Marketing & Communications
June 25, 2026
Recipe: Grab attention with Dynamic Subject Lines
# recipes for success
# marketing
Makes: A highly relevant inbox experience where different segments of your audience see different subject lines from a single email campaign.
Make your emails more effective by creating a personalised inbox experience without having to build multiple bespoke campaigns.
Rather than sending the same subject line to everyone, you can tailor the "hook" based on what you know about each customer's behaviour. For example, customers who regularly attend comedy performances could see a comedy-focused subject line, while dance attenders see a dance-focused message. The content inside the email can remain exactly the same.
What you need
- Spektrix auto tags synced to Dotdigital Data Fields
- Multiple subject line variations tailored to different audience segments
- A Dotdigital email campaign
Time required
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 5 minutes
What will this help me achieve?
- Increase relevance without increasing workload: one email campaign can deliver multiple personalised experiences.
- Make better use of customer data: turn attendance history and preferences into meaningful messaging.
- Improve campaign performance: more relevant subject lines help drive stronger open rates and engagement.
- Create a foundation for further personalisation: the same audience insights can be used to tailor email content and calls to action.
Concepts we’ll be using
- Dynamic Content: Use customer data to show different subject line variations to different audiences from a single campaign.
- Auto tags: Tags applied automatically to customer records based on their purchasing behaviour.
- Dotdigital Data Fields: Store synced audience information so it can be used to personalise your campaigns.
Prep
Step 1: Identify Your Regular Attenders
Create one or more auto tags in your Dotdigital synced tag group that identify customers who regularly engage with a particular type of event.
This could be based on:
- Genre (Comedy, Drama, Dance, Opera, Classical Music, etc.)
- Event type (Workshops, Family Events, Talks, Screenings, etc.)
- Frequency of attendance
The exact criteria will vary between organisations. For example:
- Attended 3 or more Comedy events in the last 12 months
- Attended 5 or more Drama performances in the last 2 years
- Booked 5 or more Family events in the last year
Step 2: Create Matching Data Fields in Dotdigital
Sync the auto tags by creating a Dotdigital data field for each tag that you want to use for personalisation.
Activate
Build Subject Line Variations
Create or open the email campaign where you want to try dynamic content in the subject line
On the campaign details page, use dynamic content to create multiple subject line variations based on the data fields created in the previous step.
Keep the variations simple and focused on the initial hook that appears in the inbox.
For example:
Audience | Subject Line |
Comedy Regulars | New comedy nights just announced |
Dance Regulars | Be first to discover our newest dance performances |
Opera Regulars | Your next unforgettable opera awaits |
Default | Explore the new season |
You don't need dozens of variations. Three to five highly relevant options is often enough to significantly improve the relevance of your email.
More to explore
Once you’ve sent out your email campaign, you can evaluate its performance using the email campaign report in Dotdigital and then use the learnings to inform the dynamic content for your next email campaign.
- Group your Email Campaigns for Clearer Reporting: Get a deeper understanding of your email performance and the ways your customers interact by tagging and categorising your campaigns.
- Boost Engagement with Send Time Optimisation: Tailor the delivery time of your emails to the time each customer is most active.
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