Which Subject Lines Work Better?

Have you ever wondered which subject line would get the most attention?  Or, maybe you’ve wondered which email text would get the most clicks.  If you’re an Infusionsoft user, in today’s article, I will explain how you can split test your emails to see which subject line, or which email itself gets the most opens, clicks, and opt-outs.

1.    Create two separate emails, even if the only difference is the subject line.  It might be something as simple as adding the person’s first name in the subject line.

2.    Now what you’re going to do is create two separate follow up sequences.  You’ll be adding one of the emails to each sequence.  You’ll want to remember to set it to send “0 days after a person is added to the sequence.”  If you select “immediate,” the opens, clicks, opt-outs, et cetera will not track.

For example, let’s say that you have an email entitled, “Which subject lines work?” and another entitled, “Does this subject line stink?”  In addition to your two emails, create two follow up sequences. Call one follow up sequence “Which subject lines work 2/23/12,” and call the other sequence “Does this subject line stink 2/23/12.”  You’ll add only the email called “Which subject lines work” in the “Which subject lines work 2/23/12” follow up sequence, and the email called “Does this subject line stink?” in the “Does this subject line stink 2/23/12” sequence.  When you add the email, be sure to set it to send “0 days after a person is added to the sequence”, as outlined above.

3.    Do a “Find People” using the appropriate tag for the group of people that you want receiving these emails.

4.    From the “I want to”, select “start/stop a follow up sequence,” and then select the follow up sequence to start (one of the two you just created).  Check the box that says, “Only run this action when certain rules are met.”

5.    Now you’ll need to create the rule – but only this first time.  After the initial creation of each rule, it’ll be in the dropdown.  For this first time, you’ll want to select “Add.”  Name it “Split Testing A, C, E” or something similar.  Now you’re going to create criteria for this rule for first names starting with every other letter of the alphabet.  So for this rule the criteria should be: “for first names that start with A,” then “for first names that start with C,” then “for first names that start with E,” and all the way to Y.  Then save it.  You can go ahead at this point and create the rule for the other letters by selecting “Add” and naming this “Split Testing B, D, F” and do the same — add the criteria “for first names starting with B,” “for first names starting with D,” and all the way to Z.

6.    From the dropdown under the “Only run this action when certain rules are met,” then select the rule “Split Testing A, C, E.”  Click “Save,” check the permission boxes, and click “Process Action.”

7.    Go back to your “Find People,” and for this same group of people, run Step No. 4, except select the other follow up sequence you created.  Now because you’ve already created the rule according to Step 5, you’ll just need to select the rule “Split Testing B, D, F” from the dropdown.  Click “Save,” check the permission boxes and click “Process Action.”

Remember that even though you are running two sequences for the same group of people, they are each only receiving one email because of the criteria you set up in Step Nos. 5 and 6.

While this isn’t an exact science and a perfect 50/50 split, the results are pretty close.

After the emails are sent, you can monitor your stats by using the “Follow Up Sequence Email Conversion Report” and selecting the two follow up sequences you’re testing.  (Hint:  Save the report and put it on your homepage so that you can see it quickly when you log into Infusionsoft.)

Still not sure what to do?  You can set up a 15-minute complimentary automation strategy session by clicking here.