Just realized our internal newsletter is getting zero opens because of the subject line format

I spent 6 months tweaking content for our monthly corporate newsletter, only to find out nobody was even opening it. Checked the analytics last week and our open rate was under 8%. The subject line was always "[Company Name] Monthly Update - [Month Year]" which is basically spam-looking junk. I changed it to something specific like "3 quick changes to your benefits starting Tuesday" and our open rate jumped to 34% in one month. The takeaway is that corporate comms people get too attached to formal structure when really we just need to write like a human. Has anyone else had to fight their leadership to drop the corporate speak in subject lines for better engagement?

2 comments

2 Comments

derek_coleman6d ago

That "3 quick changes to your benefits" is exactly the kind of subject line I'd actually click on instead of just deleting. Did you get any pushback from the higher-ups who thought it was "too casual" for a corporate audience?

riley8606d ago

Yeah, the "too casual" pushback was real. I pitched a subject line like "Your benefits just got an upgrade (no, really)" and my boss literally asked if I'd lost my mind. But I ran an A/B test with our regular dry subject line and the casual one got like double the open rate, so that shut everyone up pretty quick.