I guess there is something to be said about subject line
consistency, except when you use the same subject line. For the
last 11 emails Ubid.com has used only
2 subject lines. Either they are having the best month in email
because of the same subject line or they simply have no idea what
they are doing.
Its fifty or so characters which stand in the way of you and the
recipient on whether or not they want to open the email. Some
folks put a lot stock in the use of a subject line. Others
believe that established brands with loyal followings should not put
too much faith in the performance of subject lines but focus rather
on relevancy and killer content. Most however believe that
there should be balance between content and subject line.
Whatever you believe to be the best formula, believe in testing.
However, just don't test to test. Test to analyze and action
your findings. Many people have written about best
practices around subject lines, so I won't go there in this post.
Either Ubid.com has found the secret
sauce to subject line nirvana and are genius' or they are just plain
lazy and have no business sending email.
I welcome your thoughts.
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I have to believe that results on using the same subject line everyday are mixed. If I haven't checked my inbox in a few days (and sometimes I don't on some of my personal email accounts) and see several emails from Ubid with the same subject line, I'm going to delete all but one thinking it was the same email content. Ubid could do something as simple as including the date in the subject line so that it alerts recipients that it's a different email than the day before, or it could be something like "Today's daily deals". They could also utilize that preheader space they are wasting now with instructions to view in a browser as a teaser to the deals included in the day's email.
-Kelly Lorenz
If I do agree that this way of doing is not very teasing and that it's likely that you won't read all of them if you open your mail box after some time, there are plenty of examples where this subject line consistency is necessary. I think about new profile alerts on social networks or love match companies (New matching profiles for you).
Anton, I have to respectfully disagree. Alerts from social networking sites have subject lines that vary email-to-email. For example, if someone sends you a direct message, it would be something like "John Smith has sent you a message on Facebook" or "Joe Schmoe is now following you on Twitter". It's personalized and unique every time.
-Kelly Lorenz
I have to agree with teh majority here – not sure I can think of a situation (even alerts) where some customization would not make it more compelling and urgent. Even the date would help. There is just too much clutter.
I think a big missed opportunity for Ubid! What a shame.
I believe this is a discussion that directly translates to mail strategy and relevance. The more relevant to the recipient the message body is, the stronger the argument for a personalized subject line. I know I have been burned by subject lines that seemingly have important information only to find generic messaging. I think it is important to match the subject line relevance to the relevance of your message.
I think it's possible to maintain some subject line structure/consistency AND be enticing at the same time.
Why not try something like:
Daily Deals: HP Pavilion TVs, TomToms and more
I also wonder if it makes sense to have Brandname Warehouse in the Daily Deals subject line each time. I'd actually consider putting that as part of the from name (i.e. Ubid.com's Brandname Warehouse) to leave more valuable subject line real estate to specifics that could get people opening.