Client told me my email subject lines were too clickbaity and I pushed back

I had a client last month who pulled up a report showing my open rates were high but conversions dropped after the first email. They said the subject lines were promising stuff the body didn't deliver on. I argued with them for a bit but then actually tested sending plainer subject lines for a week and conversion went up like 12%. Has anyone else had to eat crow on a basic copywriting principle they thought they had figured out?

3 comments

3 Comments

jessej236d ago

Hold up, a 12% bump just from dialing back the subject lines?! That is wild. I would have argued that same point right alongside you, thinking the flashy stuff was the whole point. Guess that humble pie tastes like sweet, sweet conversion data.

kai_webb916d ago

That 12% bump is hard to argue with, totally changed my mind on this.

blairc906d ago

Funny how the data cuts through all the guesswork we were doing before. That 12% bump makes you rethink every "rule" you thought you knew about writing email copy. Really makes you wonder what other assumptions we are holding onto that are just sitting there waiting to be proven wrong by the numbers.