Many people judge emails by their subject lines, no matter what they say.
Nearly 47% of marketers state that they test myriad email subject lines to optimize their emails’ performance. That’s the reason it’s so crucial to craft subject lines that are compelling enough to get clicks from the recipient.
While they might look like a small part of your message, they’re one of the very first impressions you will have on your recipients. Further, they’re a marketer’s only ticket to stand out in a crowded inbox.
Do you want to improve opened, read, and clicked email rates? It all just begins with the subject line.
Here are some tried-and-true tips to help jazz up your email subject lines and boost your email engagement rates.
What makes a good email subject line?
Before we offer you tips, let’s understand some essential elements of making a great subject line. Regardless of your objectives, these are the important components that your subject line should include:
- Curiosity
- Sometimes, subject lines work due to their ability to send the message, “You will benefit from opening this email.” However, it’s always recommended to maintain some sense of mystery — specifically if it encourages the recipient’s natural curiosity and interest.
- Since they want to open the email to get more information, they can result in a higher open rate. However, ensure the subject line, while enigmatic, still aligns well with your brand and objectives. Too obscure, and it could be seen as spam.
- Personalization
- The two email subscribers are never the same — and, periodically, that just means the emails you send to them shouldn’t be, either. Thus, marketers have never had more ways to learn about their subscribers’ jobs, preferences, or general (dis)likes. Therefore, when you send them content, on occasion, make it catered toward the individual.
- Cool Stories
- At the danger of stating like a broken record, here’s another place where curiosity comes into the picture. By enhancing your email subject line with a compelling allusion story, your audience will become intrigued and want to know more. Ensure the story is relevant to your brand. Otherwise, it can confuse your readers and discourage them from opening the email.
- Offers
- At the end of the day, everyone loves getting new things and experiences — particularly when they’re free or at least discounted rate. That’s the benefit of opening an email. Open with some offers and include them in your subject line.
- Urgency
- Creating a sense of urgency is the best way to get people to take action. Apply this tactic in your subject lines strategically.
- By providing the start and end date to a particular sale or promotion, recipients going into their inbox will get to see what they can see in that specific window of time. This is additionally a best practice when implemented in a small sequence of emails counting down the window of opportunity—as long as you’re not bombarding their inbox and coming off spammy.
- Relevance and Timeliness
- Whenever we subscribe to an email list, it’s because we want to be kept informed or at least know more about a given topic. Like increasing your targeted audience’s curiosity, crafting email subject lines that include the latest topics or timely headlines can help you establish your brand as an expert within your industry and inspire people to click to read.
11 Tips for Creating Impactful Email Subject Lines
Consider 11 tips listed below when crafting your email subject lines. Each of these tips is explicitly designed to get people to notice and open your email:
Keep it short
Reminder, most individuals are now reading emails on a mobile screen. So make their experience as easy as possible by keeping the subject line short and to the point. Indeed, you can be creative – however, avoid being complex, or you’ll drive people away.
If just half of your subject line gets cropped off, you’ll be creating the wrong impression and misinterpreting the meaning. We recommend keeping within 50 characters, though you actually have about 75 characters to play around with (and you thought Twitter was hard). With up to 46% of email opening on mobile, we recommend utilizing subject lines with less than 50 characters to ensure your audience scanning your emails read the entire message.
Avoid certain spam words.
Email subject lines that are aggressive sales are probably marked as spam. That just means you must avoid loud punctuation such as multiple exclamations and all caps, as well as overtly promotional lingo like “Free” or “Buy now.” These are obvious ways to have your marketing/sales emails sent straight to your customer’s spam folder.
Instead of focusing on promotion, try to offer your expertise and share helpful information with your audience.
Ask open-ended questions
Wondering why you should include questions in your subject lines? Questions are another great way to catch your readers’ attention and pique their curiosity.
Questions further feel incomplete on their own. Utilizing a question will inspire readers to open the email to get an answer.
For example, an email subject line that includes an open-ended question:
Strong Women, Strong Girls brand has nailed it with its simple subject line, “Who was Wonder Woman’s Role Model?”
Use personalization tokens
Remember the personalization? Everyone loves hearing their name. Using personalization tokens such as name or location in the subject line adds a true feeling of rapport, especially with a name. Further, a study has shown that email subject lines that included the recipient’s first name had higher click-through rates than emails that did not.
Example:
The dog-walking company promoted using the same tactic.
“Want a custom Emoji of Tullamore and six months of free walks? Book a walk today and a chance to win!”
That’s an amazing personalization and excellent timing.
Another helpful personalization tactic that works is to customize subject lines to the recipient’s location, such as “lists of their respective cities’ top 10 outdoor bars and restaurants.”
The key here is not to go overboard with the personalization since it can be a little creepy. However, little personalized touches show that you know more about your recipients. However, if you don’t (can’t or want to) use personalization tokens in the email subject line, then use “you” or “your,” so it still actually sounds like you’re addressing them on a one-on-one basis.
Segment your lists
While email campaigns that go out to your entire list might be relevant and helpful to some people, they won’t be to others — and could cause some confusion or frustration.
For example, why is this restaurant sending me many lists of the best local steakhouses when I’m a vegetarian? Why are they sending me whitepapers when I had just signed up for its case study email list yesterday?
Personalize the experience using data from your targeted audience’s actions. From which forms they’ve filled out details to which industries they’re into and their personal preferences.
LeadsProspex can help you get all this data at your fingertips and at your convenience. We are the leading B2B data solution provider whose only aim is to help companies get better leads through qualified and verified data lists. We can help you find your ideal target audience/customer profile and get you a list of millions of data through effective Email Address Validation, Email Appending, Bulk Email verification, Web Data Mining, Skip Tracing, CRM Cleaning, Data Appending, Tech Install Data, Data Analytics, Data Tabulation, and Data Validation services.
Use a high-quality B2B data list and segmented data from a leading data provider like LeadsProspex today!
Give a clear command of your subject.
Some individuals respond best to direct instructions. If your email contains direct CTA, like encouraging individuals to buy tickets for an event, don’t be scared to include it in your email subject line.
Example:
United Way of Massachusetts Bay utilized a clear call-to-action in their subject line:
“Join us at the MLH Scholars Luncheon!”
Be unique in the email inbox.
To create great subject lines, you have to understand two primary things:
- Who is your audience
- What your business can offer them that can benefit them, and they can’t get anywhere else.
Find out what your business is mainly popular for and highlight that thing in your subject line as well.
Don’t be afraid to put your brand name in the subject line, especially if your business is well known. Many people open emails simply because a known sender sends them, so don’t miss this opportunity to reinforce your brand.
Unique subject line example:
Taza Chocolate used it: “Taza Hot Fudge And A Cherry On Top!”
Use concise language
Remember that people scan their inboxes very quickly, so the clearer and concise your subject line is, the better it would be.
It’s generally a lot better to be concise than to utilize complicated and flowery language — unless you’re opting for an elusive subject tone to attract your recipients.
Think about how your email will actually benefit your recipients when you’re going for a concise subject line. You’ll have to make that benefit very clear.
For instance:
Increase your email open rates by 50% today” is more attractive than “How to increase open email rates.”
Don’t ever over-promise or mislead
If you promise the moon but can’t deliver it, then you’ll see a boost in the unsubscribe rate. If your subject lines are misleading, people will quickly realize it.
False assumption:
If you send an email that flaunts a little, it will boost your open rate, and people are likely to click on it once they open the email, mainly because they just opened it.
Reality:
If people open your email and it doesn’t contain what you communicated in your subject line, they will probably unsubscribe. It might temporarily increase your email open rate, but it will fall as fast as it rose once people understand the trick. It is just not worth it, so try to be honest with your customers.
Use numbers
Many businesses send emails with vague statements in their subject lines, so using data and numbers is an ideal way to get your emails noticed. Show a clear and straightforward message about your offer, and set the right expectations.
Just like with blog titles, the usage of numbers in your subject line is an effective best practice for email marketing. You can use numbers to show the title of your listicle, the page length of an offer, a particular discount, or the numerical benefit of a specific resource you’re offering.
Example: “Join over 1000+ others at this event!”
Avoid spam trigger words.
Approximately 69% of emails are flagged as spam due to the email subject line.
Many studies have identified the words that show red flags on spam detectors. Utilizing certain words in your email subject lines can result in your email being automatically blocked or sent directly to your customer’s spam folders.
Here are some of the most common trigger words flagged as spam by spam detectors. Know which words to avoid in your email subject lines.
- 100% satisfied
- 50% off
- Additional income
- Accordingly
- Auto email removal
- Big bucks
- Bonus
- Bulk email
- Cancel at any time
- Call now
- Click here
- Do it today
- Don’t delete
- Email marketing
- Exclusive deal
- Free
- For instant access
- Gift
- Get paid
- Important information regarding
- Increase your sales
- It’s effective
- Limited time
- Member
- Month trial offer
- Opportunity
- Pre-approved
- Pure profits
- Reserve the rights
- Sent in compliance
- Subscribe
- Unlimited
- What are you waiting for?
- Your income
Get More Clicks with Catchy Subject Lines
Drafting an ideal subject line is an art. And in reality, there is no “perfect email subject line” exists. What works for company A might produce negative results for company B.
It’s important to know your targeted audience and put yourself in their shoes when drafting email subject lines. What will catch their attention? What is most important and relevant to them?
The more you know your customers, the closer you will come to drafting the most suitable email subject lines. Focus on that, avoid spam filters, use technology with artificial intelligence built-in, and be honest with your targeted audience.
Doing all this will allow you to differentiate yourself from your competition and get better email open rates as you opt for the elusive “perfect email subject line.”
Learn more about how LeadsProspex can help you with top-quality, tried and tested data and help you achieve your email campaign goals!
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