Subject lines. A topic near and dear to my heart…

I received an e-mail earlier this week from a consultant I follow – Ian Brodie – from the UK.

Ian suggests the 15 e-mail subject lines discussed in his blog post: http://www.ianbrodie.com/best-email-subject-lines/ will increase response and open rates for your e-mail sequences (if you’re not sure what I mean by sequence the graphic to the left shows a typical WUtCH [Wake-Up-the-Chill] sequence I use with clients).

Since I’m teaching you all things process, below are simple instructions in how to add subject line testing to your business development workflow.

How to Add Subject Line Testing to your Outreach Process Workflow

1. Select one existing production e-mail from your sequence (herein described as champion).
2. Change out the subject line of the champion e-mail with a new one from Ian’s list (herein called challenger). Only the subject line, not the body of the e-mail.
3. Send the champion version to 1/2 of your ideal candidates.
4. Send the challenger version to the other half.
5. Assess your results (opens and replies). I like to send enough e-mails so I have a high confidence that an e-mail is working (or not working). If your universe of candidates is large, shoot for 96 champion vs. 96 challenger e-mails for a 90% confidence yield in your results. If your universe is small, shoot for 30 champion vs. challenger. The 90% confidence has a higher variance on this smaller sampling size, but it should give you a decent gut feel for your results.
6. Repeat steps 1-5 for the entire sequence (for the schematic above, I would perform steps 1-5 on 8-different e-mails in my WUtCH sequence).
7. Share your results with team-mates or pod-members. Remember, we get smarter the more we share with others (and get their opinions) or teach others how to do something.