One of the most important elements in getting your email opened is the subject line. It’s your first, and perhaps only, opportunity to grab your recipient’s interest.
I receive several e-newsletters a month which simply state, “Company Name Newsletter | January 2013”. Whilst I’ll recognise who it’s from it doesn’t exactly make me want to open it and read it straightaway. And I’ll admit that sometimes I think, “I’ll read that later” but then I forget about it and it gets deleted without being read. Does this happen to you?
Writing your email subject line can be tricky so here are some tips for writing subject lines that will improve your open rates.
1. Be useful: Is your subject line offering a benefit or reward for opening and reading your email? If not, you need to rethink your subject line.
2. Be specific: Don’t waste your subject line by telling your recipients this is your newsletter, share with them what they will learn if they open your email.
3. Keep it brief: There’s been a lot of research and short subject lines perform better than long subject lines. Try and keep your subject lines to less than 50 characters.
4. Check it for spam: First you could use words like “free”, then you couldn’t, then you could. It’s confusing as to which words will and won’t trigger spam filters. All reputable email service providers, including Spindle Tree’s own email marketing system, provide spam checking software as part of the service so once you’ve written your headline, get it check and amend it if you need to.
Your turn
I want you to give me a reason to open your email newsletter. What am I going to learn from it? How can it help me improve my business/life? How are you going to make my inbox more interesting?
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