Case study: Should you put the person's name in the email subject line?

[nick1123]

I have heard that you should put someone's name in the email subject line when sending an email to your list.

Example Subject line: Jim, here is the latest blah blah

I have been doing that for a while now and today I decided to actually test this idea.

So I sent out an email today and half of my list had their name in the subject and the other half didn't have their name in the subject.

In the email there was a link to my blog and I tracked how many people clicked on the link.

Here are the results:
Subject with name: 30 clicks on the link
Subject without name: 32 clicks on the link

The email without a name actually did a little better! But statistically there is no discernible difference; they're effectively the same.

The important lesson I learned is that there is no substitution for testing.

Whenever I send out an email from now on I am going to split test some element of my campaign. I have made a list of 5 things to split test and will think of more.

[Kevin Williams]

Unless you sent it to the same group of people (I'm sure you didn't) you might have sent the second email out to a more responsive crowd then the first and you might have gotten more clicks by using a name with them.

These kind of tests needs variables like people you're sending to, to stay the same.

[um1001]

Every time I do it, I get complaints that people tried to reply back to me and couldn't, so I stopped doing it altogether.

[HarrisonJ]

I find the guys with the biggest lists usually don't put your name in the subject. Sign up for some of the big marketers lists and study all the little things they do with their email marketing.

[chris_surfrider]

I wouldn't do that in a market where people see you as a marketer.

(Like IM, for example)

Because it reeks of insincerity on a subliminal level. Everyone knows it's a mass email. Faking a "personal touch" won't trick them. Instead, just use compelling headlines and good content and it will be read in droves.

Just my 2 cents

-Chris

[David Mcalorum]

Hmm, that's actually a pretty nice thing to test. Don't really know what to make of it though with such small numbers =/ Good food for thought though!

[BIG Mike]

Well done Nick

Testing is an ongoing process and coming up with a list of items to regularly split test is terrific. This is especially important when working with lists that target different markets/segments, because your results can vary widely.

You might find one market segment overwhelmingly responds well to personalization, while another respond poorly. When you do what you're doing, you're arming yourself with the kind of data you need to to drive up conversion rates through the roof.

Great lesson in Nick's post folks....

[showbizvet]

That's a small test for true results, but certainly shows you are working toward a solution. For me, when I see my name in the email, I know it's either spam or an offer from some guru.

[SimonHarrison]

Pretty hard to tell from 60 subscribers.

I have to say my results are the opposite.

Funnily enough I tested this myself to multiple lists in multiple niches and to hundreds of thousands of users.

I split test each list 50/50 using Awebers broadcast split test function.

The results..

[firstname_fix] subject line

Outperformed

subject line

by a minimum of 3% and a maximum of 8%

That held true universally across all niches and all lists, one of which was in excess of 120,000 people.

I also found interestingly that number of spam complaints was noticably smaller on e-mails sent with customisation.

I ran these tests a few days ago and the numbers have held true , interestingly across multiple niches with almost no similarity between them.

I think that where this doesn't hold true to the same degree is in IM where it's becoming pretty tired. In markets spreading from stock trading to weight loss and health treatments I've found it out performs.

What is very hard to gauge however is how the performance is related to the manner in which the lead magnet aquired the names and equally how the relationship between author and list has been maintained.

I manage some big lists for a number of authors, the lists are double opt in and the users subscribed based on being interested in the authors content and after a relationship has been built with that author, the authors also keep relatively consistent contact with the list on a personal basis, therefore in my scenario, personalisation outperforms, if the criteria above are not the same, then it's quite possible personalisation may not outperform.

Equally if you have sent e-mails for many years without personlisation and you suddently start sending with personslisation you may see a decrease in open rates as the subscribers eye doesn't recognise the format of the subject line as yours , it doesnt' feel congruent with the "from" name and is ignored, the opposite scenario is also true which is why I always tell folks to keep a consistent format and manner in their e-mail communication.

In short, the devil is in the details and it's important , very important to not simply run tests but look at outside paramaters which can dictate or influence test results.

What I will say is more important is the subject line, that will determine open rates to a much much greater degree than personlisation or otherwise.

I've split test various plaguerisations of IM based subject lines against plain and simple subject lines and the IM based bastardisations for my niches always outperform dramatically simply stating the basics of what's in the e-mail

For example

99% of stock traders need to read this
OR
3 Simple Words - You're Losing Money

Massively outperform..

New article on Stock Trading No-No's

[nick1123]

Originally Posted by Kevin Williams

Unless you sent it to the same group of people (I'm sure you didn't) you might have sent the second email out to a more responsive crowd then the first and you might have gotten more clicks by using a name with them.

Aweber allows you to split your e-mail list into two parts. This is what I did. And it should work as long as people were put into the two lists at random. And the e-mails were sent at the same time.

Originally Posted by chris_surfrider

I wouldn't do that in a market where people see you as a marketer.

(Like IM, for example)

Because it reeks of insincerity on a subliminal level. Everyone knows it's a mass email. Faking a "personal touch" won't trick them. Instead, just use compelling headlines and good content and it will be read in droves.

I think this has everything to do with trust, or lack thereof. I try to send out quality stuff to my e-mail list and I put my personal name in the "from" section in every e-mail.

If you build a relationship of trust then hopefully it doesn't seem insincere.

If I am wrong here please tell me.

Originally Posted by BIG Mike

You might find one market segment overwhelmingly responds well to personalization, while another respond poorly. When you do what you're doing, you're arming yourself with the kind of data you need to to drive up conversion rates through the roof.

Great lesson in Nick's post folks....

This was a huge thing that I was testing, to see if testing is really necessary. And now I know it is. Like you said different markets respond differently to personalization.

Originally Posted by SimonHarrison

Pretty hard to tell from 60 subscribers.

I have to say my results are the opposite.

It's good you're testing. The number of clicks was 62 but the number of subscribers was much higher.

[Ian Harmon]

I did a test in a sports coaching market recently and got the following open rates; 52.8% with name, 51.1% without name. So same here really, no real difference!

[Brad Gosse]

I am getting tired of seeing my name in the subject. Most lists I sign up to with a misspelled first name so I can spot the spam fly later and see if they sell my info.

[Andy Hussong]

Simon's response is great, and you can actually check out a more in depth post about this very thing started by Simon here.

[Gail Sober]

I agree with Chris.

Speaking from my own point of view, no testing involved.

I know it's a mass mailing. Seeing my name doesn't appear magical or that it is a personal email addressed just to me.

The subject line is valuable real estate. It's like "above the fold" on a website. It's the first and possibly only thing someone may see so it should be used to its full advantage.

Not only that but consider how many people may not enter their actual name in the box but use a derivitive of the site/product name or just something completely off the wall.

[Andy Hussong]

Chris and Gail have fair opinions of this, and they're definitely RIGHT in terms of how THEY feel about seeing their name personalized in an email, but all that really matters with anything marketing related is how your TESTS play out.

In other words, this would never happen, but just as an example...

Let's say you get 20 people emailing you to complain about your use of their name in the subject line (again, this wouldn't happen), but your tests show that you sell 25% more product as a result of putting someone's name in the subject line. Are you going to stop using the personalization because some of the people on your list don't like to see their name there, or are you going to KEEP using it, since your conversions are better from doing so?

Again, Chris & Gail are right to feel that way about the name usage, if that bothers them, because as a marketer, I know that my name in the subject line isn't REALLY being personal... but even if it didn't make ME open the email or buy a product, I also feel that if personalizing the message caused that marketer to get more sales than by not doing so, he/she should keep on doing it.

Just gets back to the whole testing thing. Obviously people get sick of popups, upsells, and so forth, but marketers keep using them because THEY WORK. This is just another example... but test it for YOURSELF, and don't take someone else's advice at face value.

[nick1123]

Originally Posted by Andy Hussong

Let's say you get 20 people emailing you to complain about your use of their name in the subject line (again, this wouldn't happen), but your tests show that you sell 25% more product as a result of putting someone's name in the subject line. Are you going to stop using the personalization because some of the people on your list don't like to see their name there, or are you going to KEEP using it, since your conversions are better from doing so?

Spot on! I totally agree.

[Gail Sober]

Again, Chris & Gail are right to feel that way about the name usage, if that bothers them, because as a marketer

Just to clarify. It doesn't bother me in the least. The subject line is their real estate, they have so many characters to entice me to open the email. If that want to use some of those characters to spell out my name, it is absolutely not a problem to me.

[warrior123]

Originally Posted by nick1123

Here are the results:
Subject with name: 30 clicks on the link
Subject without name: 32 clicks on the link

If you only got a total of 62 clicks it must have been a very small list which would make it statistically insignificant.

I agree with what Chris stated earlier -- it really depends on what type of crowd you are marketing too. If it's the IM or "opportunity seeker" then they will likely know you are going to be selling to them anyway. I never use my real name when signing up with IM lists.

[JayXtreme]

Bravo, Nick..

The beauty of TESTING!!...

Simon got different results from you, and they work for him...


BUT..

The most important point of this topic is that:

Testing and only testing will allow us all to see what is going to work and what isn't going to work in our business..

The only numbers that are of any real significance in this industry, are your own, imho.

Peace

Jay

[BIG Mike]

Originally Posted by warrior123

If you only got a total of 62 clicks it must have been a very small list which would make it statistically insignificant.

I agree with what Chris stated earlier -- it really depends on what type of crowd you are marketing too. If it's the IM or "opportunity seeker" then they will likely know you are going to be selling to them anyway. I never use my real name when signing up with IM lists.

I think we need to be careful in using phrases like "Statistically Insignificant" unless we apply it to the context of what is being tested.

In this case, the numbers are not statistically insignificant to Nick or the list he tested - he wasn't trying to prove or disprove a universal rule everyone should be following...he just wanted to see the effect on his list.

In his OP, Nick said, "I have heard that you should put someone's name in the email subject line when sending an email to your list.", which we see parroted all over the place with no empirical data to back up the statement.

The value in Nick's OP and in the results he shared is in this statement, "The important lesson I learned is that there is no substitution for testing.", which is the only real universal rule I follow.

Testing is not a once off process and Nick indicated he would continue to test future mailings. He's doing what he needs to do to understand how to best maximize the open rates on his list.

Simon mentoned he's tested and found the opposite to be true for the lists he has/manages. But just as Nick's results are not applicable in all situations, neither are Simon's. They've each arrived at different, but equally solid conclusions through testing.

There is a deeper, underlying issue here for IM'ers in general (especially newcomers) in that they simple blindly follow what someone else has told them. I've said many times that while it's always a good thing to listen to what others have to say, you should always evaluate what you hear in the context of your own business and carefully test the impact it will have.

[Fabian Tan]

One of the recent MailerMailer email marketing reports suggests that subject lines without the person's name get more opens. But really, do what you feel works best for your messages.

Subject lines with personalization can get more opens on occasion, but at the same time those same subject lines may be seen as 'spammy' by other subscribers. Not all subscribers on a list will see an email the same way.

Basically, there are 3 ways to go about subject lines long-term:

1. Always leave out the name

2. Always put in the name

3. Put the name in sometimes on appropriate occasions (e.g. a super short subject line may do better with personalization, while a long subject line with personalization might make the subject line too long)

Fabian

[Scott Ames]

Originally Posted by nick1123

Here are the results:
Subject with name: 30 clicks on the link
Subject without name: 32 clicks on the link
.

Now if you could just get their secret lover's name and put it in the subject line. I think that would get great clicks.