Counterintuitively, highly formatted and image-heavy emails can feel corporate and impersonal, decreasing engagement. Shifting to a simpler, plain-text style mimics a personal message from a friend, which increases perceived authenticity and encourages more replies and genuine connection.

A rarely used but effective tactic is placing the same emoji at the beginning and end of the email preheader (the second subject line). This visual framing technique draws attention in a crowded inbox and can improve open rates for both B2B and B2C campaigns.

From Nov 20th to Dec 20th, sending a personal letter-style email from a founder or executive to unengaged contacts can increase open rates by 40%. The key is changing the "from name" to a person, not the brand, and using a subject line that acknowledges their absence. This strategy works for both B2B and B2C brands.

A counterintuitive email marketing test is to have no preheader text. This creates visual whitespace in the recipient's inbox, making the email stand out from the clutter and potentially boosting open rates by up to 15%. A simple code snippet, which can be sourced from ChatGPT, is needed to prevent clients from auto-filling the space.

Audiences are overwhelmed in the first two weeks of January, leading to low engagement. Do not abandon new campaigns based on this data. Performance often rebounds significantly in the latter half of the month, with email click-through rates jumping by as much as 30%.

Prospects have minimal attention spans. To capture their interest, marketing copy in emails or social posts must be 75 words or less and contained in a single paragraph. Reserve longer, more detailed content (100-150 words) for your existing customer base, as they are already invested and more willing to read.

When stakeholders demand cramming too many product updates into one email, position yourself as the expert. Explain the science of audience attention—that users won't read past a certain point or absorb more than a few items. This shifts the conversation from personal opinion to data-backed strategy.

From October 1st through year-end, starting email subject lines with "Invitation" or "Invited" can boost open rates by 24% (B2C) to 28% (B2B). This tactic taps into the subconscious holiday season mindset where people are more receptive to being invited, whether to a sale, an event, or a piece of content.

A counterintuitive yet effective email tactic is capitalizing an entire word in the middle of a subject line, not at the start or end. This simple, cost-free A/B test is trending because it breaks visual patterns in the inbox, leading to a reported 16% open rate increase for B2B and 21% for B2C.