The most important component of a successful email newsletter or email marketing campaign is the subject line. Here I will outline six principles followed by 11 guidelines in the next few weeks, to help you write subject lines that produce higher open and click-through rates.
Working in tandem with the email “From” line (address), the content of the Subject line is typically the key reason an email is:
- Opened by the recipient
- Deleted immediately
- Ignored
- Filed for future access
- Reported as spam
- Filtered as spam
The content of the subject line is also a major component in the process of many ISP and recipients level spam filters. In other words, emails with a poorly written subject line may not only go unopened, it may not even reach the recipients inbox: not a successful email.
To be a successful email remember that your message is competing for its place in the recipient’s inbox, with over 50 to 100+ other daily emails, all vying for the receiver’s attention. To increase the chance of having YOUR email opened you must grab the interest the recipient, just in the same way a well written headline does.
Increase the chance of a having a successful email with these 6 principles for a great Subject Line content.
Be specific:
Keep your subject line short and sweet, no one wants to read a long paragraph in their inbox. Have your subject line concise so that people can quickly understand what the email is about.
If you’re announcing a sale, mention what’s on sale. If there’s new content, let people know what they can expect to find in your message. Avoid general statements like “Hey there!” or “Check out this!”
Be clear and direct, tell your readers exactly what you need from them. This will help reduce confusion and save time for both of you.
Call to Action:
Subject lines can make or break your click-through rates. In fact, according to one study, subject lines are responsible for about 27% of all opens. Successful email should have an obvious or implied strategy that drives the recipient to an action, i.e. opening and reading the email.
Consistent:
Use a consistent “From” address. Because of the dramatic increase in spam, recipients look at a combination of the from address and subject lines to determine whether the email delivered in their inbox is from a trusted source. As a result, the job of a subject line now, must not only entice someone to open an email, it must discourage the recipients from deleting it as an unwanted email. Therefore a consistent “From” address may get your message read.
Empathy:
While your emails may be distributed to thousands or millions of recipients, they are being received by individuals. Subject lines must recognize this and “speak” to the needs and interests of the recipients as individual customers, readers, or prospects.
Trust:
Subjects that over promise or mislead can ultimately destroy trust with the email receiver. For example, if an email campaign promises something that it cannot deliver, recipients may quickly lose faith in the sender’s ability to be truthful. Additionally, if an email is misleading about the content or purpose of the message, it can damage confidence between the sender and recipient.
Use personalization tokens:
Personalization tokens can be used in email subject lines to increase open rates. Studies have shown that personalized emails result in higher open rates and click-through rates than non-personalized emails.
When using personalization tokens, it’s important to use the recipient’s name instead of a generic term like “friend” or “customer”. Also, be sure to use the correct spelling of the name.
Remember, subject lines are one of the most important components of a successful promotional or newsletter email. They should reflect your goals and help direct recipients to take the desired action you want them to take. As such to build your subject line content, be as narrow as possible to generate interest and action from a majority of recipients. And keep testing to send out successful email.
