My favourite Email title test

Email subject lines   October 2006

•Dance Umbrella at Sadler’s Wells  

     31.44% opened

•Everybody was Kung Fu fighting!      

     44.30% opened


These titles were tested on a Sadler's Wells email around the opening of Dance Umbrella, London's long established dance festival. It coincided with the opening of Shaolin Monks - Wheel of Life, at the Peacock Theatre, which provided an opportunity to have a little fun. It might be assumed that the people who make up our email list would be much more likely open an email informing them about Dance Umbrella, but in the end it didn't work out that way.
      Often our audiences don't take stuff as seriously as we do. It may be our life's work; for them it is leisure and sometimes the cold facts are not enough to grab someone's attention.
      ps: The open rate was higher for the second title but, as was expected, more people booked for Dance Umbrella shows than the Shaolin Monks. The email list really is a dance list, the huge audiences we got for the Shaolin Monks came from new attenders.