Will You Open This?

8 Tips for Improved Subject Lines

The days when readers opened absolutely every piece of email sent to them are long gone. People have gotten used to receiving multiple spam messages in their inbox daily. This has made them impatient and unwilling to read a lot of what is sent.  Now-a-days you have to intrigue and entice readers to open your emails.

You don’t have much time to entice your readers. Your email is not the only one they’ve got that day. You need to make yours stand out from the rest. The best way to do that is through the subject line. Subject lines are the first thing a reader sees next to your name. It’s important to know how to write a successful subject line in order to get readers to open your emails. Many recipients use the email subject line to decide whether or not they are going to open or delete your email message.

The key to writing subject lines is to emphasize the benefits of your message, product or service to your customer. People don’t care about you, they mostly care about themselves.  You want to show them how you can make their life easier with what you’ve got.  When writing subject lines keep in mind how your customers will be using the product. If your email is about a new product that will make people money, say so instead of something like, “New Product Alert!” The words “New Product Alert!” don’t show any benefits to the end user but stating that the product can make them wealthy or relieve all their financial woes does.

When emphasizing the benefits keep your subject line concise. You’ve got just 40 to 50 characters to convince your readers to open your letter. That’s the typical length of an email subject line. So keep it short and sweet. Remove all unnecessary words and skip articles that proceeds a noun (words like the, a, an, some, any). They don’t help you explain your message and take up precious space in your subject line!

In your efforts to keep your subject line concise steer clear of using flowery wording. Keep those for romance novels and poetry. Convey to the reader the benefits of your message, product or service and do so without dragging your feet. This will also build up your credibility with your readers as someone they can trust to tell them the truth without fudging or stalling. People like straight shooters.  Instead of saying “Something to Focus on in Your Emails”, say “Importance of Subject Lines” or “How Great Subject Lines Increase Sales”

In every instance try to avoid coming off as just another piece of spam to your reader. Don’t use words that most spam emails contain. The words “Free”, “Offer”, “Opportunity,” and “Only” will lose the credibility you’ve built with your readers and you won’t be able to get their attention when you really need it. It’s a bit like crying wolf. In addition keep from using multiple exclamation marks, they turn readers off rather than excite them. And finally make sure all your words are spelled correctly. How are your readers supposed to trust you if you can’t even take the time to run spell check or read over what you’ve written!

If your email requires readers to take action say so as early on as possible.  If you want your readers to sign up for a conference or order before supplies run out then that action is the main point of your message. So get to it as quickly as possible! You can say “Order Soon: Sale Ends in 7 Hours” rather than “Only A Few Hours Left To Save!”

Asking a question can work well to. When you ask a question in the subject line your reader immediately answers it in his or her head, eliciting an emotional response.  As they do this they open your email to read what your answer to the question is. Make sure the question is a believable one and related to your topic. Don’t ask a question about spirituality and then have the content of your message be about email marketing. One strategy is to put a question mark after a simple statement. Say something like “Did you see this?”  It works better than “Check This Out!!” Popular questioning subject lines include “Did You Miss This?” and “Is This A Scam?”

Your emails will always be successful if you write subject lines that state a clear benefit and tell the reader exactly how they are going to save money, save time, make their life easier, etc… by opening and reading your e-mail.

Until next time…

Ethan Warrick

Editor & CEO


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These content links are provided by Content.ad. Both Content.ad and the web site upon which the links are displayed may receive compensation when readers click on these links. Some of the content you are redirected to may be sponsored content. View our privacy policy here.

To learn how you can use Content.ad to drive visitors to your content or add this service to your site, please contact us at [email protected].

Family-Friendly Content

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