35% of email recipients open emails based on just the subject line. By learning strategies for creating killer email subject lines, the first building block of any effective email, you’ll increase your open rate significantly. Besides tweaking your subject lines based upon the subject of your email, killer email subject lines share similar characteristics regardless of content. Following are tips for writing killer email subject lines that get opened.
1. Avoid Spam Blockers
The first thing that all good subject lines need to do is avoid spam blockers and that involves staying away from words that will for the most part guarantee filtering. Words to avoid include but are not limited to buy now, free, discount, eliminate debt, opportunity, you’re a winner, all “hypie” wording that has the potential of getting your emails blocked as spam.
2. Subject Line that Indicates Content
Emails get opened more often if the subject headline provides a good indication of the message content. While it’s okay to provide a bit of intrigue, don’t make the recipient have to speculate too much – if you do they more than likely won’t bother to open your email.
3. Create a Sense of Urgency
Subject lines that create a sense of urgency generate higher open rates to the tune of 22%. A good example would be setting a 24-hour deadline or announcing a “today only” promotion. Subject lines that create a sense of urgency encourage readers to act now instead of later when they’ll probably forget about it.
4. Use “Action” Verbs
Since subject lines are basically calls to action, it’s important to use language that inspires people to act. Subject lines that start out with action verbs are generally a lot more enticing, meaning that your emails will be significantly more clickable if you add a compelling action verb at the beginning.
5. Add a Personal Touch
It’s harder for anyone to ignore emails that are personally addressed to them, even if they realize it’s a marketing strategy. Adding a personalized approach to your subject lines by using phrases like “Our Gift to You” or You Are Invited to” have the potential of making the recipients feel special.
6. Address Their Needs
Put yourself in your target audience’s shoes and compose your subject lines based on their needs. Address their fears and how you can resolve them, how do they talk about service, products and market sectors like yours? Figure out what gets them excited and you have a great subject line.
7. Ask an Engaging Question
Writing a good subject line that asks a question can draw your readers in, especially if it’s relevant to their buyer persona. For instance, a subject line like “Are you making these marketing mistakes?” would be a good example.
8. Brevity – Keep It Short and Sweet
Your email subject lines will get cut off if they’re too long, especially on mobile devices. Keep your subject lines under 50 characters to make sure that recipients browsing through their emails can read the whole subject line.
9. “List it”
People love beneficial lists for a number of reasons, including that they make it easier to “chunk down” complicated concepts into manageable sections. You can increase your email open rates by using subject lines like “10 Tips for Writing Killer Email Subject Lines.”
10. Don’t be Afraid to Use Humor
Subtle, creative humor is typically appreciated by even the most conservative of people. Based on the tone your company’s brand incorporates, give using some humor like a clever pun a try in your subject lines as a test and see if it increases engagement. Using humor can be a great way to captivate your recipients and enliven your emails.
The only real purpose of investing time in an email campaign is to get the emails opened and building your list. You have important content to share, prove it with a great subject line and boost your click through rate.