Geeze, sorry, I didn't mean to SHOCK you!

Very nice advice Gene. Actually such subject lines frustrate me and most of the time I unsubscribe from such list.

I have had my fair share of pathetic ones.

"Notification of payment received"

"Hey You"

"GET THIS NOW"

They simply end up in the recycle bin.

If someone takes the time to build a good relationship with their list, they don't need to use shocking headlines.

For example, think of Paul Myer's newsletter. He could leave the subject line blank and folks would open it anyway, just as soon as they noticed it was from Paul.

Part of the problem is the way people build their lists. They offer freebies to encourage people to join (nothing wrong with that). But sometimes they offer these freebies without ever mentioning that the person is now going to start receiving a newsletter.

So what happens? They have a list of folks who joined to get a freebie and don't really care one way or another about the newsletter. They may not even know a newsletter is coming.

End result? The list is kind of flat and unresponsive (some "subscribers" may have even used throwaway email addresses). The marketer starts freaking cuz he always heard the money is in the list. So he starts tossing out increasingly more "shocking" and downright deceptive headlines to get some kind of response out of his list.

Of course the moment he starts using deceptive headlines (like the "notification of payment received" example), he further damages what little relationship he may have had with his list. The list gets even more unresponsive. The marketer grows more desperate... and the cycle continues.


***

Of course I'm not saying that's what happens all the time or even in the majority of cases, but that's my theory of why you sometimes see deceptive headlines.

Cheers,
Becky

Some other overused ones are "urgent!" or "important: open immediately!"

One of my favorites, though, is "personal," in the subject line of an e-mail that goes out to thousands of people!

Some of the most pathetic headlines I've unsubscribed from were:

'Your ClickBank Check' or 'Your ClickBank Commission'.

When I open it I see it's from a marketer who is simply trying to push something, and has no relevance to my Clickbank accounts. Pathetic.

i have just had a load of payment recieved ones and i unsubscribed from them all.

I think people that use this kind of title is very misleading and i dont want to do business with them

I really hate the "You've received a commission!" ones because some of the programs I get commissions from do send emails like that.

So I'm always excited to open them and then I find out it is just for some lame product someone wants me to buy. Doesn't make me like them nor does it make me want to buy their product!

Lee

Just got one with the subject:

URGENT: open immediately (critical)

Of course it was just a one paragraph sales pitch with a link to clickbank product. Nothing critical or urgent about it.

The funniest part is, the unsubscribe link was on line 7179!!! Over 7000 lines of blank space to scroll through to get to the unsubscribe. Just mind blowing how these people think.

Yes, the ones that say "payment" or "commission" are worst of all. Of course, most companies, like Clickbank, don't even send such notices. Why would I trust someone who has lied to me before I even started reading his e-mail?

Emails like these pop up like weeds all the time. I tend to let most emails sit there anyway, though, so unless somebody can write a natural, non-dramatic headline, I just say, "Have fun paying your Aweber fees..."

Here here! I second this. I don't even open up those emails...just delete and move on. Or if I do, it's just to unsubscribe.

I think you nailed the real crux of the problem right there . . . copycatting. If all you ever do is copycat others, you're never going to get past the training wheels stage.

Everyone has a measure of creativity. You just need to use it without fear. Originality will take you farther than "me-too'ing" your way down someone else's path. Find your own path for crying out loud!

That's not to say we can't learn from others, but if we don't learn to make our own path we'll never discover our own unique island of success.

I learned from Mark Joyner (CIMM) some years ago from tests
that he ran that those kind of subject lines do get higher
open rates but often lower conversions.

I advocate using stronger subject lines later in an autoresponder
series because you are about to lose the subscriber as a
customer anyway, but those examples are a little too strong
EXCEPT you really know that your market can bear them.

-Ray Edwards

Yes, what's up with the "You've received a commission" email headline?

You're only setting people up for disappointment and disgust because they thought one of their genuine sales notification emails came in... but you're just sending them a sales pitch!

One of my peeves relate to emails I get with a link in them and maybe 6 hours later or the next day I'll get a "Oops - I sent the wrong link" email.

Too many of those hit my inbox to be mere coincidence. I can understand accidentally doing this once or twice. But over and over? It's a thinly disguised tactic to get me to open their email.

Other faves:

"This is a NETWORK WIDE ALERT!"
"They MELTED our servers!"
"It's about your mom..." (Yes - I have actually received one like this - and guess what? Mom wasn't mentioned...surprise!)
"How come you didn't (buy/become a member/get on my webinar/etc.)??"

Dennis and Gene's examples above are good subjects to use; stick with the subject of the content! :-)

The subject line I really detest is: "XXX product is now open! Go, Go, GO!!!!" like we're a bunch of cattle that need to be herded. It gets an unsubscribe every time from me. And even if I'm planning to buy whatever is being launched, I don't buy it from that marketer's affiliate link.

very good pointers, if only a few more would abide by these, the amount of "You just received a commission" emails I get nowadays is just ridiculous and makes sure I leave whoever's list it is sending me them.

Emails, with the subject lines you have mentioned above are definitely targeted at the newbies, because, they are just programmed to open emails of that nature.