Dive Brief:

• Marketing analytics firm Retention Science released a study of more than 260 million e-mails across 540 retail email campaigns showing what subject lines result in e-mail opens. 
• E-mails with 6 to 10 words had the highest open rates at 21%. 
• Using the recipients' name in the subject line was shown to increase open rates by 2.6%.

Dive Insight: 

Any kind of data or knowledge that marketers can gather about e-mail can be invaluable. Inboxes are so clogged that any advantage can make or break an e-mail campaign. Knowing that small word changes — cutting subjects back from 11 words to 10, for example — can make a measurable difference in open rates just underscores the importance of studies like this one.