14 Feb Nail Your Email Subject Line
Let me first reveal that subject lines are everywhere—on billboards, in songs and commercials, magazines, news articles, and even everyday conversations. To create your own, all it takes is knowing how to shape it, and the inspiration will start flooding in.
Here are 5 tips to help you to nail your next email subject line!
1. Important Words to the front
You know that one friend who’s horrible at telling stories? You know, where 15 minutes into telling their story, you begin thinking “Where is this even going? Are we ever going to hear the good part?” And by the time they finally get to the good part, you’ve already checked out. Yeah, some subject lines are just like that—don’t let it be yours.
People want to know why your email is more important than the thousands of others in their inbox, so put all the important, actionable words in the front of your subject line to entice opens. In other words, get to the point! In my experience, changing the structure of the sentence line to front-load the important keywords has increased open rates by 10-20%.
2. Ask a Question
It is said that the most well-liked person in the room is the one who does nothing but ask folks questions, showing genuine interest in their lives and saying very little about their own. Why? Because people love to talk about themselves and their interests. Ask your subscribers questions and it’ll not only pique their curiosity, but they’ll respond positively by opening more of your emails. For example, imagine you’re sending out a new ebook on “The Holy Grail to Exercise Without Pain” In your subject line, instead of just repeating the title, you could write “Looking for the Holy Grail to Exercise Without Pain? We have it!”
3. Use Numbers
People love numbers and lists. They’re easy to read, help us make sense of more complex concepts by breaking it into smaller parts, and let us know exactly what to expect (e.g. 5 Things Your Subject Lines Are Missing). The New Yorker even published a piece on “A List of Reasons Why Our Brains Love Lists,” which goes into this in depth. Numbers can also be used to create a sense of urgency or emphasise an offer.
4. Use Personalisation
There’s usually at least one person in every office who can’t seem to remember anyone’s first name. Mike is Matt, Joe is John, and Stacy is Stephanie. They might try to get around it by using nicknames like sport, bud, pal, dude, man, bro, and fella. For the record, no one likes that, especially not your email subscribers. Address your subscribers by their name or insert pronouns like “you” or “your” to give your subject lines a personalised touch.
According to Experian, emails with personalised subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened (although it varies by industry), yet 70% of brands are not personalising emails sent to subscribers. That’s a huge opportunity for your brand to stand out!
Just by adding a name to the subject line, it mades people feel like a person, not just a potential conversion, and that you’re truly interested in helping them achieve the best experience.
5. Keep it simple
You don’t have to include every bit of content in the subject line. Keep the word count down, make it engaging by following the first 4 steps and watch the open rates increase!