Subject Lines Work, And One Really Odd Trick To Turbocharge Response

Are you as tired of misleading subject lines as I am?

Unfortunately, subject lines work. People can be manipulated.

I've purposely written different styles of subject lines over the past three months, to see what impact subject lines have on readership.

These posts attracted an audience 40% above the average - what do you observe about the subject lines?

• Forrester Research Annual Report.
• Buzzwords With Marketing Expert Vic Montana.
• E-Commerce As A Percentage Of Total Retail Sales.
• My Hypothesis.
• Is My Store Losing New Customers?
• Nordstrom Omnichannel Expenditures And What It Means For Your Business.
• Think About The Future.
• Shifting To Mobile.
• Have A Plan.
• Conversion Rate.
• Matthew McConaughey.
• What Is The Next Big Tactic? (And One Shocking Reason Tactics Don't Work).

These posts attracted an audience 40% below the average, they were duds - what do you observe, after reading the subject lines?

• Peak Merchandise.
• Quantity vs. Quality.
• Best Buy.
• How Can I See A Feedback Loop Forming?
• Demographics And Feedback Loops.
• Sandbagging.
• Forecasting Assumptions.
• Diagnostics: When Merchandise Is A Problem.
• Diagnostics: How Management Responds To Changes.
• Direct Marketing Association Annual Conference Discount.

The "Sandbagging" article alone should be worth 2% to 4% of annual pre-tax profit - seriously. And it was a complete dud. But there's no need for your business to make money when you can read a blog post about Matthew McConaughey, right?! 

One really odd trick to turbocharge response? Stay away from boring topics that generate profit for clients.

Of course, I'm being silly - I'm not going to change how I write subject lines. But I thought you might like to see actual data that illustrates that if views are important to you, then subject lines are important to you.

Paying clients and teaching readers are important to me. The correlation between subject lines and paying clients is poor, FYI.