Hyper Martial Arts, a youth clothing brand focused on the martial arts world, sends a weekly-ish email newsletter (designed by JPW International) out to a few thousand close fans. The majority of these fans are between the ages of 8-18.
Even though the newsletter has a historically high open rate, we continue to test new subject lines and send times to improve that open rate. One of these tests resulted in a 66% increase in open rate over the newsletter average.
The Challenge
Increase the open rate of an email newsletter aimed at kids ages 8-18.
The Solution
Try a subject line that was short and intriguing as opposed to descriptive.
Our first subject was “Hyper in LA, Dayna Huor.” This subject line gives a matter of fact, news headline style indication of what the newsletter will be about. (I’ve had repeated success with this style for newsletters aimed at older, more time-crunched subscribers.)
Our second subject was “3 sweet videos …” Notice how this subject line is a tease — a brief mention of what the email contains. It says nothing about what they subscriber will learn, or what the email is really “about.”
The second subject line, which goes against traditional email marketing advice, resulted in open rate 66% higher than the other subject line and the newsletter average. Even the click through rate for the second subject was 50% than the click through rate for the first subject. In other words, the effects of the improved subject line didn’t end with the email being opened; users engaged with the email more.
Moving forward, we decided to create subject lines that were brief and seductive. An interesting side note: while this has increased open rates, we find that weaving in an “old style” subject line every once in a while will also get a response. In other words, the variety is appreciated.
Tactics Used:
- A/B Testing
- Email Marketing (CAN-SPAM compliant)
Technologies Used:
- MailChimp
- Excel
- Google Docs