Care Net

Does using the word “can” instead of the word “should” in Subject Lines increase open rates?

Experiment ID: #14158

Care Net

Experiment Summary

Timeframe: 06/01/2019 - 06/05/2019

We tested this in our weekly “weekend update” email. The control was the name of the article, but I knew that the wording would seem like it was “talking down” to a great portion of the target audience, so I wanted to test a slightly different approach. 

Research Question

When you know your audience agrees with you, is it better to tell them what they “should” do or what they “can” do (in this context “have a right to do”)? 

Design

C: Why "old white ladies" should care about abortion
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T1: Why "old white ladies" can have a say about abortion
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Results

  Treatment Name Open Rate Relative Difference Confidence
C: Why "old white ladies" should care about abortion 29.1%
T1: Why "old white ladies" can have a say about abortion 35.5% 21.9% 100.0%

This experiment has a required sample size of 413 in order to be valid. Since the experiment had a total sample size of 33,931, and the level of confidence is above 95% the experiment results are valid.

Flux Metrics Affected

The Flux Metrics analyze the three primary metrics that affect revenue (traffic, conversion rate, and average gift). This experiment produced the following results:

    21.9% increase in traffic
× 0% increase in conversion rate
× 0% increase in average gift

Key Learnings

We saw a HUGE lift in open rates. People were much more excited to read about what they had a right to do, rather than what they should do - since they already cared about the issue. 


Experiment Documented by NextAfter

Question about experiment #14158

If you have any questions about this experiment or would like additional details not discussed above, please feel free to contact them directly.