Analyze subject line performance

What will this help with

• Improve open rates

• Save hours writing new subject lines

How to analyze subject lines?

1. Note down the subject lines of the past 10-15 campaigns and their respective open rates. Pick only campaigns that have more than 2% open rates.

💡 Note We have 2% open rate as a cutoff as open rates below 2% can also result from bad deliverability instead of just bad subject lines.

2. Analyze the campaigns to understand any anomaly or trend that might have caused a spike in open rates. Remove any such spiked campaigns from your analysis,

For example, an email with a good subject line on a weekend/holiday would have less engagement when compared to weekdays.

3. From this list, pick the 5 subject lines that got the most open rates. Mark why they worked under one of these headers-

• Humor

• Emotions

• Outcomes

• Urgency

4. Come up with a list of the best-performing subject lines. Now you will know what your audience prefers.

5. Keep this list handy for inspiration while creating your next campaign.

💡 Note The best strategy is to always test your subject lines before using them. You can always plan A/B tests and vetting with your colleagues. We also want to clarify that the above doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try out new ideas, tonality, or expressions in the subject line.

How to A/B test subject lines in Mailmodo

In Mailmodo, when you run an A/B test on subject lines, you can choose the contact percentage for each subject line and auto-send the winner to the rest of the audience. Here's how you can do this.

1. After selecting the template and entering campaign details, to begin creating your A/B test campaign, click Create A/B test on the right.

2. Select the A/B test option of subject lines and enter the different variations you have created.

3. Select the segments/lists for your campaign and move to the next step to configure.

4. Configure the sample size of your contacts that will receive your A/B tests, the winning criteria, and the time your A/B test should run before automatically deciding the winner.

💡 Note

Mailmodo also shows the best-performing subject line from recent campaigns exactly when you enter the subject line for the campaign. So you can pick one and use that in your upcoming campaign.