Research on Subject Lines for PR Releases: Tailoring

Hello out there.
It's been sometime since I published a post on Digital Savvy.  It's not that I have stopped looking for new ideas that challenge my practice of marketing, but there hasn't been much to pass on.  Maybe things really do slow down in the summer.

Today, however, something caught my eye - numbers about email subject lines in PR releases from a study from Fractl, written by Lillian Podlog based on analyzing pitches and interviewing 1,300 publishers.

Highest Performing Subject Line Words
Keyword	Success Percentage (Appeared in subject line)
Content	30.6%
Size	27.6
Marketing	24.8
Know	23.5
Ideal	23.2
U.K.	22.6
Air	19.1
Image	18.9
House	18.1
Travelers	17.8
Generations	17.8
Chart	17.8
Body	17.5
Show	17.4
Changed	17.4
Source: Fractl, August 2016

Let me admit here that I am a publisher who opens very few of the pitches I receive via email so I was not surprised to read that nearly two-thirds of publishers determine whether or not to open an email based on the subject line.   I do the same thing.   "And in subject lines every word counts."

So it stands to reason that one should pay more attention to subject lines and test them.  And what is the best advice to consider when writing subject lines? "Tailor it to the writer's beat."

Tailoring.

Do it as much as possible based on what you know about your audience and know as much about them as you can afford to learn. Tailor everything - websites, landing pages, emails, mail, signage, ads, and brochures.

Here is the source of the above information on the report from MediaPost's Research Brief, In Subject Lines Every Word Counts by Jack Loechner, staff writer.


Ruth Ann Barrett, Master Tailor, Digital Savvy, August, 2016. 415-377-1835.