Earlier today I was speaking at the DMA Email Customer Lifecycle Win-back breakfast seminar. The sessions (it was a long breakfast!) featured case studies of win-back campaigns from three companies.
As part of their win-back campaigns all three companies ran subject line split tests to find a best performing choice. The tests were not just A/B tests but multiple treatment subject lines were included in the tests.
The three winning subject lines for the three companies were:
- Was it something we said?
- Are we still welcome in your inbox?
- Is this goodbye?
These three winning subject lines are the result of totally independent tests, from different companies with different audiences.
Use of free, win or save type incentives in the subject line were also tested and found to decrease the response to the win-back. Including an incentive as a secondary message within the email body was found in some cases to work.
Given the three subject lines were created independently of each other it is remarkable just how similar they are.
The key elements that make these subject lines work are:
- They are different to the subject line of any normal marketing message.
- They are very simple and honest
- They have a conversational style
- They aren't trying to sell anything
It is also noteworthy that all three subject lines are questions. In normal campaigns to an engaged audience I would not typically expect a question based subject line to be a winner.
The rules are different for inactives. Incentive and benefit based subject lines maybe just right for active customers. However the tone and voice must reflect the current state of relationship to the person you are communicating. So for disengaged customers a different type of subject line is needed. People are people regardless of exactly what they are buying. How they think and react is a human trait and not determined by the brand.
I hope you can find a win-back subject line to beat these champions.