If your email subject line doesn’t pique a reader’s interest and entice them to open your message, whatever you’ve written inside won’t matter. Writing an effective subject line, however, is no small challenge. You only have a few words to make it compelling, urgent and specific. What can you do to ensure your subject line compels the recipient to open your message?
For starters, you will always be most successful if you write subject lines that state a clear benefit and tell the reader exactly how they are going to benefit by opening your e-mail.
Other key points to remember when writing your subject lines are:
- Keep it short and sweet! – Don’t let your subjects run longer than 60 characters — and make sure that the most important details are mentioned first so they don’t get cut off.If your subscribers can’t read your entire subject line because it’s too long, chances are they won’t open your e-mail.
- Personalize it – A subject line like “Bob, here’s the info you need…” is going to get a MUCH better response than simply “Here’s the info you need” because the recipient assumes you know them — and is therefore more likely to open the e-mail. With our system, you can add the recipients first name to your message by just inserting the variable $firstname into your subject line. When your newsletters are delivered our system will replace this variable with the person’s first name.
- Be specific – Check out your local newspaper to learn how to write effective subject lines. Newspaper headlines usually highlight a story’s most important fact in a very limited space. Your newsletter subject line should clearly state what your readers can expect if they open your message.
- Watch out for spam filters – Two items that often label a message as spam include subject lines written in all caps, and using exclamation points.
- Write the subject last – Although coming up with a subject line may be one of the first things on your mind as you work on your newsletter, make it that last! After you have finalized the content of your newsletter, make the subject reflect something compelling in your newsletter.
- Test, test, test! – Test continually to determine what works. Try a different subject line each month to determine what provides the best open rate.
The next time you’re tempted to rush through the process of writing a subject line, think about the number of emails you receive every day. After the effort you’ve put into creating your newsletter, don’t you want to ensure that people open and read it?
