marigold
(08:31) Personal anecdote about watching Shogun and a recent trip to Japan
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Transcripts
Foreign welcome to do this, not that, the podcast for marketers. You'll walk away from each episode with actionable tips you can test immediately.
You'll hear from the best minds in marketing who will share tactics, quick wins, and pitfalls to avoid. We'll also dig into life, pop culture, and the chaos that is our everyday. I'm Jay Schwedelson. Let's do this, not that.
We are back for do this, not that podcast presented by Marigold. And today we're talking about my favorite topic, subject lines. Why do I love email subject lines so much? What are we going to talk about?
Email subject line tactics. What you put in your subject lines have a huge impact on the number of people opening up your emails.
And I want to share with you the latest information from the last 90 days on.
What are the things that you could put in your subject line that you get more of your emails open, whether you're a business marketer or a consumer marketer. And a lot of these tactics are things you've never even thought of or tried before.
And the strangest thing about email subject lines is that what you did a year ago is not what's working the best today. So I want to share with you what is working the best right now. But why do I get so excited talking about subject lines? And the reason is real simple.
There's almost no other marketing vehicle on planet earth where there's an equal playing field. When Apple sends out their emails, okay.
When Amazon sends out their emails, when the NFL sends out their emails, their subject line length, the size of their subject lines is the exact same size of the subject lines when you press send, there is an equal amount of real estate that every marketer gets with their subject lines. So you have the ability to compete against every brand, big or small, and to see can you beat them. Can you get your email opened and not theirs?
There is no other marketing channel vehicle thing where you have an equal playing field. Do you have $10 million to run a Super bowl ad for 30 seconds? No.
Do you have the ability to buy all the keywords in your industry or your category, whether you're a business or consumer marketer? No. Because they're really expensive. Okay. Are you able to run every search ad that you want to run so you could dominate everything? No.
But the real estate that you get in that recipient's inbox is the same real estate that I get and that every other brand gets. So you get to compete against everybody. And that's what gets me excited.
So I want to Share first, what is the number one tactic for business to business marketers? And what's the number one tactic right now in the last 90 days for consumer marketers to get emails open?
So first on the business side, the number one tactic right now is personalization with the recipient's company name. Okay? This is increasing email open rates by over 30%.
. That's garbage. That's from:No, when you hit send in every subject line to every recipient, you are dynamically putting in the company name where they work. Because when somebody sees the company name that where they work, like, oh, this is about my company, I gotta check it out.
So an example of that would be if a subject line said acme's competitors are doing this, you're like, oh, I work at Acme. What are my competitors doing? That's why it lifts open rates by 30%. Or how Acme can lead in retail innovation.
I work at Acme and we're in the retail industry. How, how can we lead in retail innovation? Personalization?
Leveraging the company name in the subject line is gold right now for business to business marketers. What about our friends on the consumer side? On the consumer side, here it is. The number one tactic is FOMO plus specifics in one subject line.
The fear of missing out plus specifics. If you do both of those in one subject line, it is lifting email open rates by over 25%. What does that mean?
So when you have specifics in fomo, it will sound like this. If you're a consumer marketer, this will sell out today. So you're saying, hey, fomo, you're going to miss out with the sellout part.
And today is the specific part. This will sell out today. Or something like only 12 left and counting, dot, dot, dot, right? So you have the FOMO that only 12 are left.
And it's very specific. So when you combine FOMO and specifics on the consumer side is lifting open rates by 25%. All right?
A few other tactics that you probably have never tried in the subject line that are doing really well right now. Another one is the concept of this verse that. This verse that in the subject line is lifting open rates by over 18%.
So this is for both business and consumer marketers. So subject lines like this, for example, time saved versus time wasted, right?
Or jeans that stretch versus jeans that judge this Versus that it's a great test. And literally you're doing this and then you're saying the thing, and then versus, period. That great, easy test. If you've never tried that.
Another super, super random one that I love, that we've been using in a lot of our marketing, which I know sounds so random, is mid subject line capitalization of a word. What does that mean? So you write your subject line and you do regular capitalization.
Maybe you capitalize the first letter of the sentence that you're writing, whatever. But then in the middle of that subject line, you take an entire word and you capitalize all the letters.
When you do this, it's actually lifting email open rates by about 15%. The percentage of people opening up your email. What does that feel like and sound like?
So if you send out an email, the subject line said only a few spots left, the word few, F, E, W, all the letters would be capitalized. It's in the middle of the subject line. Why does that work?
It works because when somebody's doing that social scroll, okay, and they're, like, moving really fast that millisecond, it grabs their eyeballs and they see that capitalized word in the middle of the subject line. It could be a word like new. It could be a word like sale. It could be a word like invitation, right?
You take one word in the middle of that subject line and you capitalize the whole world. And capital capitalization does not cause you to go to the junk folder or the spam folder. That is garbage. That is nonsense. That is not true.
None of that is true. So this is a great easy test.
Now, one other thing before we get to the ridiculous portion of this podcast, which is always bonkers, is that there are some words that are losers that if you put in your subject line, they're instant boat anchors, especially at the start of your subject line. So if you put these words at the start of your subject line, they instantly turn people off, and we see open rates actually go down by over 10%.
When you have the first word of your subject line, be one of these words. What are those words? The word learn. Nobody wants to be told to learn anything. Learn the latest tips about whatever.
No chance that will drop your overrate by about 10%. Discover. Nobody wants to discover anything. Reminder. If you see the word remind at the start of your subject line, you actually get angry, right?
You don't want to do that. It's horrible. Find out. Meeting.
When you have learn or discover or reminder or find out or meeting at the start of your subject line, it will drop your open rates by about 10%, because nobody wants any of that garbage. All right, before we get into the ridiculous portion of this podcast, I want you to know that this podcast is presented by Marigold.
I talk about Marigold a lot because they're my email sending platform. Now, they're a roll up of a ton of great companies. So Sail Through Emma, Campaign Monitor, Live Clicker, Cheetah Digital.
These are all part of Marigold. And I've been sending out billions of emails through Marigold forever. And I want to connect you with them.
They have the best offers, the best platform. I've been using them for years. I'm not just saying this because they support this podcast. I'm saying it because it's true.
And if you're not happy with your platform, I want to connect you with the team at Marigold. All you got to do is DM me on LinkedIn, say, Jay, I need to talk to somebody over there because my platform stinks. DM me.
I will get you connected to the right person. Or just go and visit meetmaragle.com I am telling you there is a better path for your email sending and for your loyalty marketing programs.
Check them out at meetmar. Com. All right, the ridiculous portion of this podcast called. Since you didn't ask, what is going on, me. Well, let's see.
Right now I am very deep in watching the show Showgun on Hulu. I usually only watch reality tv, which I'm gearing up for the Bachelor because that's coming in about two weeks. Very excited for that.
But I have to say, Shogun is a great, great show. And I. It's very intellectual. And I'm not intellectual. You check it out.
But it was very funny because last night I'm watching Shogun, my wife, and it's all basically subtitles because in Japanese. And we're sitting there and I turn to my wife, I go, make it louder. I can't hear anything. And she goes, what are you talking about? It's subtitles.
Why does it need to be louder? We don't know what they're saying anyway. You're an idiot. And I was like, but I don't know. We need it to be louder. I have to hear it while I read it.
And I'm like, that doesn't even make any sense what I'm saying.
And by the way, the reason we're watching Shogun, I wasn't even planning on sharing this ridiculousness, but so I just went on a trip over the Holidays, my family. I took my wife, my teenage kids, mega trip. We went to Japan. It was wild. It was the best time ever.
But the craziest thing about our trip to Japan was that. So we've been playing this trip for a long time, right? And the night before we leave, I get home from work, it was like five o' clock or so.
And our plan was to leave the next morning at 4am we were going to head to the airport at 4am with this car that was picking us up. It was going to be great, whatever. I don't know what happened. I felt fine that whole day at work.
The second I got home from work, I started throwing up. No joke. I mean, could not stop. Like every flight, 45 minutes I was throwing up. And my wife and kids are like, oh, this is bad.
We're leaving at 4am in the morning for Japan. What are we gonna do? I'm like, I'll get better. I'll be better by the morning. It must be something I ate, whatever.
So 3:45 in the morning rolls around and I'm still throwing up. And my wife gets like, what should we do? And everyone's packed, whatever. And I was like, you know what, Go, just go without me.
And I shove them out the door. And I said, just go, go to Japan. I will be there tomorrow, somehow, some way. And they're like, you don't look very well. And I mean, I was so sick.
I go, it's going to be fine. And they said, okay. And they went. And I went on the app and was able to switch my flight without it costing me a zillion dollars.
And I booked a ticket for the same time the next day. And I said, I have to be better by tomorrow morning, somehow, some way. So off they went to Japan. And now I'm sitting home alone, like, not well.
I mean, I was really in rough shape and it was a rough night. So then the next morning rolls around, I am still in like not great shape at all. But I said, screw it. And I went to the airport on my own.
And I got on the flight and I was not doing well when the flight took off. And I said to myself, jay, by the time this flight lands in Tokyo, you have to be better somehow, some way. And I locked in on it and I.
And I spent a good amount of time in the restroom on the plane. It was my best friend. But I am happy to report that when I landed, I was okay. And the moment I landed. This is the most ridiculous part.
Where did I find? I Had a meet up with my wife and kids. They were out and about in Tokyo. It was the evening time I dropped my bags and they were on a food tour.
Oh my God. So I find them and they're on a food tour. And I'm like, here I am. And I said to my wife, should I eat all this stuff?
I just, I just been throwing up for like 48 hours. And she's like, do it. Who cares? You're fine. It's gonna be fine. So I went all in, eating the weirdest stuff possible. And you know what?
It all worked out.
And the best part, here's the best part, it was that I lost my like 7 pounds in 48 hours, which was fantastic because when you go into a big trip, you then can eat whatever you want. And I was like, oh my God, this is amazing. So it was a massive awesomeness that I was able to rock out and eat whatever I wanted.
It was a little weird start. I don't know why I share that story, but I did. Listen, I hope everybody checks out.
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