Alert: How to Increase your Open Rate by 38.1%


I admit to having a bit of fun with that subject line but I'm not BSing you. Here is the statistic given by Adestra:

Using the word 'alert' in a subject line increases open rates by 38.1% (variance vs. average). (Source:Adestra)

You have just participated in an experiment if you opened this post in your email - thanks!

If you can legitimately use 'alert' in your subject line, that's great. But beware - if your subject line is not relevant to the content within, you might get more opens but will lose credibility (and subscribers).

Another way to lose credibility is to quote incorrect information as fact. I originally stumbled across that statistic in an article by Hubspot. This jumped off the page:

61.8% increase in opens when using the word 'alert' in subject lines. (Source:Adestra)

It seemed a little too good to be true and I immediately started plotting to use 'alert' in a subject line. I'm glad I decided to check the original source where I discovered that 61.8% applies to click rates, not open rates as quoted.

Be alert to opportunities to increase readership but use marketing advice strategically, not frivolously.

photo by Art&Music*Woo-Hoo / Flickr

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