• by Jess Nelson , December 22, 2017

Subject lines containing dynamic content generate higher open rates when compared to generic content, according to a new retail marketing study from Sailthru.

In an analysis of the email marketing messages its ecommerce clients sent in 2017, Sailthru discovered that dynamic subject lines increase open rates by 18%. Furthermore, email messages that took personalization a step further by dynamically including a product’s name in the subject line increased open rates by 41%.

Shawn Benk, director of strategy and optimization at Sailthru, defines dynamic subject lines as “subject lines that contain dynamic keyword insertion based on explicit, or implicit, data from the customer.”

For example, marketers could include a subscriber’s name in the subject line or a product that the email recipient was recently looking at online.

In addition to email engagement, conversion rates also increase when dynamic content is included in email subject lines. Dynamic subject lines were 42% more effective at driving purchases, according to Sailthru, while including dynamic product names in subject lines boosted conversion rates by an impressive 188%.

“Just like with content personalization within the email, it's a 1:1 experience tailored to the specific customer,” explains Benk. “Consumers are inundated with marketing messages from companies telling them what they want them to do, instead of listening to how they're interacting with the brand." 

Interestingly, the contrast between the open rates of dynamic and static content narrows as the holiday season approaches. Dynamic subject lines strongly outperformed static content leading up to, but not including, Black Friday.