With Valentine’s Day less than a week away, it is time for marketers to prepare their last-minute email messages for consumers. Like any holiday, as the date gets closer, promoting a sense of urgency becomes a great way to make your emails effective. But only if you get your subject line right.
For those seeking subject line inspiration for Valentine’s Day messages, there are plenty of marketing blogs offering “favorites” lists. But are they actually effective? We decided to put together a list of 50 last-minute Valentine’s day subject line recommendations from across the web then put them to the test with Subject Line Pro.
What is Subject Line Pro?
Subject Line Pro is a virtual testing platform that delivers real results in seconds. It allows you to test up to ten subject lines at a time against a simulation of your own data set or a database of more than 500 billion subject lines across different sectors. Subject Line Pro’s proprietary algorithm predicts performance within 1 to 2% of actual click rates.
The Test
We started by searching the web for reputable marketing blogs offering Valentine’s Day subject line suggestions and came up with an initial list of nearly 500 subject lines. We refined the list by removing duplicates and focusing on those that addressed a “last minute” theme. This resulted in a list of 50 subject lines for testing.
The Results
Of the 50 subject lines we tested using Subject Line Pro, ten earned 4 or 5 checkmarks indicating they provided a positive lift in click rates. The rest of the subject lines earned 3 or fewer checkmarks, indicating their estimated results would be no better or even worse than average subject lines. Here is the list:
Take a Closer Look
The top three results were variations of the same theme: “Need A Last Minute Valentine’s Gift?” They offered between 19% and 15% lift in click rate over an average subject line. So if you’re looking for a Valentine’s Day subject line that is likely to deliver strong results, try one of these.
Results number 4 through 7 were also worth consideration, delivering between 14% and 10% lift rates. While not as strong as the rest of the top ten, results 8 to 10 were still better than average, offering a lift between 7% and 3%.
However, with the exception of results 10 and 11 which delivered neutral results, the rest of the list offered little or no lift over an average subject line.
What Does It Mean?
Whether you find inspiration for your Valentine’s Day subject lines on the web or create your own, one thing is clear: testing is crucial to ensure your subject lines generate the results you need to be successful.
As the clock ticks down to Valentine’s Day and marketers rush to deploy their last-minute campaigns, it can be tempting to cut corners to meet deadlines by forgoing traditional, time-consuming A/B testing. But as we can see from the results of this test, not testing could be a costly mistake. That’s why we recommend trying Subject Line Pro.
We were able to test 50 “last-minute” Valentine’s Day subject lines in less than five minutes using Subject Line Pro. Given its speed and accuracy, Subject Line Pro removes any excuse for not testing subject lines – even when on a tight deadline. Schedule a call to learn more about Subject Line Pro and how you can get started.
