Siapa sangka lelaki berusia 33 tahun ini yang memperoleh pendapatan lebih RM1 juta hasil jualan lembu tahun lalu hanya bersekolah sehingga darjah enam.
Itulah yang dibuktikan Saipol Azmir Zainuddin hasil kerja keras dan ketekunannya memulakan ternakannya dengan hanya seekor lembu.
“Walaupun berhenti sekolah lebih awal daripada rakan lain, ia tidak mematahkan semangat saya untuk berjaya kerana itu impian sejak kecil,” katanya.
“Saya tak sekolah pun bukan saja-saja tapi kerana mahu bekerja sebagai buruh binaan membuat rumah,” katanya.
Katanya, dengan gaji pertama sebanyak RM750 sebulan, dia membeli seekor anak lembu berharga RM450 untuk diternak dan dibiakkan.
“Sejak itu, setiap kali dapat gaji bulanan saya akan beli seekor anak lembu. Hasilnya, pada usia 18 tahun saya berjaya memiliki 300 ekor lembu.
“Sepanjang tempoh itu, saya dengan bantuan ayah (Zainuddin Mat Yatim, 69,) menternak dan menjual lembu kepada penduduk kampung.
“Duit yang saya dapat hasil jualan lembu saya simpan kerana impian saya untuk memiliki ladang ternakan sendiri,” katanya ketika ditemui di ladangnya di Kampung Endah, Banting, Selangor, baru-baru ini.
Penerima Anugerah Peladang Jaya Peringkat Kebangsaan sempena Hari Peladang, Penternak dan Nelayan Kebangsaan (HPPNK) 2015 itu yang sudah berumah tangga dan memiliki lima cahaya mata boleh berbangga dengan kejayaannya apabila kini mempunyai 700 ekor lembu, 150 ekor kambing dan 30 ekor kerbau.
Anak keenam daripada tujuh beradik itu dianggap sebagai jutawan lembu kerana berjaya memperoleh pendapatan lebih RM1 juta hasil jualan tahun lalu terutama menjelang Aidiladha.
Saipol Azmir berkata, ketika berusia 19 tahun, dia mula menjual lembu secara serius dan sudah memiliki kenderaan dan rumah sendiri sebelum mendirikan rumah tangga, setahun kemudian.
“Saya kemudian buat pinjaman dengan Lembaga Pertubuhan Peladang (LPP) sebanyak RM100,000 melalui Pertubuhan Peladang Kawasan (PPK) Kuala Langat bagi mengembangkan perniagaan.
“LPP dan PPK Kuala Langat juga banyak membantu saya dari segi pasaran dan promosi ke seluruh negara. Selain itu, jualan juga dilakukan melalui media sosial seperti WhatsApps dan Facebook,” katanya.
Menurutnya, selepas beberapa tahun mengumpul wang hasil jualan lembu, dia membeli tanah seluas lebih 0.8 hektar untuk menempatkan ternakannya.
“Kebanyakan lembu di sini baka tempatan, bukan diimport dari mana-mana negara. Sambutan sangat menggalakkan terutama apabila tiba musim korban.
“Saya akan pastikan ternakan sihat dan tidak berpenyakit sebelum dijual kerana tidak mahu pelanggan menghadapi masalah. Lembu di sini juga ditandakan supaya pembeli tidak rasa tertipu ketika ia dihantar ke destinasi mereka kelak.
“Biasanya lembu yang mengalami masalah kesihatan akan saya kuarantin bagi mengelak ia berjangkit kepada ternakan lain,” katanya.
Dia yang juga Ahli Jemaah Pengarah Peladang Muda PPK Kuala Langat dan mempunyai enam pekerja berjaya membina sebuah kandang fidlot yang boleh memuatkan sehingga 500 lembu.
“Kos infrastruktur kompleks kandang dan ladang rumput napier saya berjumlah RM500,000 dan sudah beroperasi sepenuhnya.
“Ini memberi petanda positif kepada saya untuk terus bergerak maju pada masa depan.
“Saya juga menawarkan kursus ternakan kepada mereka yang berminat. Golongan muda boleh mengambil kesempatan ini untuk memulakan projek ternakan masing-masing,” katanya.
Prediction “business” has never been an easy task with the slim chances
of hitting anywhere near the target. Yet, the great thing about Internet
marketing is that it encourages you to dare to challenge the
traditional concepts over and over again. So, what can we say about
2016? How is this year going to turn out from the Internet marketing
perspective?
Here’s a half dozen of Internet marketing trends, we expect to shake the advertising ground:
1st Trend – Video Ads Will Maintain Their Dominance
Video advertising options won’t allow other forms to question their
dominance. In addition, we can expect more video ad types to pop up in
the places we expect them the least. This can be an either good or bad
news depending if you’re an advertiser or a potential consumer.
2nd Trend – Apps Exploding With App Indexing
We can only imagine what a new app indexing option would do for the
already immensely popular apps. We’re literally few steps away from the
moment when apps will replace the “traditional” websites. Maybe we will
also witness a complete transformation of Internet marketing into the
App marketing.
3rd Trend – Mobilegeddon Will Become the “Mobilenocide”
In 2015, we witnessed a historic moment when the mobile traffic overtook
the traditional desktop traffic in a dozen of countries. It seems that a
mobile-only website is an unavoidable and imminent future. And yes, in
2016 Internet marketing will have to be predominantly the Mobile
marketing.
4th Trend – New Digital Assistants = New Optimization Opportunities
Both PPC (pay-per-click) and SEO (search engine optimization) are still
the most popular get-me-the-new-visitors strategies for any Internet
marketing campaign. However, the introduction of digital assistants,
such as Cortana and Siri, opens new optimization perspectives in 2016.
This is going to be an exciting new world of opportunities every
Internet marketing campaign will hardly wait to take an advantage of.
5th Trend – Virtual Reality, Our New Marketing Reality
We’re already extremely excited about the new revolutionary concept
called the Virtual Reality. A few years back, we’ve seen its first
steps. Now, it’s about time to witness its true power. A
virtual-reality-ad, how does this one sound to you? These new VR ads
will be hard to avoid, won’t they?
6th Trend – Welcome New Guests: Wearable Smart Technologies & Internet of Things (IoT)
Successful marketing is just like water. It will always find a way to
reach us. Not so long ago, we welcomed the first generation of
smartwatches. Now, we’re already talking about the next big thing –
Internet of Things. In 2016, it would be even more difficult to say
where the real marketing ends and Internet marketing begins.
7th Trend – 2016 isn’t going to get any cheaper!
New trends, technologies and opportunities for Internet marketing in
2016 are supposed to boost marketing profits and not to decrease the
advertising prices. Therefore, it’s advisable to hold horses of your
marketing optimism, at least for a while.
How to Protect Your SEO Investment From Being RUINED by Google!
It’s one of the worst feelings you can experience in the IM and online world..
You wake up in the morning, open up your rank tracking software and it
feels like you get virtually punched in the face and knocked out of your
chair. You see nothing but red “down” arrows and all of your keywords
have fallen significantly or disappeared entirely.
Just like that, your traffic, sales, leads and money is done.
Google just fucked up your day. It happens around the clock, 365 days a
year, so don’t feel completely horrible if it has happened to you.
Sometimes the smallest mistakes can lead to being penalized, while some
other websites ride the edge knowing the day will eventually come.
I see a lot of talk about algorithm changes when Google makes them
public. Yes, there are the Pandas, Penguins and Hummingbirds to fear,
but if you don’t think Google is running algorithms under the radar to
snipe websites that are breaking its guidelines then you need a reality
check.
The truth is, Google is always penalizing websites, and don’t think the
big guys are safe from harms way, no matter how much they might be
spending on PPC with Google, There have been many large websites that
lost traffic overnight, with travel giant Expedia.com losing 25% of its traffic. Google nailed them for partaking in a paid link scheme.
It was discovered that Expedia was offering websites money for links
containing exact match anchor text. There was a lot of press about this
penalty because they sure weren’t trying to buy links under the radar.
They were emailing every travel website they could contact and there was
no shame in their game.
While I would bet that Google lets some big names slide, they had to
make an example out of Expedia simply because it was so obvious that
they were trying to game the algorithm. If Google let that slide people
would immediately say that Google will not penalize companies spending
millions on PPC with them, which Expedia does. Then there are the
conspiracy theorists that started saying that Google was going to go
after all the big PPC spenders that were also ranking organically to
force them to spend more on PPC.
People will always have an opinion when it comes to Google and how it hands out slaps and penalties.
There are also instances of websites being penalized when in truth they
did nothing wrong. They were simply victims of negative SEO. I have
conducted several audits where the website owner came to me saying that
their traffic stopped instantly and they had no idea why. Some of them
were small local businesses that weren’t even doing any SEO. The sad
thing is that a competitor can really ruin you if they want. It’s
unfortunate, but it’s reality and people need to realize they can be
penalized for bad SEO practices even if they aren’t doing any SEO.
There are two types of penalties that Google can slap you with:
1. Standard Algorithm Penalty
These are the standard algorithm updates that Google is constantly
running and tweaking, including Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, etc. Since
they run these algorithms nonstop, if you are violating their guidelines
it isn’t a matter of “if” you get caught.. it’s “when.”
Google engineers are some of the best on the planet, so thinking that
you will never get caught is foolish. I’m not saying blackhat SEO and
churn and burn won’t work.. because it does. There are SEOs that make a
lot of money using these techniques, but they go into each project fully
understanding that they will eventually get pinched, and they have a
new website ready in the wings for when that does happen.
The only way you know if your website is hit by an algorithm penalty is
to track your website traffic. If it suddenly drops off, then you need
to look into it more. You won’t get a notification in Google Webmaster
Tools (GWT), but you should be monitoring traffic in Analytics daily, so
if you get hit you will know right away.
2. Manual Ass Raping
Many people will say that they don’t connect their website to GWT
because they don’t want Google to spy on them. I think that is foolish
talk. There is so much to gain from GWT insights, including a
notification in the event that they hit you with a manual ass raping.
Google has an entire team that looks for websites in violation of their
search guidelines. It’s their job to identify websites that are
participating in paid link schemes, or doing other shady practices, like
using doorway pages, etc.
In Google Webmaster Tools there is even a section “Manual Actions”
within the “Search Traffic” column. If you are one of the unlucky ones
that Google manually nails, you will receive a notification here and
also receive an email. Even local businesses that aren’t building links
or doing heavy SEO should link up to GWT. In the event that a competitor
fires up GSR and hammers their website with spam and hit with a manual
action, they will get a notification and can then deal with it.
So, how do you protect your SEO investment from being ruing by Google?
1. Write Content for Your Readers, Not Google
Posting low quality or thin content on your website is just asking for a
penalty. Not only does it have to be quality writing, but there needs
to be some meat to it. Think about what purpose your blog content
serves. Yes, you can write long-form blog posts that include multiple
long tail keywords and rank for organic search strings that pull in
traffic, but what happens when those visitors land on your website?
Your content needs to convince them to take action. That could mean
joining your email list, clicking over to another page on your website,
or making a purchase. Write good content to avoid a penalty, but more
importantly write it to convert your website traffic and make money. In
the end, that’s what keeps your online business alive.
2. Be Smart About Guest Blogging
Guest blogging quickly became a popular method to get links on niche
relevant websites and it’s still a great way to build links with strong
metrics. You just need to be smart about it.
The lure about guest blogging is the ability to drop a link in your
author bio. If you are going to guest blog, make sure that any links you
use in your bio are just brand links. Example: if you run a financial
blog named “Financial Tips & More” then you want to use that as your
anchor text, and not something like “credit cards with best rewards” or
similar. Under a manual review, those exact match keyword anchors will
set off an alarm.
Guest blogging is not dead and it never will die. Just be smart. Brand
name links are great, especially from strong websites. This helps
strengthen your website and enables your own content to start ranking in
the search results easier for long tail keywords.
3. Make Your Content Appear Above the Fold
Google has a Page Layout algorithm and a couple of years ago it was updated to penalize websites that were packed with ads on the top of the page.
Making your content appear (or at least start) above the fold keeps you
out of harms way from this algorithmic penalty, but it also gives your
visitors a good experience.
You don’t want to have to make someone scroll down to read content
anyway, so this should be a very simple thing to do. I also see a lot of
“content gate” plugins that require a visitor to engage with a social
media account (usually a follow) in order to unlock the content. Stay
far away from these. First, they piss off your visitors and second, they
can cause a penalty because the search engine crawl will view the page
as thin/no content. If someone wants to follow you on social media they
will, and you lure them in with good content, not a forced follow.
4. Protect Your Website with a Security Plugin
If you don’t take precautions to secure your website, it’s possible that
hackers could inject it with hidden links that you will never see…but
Google will find. I’ve seen so many websites that were hacked and
injected with thousands of spammy links. It’s usually common that the
links are related to porn or financial services, such as payday loans.
If you are running WordPress then the best security plugin is iThemes Security.
They have a paid version with a lot of options and features, but most
websites will be perfectly fine just using the free version. Quick tips:
never use “admin” as your user name and change the login URL to
anything other than the standard /wp-admin path that comes as the
default setting.
5. Constantly Review Your Link Profile
This is especially important if you aren’t running a very aggressive SEO
campaign. A lot of local businesses build a few links here and there
and pick them up through their blogging efforts. These are people that
typically wouldn’t be checking their links daily on Ahrefs, OSE, and
SemRush, but they should. It only takes a few minutes a day and it will
let you know right away if something looks fishy.
If you see a lot of random links coming in from websites you are
unfamiliar with (or look spammy) then there is a very good chance that
you are the target of a negative SEO attack. Be proactive and stay on
top of your links even if you aren’t currently building any.
6. Manually Approve User Generated Comments, User Profiles, Posts, Etc.
If you allow comments on your blog posts then you need to use an
anti-spam solution to weed out the spam comments and then manually
approve the ones that pass the filter. On WordPress, use Akismet
to block the spam and change your settings to require each comment to
go into the moderation pool. This way you can make sure spammers aren’t
dropping in links that could look bad under a manual review. The last
thing you want Google to think is that your blog is part of a PBN.
The same goes for user profiles and guest posts. Review and manually
approve everything before it’s published to your website. If you slack
on this and allow spam content and links to be indexed then you have
nobody to blame but yourself.
7. Avoid “Exact Match” Anchor Text
Building exact match anchor links worked 10 years ago. It worked VERY
well. Now that approach will get you penalized very quickly. Some exact
match link? Sure, but tread carefully. I would focus on building the
majority of links as brand mentions and “more information here” or “from
this blog post.” When you are building links on niche relevant websites
with strong metrics you are going to benefit.
As your website’s authority increases, so does your ability to rank your
content, especially for long tail keywords. If you have a finance blog
and 80% of your anchor text is “low interest credit card” you are going
to get slapped out of the SERPs.
Diversification is very important if you want to stay under the radar of Google.
8. Disavow Negative SEO Attempts
This final point is simple. If you notice you are under attack, load up
the links into a disavow file and send them to Google right away. I have
seen multiple websites recover quickly from a negative SEO attack
because they were proactive and alerted Google right away. Speed is of
the essence in this situation.
The Debate: Reconsider Requests (Good or Bad Idea?)
If you get nailed by a manual penalty then I suggest taking the time to
clean up the mess and submit a reconsider request if it’s a website that
you have significant time and money invested in. I have seen many
websites get the penalty lifted and I have seen some never regain their
previous rankings.
If you do get hit, check out this past post
I wrote that explains the steps you need to take to have a chance at a
positive reconsideration request. It takes time, so if your website is a
couple weeks old, then you might want to scrap it and just start over.
This is a decision you will need to make yourself based on your
available time and willingness to do the manual work required to have a
chance at lifting the penalty.
Final Thoughts
Google penalties suck, but they are very real and anyone attempting SEO
on their own or paying a company to do it needs to know the risks
involved. Don’t think that because an SEO agency advertises “whitehat
SEO” that you are 100% safe from penalties. Even though the link
building strategies used are not shady, they are still being done to
game the system. Don’t let the guru retards try to fool you. Guest
blogging, outreach, etc is all done for one reason: LINKS.
Use these tips to help protect your SEO investment, but know that no
single website is entirely safe. A penalty can happen at any time. If
you have any questions about what I have laid out here leave a comment
below and I will do my best to answer your questions. Until next time..
Ciao for now!
101 Best Email Subject Lines of 2015 (…and our 3 best email split tests!)
Want to generate more leads and sales via Facebook ads?Copy & paste our 7 proven Facebook ad campaigns to create low-cost, high-converting campaigns today. Click here to download!
…Emails centered around promotions, blog posts, charity, and certifications. And we learned a thing or two about what works in the process.
It’s safe to say for us, 2015 was “the year of the content mail.” DigitalMarketer has become much less reliant on promotional emails as our primary means to engage customers (we still run promotions, but they aren’t as essential for driving traffic).
Instead we have begun to focus more on email as a content distribution platform, to help us segment and excite customers about our products.
What can you take away from that lesson? Make sure you’re incorporating the value-first strategy into your email calendar, and not prioritizing promotions too highly over content. If your customers aren’t getting value, they aren’t opening your emails (and you’re missing tons of sales and relationship-building opportunities).
We went data digging and found our best 101 subject lines for you to swipe or use as inspiration. And as a bonus — we’ve also rounded up our 3 best email split tests you can use to optimize your email marketing in 2016.
This is our third annual Best Email Subject Line Roundup, but there’s 202 more subject lines for you to swipe here:
Before we dive into our 101 winners, let’s look at what common elements you might find in a subject line. There were 8 different components we found again and again in our top performing email subject lines:
1 – Self-Interest
These are your bread and butter subject lines – you should be using them most frequently.
They are usually direct and speak to a specific benefit your audience will gain by opening the email. Self-interest subject lines also help pre-qualify openers by giving them a clue about your email’s body content.
2 – Curiosity
If self-interest subject lines work because they communicate a direct benefit of opening the email, curiosity-based ones succeed for the exact opposite reason. These peak the interest of subscribers without giving away too much information, leading to higher opens. Be careful though, because curiosity-based subject lines can get old fast and are the most likely to miss their mark.
3 – Offer
Do you like free stuff? Do you like to buy things?
So does your email list. When you are giving something away or selling something your subscribers would be interested in, directly stating that in your subject line is a great way to convince them to open the email and learn more.
4 – Urgency/Scarcity
This is the most powerful type of subject line you have at your disposal. Subject lines that communicate urgency and scarcity tell readers they must act now. Too many of these can lead to list exhaustion so use sparingly and, of course, only when there is truly a deadline, limited quantity or limited availability.
5 – Humanity
Sometimes you just need to thank your subscribers or send them a holiday greeting. Don’t forget to remind your list about the person or people behind your products.
6 – News
Keeping your audience informed about new developments in your field builds authority and keeps your open rates high. These subject lines often work well when combined with a curiosity element.
7 – Social Proof
A fundamental characteristic of humans is that we look to the behavior of others when making decisions. You can leverage this in your email subject lines by mentioning individual’s success stories, familiar names, or highlighting how many people are already using a product or service.
8 – Story
Telling a story, or at least teasing the beginning of one, in your subject line is a unique way to highlight a benefit and get the open rate you’re looking for.
Ready for the subject lines? As our tradition, we’ll start with our top 10 best…
10. Seriously, get this book.
Content: The Choose Yourself Guide to Wealth (James Altucher’s book)
Open Rate: 16.91%
Analysis: This subject line is pretty direct – seriously means no fooling around. But the blind reference to an as-yet unidentified book demands the recipient take a look inside and see if it’s a good fit for their library shelf.
9. I’m pulling the plug…
Content: Blog Post
Open: 17.13%
Analysis: This subject line uses negative language to great effect. What does “pulling the plug” mean for DigitalMarketer subscribers? Is this bad news (or as it turned out, great news)? Only by clicking through can you find out.
8. 7 split testing mistakes
Content: Blog Post
Open: 17.34%
Analysis: Do you like making mistakes? Neither do we (though it happens). So when someone promises to show you pitfalls to avoid before it’s too late, no one wants to miss the opportunity to do so.
7. How HostGator does retargeting
Content: Blog Post
Open: 17.40%
Analysis: This subject is simple and to the point, with a clear value proposition (learn how to leverage their retargeting strategy). The social proof of leveraging a well-known brand helps validate the information contained within the email.
6. TRAFFIC (on a “shoestring” budget)
Content: Blog Post
Open: 17.79%
Analysis: All caps can be pretty polarizing – no one likes to be yelled at digitally. But when you pick a word business owners love, the results are more positive. And offering a cost-friendly solution to a problem never hurts.
5. 11 sneaky email tricks
Content: Blog Post
Open: 17.83%
Analysis: This subject line uses a number that stands out (11) and a compelling adjective (sneaky) to hook the audience. And everyone loves simple to implement strategies, as implied by words like “trick” “hack” or “shortcut.”
4. Facebook Ads (Your first 3 steps)
Content: Perpetual Traffic Episode
Open: 17.87%
Analysis: If you’ve wanted to try something new, like Facebook ads, one of the biggest barriers to entry is not knowing where to start. This subject is clear, direct, and helps people who aren’t sure if they’ll be able to use the information.
3. The YouTube Gold Mine
Content: Blog Post
Open: 17.90%
Analysis: Have you ever discovered a gold mine? Probably not, but it sure would be nice to do so. This subject line combines a high value proposition with intriguing but vague details. Open up!
2. Thank You!
Content: $1 Trial Offer
Open: 17.99%
Analysis: This is a subject line that works so well we sneak it into our mails every year and it never fails to disappoint. People love recognition, and acknowledgement of what they’ve done (if you swipe just one subject line, make it this one).
1. 23 bizarre products selling online
Content: Blog Post
Open: 18.71%
Analysis: This was one of our experiments for 2015, seeing how some lighter, less actionable content would fare, and the fact that subject line took our top slot shows that this strategy works. This subject promises a fun twist on studying just how crazy eCommerce can be. And lists with odd numbers always catch the eye.
Those may be the cream of the crop, but with 134 million emails out the door, we saw a few other good ones, too. Here are the next 90 subject lines that had the highest open rates and a breakdown of the elements that compose them:
Think like a Facebook ad pro… – Self-Interest | Curiosity
Facebook’s New Lead Ads (What you need to know) – News | Self-Interest
Copy and paste these 72 headlines [Last Chance] – Offer
How to hire a content marketer – Self-Interest
Get your first 1,000 blog subscribers – Self-Interest
Stop writing NEW blog posts. Here’s why… – Curiosity
[TEST RESULTS] 2,689 leads from “On Site Retargeting” – Self-Interest | Curiosity
A visit to Facebook (Here’s what we learned) – Story | Curiosity
My 2016 business plan… – Offer | Curiosity
5,219% ROI from new traffic source – Self-Interest | Curiosity
The Remarketing Grid – Curiosity
[Case Study] Numbers don’t lie – Story | Curiosity
Score your landing page – Self-Interest
Create the perfect marketing calendar – Offer
Reach 6,372,857 people with zero ad spend – Self-Interest | Curiosity
A 15.2% lift (but we were shocked) – Curiosity
My favorite automation tools – Self-Interest
A very direct (and some might even say, “RUDE”) email – Curiosity
[CASE STUDY] AZ shoe store 20X’d sales by sending what? – Story | Social Proof
Download This Social Media Swipe File (PDF) – Offer
Turn ice cold prospects into buyers – Self-Interest | Curiosity
My favorite business model – Curiosity
The Ultimate Course on Paid Traffic – Self-Interest | Offer
My new book! (and a big mistake) – Story | Humanity
Double sales (Get the formula) – Self-Interest
Dirt cheap Facebook leads – Self-Interest
⬆︎ Social media traffic (Your 6-step plan) – Self-Interest
Now it’s your turn — Post in DM Engage or tweet us with #101!
(Want to get big results from a small email list? Copy and paste our simple 7-step formula to generate more sales by sending less emails. Download it here.)
Should you test that?
Now that you have our best subject lines of the year, you should be ready to up your own game and start sending some emails.
We’re going to give you just a little bit more information to help you get an extra bump…Here are our 3 top performing email split tests of 2015.
1. Highlighting a Pain in the Subject Line
Open rate can lie about performance.
That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t look at the metric, because you definitely should. It’s one of your top 4 email metrics to watch, along with click through rate, unsubscribe rate, and earnings per click (EPC).
But here’s a great split test that shows why you can judge a campaign by a single metric.
We ran this subject line split test in March of this year. These were the two subject lines.
The “Little _______ = big sales [QUIZ]” beat out the other one, but the results weren’t significant. So at first glance, the test was a wash. However, on closer examination the subject line “This is why your prospects aren’t buying” actually had more clicks.
A LOT more.
We saw a statistically significant lift of 18% in click throughs for the second subject line. The reason? The other headline pre-qualified openers by highlighting a pain they were feeling in their business.
That’s one of the risks with curiosity headlines – they drive more opens but people don’t know what they are getting into when they open. So for more complex or expensive offers, direct and pain-based subject lines can produce better results. Don’t overdo it on the doom and gloom though; a little bit of negativity goes a long way and too much can turn subscribers off your emails.
2. Use CSS Buttons in your email
Setting yourself up for mobile wins has never been more important, as more and more people are using their mobile devices to read email, browse the web and make purchases.
Because of this trend, we decided to experiment with CSS buttons during our Black Friday promotion. We tested emails using buttons for the CTA against emails using just text hyperlinks, which had been our standard practice.
Here’s a glance at what each one looked like:
We figured the button would win, but we had no idea how incredible the results would be. The email with buttons had a 22% higher click through rate, no small feat and definitely a sign that this test was a winner.
But that’s not the mind-blowing part of the results.
We also compared the performance and found that the earnings per click, the amount of money we made for every person who clicked through the email, was 38% higher for the email with CSS buttons.
3. Use Unicode Symbols to Highlight Emails
We’ve said it before, but we’ll say it again — using Unicode symbols in your subject line is a great way to generate a bump in opens.
These symbols are the little pictures that show up in your inbox, including ☼, ★, , and ①. Since Unicode symbols are coded in computer systems like alphabet characters and numbers, they can be displayed on multiple browsers and devices.
Across all kinds of topics and subject lines, we’ve found that Unicode symbols produce a consistent 8% bump in email opens. So these can be a great way to squeeze everything you can out of a big promotion or help push visitors to a particularly strong blog post.
You can grab a swipe file of some of the best Unicode symbols here.
Check out our 101 Best Email Subject Lines of 2014 (…and our 10 worst!)
We start with our top 10 email subject lines for 2014…
10. [WEEKEND ONLY] Get this NOW before it’s gone…
Product: AuthorityROI
Product Type: Course/Information Product
Open Rate: 9.49%
Analysis: This is a great example of a flash sale subject line. It combines the urgency of limited availability with an element of mystery. Keep in mind that these work best in very small doses.
9. The Facebook Slap is coming…
Product: Twitter Ads EP
Product Type: Execution Plan
Open Rate: 9.51%
Analysis: Personally, just rereading this subject line has me digging through my email archives. It combines the curiosity and news elements, and speaks to a penalty the entire digital marketing industry will want to avoid.
8. Steal these email templates…
Product: Email Templates
Product Type: The Machine
Open Rate: 9.53%
Analysis: This one is simple and direct, and makes a clear offer. The phrase “templates” works particularly well with Digital Marketer’s email list.
7. Your 7-figure plan goes bye-bye at midnight…
Product: AuthorityROI
Product Type: Course/Information Product
Open Rate: 9.64%
Analysis: Are you willing to wave goodbye to 7 figures? Most people aren’t – this is another great example of curiosity and urgency working in tandem to raise that open rate!
6. Is this the hottest career in marketing?
Product: eCommerce EP
Product Type: Execution Plan
Open Rate: 9.77%
Analysis: This one is all about curiosity. Using questions in your subject line is a great way to open a loop that your audience will want to close by checking out the email’s contents.
5. A Native Ad in 60 Minutes or Less
Product: Blog Post
Product Type: Lead Magnet
Open Rate: 9.78%
Analysis: Quantifying how long it will take a subscriber to realize some benefit in the subject line is great – it feels manageable and promises results, making even inactive members of your list curious. This offer feels bite-sized and achievable.
4. 212 blog post ideas
Product: Blog Post
Product Type: Lead Magnet
Open Rate: 9.94%
Analysis: Another great offer example – it communicates the email’s value in just 4 words.
3. Check out my new “man cave” [PICS]
Product: eCommerce EP
Product Type: Execution Plan
Open Rate: 10.24%
Analysis: This is a fun blend of curiosity and humanity – it directly addresses some value Ryan got, a sweet new “man cave,”in the subject. Not only does this spark interest, but it reminds readers about the human connection that brought them to DM in the first place.
2. [URGENT] You’ve got ONE DAY to watch this…
Product: AuthorityROI
Product Type: Course/Information Product
Open Rate: 10.79%
Analysis: Once again, curiosity and urgency team up to create a compelling subject line. If you are careful about using these sparingly, you’ll find thatthey just work.
1. How (and why) to calculate Average Customer Value
Product: Blog
Product Type: Blog Post
Open Rate: 10.91%
Analysis: Our number one email subject line, this blends all of the good stuff. It gives you a metric that can improve you business, inspires curiosity about why this number matters, and offers to help you figure out how to calculate it.
(Want to get big results from a small email list? Copy and paste our simple 7-step formula to generate more sales by sending less emails. Download it here.)
Here are the next 90 emails with the highest engagement and what elements they used:
SEO is dying (a slow and painful death)… – News | Curiosity
This is rated aaarrrgh! (details inside) – Curiosity
Does your marketing smell funny? – Curiosity
Do you HATE money? – Curiosity
(time sensitive) Last night’s Funnel training… – Urgency
[Case Study] $188,674 from a dead list – Social Proof | Self-Interest
[ONLY $7] My “cheap traffic” plan – Self-Interest
Get More Email Newsletter Clicks – Self-Interest
Reduce shopping cart abandonment – Self-Interest
Create opt-in pages that convert like crazy – Self-Interest
My Facebook retargeting plan – Self-Interest
This gets my highest recommendation – Curiosity
Better than Facebook? – Curiosity
28,507 leads in 45 days – Self-Interest | Social Proof
A slick mobile lead gen funnel – Self-Interest
The Machine is LIVE… here’s your link – Curiosity
Pounce on these shifts in digital marketing – Curiosity | Self-Interest
Uncomplicate your analytics – Self-Interest
I do THIS for traffic… – Curiosity
But don’t do this…
We’re also sharing our top 10 worst emails of 2014 and picking them apart to find why exactly they didn’t work.
Our Top 10 Worst Emails
For these, we looked at emails with the highest unsubscribe to open ratio. Not only did these miss the mark, they drove our audience away! We’re going to work backwards, starting with the 10th most unpopular email.
10.[85% Discount GONE] Blog launch “checklist on steroids” price increasing…
Promotion: Blog Launch EP
Promotion Type: Execution Plan
Unsubscribes / Opens: 1.78%
Analysis: This subject line is trying to do too much at once. The framing of the price increase is presented as both a disappearing discount and a price increase. While these mean the same thing, it can be a little confusing and makes the subject line too long. Sticking with short, sweet, and clear is best.
9.Last chance to be a whale…
Promotion: The Whale Method
Promotion Type: Course/Information Product
Unsubscribes / Opens: 1.90%
Analysis: This curiosity subject line is cute, but it’s a little too cute. We’ve found that trying to be too clever or funny with subject lines often hurts an email’s performance. This varies by industry, but for educational authorities, it tends to hurt performance.
8.321% higher conversions using THIS…
Promotion: Video Sales Letter Formula
Promotion Type: Course/Information Product
Unsubscribes / Opens: 1.93%
Analysis: This subject line isn’t terrible – it’s combines curiosity with self-interest and makes an exciting promise. So I looked at the body as well. A key issue was that the body was even more blind than the subject line – the promise got lost in the open.
7. uh oh
Promotion: Napkin Project
Promotion Type: Course/Information Product
Unsubscribes / Opens: 2.01%
Analysis: This is a great example of a curiosity subject line that completely misses the mark. It’s too vague and sets a negative tone. Be very careful when using curiosity subject lines, especially when you don’t mix them with other elements.
6.3-Part Followup Series [Download]
Promotion: Native Ads Academy
Promotion Type: Course/Information Product
Unsubscribes / Opens: 2.09%
Analysis: One of the big issues with this email was that it didn’t explain exactly what kind of followup series was being offered. By not giving the audience enough information, those who opened it and weren’t interested in an email followup series were turned off.
5.Free traffic SUCKS!
Promotion: Whale Method
Promotion Type: Course/Information Product
Unsubscribes / Opens: 2.21%
Analysis: This subject line strikes a negative tone right off the bat. While that can be very effective way to get opens, it also sets audience members up to feel frustrated. When you go negative, it’s important to really focus on putting a positive spin in the email body.
4.43% discount GONE at midnight…
Promotion: Video Sales Letter Formula
Promotion Type: Course/Information Product
Unsubscribes / Opens: 2.46%
Analysis: This subject line isn’t particularly bad on its own – it combines curiosity and urgency, which is often very effective. However, the subject line is nearly identical to the one sent the day before. Using the same elements in a subject line two days in a row can make your emails seem stale and leave your audience bored. And bored audiences become unengaged very quickly.
3.This sucks, you lose…
Promotion: Whale Method
Promotion Type: Course/Information Product
Unsubscribes / Opens: 2.67%
Analysis: Another example of a negative curiosity-based subject line. It has a similar issue to the other one – it didn’t spin the tone of the communication enough and left readers with a bad taste in their mouth, leading to a high unsubscribe rate.
2.[GONE TONIGHT] Native Ads training OVER at MIDNIGHT
Promotion: Native Ads Academy
Promotion Type: Course/Information Product
Unsubscribes / Opens: 2.94%
Analysis: This subject line is a little too urgent – overdoing capitalization in the subject line can feel like shouting. And no one wants their email inbox to yell at them. Capitalization is a great way to draw attention but works best in small doses.
1.C’mon – everybody’s waiting for you…
Promotion: Native Ads Academy
Promotion Type: Course/Information
Unsubscribes / Opens: 3.05%
Analysis: This email actually had one of our top 100 email subject lines, but it’s a great example of the double-edged sword of curiosity hooks. The email went to audience members not already planning to attend a webinar. This subject line puts some pressure on the reader which, for those clearly not interested in the webinar, is an unfortunately effective way to drive them off your email list.
We’re sharing our 101 Best Email Subject Lines of 2013 below!
In 2013, our best email subject lines were all made up of one of the 8 all-important elements we outlined at the top of this post…
Perhaps more importantly — NONE of our best email subject lines were:
Cute
Clever
Ok… almost none of our best are cute or clever. Every once in a great while a cute or clever subject line will work… most of the time they will get low open rates.
For the most part it pays to be direct and clear.
Ok… let’s take a look at our top email subject lines.
We begin with the 10th best email subject line…
10. Breaking News…
Product: Black Friday Webinar
Product Type: Webinar
Open Rate: 7.6%
Analysis: This subject line promises that the reader will find something timely and unknown if they open up.
9. Facebook traffic is dead?
Product: Facebook Ad Power
Product Type: Course/Information Product
Open Rate: 7.6%
Analysis: This subject line creates plays on a reader’s self interest — particularly those that are using or are considering using Facebook for business.
8. Everybody’s waiting for you…
Product: Funnel Webinar
Product Type: Webinar
Open Rate: 7.7%
Analysis: This is a clever way to use urgency in an email subject line. This email was sent a couple of minutes after we started the webinar it was promoting.
7. Kindle bestseller in 4 days?
Product: Facebook Ad Power
Product Type: Course/Information Product
Open Rate: 7.8%
Analysis: This subject line promises a benefit in a short amount of time — a good example of a self-interest subject line.
6. Watch live? From anywhere?
Product: Traffic & Conversion Summit (Event)
Product Type: Event
Open Rate: 8.0%
Analysis: This subject line creates curiosity. It creates the following question in the reader’s mind: “Watch what from anywhere?”
5. Facebook closing down?
Product: Facebook Ad Power
Product Type: Course/Information Product
Open Rate: 8.0%
Analysis: This is a curiosity subject line that implies that something of self-interest to the reader might be going away.
4. I feel kinda sorry for you…
Product: Facebook Ad Power
Product Type: Course/Information Product
Open Rate: 8.2%
Analysis: This subject line plays on the reader’s ego and creates curiosity.
3. How to scale your business
Product: The Amazing Selling Machine
Product Type: Course/Information Product
Open Rate: 9.5%
Analysis: This is a clear and direct self-interest subject-line.
2 . Good news for people who love bad news…
Product: Traffic & Conversion Summit (Event)
Product Type: Event
Open Rate: 9.6%
Analysis: This one creates curiosity through a cute and clever use of word play.
1. Can’t Make The Trip?
Product: Traffic & Conversion Summit (Event)
Product Type: Event
Open Rate: 9.8%
Analysis: This curiosity subject line asks a question
Ok… that’s the Top 10. But there’s more… here are the next 90 email subject lines that enjoyed the highest open rates.
Your funnel is broken… – Self Interest
[New Video] 1,000,000 customers in 11 months? We have proof. – News | Self Interest
![[IMG]](http://i.imgur.com/sPv3Q0P.jpg)
![[IMG]](http://i.imgur.com/6zJaZCb.jpg)
![[IMG]](http://i.imgur.com/WMf27a2.jpg)
, and ①. Since Unicode symbols are coded in computer systems like alphabet characters and numbers, they can be displayed on multiple browsers and devices.
This is rated aaarrrgh! (details inside) – Curiosity