One key thing you need to get right when it comes to email marketing is the subject line. If your subscribers aren’t opening your emails, it really doesn’t matter how good the actual email is.
It’s easy to spend a lot of time crafting a great message and then just slap any old subject line on it right before you click send. I’ve been there too. But it’s seriously worth spending some time experimenting to see what type of headline gets you good open rates.
How to write great subject lines to get your audience to open your emails?
Here are eight tips for creating compelling email subject lines that get your subscribers clicking.
All these tips are focused on one principle – grab the reader’s attention. You want them to stop scanning their inbox and pay attention to the subject line.
1. Keep it short
You want your readers to see the entire subject line before they click it. You also want to make it easy for people to scan through their emails. Try to get your point across in 50 characters or less.
Pay attention to how your subject lines look on your own devices. If you can’t see the whole subject line, your readers can’t either.
2. Avoid “spammy” words
Stay away from using any words we all associate with spam emails. Words like “sale”, “discount”, “free”, “limited time offer” and even “reminder” are overused.
Even if they don’t trigger a spam filter and actually make it to your reader’s inbox, chances are high they’ll get ignored anyway. Especially if it’s out of the blue, and not part of a carefully crafted sales sequence.
3. Personalise it
While personalising emails with someone’s first name has been overused in some markets, it still works well for many of us.
Give it try and see if it works for you. Don’t overdo it, but use it when you really need them to open the email.
4. Pique their curiosity
Pique their interest to compel them to open the email.
We are all nosy and it’s hard to ignore subject lines that sound intriguing or only tell part of the story. For example, using a well-placed “…” at the end of your subject line.
The idea here is simple. Engage the reader with a promise (either explicitly or implicitly). You want them to be itching to open the email to find out what on earth you’re talking about or how the story ends.
5. Use emojis in subject lines
Emojis are a way to add personality to your emails, yes even business emails. Use them to make your subject lines stand out.
When selecting the right emoji for your subject line, think about what will best capture the attention of your recipients. For example, if you are emailing about a new product launch, use a smiley face or excited expression to catch their attention.
6. Use brackets/ellipses in subject lines
Putting something in brackets at the end of your subject line tends to increase the open rate.
For example: Create compelling subject lines (9 tips)
7. Save a list of great subject lines
Another great idea is to keep a “swipe file” of subject lines that grabbed your attention. Even if the emails are on a very different topic, you can adapt them for your own needs.
Frankly this is one of my top tips when it comes to crafting compelling subject lines. Keeping a swipe file of examples that got you to open the email is a great resource to turn to when you need to come up with a compelling subject line.
8. Test your subject lines
Some email newsletter providers like Mailerlite* allow you to split test (or A/B test) your subject lines. Send two different subject lines to part of your audience and see which one gets more opens.
9. Analyse what’s worked
Finally, another of my top tips. Look back through your email campaigns and see what subject lines got the best open rates. Try to analyse why they worked well for your market and look for patterns.
Every audience is different. Something might work well with another niche but fall flat with your audience. Figure out the types of subject lines that get your readers to open your emails and tweak from there. Add these to your swipe file of awesome subject lines. Proven examples that worked with your own audience will serve as inspiration time and time again.
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Finally, make sure to email your list regularly. Otherwise people can forget who you are or why they signed up to your list – which will also affect your open rates.
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