There’s a perception that what you choose to say in the email subject line has the greatest impact on an email’s success. Not so, claim many marketers.

MarketingSherpa’s 2012 Email Marketing Benchmark Survey asked marketers which element that could be tested and adjusted had the greatest impact on the success of their email.

The top five most effective elements worth testing:

1. Target audience. Keep testing your target audience and customizing your message accordingly, says 42% of email marketers surveyed.
2. Landing page.  This is another underestimated place to measure your campaign’s effectiveness; named by 41% of marketers as a “very effective” area to test.
3. Subject line. Whoa! Everybody’s testing this variable — 72% — but less than half of that number (35%) say it’s a “very effective” measure.
4. Call to action. Don’t just tell people to click a hyperlink or download a document — tell them why by describing the value they’ll get in return for their action. Examples: “Instant access” or “Start saving today.”
5. Personalization. Sure, everybody likes to send email that addresses the recipient by name. But take it to the next level: Reflect something you know about their product, services, audience, etc.

Tags: call to action, email, email marketers, landing page, personalization, subject line, survey, Target audience, testing