{"id":1259,"date":"2019-02-05T08:00:08","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T14:00:08","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2021-09-27T19:36:37","modified_gmt":"2021-09-28T00:36:37","slug":"power-words-in-email-subject-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.campaignmonitor.com\/blog\/email-marketing\/power-words-in-email-subject-lines\/","title":{"rendered":"The 15 Most Powerful Words in Subject Lines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Article first published June 2014. Updated February 2019.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The inbox can be a hostile place. With a million other emails jostling for your subscribers’ limited attention, it’s important that you make your subject line stand out – and get your email opened. So, what works best?<\/p>\n

We pored through thousands of campaigns to shortlist 15 popular words – and find out what makes an effective subject line.<\/p>\n

While we’d love to say that we’ve found the “silver bullet” to getting people to open your email, our research indicates that, so far, there is no magical formula or golden combination of words that can guarantee an open. Sorry, everyone. What works best for a particular piece of content in one industry, does not ensure the same responses with another.<\/p>\n

But, if you look at the data, there are certain patterns that emerge. So we can certainly provide pointers on how certain words perform, as well as practical tips for writing subject lines.<\/p>\n

Finding our “Power Words”<\/h2>\n

In our initial study on subject line performance, we decided to look at how specific words influenced the open rates of campaigns overall.<\/p>\n

We realized that in order to really understand the\u00a0performance of certain words, we needed both a control group and a test group for comparison, being campaigns with words we had narrowed down for analysis.<\/p>\n

Both the control and our test group made use of the same lists (minimum of 500 subscribers) between January 1, 2013 until March 31, 2014. In order to have enough data to be significant, the list had to receive\u00a0at least<\/i> 10 campaigns over that period.<\/p>\n

This resulted in a sample of 3,941,735,015 recipients, from 360,872 campaigns and 11,207 lists.<\/p>\n

From this modest sample, we narrowed down the most frequently used words that featured at the beginning and end of subject lines, then compared the open rates between our two groups to determine which words performed better, that is, which words increased the chance of an email being opened.<\/p>\n

It’s cheesy, but we’ll call these high-performers our Power Words.<\/p>\n

So, what makes a Power Word?<\/h2>\n

First, some quick notes about our word shortlist.<\/p>\n

While some words boosted a subject line’s success when they featured as either the first or last word (eg. “Invitation”, or dates), others only provided a notable open % uplift at one end or the other of a subject line.<\/p>\n

This is in part due to grammatical correctness: For example, a pronoun like “We” or present participle like “Introducing” would seldom feature at the end of a sentence.<\/p>\n

Personally, I think it’s important to make these distinctions\u00a0if only to highlight that word order and, more importantly, context matters.<\/p>\n

As much as it would be lovely to string words together and see your open rates go up exponentially, there are no shortcuts to the ideal subject line<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

We’ll share with you some of our other observations and advice, but let’s get into Power Words already:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nFirst word: Open % Change<\/td>\nLast word: Open % Change<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
[firstname,fallback=customer],
\n(what’s this?<\/a>)<\/small><\/td>\n		14.68%<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Invitation<\/td>\n9.45%<\/td>\n7.69%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Introducing<\/td>\n7.36%<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
We<\/td>\n5.87%<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
A<\/td>\n4.09%<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Your \/ You \/ You!<\/td>\n4.07%<\/td>\n6.20%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Year, eg. 2014<\/td>\n3.89%<\/td>\n2.84%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Update<\/td>\n<\/td>\n3.69%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
New<\/td>\n3.26%<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Month name, eg. June<\/td>\n3.25%<\/td>\n3.34%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Special \/ Specials<\/td>\n2.75%<\/td>\n2.08%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
News<\/td>\n1.31%<\/td>\n2.22%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sale \/ Sale!<\/td>\n<\/td>\n2.40%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Events<\/td>\n<\/td>\n1.97%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Offer \/ Offers<\/td>\n<\/td>\n1.86%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

So now that you’ve seen how Power Words can increase your open rate, let’s dig into the context that makes these words effective.<\/p>\n

How can I improve my subject lines?<\/h2>\n

Power Words reveal a few lessons about how to rock your email subject lines. Keeping the above list in mind, we\u2019ve highlighted a few key points that will help you achieve compelling subject lines that get the clicks you want. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Catch your subscriber’s attention with more precise personalization<\/b><\/h3>\n

It\u2019s said that a person\u2019s favorite word is their own name, and the open rate above backs this up. Without a doubt, subject lines that are personally addressed to the recipient fare better than more generic greetings. <\/span><\/p>\n

Using <\/span>personalization tags<\/span><\/a> in the email header is a great way to capture attention. See how it stands out?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Personalized<\/a><\/p>\n

Source: <\/span>Biz Journals<\/span><\/i><\/a>. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

However, personalization extends beyond using a person\u2019s name. You won\u2019t fool anyone into thinking you care about them by including a short code that drops their name into the subject line and calling it done. Your recipients are smarter, seasoned in all the ways that marketers try to get their attention. <\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, set yourself apart from the other emails in their inbox by taking advantage of data collection to create more bespoke subject lines. Doing so signals relevance and gives your recipient more of a reason to click on your email. <\/span><\/p>\n

You can use things like:<\/span><\/p>\n