In announcing the winners of the e-mail line item Writing Contest!

A few weeks ago our friends had the brilliant idea of ​​a marketing experiment copywriting contest for the best subject line for their upcoming conference to find landing page optimization, Optimization Summit encourage 2012th

We have 492 reviews of his ideas for messages with the subject.

Some were clever, some funny, some serious.

Some of them cried out for attention, including a sponsored message quieter.

(We even had an entry with Sean Platt "can not miss" multi-purpose e-mail subject line.)

We know you're anxious to know the results, let us right to it.

The first thing we did was to reduce the hundreds of entries to a few dozen strong entries:

The first cut

Yes, we do read all the entries!

Obviously, this part of the process was very subjective. We chose the first cut on the basis of what we have seen, it is better to work with our marketing e-mail itself. This means that we made for the headers of e-mail subject line, to see our attention caught, a convincing promises (which had, as you will recall, perhaps, already been written), in line with the message body were , and not seen as spam.

Because MECLABS wanted to try different approaches, which broke the best entries in three general categories - keywords based on curiosity, led based on the product and the benefits header on fear. As you can see in our runner-up, the strongest headers often had elements of more than one of these factors.

There was a lot of headers that may have been effective, but we have not included, because we we have a discrepancy between the promise of the title and feel what comes in the message body.

For example, we liked the title "Evidence - this link is for you?" (It is said that a start for the curious.) But MECLABS had some concerns that the element of deception to annoy your subscribers to unsubscribe, and in any case ... not the result we wanted.

And of course, CAN-SPAM and other laws specifically prohibit anti-spam e-mail headers, which are misleading. So, if it could be understood as a joke, she decided.

We also headings that were used in line with the brand marketing experiment and part of the body of the email. Some of the titles may have presented an excellent ... have another brand.

The runners-up

In the "curiosity" category, we ended up going with the registration of Robisch Vince by:

Quarterbacks are not the only changes that will be tested in Denver.

New Denver quarterback was a hot news around the country, and this header with a good "scratch the itch need" to create - just what are the other changes will be tested? As far as copywriting, this is input as the conversation takes place within the minds of customers known. I also liked the MECLABS link to the city where the conference took place.

In the "benefits" category, we decided to Shaun Connell

A scientific method to increase your sales

This header contains both a benefit (improved implementation, which we know is very comfortable for the spectators Marketing Experiments'), and also refers to a feature - the way we want to maintain this advantage, with the word This header also is used "scientific". from the power of curiosity as a child - the reader has a reason to keep reading: to find out what specifically might in this way scientific.

Finally, the "fear" category is, we liked Christine Parizo of:

Are your landing pages pass this test?

This is a solid track-specific - the reader knows that the message is on the landing pages. Passing (or not) the evidence is a common fear, and in a competitive economy, no one wants to landing pages that fail to have the test.

The word that is important (in fact there was no entry for "make your landing pages are the test? '). This additional component is a slight improvement in the specificity of the curious reader to generate those clicks.

The headwaters of the other materials

You may recall that the three e-mail headers go head to head against three of blog readers voted conduct marketing experiment.

These three positions are:

* [Optimization Summit] 3 days to get a better website ($ 300 discount from the inside!)

* You learn three tips that led to 10,000 pages a big hit target

* Optimization Summit 2012 - List of speakers now! Save $ 300 + today

And the winner is ...

Christine Parizo to "Are your landing pages exist for this exam?"

Christine earned a free ticket for the optimization Summit 2012, and a marketing experiment without landing page optimization on-line course. Well played, Christine!

And just because we want to give away the things that are the six finalists (including the three candidates in Marketing Experiments) will receive a free 90-day marketing Tribe Thirdly, our gated community of online businesses. (We are in contact with the runner-up today to be with more details.) The third strain, is closed to new members, but we know that six of strategic marketing, to know how they really fit in.

You can manage the results of all headers below in a screenshot MECLABS test protocol, using an internal tool and validate all their tests