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As Zig Ziglar famously said, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” With emails, the subject line is your first impression. And it’s really important. In fact, the email subject line may be the most important words you write. Your email may be brilliant and beautiful, but if no one opens it, that doesn’t matter.
Determining the right subject line is part science and a part art. Here are a few tips:
Be Specific
Like any writing: God is in the details. Subject lines should be specific. You want a subject line to break through the generic clutter, and you want it to be specific enough and memorable enough to make it retrievable.
Be Intriguing
You can’t summarize an email. Intrigue and interest your audience. The job of a subject line is to grab the reader’s attention, to entertain and create interest and, then, make the reader open the email or scan his or her preview pane. See Jason Better on subject lines that get clicked.
Focus on the User
A recent study by eMarketer finds that subject lines containing “you” and “your” are the most popular with email marketers, and have increased in popularity over the last year. So they must be working. (Note, however, personalizing subject lines by using recipients name may decrease open rates, according to Email Marketing Reports).
Be Compelling
Create interest or curiosity to get your message opened by recipients. Put key information into the first 50 characters.
Be Relevant
Subject lines should be appropriate for the audience in style, tone, content and language. Remember, your subject line is not trying to sell as much as it is trying to connect with your audience. See Marketing Experiments article on headlines.
Be Original
Try not to sound generic or just like the other guy. If your subject line sounds like someone else’s subject line, you may want to give it a bit more personality.
Be Consistent
Use the same voice across all your communications so that your messages feel familiar to the recipient.
Avoid Spam Traps
Avoid words like free, limited time and exclamation marks, all of which can get caught in spam filters.
Be Brief
Shorter is better. If your recipient can’t read your subject line, then it doesn’t really matter how brilliant it is. A few words is good, ten words is the max.
Questions Work
People respond to good, targeted questions. “Like Sports?” tested better than “We have tickets to a sporting event.”
Benefits Work
Good subject lines communicate a benefit. “Increase Your Profits with Widget” will perform better than “Widget is a database CRM tool.”
Testing Works
Not sure which of your subject lines is the best? Test them and measure results. A/B testing is an easy way to figure out which subject line will work the best.
Photo courtesy of The George Eastman House Collection
Tags: messaging, subjectlines
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