Care Net

Which subject line tactic prompts the most email engagement?

Experiment ID: #10851

Care Net

Experiment Summary

Timeframe: 02/28/2019 - 02/28/2019

On the introduction email for their new CareSource manager, Care Net wanted to determine if a more whimsical subject line would increase the engagement for the email. Since the email had a personal touch of a cookie recipe, it was decided to test an unusual subject line that included that information.

Research Question

Will a more whimsical subject line get more opens than one that is more straight-forward?

Design

C: Meet your new CareSource manager!
T1: What's your cookie recipe?

Results

 Treatment NameOpen RateRelative DifferenceConfidence
C: Meet your new CareSource manager! 30.9%
T1: What's your cookie recipe? 26.1%-15.4% 96.9%

This experiment has a required sample size of 692 in order to be valid. Since the experiment had a total sample size of 1,664, 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:

    15.4% decrease in traffic
× 0% increase in conversion rate
× 0% increase in average gift

Key Learnings

In this situation, clarity trumped creativity; the more straight forward subject line of “Meet your new CareSource manager!” was able to get incremental opens when compared to the treatment. While more creative subject lines are not necessarily bad, we need to make sure they are both relevant and not completely unexpected.


Experiment Documented by NextAfter

Question about experiment #10851

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