I love new toys.
We just added a new feature in our E-mail Analyst software that allows me to search the subject line or body text of the quarter million unique e-mail messages in
our database for any key word or phrase.
I thought it would be interesting to type in a few to see the frequency of various common keywords and phrases. Below are the numbers of
occurrences of certain words in the e-mail messages we have collected over the past two years. It is based on our current coverage of e-mail marketing sectors.
Holidays and Special
Events:
Mother's Day:
Subject Line: 12 Occurrences
Body Text: 20 Occurrences
Father's Day:
Subject Line: 5 Occurrences
Body Text: 27 Occurrences
It is interesting to note that Father's Day appeared in the subject line less than half the amount of
times Mother's Day did, but more times in the body text. On closer examination though, it turned out the multiple occurrences of Father's Day were due to a single financial newsletter doing an ongoing
Father's Day promotion. When looking at unique lists, Mother's Day wins the day, and most of these e-mails were in the flowers and gift basket sector
advertisement
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Christmas:
Subject Line: 805 Occurrences
Body Text: 2,502 Occurrences
Chanukah
Subject Line: 1 Occurrence
Body Text:
12 Occurrences
Kwanzaa
Subject Line: 0 Occurrence
Body Text: 8 Occurrences
Well, I guess not a huge surprise
here. It gives you a perspective on the relative commercialism surrounding these particular holiday events.
Arbor Day:
Subject Line: 0 Occurrence
Body Text: 12 Occurrences
New Year's:
Subject Line: 75 Occurrences
Body Text: 87 Occurrences
Memorial Day
Subject Line: 22 Occurrences
Body Text: 103 Occurrences
Presidents Day
Subject
Line: 22 Occurrences
Body Text: 35 Occurrences
Thanksgiving
Subject Line: 184 Occurrences
Body Text: 730
Occurrences
I guess the big surprise here is how underutilized Presidents Day and Memorial Day are as an e-mail marketing event. It looks like there is an opportunity here for some smart
marketers.
Marketing and Sales Terms
The word "Free"
Subject Line: 15,782 Occurrences
Body Text: 84,093
Occurrences
The phrase "Low Cost"
Subject Line: 49 Occurrences
Body Text: 1,071 Occurrences
(An homage to Crazy Eddie): The word "insane"
Subject Line: 3 Occurrences
Body Text: 136 Occurrences
The word "closeout" or "Close Out"
Subject Line: 39 Occurrences
Body Text: 463 Occurrences
The
phrase "Save Money"
Subject Line: 134 Occurrences
Body Text: 1,607 Occurrences
Companies
IBM
Subject Line: 699 Occurrences
Body Text: 5,499 Occurrences
Dell
Subject Line: 615 Occurrences
Body Text:
4,682 Occurrences
HP
Subject Line: 854 Occurrences
Body Text: 5,297 Occurrences
What is interesting here is the
closeness of these competitors in frequency. The reason that HP is mentioned more in the subject line is due, it seems, to their printer line and all the online ink cartridge companies promoting their
wares.
Wal-Mart
Subject Line: 223 Occurrences
Body Text: 1,864 Occurrences
Kmart
Subject Line: 507 Occurrences
Body Text: 984 Occurrences
Home Depot
Subject Line: 113 Occurrences
Body Text:
1,244 Occurrences
Sears
Subject Line: 752 Occurrences
Body Text: 1,092 Occurrences
Here is an interesting
phenomenon. Wal-Mart is mentioned half as many times in the body as Kmart, but appears twice as many times in the subject of the e-mails in our database. In many cases this is due to companies using
the Wal-Mart name to get people to opt in to e-mail solicitations by holding out the offer of a free "Wal-Mart" gift card if you sign up.
We could go on and on like this, but
we need to stop somewhere. If you'd like to see something like this in the future, send me your keywords you are most interested in, and we'll run another report.