I agree!! the more emails I get from an organization, the fewer I open. Too much information can turn out to be seen as irrelevant. Organizations should have a strategic emailing plan to avoid this from happening. Organizations should also take into consideration the aspect of analysis, as we can see it is extremely important!!!

While I certainly agree that more does not mean more effective, I am interested in the idea of eye-catching subject lines.  Though it should be something that grabs the reader's attention, one must consider the organization's culture and constituency to determine what is appropriate.  I wonder if such techniques and strategies vary by sector.  Which sectors would prefer something more conservative, for example?

Like Ameta mentioned I think eye-catching email subject lines is an interesting area to research. I get tons of emails from groups I really care about and from groups I just gave my contact info to at some point. But even with the over emailing that often happens...some subject lines get me to open and read and even act. Last month twice I opened, read and acted on emails that I got from groups that send me a ton of emails...most of which I delete without reading at all. But both times these specific emails worked on me. One got me to attend a meeting and one actually got me to renew my membership. The subject lines were the key.

I agree that doing the analytics is key -- and tracking open rates allows the emailer to test the effect of different subject lines on open rates, as well as the effect of content on click through rates. Because of the proliferation of emails it is especially important to analyze effectiveness, and to monitor frequency. Some friends have told me they think a particular charity emails too often -- but since they want the charity to do well they don't mind -- however, there will come a point when these emails don't get opened. I think a charity using email appeals should plan out a testing strategy with analytic decision points and constantly revise strategy using open rates and click throughs and donor amounts as guides.