The previous edition of Clear, Effective Communications not only was about typos but also had a typo in the subject line: Diid Happens.

About 44% of you, beloved subscribers, opened that email.  That’s a phenomenal open rate. (Remind me, however, to tell you someday why open rates are only a rough and relative measure of the reach of your email messages.)

(If you are surprised by the fact that I know how many people opened my e-letter, we need to talk.  You’re missing your best opportunity to reach your target audiences.) 

The open rates for this e-letter are always well above industry averages, usually in the range of 34–38%. That’s because most of you actually know me in a business or personal context. I like to think that engaging and useful content is another reason.

However, those factors don’t explain why subscribers opened Diid Happens at a much higher rate than usual.

Hence my conclusion that you like typos.

Let me amend that. I think you’re curious about typos. When you see “Diid Happens,” you think, “Say whaaa?”

And then you just have to open the message to find out why the subject says Diid instead of Did. Or maybe you are looking for a chance to say “GOTCHA!” to a professional editor.

Whatever the reasoning, I know one thing for sure: It was the subject line that spurred the open rate. It wasn’t: 

• Who’s on the mailing list
• How often the e-letter goes out
• The day and time the e-letter was sent
• The sparkling, highly useful content

It wasn’t any of those things because those things don’t change much. (Well, of course the content changes. But it’s always sparkling and highly useful. I hope. And readers can’t tell if this issue’s content is sparkling and highly useful until they open the email.)

The subject line is the only thing that could have driven the open rate.

If you google “email subject lines,” the first results will be listicles of “best” email subject lines or principles. Lots of things work:

1. The unexpected: Diid Happens
2. Numbers: 7 Ways to Avoid Typos
3. Emotional appeal: Don’t Embarrass Yourself!
4. A promise (of something the reader wants): Gain Respect, Inspire Donations
5. A question: Why Do People Love Typos?
6. Personalization: [fname], Has This Ever Happened to You?
7. Humor: Diid Happens

Check out the listicles for more ideas. Mix and match, as I did by combining personalization with a question in #6 above. The point is, find a way to speak to your audience. The job of the subject line is to engage readers. More specifically, it is to get them to open your email so they can read your sparkling, highly useful content.

(If your content isn’t sparkling or highly useful, let’s talk.)

With so many options for engaging subject lines, it’s mystifying that many nonprofits continue to produce subject lines that are:

• Bland and uninformative: Association to Benefit Chickadees Newsletter, March 2016
• Organization-centered: ABC Executive Director Wins Big Chickadee Award
• Needy: Please Help Association to Benefit Chickadees

You can do better! With a little thought, you can come up with a subject line that is at least audience centered and perhaps also intriguing, heartstring-tugging, or humorous.

If you can’t, we can – together.

But I won’t necessarily recommend leading with a typo.