The Importance of Attractive Subject Lines | Email Marketing
To Open or Not Open
Tell me honestly how many unsolicited emails you delete simply because you did not find the subject interesting. Or how many emails you opened just because you found the subject interesting. I can bet a two to one that 8 out of 10 mails are deleted instantly because they fail to grab the attention of the user and the two that are opened because you want to find out what’s inside.
That was for unsolicited emails – those which you are not expecting. Now we turn to the other set. You might be receiving emails from sites where you have subscribed or opted in. So you are expecting them. But still, if the subject line is not attractive, you might still delete it without opening.
I delete several a day myself because they’re boring…
I believe that if you are a regular user of email marketing (and you should be!), then you must pay extra attention to your subject line, irrespective of the content inside. Here are some points that you need to focus on.
5 Tips for Better Email Marketing
1. Compose a message that is short and captures the imagination of the receiver. It is not necessary that you summarize the contents of your email. You might want to highlight just one point from your email. The subject line should tacitly say – open me, open me!
2. Even if you are sending weekly newsletters or updates, you must compose an attractive subject line. It does not matter whether it is long or short, but just take care that it can be read completely from the inbox. There is no point writing a long sentence which is not displayed fully in the inbox.
3. Create curiosity, mystery and urgency. For instance, “Find out how a 20 year old became a millionaire in a month”. Now you must have content or a video to support that storyline. Another one – “2 days left for you to register for the so and so Webinar”. You might want to use the word “free” in your subject to gain attention but be warned that overuse can reduce its significance. In fact, some spam filters look for the word free in the subject and classify the message as spam.
4. A neat trick is to use the name of the receiver in the subject line. You can do this using an autoresponder. I never fail to notice the emails whose subject says – Hey Forest, have you seen the video…” Autoresponders will also tell you who opened your email and who clicked the link inside. Then you can further program it to send a different set of emails to each group of people.
5. If you are in touch with the latest in your industry, then use the latest buzzwords in your subject line. Almost all people will be keen to know what happening.
There is so much competition out there that you need to be very smart in implementing your email campaign. I will emphasize again that the title is more than 90% crucial in getting your email opened.
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