Had a chat with a plumber at the hardware store that made me rethink cold email open rates

So this guy comes in looking for pipe fittings and we get to talking about his side business doing residential repairs. He says he's been sending out these really basic email blasts to homeowners in his zip code and getting like 40% open rates. I asked what his subject line was and he just said 'Plumber in [city name] here' then a question like 'Need a fix before the holidays?' That's it. No gimmicks, no personalization tokens, just straight talk. Made me realize I've been overcomplicating our B2B emails with all these A/B tested subject lines and we're getting maybe 12% on a good week. Has anyone else found that super simple subject lines actually work better than the fancy ones?

1 comments

1 Comment

claireo6720d ago

Funny you mention that... a buddy of mine runs a landscaping business and he was telling me the exact same thing last summer. He switched from these clever subject lines like 'Your lawn called...' to just saying 'Landscaping in [town] here, quick question' and his open rates almost doubled. People are so used to getting tricked by salesy emails they ignore them on purpose. That straight up honest approach cuts through the noise way better than trying to be clever. He said the best part was his replies went up too because people felt like they were talking to a real person instead of some automated machine.