I always thought the word “newsletter” in a subject line was a turn-off.  Who, after all, really comes to work in the morning just hoping they can find more newsletters to subscribe to?  And, now thanks to list rental company Avrick Direct, we’ve got stats to show which words lead to more opens – and which words get you ignored (yes, Virginia, newsletter is on the “no” list).

Avrick did a study of a variety of words used in a subject line, based on whether they lead to more clicks and more opens.  His four best:

In other words, people are 33% more likely to open your email if it contains Alert in the subject line, and 36% more likely to click on an item.  And now, the “fearsome foursome” words to avoid in your subject lines: