Use the subject line to stand out in a crowded inbox. As I was sending out the first Small Farm Central monthly mailing list of the fall (click here to sign-up [1]), I started to think about email subject lines.

This is, perhaps, the most important aspect of the mailing list because it determines if the recipient reads and acts on the email. If the subject line is uninteresting and causes the reader to ignore the email, then any text in the body of the email is meaningless.

I read into the subject methodology (see links below) and apparently the best route is A/B testing on possible subject lines. So if you have a mailing list of 95,000 -- a few days before the big delivery test one subject line to 1,000 readers (the "A") and another subject line to 1,000 other email addresses (the "B"). Then look at opening rates of the emails and the winning subject line goes out to the remaining 93,000 recipients.

Easy, right?

Well, when your email list is in the low 100s instead of the low 100,000s, you don't have the luxury of A/B testing.

So I guess us mortal mailing list managers have to try our best with the tools we have.

The October '08 mailing for my list was entitled:
"City Farmers get innovative with backyards and SFC cleans house"

which I think has to be better than:
"October 2008 Farm Marketing Newsletter"

Maybe you can think of an even more engaging subject line than I picked?

I think email subject lines are important for the farm mailing list because it absolutely does determine how many people open the message. Your customers are busy people just like you and you have to make them care.

Farmers have a distinct advantage over Target or Zappos.com because you have authenticity and you are selling something that consumers are actively searching for instead of a pair of shoes that can be bought at a dozen other outlets.

A good rule is to focus on what your customers care about first, so instead of:
"Weekly Product List for the week of May 5th",
try, "Last week for Asparagus! and see our young chicks grow"
 
This creates a feeling of urgency for asparagus and the promise of pictures or stories connects the reader to the farm. This type of subject line gives the potential reader a firm idea of the value that they will get if they click on the message.

If you want to go deeper into subject line research, you might like some of these articles:

• Copy blogger remixes [2] some of his blog post title lines for more punchy goodness.
• Read this article [3] for more information on the A/B testing as described above.
• Getting the subject line right [4]: 5 tips for writing e-mail subject lines that'll get recipients to read on.

We've written about mailing lists a number of times in the past here on the blog

• 7 Thoughts as You Start the Summer Mailing List [5]
• Sending emails professionally [6] 
• Tips for collecting email addresses [7] to add the farm mailing list.

Photo by procsilas [8]