{"id":38317,"date":"2014-07-11T08:22:44","date_gmt":"2014-07-11T07:22:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/?p=38317"},"modified":"2014-07-11T08:23:13","modified_gmt":"2014-07-11T07:23:13","slug":"can-new-subject-line-tool-eliminate-ab-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/email-marketing\/email-creative-and-copywriting\/can-new-subject-line-tool-eliminate-ab-testing\/","title":{"rendered":"Can a new subject line tool eliminate A\/B testing?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>SmartInsights tool review: Touchstone<\/h2>\n<p>Rumour has it that the next Indiana Jones film will see our favourite archeologist searching for the greatest undiscovered treasure of modern times: <strong>the perfect subject line<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, we're left looking for guidance on how\u00a0to improve subject line performance by using the \"right\" words. Do we say \"free\" or \"no cost\"? \"Summer\" or \"Summertime\"? \"Deal\" or \"Offer\"?<\/p>\n<p>Any tool that helps us consistently pick out the best\u00a0words or phrasing would, of course, have\u00a0two huge advantages:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The benefits go straight to your bottom line<\/strong>: subject lines have a big influence on opens, clicks and other success metrics.<\/li>\n<li><strong>You can skip a lot of A\/B subject line testing<\/strong>: A\/B tests are not always easy to do right (and can give misleading results if done wrong).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Unfortunately,\u00a0the tools or reports offering advice\u00a0on subject line wording tend to\u00a0suffer from\u00a0two critical flaws.<\/p>\n<p>First, they commonly base recommendations on a review of past subject lines and the average results associated with words and phrases, irrespective of the context or sender.<\/p>\n<p>So a word might only appear\u00a0\"good\" because it's used often by senders who, for example, get high open rates for other reasons (like B2B publications with highly-targeted audiences).<\/p>\n<p>Second, <strong>they cannot account for the uniqueness of your own audience and email programme<\/strong>. What works for \"them\" doesn't always work for you (and vice versa).<\/p>\n<p>The Touchstone tool (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.subjectlinegold.com\/\">beta version<\/a>) seeks to address both flaws to\u00a0make truer predictions of how a proposed\u00a0subject line will perform in practice and to suggest better alternatives.<\/p>\n<p>Its analysis of words in its\u00a0subject line database doesn't ask \"How well do subject lines using this word do?\". Instead, it asks \"How well do subject lines using this word do <strong>compared to other subject lines used by the same sender<\/strong>?\" So, all things being equal, it's more likely to capture\u00a0the incremental effect of wording on success.<\/p>\n<p>Second , it\u00a0encourages you to upload your campaign history so it can apply its\u00a0algorithmic analysis to your list and emails.<\/p>\n<p>It works much like you'd expect.\u00a0You enter a subject line and a few seconds later, Touchstone predicts how\u00a0your\u00a0open rate, click rate and delivery rate\u00a0would likely deviate from the average when compared to your typical campaign, your sector or the entire database:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/touchstone.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-38325\" src=\"http:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/touchstone-550x496.png\" alt=\"Touchstone subject line results\" width=\"550\" height=\"496\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/touchstone-550x496.png 550w, https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/touchstone-150x135.png 150w, https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/touchstone-600x542.png 600w, https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/touchstone-250x225.png 250w, https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/touchstone.png 923w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The tool also highlights suggested improvements based on an analysis of synonyms:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/touchstone1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-38333\" src=\"http:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/touchstone1.png\" alt=\"Touchstone suggestions\" width=\"437\" height=\"136\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/touchstone1.png 437w, https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/touchstone1-150x46.png 150w, https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/touchstone1-250x77.png 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 437px) 100vw, 437px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The theory is great, since it tackles those flaws that make\u00a0subject line optimisation tools problematic. But do the results match the theory?<\/p>\n<p>According to the tool's initiator, Dela Quist: \"Touchstone correctly predicted the winner of our Alchemy Worx newsletter A\/B split tests 93.3% of the time. \u00a0And the results are just as good for larger users: our biggest sender has seen a 93.1% prediction rate and Touchstone predicted the actual open rate within 1% of its true value two-thirds of the time.\"\u00a0He expects these numbers to improve further as the algorithm evolves and the data set grows.<\/p>\n<p>Sign-up to the beta test is free (a paid model is likely in the future), so I'd suggest simply testing\u00a0the tool for yourself. Upload your campaign history, then <strong>check how accurately Touchstone predicts the results of your next campaign or subject line test<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3>Four\u00a0potential\u00a0benefits<\/h3>\n<p>If the results convince you, here are the advantages I can see:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You can improve your chances of more opens and clicks in a matter of seconds and, as explained, save the hassle of A\/B tests.<\/li>\n<li>The tool's word change suggestions support\u00a0creativity, which is great when your copywriting batteries are empty.<\/li>\n<li>It helps automate the analysis of your own campaign subject lines by using your results\u00a0as an independent set of data\u00a0for predictions.<\/li>\n<li>It helps take the subjectivity out of manual subject line comparisons. So, for example, it's easier\u00a0to end\u00a0in-house arguments about subject line approaches and word choice.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If, however, you only look at predictions based on other people's results, you're missing out on the true value of the tool. Your own data is particularly important for exploring\u00a0variations on your existing subject line approaches and for niche lists\u00a0where others'\u00a0results are unlikely to be relevant.<\/p>\n<p>Uploaded data also contributes to the total database and analysis (and, ultimately, accuracy) in what you might call <strong>crowdsourced subject line optimisation<\/strong>. Individual subject lines (and their associated senders or metrics) cannot be viewed by users, however.<\/p>\n<h3>Is it perfect?<\/h3>\n<p>All good so far, but there are things to watch for:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You still need to use your brain. It's usually possible to \"break\" any subject line tool by finding some nonsensical subject line that is predicted to do well. But you wouldn't use it. You still have A\/B testing as a fallback, too.<\/li>\n<li>Touchstone will help you build a better subject line step-by-step, but you still need to come up with the initial words yourself of course. At the moment the suggestion tool is also limited to a certain collection\u00a0of words though I imagine this will expand as the tool moves through beta.<\/li>\n<li>There is very little support content\u00a0available right now:\u00a0I would have liked a little more clarity as to what some of the displays mean to avoid ambiguity or misinterpretation. But again that is likely a beta issue.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All-in-all I'm sold on the concept, particularly\u00a0if you're a big, regular sender with enough campaign data to enable meaningful analysis of your previous\u00a0subject lines. The beauty of a tool like Touchstone, of course, is that you can test it out first to gauge its accuracy and reliability: let us know what you think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SmartInsights tool review: Touchstone Rumour has it that the next Indiana Jones film will see our favourite archeologist searching for the greatest undiscovered treasure of modern times: the perfect subject line. In the meantime, we&#8217;re left looking for guidance on &hellip;..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":38325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_glsr_average":0,"_glsr_ranking":0,"_glsr_reviews":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[293],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-email-creative-and-copywriting","srace-act","srace-engage","advicetype-digital-marketing-software-reviews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Can a new subject line tool eliminate A\/B testing? | Smart Insights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Review of the potential of the Touchstone subject line tool\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/email-marketing\/email-creative-and-copywriting\/can-new-subject-line-tool-eliminate-ab-testing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can a new subject line tool eliminate A\/B testing? 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