It often happens that you send the most informative, interesting e-mail campaign or newsletter, but the open rates were disappointing. Why? Did you send the e-mail out on a Saturday? Was everyone too busy to open the e-mail? Many times, it’s because your e-mail subject line wasn’t intriguing enough. Don’t let your efforts go to waste because you didn’t take the time to create a great subject line. This is your only chance to get people to open your proposal – do everything you can to draw the readers in! Here are some tips:
- Keep it short: Although you want to give readers enough information about the e-mail, keep the subject line down to one sentence (if you have all your important info in a second or third sentence, it may get cut off).
- Don’t be vague: You need to give the reader enough information to decide whether they are going to open the e-mail or not, but don’t try to capture everyone’s attention with a broad, sweeping statement. Capture your reader’s attention with a relevant subject line so that they know what to expect in the e-mail.
- Create curiosity: Using words like “secrets”, “explained”, “how to” or “mystery revealed” creates a feeling of curiosity. You can also ask your reader a question in the subject line of the e-mail, like “Want to know why everyone fails at DIY roofing projects?” for example.
- Use the “who cares?” test: Write down a few subject lines for your e-mail, and then ask yourself “who cares?” after reading every line. Choose the subject line that was the most intriguing and passed the “who cares?” test.
- Be careful of spam words: Many of your e-mails won’t even make it to the inbox of your users. Some spam filters pick up words like “free” and “win now” and block these mails from the recipient’s inbox. It’s highly unlikely that somebody would make the effort of reading a promotional e-mail that went to their junkmail straight away, so minimise the promo-speak in your subject line.