Is it Still a Mistake to Use a FREE Word in Your Email Messages?

Hey guys,

Hope you’re doing great! As you know a FREE word was a dirty word for most of the spam filters. Sometimes it totally ruined email campaigns. But is it still a mistake to use a FREE word in your email messages nowadays? That’s the question!

Hubspot has tested this. They prepared 2 versions of the email message regarding their new Report they were giving away for free.

1 version: “Free Report” phrase in a subject line + 3 words FREE in the body of the email.
2 version: “SEO Report” phrase in a subject line + no free-word in the body of the email, they used SEO instead.

Deliverability results were as follows:

1 version: passed 7 of 9 filters in Return Path’s SPAM filter check; was delivered to 99.3% of selected recipients.
2 version: passed 8 of 9 filters in Return Path’s SPAM filter check; was delivered to 99.2% of selected recipients.

As you can see a FREE word didn’t change a thing, and the delivery rate is quite the same. But the 2 version had 17% better click-through rate.

As you can see now, it’s really up to you whether to use a FREE word in your email messages or not. Just make sure it really fits your selected audience, and your subscribers will get it the right way.

View the original article here