Email marketing is often thought to be obsolete or even dead in today’s marketing world, especially now that social media and its likes have taken precedence. If you too belong to the masses who think email marketing is dead, think again. Many statistics and studies have shown that email remains a mainstream medium to communicate. In fact, Pew Research reports that 92% of online adults use email. Furthermore, Chosen’s research revealed that around 57% of email subscribers spend between 10 to 60 minutes browsing marketing emails on a weekly basis.
Based on these statistics, it is fair to say that email marketing is quite alive and thriving on the marketing front. However, this does not mean that email does not face a serious threat from the likes of the more sophisticated marketing channels. An average user is bombarded with dozens, if not hundreds of emails every day. As a result, not all emails reach recipients let alone influence them to opt for a brand.
Luckily, there is a way for your recipients to get your emails: Have a smashing subject line in place which compels your prospects to open it. If your email marketing skills are rusty and you need a little help crafting great headings, the following lines will offer all the help you need to ensure that your email marketing campaign helps you achieve your goals.
Formula for Crafting Killer Subject Lines
Subject lines are the first thing that your recipient sees and then bases his/her judgment as to whether the content inside is worth their precious time. Had you received this post in your inbox with a heading like ‘Write Better Subject Lines with Us”, you would have left it unopened or probably shifted it to spam since you do not want such emails from a service provider.
So, you need to have a ‘top-of-the-chart’ subject to ensure that your email gets opened and does not get lost among the tons of emails users receive. To help you with this task, here are the best subject line ideas that you can apply to your email marketing campaign the next time and be sure of great results.
‘Question’ (and other punctuation) Email Subject Lines
Using question marks in email subject lines is a great way to stand out from the masses. Because of its linguistic structure, it allows the readers to pause and think, enticing them to click on the email and find the answer to the question in subject line. In short, questions allow you to enter in an instant dialogue with your recipients by engaging them immediately.
There are numerous types of question subject lines you can go for, from piquing your readers’ curiosity to simple ones which just reaffirm their knowledge. The following are a few examples of brilliant question subject lines:
- Can’t buy Facebook traffic?
- Paid traffic not converting?
- Did you get what you were looking for?
Questions provoke answers. Combining them with other punctuation symbols like exclamation marks, hyphen, and ellipses will have an even stronger impact on readers.
‘Testimonial’ Email Subject Lines
Running testimonials is an extremely popular marketing tactic. Since they provide validation and social proof, they promise to be a very effective strategy for lead generation. As an email subject line, testimonials are meant to convince the readers to click on the email.
Testimonial email subject lines can be simple and straightforward like, ‘What are our customers saying’ or they can be clever and cheeky like, ‘Ryan Gosling can drive any car; He drives a Prius’.
‘Personalized and Targeted’ Email Subject Lines
Personalized marketing has proven to be incredibly effective. By incorporating it in your email marketing campaign, you can improve open rates. If you are convinced to try this method, experiment through personalized and targeted email subject lines.
To give the impression of personalized marketing, you can mention the name of the recipient in the subject line. This is a brilliant idea because studies prove that hearing one’s name as opposed to someone else’s triggers the brain greatly. Therefore, you should incorporate the user’s name in your subject line to trigger a specific reaction from them: open the email. Take a look at a few ‘personalized’ email subject lines below:
- Happy Birthday, Janice – Surprise Inside
- Drew, are you ready for the new year?
- A stock portfolio for Nate Bishop
However, incorporating names has become quite a common strategy for email marketers, which is why email users are wary and consider such emails as spam. So, you need to try a different strategy to personalize your subject lines. You can do so by targeting your users based on where they live or what interests them. Below are some examples of targeted subject lines that do not incorporate the name of the recipient:
- San Franciscans, Tired of the Heat?
- The 10-Day Weight Loss Guide
- Following Your Dreams in Paris
- Top 5 Burger Joints in New York
These types of subject lines tend to be immensely effective as it takes into account the readers and what they want, coaxing them to open your email and check what is inside. To learn more about personalized marketing, its benefits and how to do it, check out sheerid.com.
‘Funny and Goofy’ Email Subject Lines
Not everyone is able to get people to burst in laughter or even get them to chuckle when reading their subject lines. However, those who can are set to stick out and get a lot of attention. Because emails are usually dry and dull, any email with a slight humorous and goofy touch instantly captivates the reader’s attention.
Depending on the nature and tone of your business, you can test out some jokes and puns to mention in the subject line. Even better, if you know your audience well enough, you can target jokes that are likely to earn brownie points. Your joke does not always have to be great as long as you use it cleverly.
Quirky made quite a cheesy reference in its subject line – “Abra-cord-abra! Yeah, we said it” – but then it delights the readers with, ‘yeah, we said it’.
Similarly, it will not hurt to add a little goofy element in your email. For instance, if your prospects have not been engaging with you for a while, you can always poke fun at the situation with a goofy subject line like ‘Where is the love?’ which will urge them to open your email and allow your content to win them over again.
‘Urgency’ Email Subject Lines
This is the most powerful type of subject line email marketers have at their disposal. The time-honored method of creating anxiety among users urges them to act now. The reason for this is that people respond better to the threat of losing something as opposed to the promise of gaining something. The fear of missing out (FOMO) comes to play and makes recipients click on the email to see what they are actually missing out on.
There are certain keywords and phrases you should use to create the sense of urgency. These include, ‘last chance’, ‘hurry, ‘see what you are missing out, and ‘today only’. The idea is to make users think that they will be missing out on some valuable deals if they do not open the email. Here are a few examples of subject lines entailing urgency to inspire you:
- This Offer Disappears at Midnight TONIGHT
- Special Deal Only for This Valentine
This type of subject line, however, is only effective if there is an actual deadline or limited availability/quantity. So do not try tricking your clients with false promises.
‘Numbers and Lists’ Email Subject Lines
Including numbers and lists in your subject lines is a brilliant way to set user expectations as it provides structure to your email content. Lists are helpful as they offer a convenient summary of the content to the reader. Furthermore, incorporating numbers in subject lines is very effective because the human brain is naturally drawn to digits.
Because listing and numbering makes your subject line more specific, it promises readers a quick read that is easy to process. Take a look at the following examples that incorporate numbers and lists in the subject lines:
- 12 Ways to Generate Email Subscribers
- Kanye’s Top 5 Twitter Beefs With Celebrities
- 3 Step Process of Getting Over a Breakup
- Best Practices for Email Marketing
So, whenever possible, use lists and numbers in your email subject lines.
‘Reasons Why’ and ‘How To’ Email Subject Lines
You cannot write a bad subject line if it starts with ‘reasons-why’ or ‘how-to’. Period. By reading these types of subject lines, recipients know exactly what the email content is about as it makes you describe the content of the email in clear and concise terms.
‘Reasons why’ email subject lines tend to convince users why they should do something based on a few reasons. Not only does it pique the reader’s curiosity without giving away much information, but it also offers them something (in this case: reasons) that convinces them to open the email.
On the other hand, a how-to email subject line contains a promise for achieving a benefit. As long as you add a mouthwatering benefit to this subject line, rest assured that your subject line will be successful.
Tips for Writing Email Subject Lines
Just knowing which subject headings formula works is not enough to make your emails safe from spam. There are a few guidelines, such as the four below, which you need to keep in mind when crafting subject lines for your email marketing campaign.
1) Make Your Subject Lines Personal
Personalized subject lines – as opposed to generic ones – tend to improve your email open rates. Because you goal is to engage your recipients by making them click on the email, you should add a personal touch to your subject lines. The best way to do this is to ask yourself what type of subject lines are likely to hold the attention of your prospects and which ones might turn them away.
2) Keep Then Nice and Short
Your aim should be to have your subject line displayed entirely on the recipient’s inbox and not be cut towards the end because it is too long. Ensuring brevity while writing email subjects will also appeal to people who take a brief glance at the subject line to decide if they should or should not open an email. Therefore, keep your subject line limited to 50 characters at most.
3) Avoid Using Words that Can Be Caught by the ‘Spam’ Filter
Perhaps the only thing worse other than having your email sent to the ‘Trash’ folder is not having it reach their inbox. There are certain trigger words which can put your emails automatically in ‘Spam’ if used in the subject lines, robbing you of the chance to get your recipients to read it.
The following is a list of words that tend to trigger spam detectors in most email services, so you need to avoid them at all costs if you do not want your email to be labeled as spam.
- Earn $
- Percent off
- Make $ from Home
- Free
- Increase your
- Millions
4) Leave Absolutely No Room for Ambiguity
Rather than trying to make prospective customers figure out what you are talking about only to fail in the process, you should opt for clarity when crafting subject lines. By ensuring that the recipient clearly understands the content of your email, you can get more than five times the number of prospective customers to open it.
The above mentioned ideas and tips on email subject lines are tried and tested, but you should venture beyond them and come up with your own subject lines. If you seek inspiration, take a look at your own inbox and determine which of the subject lines you find there is truly irresistible. As long as you remember that the goal of email marketing is to tell and not sell, you will observe improving open rates.
If you still find it hard to come up with good email subject lines, do not hesitate to contact our experts to take care of this little aspect on your behalf.
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