Decision
The current A/B test of four generic subject lines for Viral Examples Thursday issues is abandoned. New direction: subject lines should be specific and pulled directly from one of the three examples in the issue (e.g., reference the actual post or topic covered). Ben will update the 3 already-scheduled issues manually. Hermes will handle subject line generation for future issues.
Context
Open rates on Thursday Viral Examples issues were noticeably lower than the old Monday cadence. Michael flagged in the megaphone Slack channel that the Thursday issues had “more generic subject lines” and that none of the four A/B variants were working. Ben had been running a 50/50 split test across four options.
Options considered
- Option A: Revert to previous subject line format (rejected by Michael)
- Option B: Keep testing the four A/B variants (rejected - “none of those four work”)
- Option C: Use a specific, issue-content-driven subject line (selected)
Consequences
- Ben updates 3 pre-scheduled Viral Examples issues with new specific subject lines before they send.
- Hermes generates content-specific subject lines for all future Thursday issues at draft time.
- Michael noted it is possible that readers simply prefer the essay format; this is a hypothesis to watch on open rates.
- Source: megaphone channel, permalink https://ryevalley.slack.com/archives/C06UJ3V2HEV/p1786806319919989